Bill Lumbergh

Infobox character
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name = William Lumbergh
series = "Office Space"


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cause = Immolation (Arson)
creator = Mike Judge
portrayer = Gary Cole
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nickname = Bill
Lumbergh
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species = Human
gender = Male
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specialty =
occupation = Vice President, "Initech"
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nationality = flagicon|USA American
imdb_id = http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0001873/

William Lumbergh, commonly named Bill Lumbergh, or referred to as just Lumbergh, is a fictional character played by Gary Cole in the 1999 film "Office Space". A sort of everyboss, Lumbergh is the division Vice President of the software company Initech, and serves as an unassuming antagonist to the other characters.

Lumbergh is known to micromanage and often asks his employees, such as Peter Gibbons, to come in to work on Saturdays. He is obsessed with making sure all the office's paperwork (such as TPS reports) is done perfectly, no matter how pointless it may be. His character is known for saying "What's happening?" as a greeting, and when telling an employee they're going to have to do something undesirable starting his sentences with, "m' yeah, I'm gonna need you to" or "if you could just go ahead and", as well as ending these requests with "That'd be great". A "Wharton Journal" perspectives article opines that the character "brilliantly exposed the emptiness of linguistic conventions at work." [cite news
url=http://media.www.whartonjournal.com/media/storage/paper201/news/2007/02/12/Perspectives/Why-We.Should.Remember.Bill.Lumbergh-2716395.shtml
title=Why we should remember Bill Lumbergh
first=Douglas
last=Cole
date=2/12/07
accessdate=2007-02-06]

He seems to represent the impersonal and oppressive business practices that Peter despises so much. Peter refers to Bill as "all that is soulless and wrong." The irony of the character's popularity is noted in GQ/Details Men. Style.com, " [T] he guy who stops by your desk and says, "Mmm, yeah, I'm going to have to go ahead and ask you to come in on Sunday," is now an integral part of the soul-crushing corporate culture Lumbergh was created to satirize in the first place." [cite news
url=http://men.style.com/news/the_rant/022207
title=No More Funny Business
date=2007-02-22
publisher=Men. Style.com
first=Paul L.
last=Underwood
accessdate=2007-02-06]

He has a habit of ending nearly every sentence with "M'Kay?" instead of "Okay" which is a speech pattern matched by the character David Van Driessen in Mike Judge's animated series, Beavis and Butthead, and also Mr. Mackey in South Park. Lumbergh's character in the original "Milton" cartoons is almost identical to Van Driessen.

He drives a Porsche 911 with a vanity license plate reading "MY PRSHE".

According to his information sheet when viewed by Bob Slydell, Lumbergh has BS and MS degrees in physics from MIT.

Lumbergh's marital status is never mentioned in the movie. However, the Emergency Contact in his Employee Personal File lists his brother Harry Lumbergh, who lives in Medina, TX, so it is implied that he is single.

In a deleted scene on the DVD, Peter asks at the end of the movie "Did any of you attend Lumbergh's funeral?" they all shake their heads. It is implied that he perished as a result of the fire. However, before the screening it was left on the cutting room floor, suggesting that the way would be open to retain the character for sequel purposes. When the film did poorly at the box office, Mike Judge had been quoted as saying a sequel was out of the question. The film's subsequent popularity having propelled it to cult-status in DVD distribution has since prompted calls for a sequel from the legion of fans who've come to identify with the corporate culture it satirizes.

In a second deleted scene, Peter's new boss, a foreman at the construction site, speaks to him with the same demeanor as Lumbergh. This indicates that his new boss will be of the same mold as Bill, and that, ultimately, frustrating bosses are inescapable.

In other media

* The character (voiced by Cole) makes a cameo appearance in animated series "Family Guy", episode "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz".

External links

*
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5587203 Best Bosses from Hell] discussing Lumbergh, from NPR's Talk of the Nation (July 27, 2006)
* [http://www.phydiux.com/bill_lumbergh_soundboard.cfm Bill Lumbergh soundboard]

References