Stanley Hudson

Infobox character | name = Stanley Hudson


first = "Pilot"
last =
gender = Male
age = Late 40s
occupation = Sales representative
title =
spouse = Terri Hudson (wife)
an ex-wife
children = Melissa (daughter; via ex-wife)
Un-named girl (daughter; via Terri)
family =
portrayer = Leslie David Baker
creator = Greg Daniels

Stanley Hudson is a fictional character from the US television series "The Office". He is played by Leslie David Baker.__TOC__

Overview

Stanley Hudson is a sales representative for the fictitious paper distributor Dunder Mifflin. Stanley is a serious, hardworking, but thoroughly grumpy and disgruntled employee, who dislikes Dunder Mifflin and believes he is underpaid. Stanley only thinly attempts to hide his disgust and disrespect for his boss, Michael Scott. Scott affectionately describes Stanley's remarks as clever and sassy. An African American, Stanley is constantly subjected to Michael's inadvertently offensive remarks based on racial stereotypes. Stanley is a very laid back person, though when angry he has often been described as frightening (most memorably by coworker Ryan Howard, who received a memorable, ferocious tongue-lashing from Stanley after he suspected Ryan of "sniffing around" his daughter.)

Biography

Stanley sits across from fellow employee, Phyllis Vance. Michael often refers to him as "Stanley the Manley." When generally bored and unhappy (particularly when forced to listen to Michael), Stanley simply props his elbows on a table and rests his face between his hands in protest. Stanley generally prefers working on crossword puzzles during the various staff meetings rather than giving his undivided attention to Michael, earning him the nickname "The Crossword Puzzle Guy". He is also known for his enjoyment of Miracle Whip, judging from comments others make in multiple episodes.

Stanley's wife, Teri, is white, a fact that confuses Michael (on separate occasions, at the Dundies and Phyllis' wedding, Michael has had to be told by an unamused Stanley that Teri is his spouse), and he has two children, including one from a previous marriage. Stanley does not celebrate Kwanzaa. Stanley is a diabetic. He prefers that co-workers ask before using his condiments, and looks forward to the office building's annual free pretzel day, as evidenced by his comment, "I wake up every morning in a bed that’s too small, drive my daughter to a school that’s too expensive, and then I go to work to a job for which I get paid too little, but on pretzel day? (smiling widely) Well, I like pretzel day..." Stanley also likes Pam Grier, admitting she is one of the 4 things he absolutely loves in the world. The other three are his wife, daughters, and "a hot, chewy roll of buttered dough" (e.g. soft pretzels). The only moments where Stanley seems to enjoy Michael's company is when the two share pretzels. He also enjoys the cakes that accompany office birthdays, but doesn't like Oscar's suggestion that he eat a healthy apple to ward off insulin shock in their absence. Stanley used to drive a late-model Lincoln LS, and as of season three, he drives a white Chrysler 300. In the episode Safety Training, Michael inadvertently bounces a watermelon onto Stanley's car. Stanley says he is a Catholic in Fun Run and it was also hinted in "Sexual Harassment", when he states that his daughter Melissa attends Catholic school.

When not in the office, Stanley relaxes by enjoying some red wine (for the antioxidants) and watching television mysteries, though it's not clear whether he means non-fiction shows like Unsolved Mysteries or fictional shows in the and Law & Order vein. Stanley also seems to enjoy Todd Packer's jokes as he smiles when Todd comes and laughs out loudly at Todd's jokes in Sexual Harassment. His general view is that he does not apologize unless he thinks he's wrong, which led to his divorce from his first wife. He bluntly predicts that this may lead to divorce with his current wife and even his next wife, but it seems like he is not seeking out conflict with his wife--merely stating that he won't back down from what he believes.

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In "Diversity Day", during a diversity training exercise, each employee is given a card with a specific race written on it to wear on their forehead, so they will know how it feels to be treated like that race. Stanley coincidentally winds up with "black", and is later pushed by Michael (along with Pam, who ended up with "Jewish") to delve into which group has suffered more historically, with Michael offensively saying they should debate "the Olympics of suffering: Slavery vs. the Holocaust" but Stanley only tells Pam "I admire your culture's success in America", which is much less offensive than Dwight's stereotype-based comments to Pam. Later, in "Basketball", Michael recruits Stanley to be on his team, assuming that since he is black, he will be a good player (much to Stanley's disdain), which he quickly finds out is not the case.

