[[{{Dilbert}} http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Dilbert_204.jpg]]
[[caption-width:200:[-Stupid Fruit!!! ...Best 3 out of 5?-] ]]
The living embodiment of [[http://www.envisionsoftware.com/articles/Peter_Principle.html The Peter Principle]] (or worse — see below), this is a person who has been promoted way beyond his level of competency, a person who hangs [[MotivationalPoster inspirational posters]] unironically. He or she may have had a clue at some point, but has since then misplaced it. Sometimes it is a ModernMajorGeneral.

Frequently overlaps with the StupidBoss, and often the result of being KickedUpstairs. IncompetenceInc is a likely place to find [=PHBs=]. Occasionally is surrounded by ''very'' competent workers when ConservationOfCompetence is in effect.

Also note that they're not only incompetent, but also often a little [[CorruptCorporateExecutive evil]]: The kind of guy who would steal credit from his employees and pin failure on them.

All too often this is TruthInTelevision.
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Lt. [=LaGuerta=] in ''{{Dexter}}'' (both print and TV) got her job on talent for political maneuvering, and is in way over her professional head, showing no apparent ability as a detective. Her behavior toward subordinates could also qualify as harassment in some cases (such as her nowhere-near-subtle sexual overtures toward Dexter).
** She redeems herself to a certain extent by the end of season 2, however.
**Before or after she gets her position back by sleeping with her replacement's fiancee in a (successful) plot to undermine and discredit her?
** Dexter spends the first novel badmouthing his PHB, and at the end realizes that while she's not all that smart, she's patient, and that counts for a lot too.
* To some extent, the Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully from {{Discworld}}.
** Except that even though it's hard to tell, he's extremely competent in his job; before him an Archchancellor was lucky to survive a year without being murdered. The actual duties of an Archchancellor seem to be largely ceremonial, apart from some administrative duties to the city government, so it's difficult to say whether he's competent in the job itself per se, but if something magical threatens the city, he's your man.
***During one conversation, the narrator explains that his listening habits are perfect for the job of archchancellor: If a person continues explaining something for five minutes, it must be important, and if they give up after a mere minute or so, it would have hardly been worth his time to listen.
** As Pratchett puts it, Ridcully has a powerful intellect, but it is powerful like a locomotive - it runs on rails and is impossible to steer.
*** Ridcully is also the ONLY Archchancellor to survive more than one book. Arccutter and Weatherwax may have been impressive, but both wound up... missing / dead. Ridcully is the only one who's still here, and ran through several, several, several Discworld books. According to internal mythology, even that's impressive. Tim Curry be damned. Not only survived mind you, but stabilized the entire structure of the university such that the youngest wizards are diverted from the scheming of the past, and the older ones have acclimatized to the new order.
---->'''Dean''': We used to kill wizards like him.\\
'''Chair of Indefinite studies''':Yes, but we also used to kill wizards like us.
** I'd say Ridcully is the opposite of a Pointy Haired Boss- he does his job perfectly, which rather upset the Wizards who thought he'd BE a Pointy Haired Boss. The Archchancellor's job is to keep the wizards in order and not attacking everyone else, and while he is quicker to use magic than some, he does that just fine.
** In the ''Last Continent'', Ridcully's taken up micromanagment, trying to turn the faculty into a lean, mean team. His attempts apparently have had some success, as the book states that while the wizards had no intention of becoming lean, they were getting as mean as anything.
* Many of the Network Supervisors of the ''BastardOperatorFromHell'' series certainly are this, but it's semi-justifiable in that a position with such a high turnover rate probably doesn't particularly attract the employment agencies.
* Several of the officers in {{Sharpe}}.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake from [[{{MASH}} MASH]] exhibited signs of this as he was a brilliant doctor but an almost criminally incompetent administrator. Radar practically ran the unit, only requiring Blake to sign off on documents, and played for humor as one time he got Blake to sign ''blank'' pieces of paper as Blake railed about not knowing what he's signing.
