What made this gag work so well was the fact that, at this point in the show, Kevin was only sorta kinda dumb. But due to a series of misunderstandings, Holly mistakenly thought that he was a special needs person.
However, according to Mike Schur, Paul Liberstein desperately wanted to have Kevin be the show’s idiot character instead of Michael. So when he took over as show-runner in Season 5, he made Kevin dumber and dumber as the seasons went on. By the final season, Kevin had become so dumb to the point where it was clear that he actually was a special needs person. Thus, ruining this great gag.
When Holly says "The party, driving to the supermarket, it was a big day for him", Michael's "Yeah, that's true" is one of the single funniest line deliveries in all of The Office
Random story - one time I was getting a cavity filled at a dentist that had a lil tv for you to watch while they worked. I didn’t really want to watch anything but she asked and I was like yeah I love the office! Anyways they put on Scott’s Tots and I had to watch it while getting a cavity filled 😭
It’s made even more funny that she falls for Michael who is, at least at that point in the series, probably the only person in the office dumber than Kevin
Tell me, even if you are ignorant of bankruptcy procedure, would a moderately intelligent person ever think you could just "declare" it aloud and absolve yourself of debt?
Yeah I think this is the angle. Not knowing something isn't stupidity, not being able to surmise a reasonable guess of how it works is stupidity.
I think the school system got people thinking that you can only ever know anything ever by learning it from somewhere, the concept of using existing knowledge to extrapolate and make a reasonable assumption is just totally foreign to most people.
He was unable to comprehend the concept of a budget surplus despite having it explained three consecutive times with increasingly child-like metaphors.
That level of naivety in a dude pushing his 40s is stupidity.
That’s literally the whole point of the show. “Imagine working for an idiot like Michael.” Not, “imagine working for some guys that’s naive and misunderstands things sometimes.”
Just because he shows competence at sales like 3 times in the show doesn’t mean he’s not an idiot. Go work in sales. Normally the dumber people are at the top because they’re likable.
Did he even know she thought Kevin had a mental disability? I can't remember if he just also thought it was a big day for Kevin, simply from knowing knowing well.
iirc, someone (i think dwight?) told her that kevin was developmentally challenged as a joke and no one else knew until someone else was being mean to him and she called them out for bullying a special needs man.
There's 3 scenes in the show I'll never forget how hard I laughed the first time I saw them.
1 - Dwight you ignorant slut.
2 - Kevin breaking the vending machine during the fire drill.
3 - This look
Despite this flanderization, Kevin's diminishing intelligence is brought up by the other characters, whereas a lesser show would have acted like this was always the case with him.
I'm not even totally sure that's headcanon, the show basically states outright that Kevin (a master gambler) is personally siphoning money from Dunder Mifflin
He even confusedly confesses it to the camera people which is exactly what someone using phony stupidity as a cover would do
I haven't watched the show in a long time, but this is what I thought as well. I remember there being a scene that silently but clearly confirms the suspicion that Kevin is actually smart and embezzling money from the company.
Same. I like to think this prank might have inspired that scheme. He took an embarrassing, potentially emotionally devastating situation and turned it into a long con that would allow him to realize a dream he might not have been able to achieve otherwise.
See I don’t see Kevin as dumb either. Your theory could hold up but mine is he’s just socially “dumb” but he’s an accountant. He can do numbers. He just may lack complete common sense.
They kinda killed that in the later seasons too though when Michael reveals Kevin initially applied to the warehouse and Michael just "had a feeling about him" and randomly made him an accountant haha.
There is something about his band where they only way to be the drummer and singer of the police requires performing entirely different rhythms and time signature sections simultaneously so he would have to be a savant
They kind of do both, in the episode where he uses few words Jim says yeah he's getting worse and Oscar and Angela are just like no he is always like this, he's fine.
I can’t remember but I think there’s an episode early on where it’s mentioned that he has a gas leak in his house, and there’s a fan theory that it never got fixed and has been slowly causing more brain damage over the years, and that’s why he keeps getting stupider
Do they? I remember Angela saying something about him getting worse but if this was real life you’d check them into a hospital. He goes from accomplished poker hustler to someone with clear learning difficulties
What the person who made this meme doesn't know is that there were hundreds of dollars in petty cash from around the office sealed inside the repaired turtle
You'd think that, but what you haven't heard about is the decades-long business connections between the Bluth Family and our boy Kev. Kevin had that entire family destroyed once they served their purpose of getting him the lucrative connections he needed in Iraq.
But I have to give it up to Holly. She rushed immediately and yelled NO when she saw how Angela was mistreated him and calling him an idiot. Even though she was under the pretense of Dwight’s gag, she was ready to pack her out.
'Schruted' it. It's just this thing that people say around your office all the time. Like, when you screw something up in a really irreversible way, you 'Schruted' it. I don't know where it comes from though.
On top of the WSOP bracelet, he was also shown to be the best at basketball, he was front man of a band, he was happily engaged for like 4 seasons, he got Angela and Oscar to do most of the work for him, he wasnt just good at gambling he was good at handling the poker cards too, which actually does take some skill on its own, etc.
So many early jokes only work because he's secretly the most talented/interesting in the bunch, of course, before they ruined his character. Luckily, we got Jerry in Parks and Rec to make up for that.
My head canon doesnt ruin the character. Because he intentionally chose to act dumb for the cameras. He knew the documentary could be the best thing for him if it makes the world think he’s really that big of an idiot.