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He wins the "Fine Work" award at the 8th Annual Dundie Awards, and as such, does not know what to make of the "Great Work" award he wins the previous year. He also takes his wife Teri to the awards. While very serious, Stanley occasionally does come around and lighten up (particularly with Jim's attitude). In the "Office Olympics", he becomes a participant, despite telling Jim Halpert earlier that his favorite office game is "Work hard so my kids can go to college." During performance reviews, Stanley offers Michael advice on dealing with Jan ("sometimes women say more with their pauses than with their words"), even going as far as to say he learned all of this "on the ghetto," in order to please Michael and possibly receive a bonus. His daughter, Melissa, develops a crush on Ryan Howard, the office temp, during "Take Your Daughter to Work Day", leading Stanley to yell at Ryan after a jealous Kelly points this out to him. Ryan later described this to the camera as "one of the most frightening experiences of my life." During Conflict Resolution he responds to Phyllis' claim that they are close with a pointed "We SIT close."

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Following Pam and Roy's called-off wedding, Stanley complains that he now has two toasters at home (one was supposed to be a wedding gift, but he could not return it because, after their long engagement, the store no longer sold it). Just about the only thing Stanley enjoys about working at Dunder Mifflin is the office park's annual "free pretzel day", which he looks forward to year-round, as revealed in the episode "Initiation". Toward the end of the episode, Stanley is heard saying, "364 days...until the next pretzel day." In fact, he is overjoyed when he hears that the office may shut down in "Branch Closing", because the pay he would receive from the severance package would be enough to allow him to retire and travel through Europe with his wife. Until the merger of the Scranton and Stamford branches, Stanley was the only African American employee (outside of the warehouse) and was annoyed by Martin Nash's attempt to befriend him based on just their shared races. Later, with Ryan and Phyllis, Stanley advised Martin and the rest of the Stamford employees how the Scranton office operates by saying "It only gets worse." He joins Pam and Karen's party in "A Benihana Christmas". He attends Phyllis' wedding but is happy about her six-week honeymoon and accompanying absence from the office. When he finds out about Michael's pitiful salary in "The Negotiation", he bluntly says that he still thinks Michael is way overpaid. He notes in a deleted scene in "Safety Training" that he is winning a lot of money because he bet on Phyllis being on the phone constantly to Bob Vance, and smiles as he notes that his co-workers annoying behavior is finally paying off. In "Cocktails" Stanley once again chews Ryan out (and maybe more) after he sees him chatting with his daughter. In the season finale, Stanley sets the conversion of Schrute Bucks to Stanley Nickels as the rate of leprechauns to unicorns.

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During the Rabies Awareness fun run, Stanley shows up at the starting line, but gets in a cab along with Creed and Oscar and heads to a local restaurant to relax as soon as Michael has taken off on the run. He is cold-called by Michael during Michael's humiliating telemarketing job in "Money", and Stanley berates Michael for bothering him at home and later tells the other workers about Michael's second job. In "Branch Wars", Stanley accepts a job offer from Karen, the Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin's Utica branch, who reveals that he called her in a talking-head moment. It is later revealed that Stanley was bluffing to get Michael to give him a raise, and wonders out loud how Michael called his bluff so effectively. It was revealed that Stanley is diabetic in "Survivor Man". In "Did I Stutter?", Stanley snaps at Michael when he presses Stanley for input during a meeting. This leads to a confrontation where Stanley admits his disrespect for Michael, while acknowledging the fact that he can no longer speak in such a way to his boss. In "Goodbye, Toby", Stanley does not speak except in deleted scenes available on NBC.com. In one deleted scene, Stanley praises corn dogs with Oscar. In another deleted scene, Stanley said he has mixed feelings about Toby. Toby was helpful when Stanley had colitis, getting him seven weeks off for treatment, but was not so helpful when Stanley had an issue with his acid reflux.

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When the Dunder Mifflin branches take part in a weight loss competition, Stanley begins losing weight for his own reasons. He reveals that he took part in the Black Power movement and ends up losing seven pounds.