Darryl Philbin

Darryl Philbin
First appearance	"The Alliance"
Created by	Greg Daniels
Portrayed by	Craig Robinson
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Warehouse supervisor
Family	Daughter

Darryl Philbin is a fictional character from the US television series, The Office. He is played by Craig Robinson.

Overview

Darryl Philbin is the foreman of the warehouse of the Scranton branch of fictitious paper distributor Dunder-Mifflin.

Biography

He has a somewhat dry, humorless personality, although he occasionally makes jokes at the expense of Michael Scott, the office manager. Michael refers to him as "Mistah Rogers"—a nickname with an interesting evolution: it began as "Regis" (as Darryl's last name is Philbin, a reference to Regis Philbin), then "Reeg", "Roger", and finally Mistah Rogers. Being in a position of responsibility in a potentially hazardous work area, he dislikes Michael's disregard for rules or safety, as Michael often disrupts their work schedule and delays their shipments from going out on time. His relationship with Michael is tense, as he is often aggravated by Michael's irresponsibility, as when he stated his greatest fear is that someone would prevent them from working. On the other hand, Michael secretly believes Darryl is a criminal and at times, has called on Dwight to stand in Michael's office as bodyguard or preventing Darryl from bonding with Meredith's son. However, it is apparent that Darryl is a far more responsible and good man than Michael believes him to be. Darryl is a Presbyterian and enjoys feeding squirrels ("Fun Run").

Season 1

Darryl is first seen (briefly) in the episode "The Alliance" watching Dwight come out of the box he was hiding in in the warehouse. In the next episode, "Basketball", he and the other warehouse workers play Michael's team of office workers in a game of basketball—the loser of which will have to work on Saturday. When Michael forfeits the game (while his team was ahead), he informs them that as a result, they have to work Saturday. When Darryl and the other warehouse workers confront him, Michael (intimidated by the much larger men) gives in and allows them to have the day off. Darryl seems to be the only character on the show who calls Michael "Mike" besides Andy (although Dwight did at one time refer to Michael as "Mike" in "The Coup").

Season 2

Darryl wants to wear the Santa hat for the company Christmas party, but Michael does not let him because he doesn't look like Santa, (although in the end, he gives the hat to Darryl). He is usually forced into Michael's scheduling of events in the warehouse, such as a "Men's Day" workgroup session, and a "Casino Night" mock-casino. Darryl attempts to organize the warehouse workers into a union, but his efforts are quickly stamped out by Jan Levinson, Michael's boss. As a subtle prank and possible retort to Michael's antics, Darryl teaches Michael false slang words, such as "fleece it out", "goin' mach five" and "dinkin' flicka," although Michael is still unaware that such slang does not exist. In addition, Darryl teaches Michael a ridiculous handshake that Michael believes to be "ghetto".

Season 3

Darryl has been shown in minor scenes in Season 3. When the Scranton-Stamford merger threatens to close the Scranton branch, Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration offered to purchase the Dunder-Mifflin warehouse and keep Darryl and the rest of the warehouse staff employed. But seeing as to how Scranton's branch will be staying in business, Darryl still remains an employee of Dunder-Mifflin. In "A Benihana Christmas", he brings up his synthesizer to take place of the broken karaoke machine for Karen and Pam's office party. In "Back From Vacation", Darryl is the unwitting e-mail recipient of Michael's spicy vacation photo with Jan Levinson and proceeds to forward it to everyone else. In "The Negotiation," Darryl negotiates a pay raise with Michael, and later encourages Michael to get his own raise. This doesn't stop him, however, from ridiculing Michael for mistakenly wearing a woman's suit. He also admits to teaching Michael more imaginary "black" slang, especially the phrase "pippety poppety, give me the zoppety." In "Safety Training", Darryl leads a seminar on workplace safety for the staff, which is thwarted by Michael's obnoxiousness. During this episode, Darryl reveals in a talking head interview that he is on crutches because of Michael kicking a ladder that he was standing on and saying "Hey, Darryl, how's it hangin'?" just before Darryl fell. Later on, Darryl subsequently saves Michael's life by talking him out of jumping off a building when Michael tries to demonstrate the dangers of depression.

In a deleted scene from "Ben Franklin", Darryl says that he has a three year old daughter.

Season 4

It is revealed early on in Fun Run that Darryl is a Presbyterian, much to the delight of Pam, who turns around and high-fives him because she is also from the "same religion" as Darryl puts it. Later on in Fun Run, Darryl is caught feeding squirrels by Michael, who at that moment was just entering into a short speech about rabies. In Launch Party, Darryl is seen delivering some paper to Kelly in front of an outraged Dwight. Darryl defends her and Kelly is starting to show some attraction to Darryl.

Starting with season 4, Craig Robinson receives star billing.