* Lieutenant Brass comes off very much as an incompetent and biased boss in the first episode of ''{{CSI}}'', but it may just be that his promotion put him in over his head - when he is demoted to Homicide in the second episode, he becomes every bit the equal to the crime lab folks in professional competence.
* Detective Gharty on ''HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' is incompetent both as a beat cop ''and'' as the head of IAD, but turns out to be proficient when he finally lands as a homicide detective. When he is finally re-promoted to head the homicide division in the finale movie, he loses some of his competence again, becoming a shill for the department brass. It is noted that he's not entirely incompetent in the role, but in Giardello has some pretty big shoes to fill - and many of the other detectives note that "he ain't no Gee."
* Michael Scott of the American version of ''TheOffice'' was (and is) a superb salesman. In a classic case of the Peter Principle he was promoted to the post of Regional Manager - a job he is absolutely unskilled for. Note that his UK counterpart, David Brent, is more in keeping with the aforementioned Dilbert Principle in that he evidently never had any skills to begin with and his promotion to management is otherwise an enigma.
** Considering the phone call we hear between him and one of the higher-ups, he has a ''lot'' of friends in high places. It's also entirely possible that, as some have suggested, he was a tolerable-to-competent boss until the cameras came in and the sudden "fame" went to his head.
** And David is likely to be the same idea as Adam's theory, being put into a position where he can do as little harm as possible, until he can be promoted even ''further'' (a promotion which he doesn't get for insurance reasons), simply because getting rid of him is infeasible (Wernham-Hogg is evidently in financial straits, which would make hiring a replacement more costly). He only ends up fired when his presence is ''definitively'' proven to be detrimental to the company.
** In the Christmas Special, it's implied that David Brent's case is not entirely dissimilar from Michael Scott's -- in his new job as a travelling salesperson we see him do a sales pitch for cleaning products which goes quite well, suggesting that he was at least a moderately talented salesman at Wernham-Hogg.
** A similar case is mentioned in Norbert Wiener's story "The Brain", could have been a real case. The company raised a superb salesman after curing his severe depression - with lobotomy. His new position ruined them.
* The laughably incompetent Colonel Klink of ''HogansHeroes''. It's been mentioned that he's from noble stock, so he most likely got the position through nepotism more than any real leadership ability.
** He confirms in one episode that his family pressured him into the military to get rid of him. However, he is also a career officer with decorations for bravery in WW1. He used to be a pilot; it almost certain he got promoted to his current position in an attempt to get rid of him, both as a bumbling fool and as a non-member of the Nazi party.
* In ''[[{{ptitleolsdue4jfzga}} 30 Rock]]'', Jack Donaghy was promoted to oversee the production of Liz's comedy show after having invented a microwave. He seems to be a competent businessman, but clearly has no understanding of comedy. Note that he acted more pointy-haired in earlier episodes.
* Captain Frank Hollister of ''RedDwarf'' is revealed to have only reached his rank through blackmail (from the lowly position of Doughnut Boy no less), implying that he is possibly even less qualified than Rimmer or Lister (though clearly cleverer and/or more ambitious).
** He ''successfully'' blackmailed his way to the top. I think that puts him well ahead of Lister. As to the first part, the phrase "less qualified than Rimmer" is perhaps the least likely proposition ever advanced.
* The vacuous, hero-worshipping, management speak spouting Gus in ''Drop the Dead Donkey''. He would appear to be a living, breathing example of the Adams principle.
* Artie in ''{{Warehouse 13}}'' is a socially inept jerk who barely manages the most basic politeness toward the people under him.
**Politeness he lacks, but one of the episodes towards the end of season 1 proves he has a lot of trust in them. They try to appease him that they took care of things while he was away. He stops them, makes sure everything's normal and then walks away unconcerned. He may not have the greatest social skills, but I wouldn't mind having him as my boss.
* ISO Administrator Mike Goss in ''Defying Gravity'' is shaping up to be this, grinding subordinates faces in their mistakes while refusing to admit to or back away from his own.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

