Deangelo Vickers was introduced to audiences as Michael Scott's replacement towards the end of season seven of The Office. Set up to be taking over as Regional Manager, the showrunners played a bit of misdirection as Will Ferrell's character who, despite now being a fan favorite, actually only appeared in four episodes.
In that short time though he makes quite the impression and builds a character that's incredibly entertaining at the same time almost impossible to understand. And in all honesty, if he was a permanent fixture in the rest of the show, could he have kept up the ridiculous nature of the character? Of course, he could have done; this is Will Ferrell.
So, even though we only get around 80 minutes of episodes starring Ferrell, his interactions with the rest of the cast produced a lot of memorable quotes. Here's just ten of them.
“Everyone I know who skis is dead.”
One of the first things Deangelo says, after asking Michael whether he's going to take up skiing when he moves to Colorado is this. What seems like an initially absurd thing to say, this strange introduction is an indication of how Deangelo sees the world; with an incredibly skewed mindset.
“Is there an animal shelter on the way? Ani-ani Shelto!”
Taking Andy out on a sales call, Deangelo looks to inspire Dunder Mifflin Scranton’s worst-performing salesman with an en route trip to… an animal shelter? Here he tells Andy about how he was hired by Jo Bennett, the company’s CEO, a story which involves someone trying to steal one of her prized dogs.
This trip where Vickers asks Andy to pretend he’s a dog thief is one of the more off-the-wall moments of the SNL star’s Office career. It’s the height of Ferrell’s four-episode stint in which his character takes a hard swing between the no-nonsense boss that wants everyone to do their job and go home and the cool-talking manager who does fake juggling routines and pretends he can dunk over his personal assistant. Now give me that dog!
“The last time I had a peanut I was itchy for three days. I had to take baths constantly, I missed the OJ verdict. I had to read about it in the paper like an idiot.”
In his introduction to the rest of the office, Deangelo tells everyone that he has a peanut allergy, noting that it's something he lives with every day. So when Michael starts to feel like his job is being taken away before he's even left, he brings out a plate of his ‘mom's recipe’ PB&J sandwiches, leading to this brilliant line from Ferrell.
Even in a moment of panic, Vickers has the brain capacity to bring up something as specific as this. And the idea that he’s held on to something this trivial for 16 years again shows his strange point of view.
“I like my life outside of this place. I live to leave at five”
Once Michael Scott has left the building, Deangelo Vickers switches gear from someone who wants to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps to someone who lays down the law. He tells everyone in an impromptu meeting that they’re to do their jobs and go home.
This marks Vickers as the polar opposite to Michael who would spend all his time with this group of people if given the option. This is where it became obvious that Ferrell wasn’t to be a permanent fixture in the show. His ridiculous behavior only escalates from here to an accident that ends his tenure as Regional Manager, Dunder Mifflin Scranton. And no, he isn’t dead. Just his brain is.
“That baby could be the star of a show called babies I don’t care about”
Everyone wants to impress the new boss and create an immediate bond with him. And what better way to do this than with photos of your baby? Enter Jim and Pam.
After some harsh words from Deangelo who ‘knows what they’re doing’, Jim and Pam need to take it to another level so they bring little Cece into the office to meet Deangelo in person. This quote is an indicator of what’s to come. Vickers isn’t actually the friendly, approachable guy he seems at first as it appears as though he's changed his mind about Jim and Pam’s daughter until the final line of the episode; 'That baby could be the star of a show called babies I don’t care about.'
“I’m not Superman but let me put it this way. If I got shot in the head, I’m pretty sure I’d be fine.”
While peanuts seemingly render him useless at least as far as itchiness goes, Deangelo is under the impression that he's impervious to bullets, much like the Man of Steel.
Throughout the series, Michael Scott's pieces to camera are mostly incoherent ramblings - he says in one episode that he doesn't often know how a sentence will finish when he starts it. Deangelo however always speaks with conviction - he knows exactly what he's going to say, even if what he's saying is completely ridiculous. And this shows just how delusional Vickers is.
“Colorado! The sunshine state”
Michael Scott isn’t the smartest person in many rooms. But Steve Carell delivers every single line with such innocence that his brand of naivety quickly became something that audiences loved about him.
And while Vickers getting Colorado’s nickname wrong in his first scene in The Office shows that he’s on a similar intellectual level to Michael, the way it’s delivered is very different. It tells us that he’s someone who has a lot of confidence in himself. It's not quite arrogance, but a blinkered view that his way is right - even as that becomes more and more ridiculous throughout his four-episode run.
Oh and in case you were wondering, it’s the Centennial State.
“I never touch another juggler's instruments”
One of Will Ferrell’s most memorable moments in The Office comes in the shape of a motivational juggling act in which he doesn't juggle anything.
Pam cites his performance as fake, but from everything else we see of Deangelo, is it more likely that he believes that he's so good at juggling that he doesn't need balls in his act. Because there is access to a set of juggling balls care of Andy.
But in passing his ‘parabolas’ to him, Vickers does an over the top dance to avoid them, explaining that he never touches another jugglers instruments. Whether it's a bluff or idiotic self-belief, this moment is perhaps one of Deangelo's best in his four-episode run.
“I’ve got tons of time. This job is a joke”
While Michael is rarely seen doing work in seven seasons, Deangelo quickly establishes that he's there to do a job. So settled as the Regional Manager, Deangelo quickly realizes how much time Michael must have spent on other projects. So when Jim asks him if he's got time to talk, this is his response.
Ferrell's comedic style is often more about the presentation of the ridiculous than the delivery itself. But this line is delivered with such conviction that it always elicits a burst of laughter.
“It’s too bad for this place that you’re leaving”
While Michael initially doesn't like Deangelo's immediate insurrection of his job, they strike up a mutual understanding and probably a very likely friendship. With that, one of the last things he says to the outgoing Regional Manager is that it's too bad Dunder Mifflin is losing him.
In this moment, he’s speaking for every single audience member as there isn't a person that loves The Office that wanted to see Michael leave the show.