Gareth Keenan

Gareth Keenan (born 17 April 1971) is a fictional paper salesman on BBC's comedy The Office. He is portrayed in the series by Mackenzie Crook as a gaunt, self-important team leader proud of his alleged lieutenant status in the Territorial Army. He spends his days annoying his co-workers at Wernham Hogg with his steadfast enforcement of the rules and sycophantic attitudes towards David Brent, whom he views as a friend. Despite this, Brent often acts otherwise and corrects Keenan when he omits the "to the" in his job title: "Assistant to the Regional Manager". His counterpart on the US series is Dwight Schrute.

Characteristics

Gareth flaunts his "team leader" status, despite deskmate Tim Canterbury's pointing out that it is a meaningless job title entailing more responsibility for the same pay. Nonetheless, Gareth takes the job very seriously. His attempts to throw his inflated sense of authority around the office rarely work, and it is clear that no one pays any attention to him. He does display certain concerns for his workers, mostly in the health and safety category. He makes sure that everyone follows the rules and is healthy in the workplace. Tim plays endless pranks on Gareth, such as hiding his computer, putting his stapler in jelly (a prank that has been reprised in several other versions of The Office, including the US version), gluing his phone so that the receiver cannot be picked up (and then phoning him up) and playing on Gareth's naïveté by encouraging him to discuss warfare with language which could be interpreted as being homosexual in nature (e.g. 'the enemy has discovered your camp...and they've all entered your hole', 'taking a man from behind' or 'could you give a man a lethal blow?' could be interpreted in different ways) as well as distracting Gareth while stealing his keys and then locking him in his office. Gareth says "He's done it again!", showing that Tim does this practical joke repeatedly.