* The name comes from the original [[http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/the_characters/ Pointy-Haired Boss]] in the daily comic strip and former animated TV series ''{{Dilbert}}'', seen above playing chess against a [[FundamentallyFunnyFruit pineapple]] -- and ''losing''. (Count the captured pieces!)
** It was implied this was a genetically enhanced sentient pineapple created by Dilbert's garbageman, the word's smartest human. It's just as weird as it sounds.
** According to Scott Adams's 1996 book ''The Dilbert Principle'', the truly Pointy-Haired Boss is a reflection of the ''abandonment'' of the aforementioned Peter Principle — that while in the past, competent people were promoted until they reached a position overreaching their talents by one level, now the ''absolutely'' incompetent are ''immediately'' KickedUpstairs (where, kept out of contact with the customer base and daily work load, they will do the least harm). This unfortunately denies their underlings even the slight relief of knowing their boss at least ''used'' to be good at something...
** Adams draws just about ''every'' manager with pointy hair. A minimum of 99% of them are lesser reflections of the original.
*** Interestingly the PHB was originally a unnamed balding manager who was more [[CharacterizationMarchesOn cruel than stupid]]. Then one day Adams accidentally drew the hair on the sides of his head slightly pointy and thought the resemblance to devil horns to be eerily appropriate. And the rest is history.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* Almost everyone in FEMA during Hurricane Katrina has been accused of this, but given the way FEMA is structured, more appropriate targeting would involve much of the state and city governments that had ''years'' to get their act together, after being repeatedly told by auditors that their emergency response plans were woefully inadequate, but didn't.
** A joke about this involved the fact that even "Mr. Bill" (from the SNL skit) knew that [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UjVBQChwxM the dams needed upgrading]]. Somewhat unrelated to Katrina itself, but [[SoYeah still...]]
**This troper is a resident of Louisiana and would like to defend her state by saying it's really hard to run things from a "local level" when the city is underwater and it's hard to run things from the state level when large portions of the state (including the capital) are without power.
**I think the point was more that the local official should have had plans in place in the event that they were submerged, with means of communication and supply ready for a disaster, so that when they were stuck underwater they would be able to deal. However, that is apparently ''not'' the case; in a decision returned this past week (This edit made 11/22/09) an official judicial review has determined the federal government responsible for the bad handling of the Post-Katrina situation. Not having been there myself I '''will not''' say I agree with or contest that finding, but it at least points at who ''somebody'' thinks is the PHB of that situation.
* See [[http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/DilbertQuotes.htm this]].
* See [[TroperTales/PointyHairedBoss Troper Tales]].

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''HalfLife'': Possibly Dr. Breen, the director of Black Mesa, if you believe [[ObfuscatingStupidity that he didn't know that disabling every existing safety protocol before a dangerous experiment would likely]] [[XanatosRoulette cause a resonance cascade.]] [[RightManInTheWrongPlace Have the problem get fixed by Gordon Freeman]] [[EvilPowerVacuum attracting an even worse group of aliens to earth]] [[MagnificentBastard and have said aliens make him head of earth]] [[LuckyBastard and instead is just that lucky]].
**The episodes suggest that [[spoiler: Breen was complicit in luring the combine to Earth in exchange for being given a position of power when they invaded]]
* Department of Death Boss Don Copal in ''{{Grim Fandango}}'' might not have any actual hair, but if he did, it'd be pointy.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* Lord Stanley the Tool from ''{{Erfworld}}'', not only is he a PointyHairedBoss, he's a ''BadBoss'' who threatened to kill Parson for simply noting that Stanley is [[TheNapoleon short]] and an EvilOverlord. And to top it all off? He believes that he is ''holy'', and on a MissionFromGod. (though in his defence, there's a good chance that he ''is'')
* The head developer of ''Clichequest'', the satirically stereotypical MMORPG that TheNoob is set in and around, is an idiot, {{Jerkass}} and TedBaxter to boot.
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