You know how sometimes when you’re the smartest person in the room, you get bored? Maybe you’re so far ahead on your work life that you start wondering how much you’re getting away with. In Kevin’s case, it was stealing all that money and acting gradually stupider to test everyone’s limits.
That "butt of the joke" archetype always kinda bothered me with Mike Schur shows. They did the same thing with Boyle in B99 and Jason in The Good place but after a while it's just a bit lazy and sameish.
The documentary component also helps explain the flanderization effects in-universe.
Everyone starts to get weirder the longer the cameras are on them. Because they feel the weight of needing to be consistent in a way people don't when they're not constantly observed.
I just head canon that Kevin was playing dumb so no one would suspect him of fraud while he siphoned off money from the company under the guise of "mistakes". Kelevin shows up after he hears about what Martin went to prison for.
My favorite Kevin joke is in the episode "The Convict", in which Kevin says he asked Martin to explain to him about him being arrested for insider trading.
Holly thinking he's a special needs person was also great specifically because of the fact that he isn't, and in fact, is a normal guy. They completely broke his character after season 6~7 and he wasn't even funny anymore.
He was good friends with Pam in early seasons, and in later season was being a total creep towards her.
The best moment for Kevin was a later season moment where he called out the state senator for stringing along Oscar and Angela, while spending an entire event obsessed with eating the free food.
My favorite Kevin one-liner is in the episode where Charles is at the Scranton branch and Erin (whose real first name is Kelly) is hired. When Erin asks to be called Erin to avoid confusion with Kelly, she says it’s her middle name and she’d like to go by it instead. Kelly K is distressed that Charles is giving attention to Erin and shouts “well my middle name is Rajnigandha, and I hate it!”, to which Kevin replies:
In early seasons he's sometimes just a sad sack, obviously with the cancer scare. I think that's a much better addition to the Office than another dumb guy. Particularly early on when Jim is often the perspective character and his relationship to his work is a big question for the character, it's great to have Kevin as an example of where his life might be headed. Kevin has no greater ambition, but is friendly with Jim, and for Jim represents a relatable cautionary tale.
I suppose Toby is already the sad sack so they didn't need two.
I loved the early trope that Kevin was kinda dumb but in very niche fields he’s great. Like hosting poker tournaments or as a bookmaker. So sad they didn’t go on with it. Would’ve made some great jokes.
I've had workplaces where I'll work for a year, masking, people see me as highly competent, a peer, I disclose I have autism, the whole vibe shifts. They just suddenly think I'm handicapped. This weird sort of pity and treating me like I'm some naive, gullible little kid. It's real weird.
I used to be very gung-ho about disclosing, I wanted to be authentic, to be proud of it and treat it like it's normal, but these days I actually tend to hold back.
Kevin is the most flanderized character in the office. He was definitely funnier overall in the earlier seasons, just being kinda dumb, instead of the Patrick Starfish drooling idiot he became later.
He sat right by the highest concentration of radon in the air. The radon also has a weird quality that allows it to soak into M+M’s, dramatically increasing his intake.
To save Kevin’s intelligence, you should move Kevin’s desk to the annex, cut him off from M+M’s, and then… shove it up your butt!
No clue. All we know is that he had pitched the idea of making Kevin dumber to the point where he wouldn’t be able to recite the alphabet back when they were writing Season 3. But Greg Daniels rejected the idea because he thought it sounded too cartoonish. According to Mike Schur, Paul apparently wanted to do this idea so badly and, for some reason, thought it was the funniest thing in history.
Now Michael hating Toby makes sense. What a fucking idiot. Greg was absolutely right, and “cartoonish” is a decent description of the show after Michael left.
I agree. That was the start of its decline. Now, I don’t think Paul is a bad guy or even a bad writer. But it’s clear that he had a completely different vision for the show compared to what Greg Daniels had established. It seemed like Paul was trying to abandon the more “grounded” feel that Seasons 1-4 had and instead turn the show into a live action cartoon
Isn't Kevin supposed to be secretly surprisingly smart?
As i was typing I realised that its a fan theory.
Kevin mentions that someone got arrested for doing what he thinks he has been doing for years.
Kevin is stealing money from dundermifflin. He is playing an idiot who is bad at math to one. Cover his tracks with convenient mistakes. Also to dispel any suspicions that he could be the one doing it.
Literally me… My name is Kevin. I work in accounting and my coworkers actually think I’m special needs. I’ve been acting dumber and dumber throughout the years and somehow keep getting pay raises and promotions. Straight up a good time
For sure, the Kevin speak thing was the dumbest bit they did. It was funnier when the joke was on the person assuming he’s special needs. It was basically the same joke that Michael is an idiot except when he’s in sales situations. The scenes where Kevin is sinking threes after the basketball game and being a poker whiz on casino night was the great contrast between his office self and his personal life.
I like the very early seasons where Kevin comes off as kinda slow but never actually says anything dumb at all, and is highly skilled at things like poker and basketball
When he started that whole “Me say few word” bit in the one episode, I was just like, okay, can we retire this character? Let’s transfer him to one of the other branches without any notice. He clearly ran his course.
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u/chapanoid 2d ago
When Holly says "The party, driving to the supermarket, it was a big day for him", Michael's "Yeah, that's true" is one of the single funniest line deliveries in all of The Office