The Worst Thing Darryl Philbin Ever Did On The Office
Dunder Mifflin warehouse foreman Darryl Philbin is the most prominent of the company's warehouse employees seen throughout all nine seasons of "The Office." Darryl, portrayed by Craig Robinson, is a cast member for the entire series. He clashes with Scranton branch manager Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) as early as Season 1, when Michael organizes a basketball game between warehouse employees and office workers and unfairly tries to declare his team the winner (via YouTube).
Darryl is frequently portrayed as a hard-working professional who tries to put up with clueless Michael's racist tendencies as best as he can. He does give in to impulses to make fun of Michael's ignorance, but overall, the two are rarely depicted as blatant enemies and the character largely gets along with the rest of the Dunder Mifflin office. He even dates Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling) in the show's middle seasons, and ultimately leaves Dunder Mifflin to work at Jim Halpert's (John Krasinski) new company at the series' end (via The Office Wiki).
That doesn't mean every "The Office" fan likes Darryl, though. Some fans have discussed whether Darryl is a likable character over the years, and whether he is too rude to Michael at times.
The Office fans discuss Darryl's blunt attitude toward Michael
In a 2017 post in the r/DunderMifflin subreddit, user 0piat3 proposed that Robinson's character is "a total jerk sometimes, too." They wrote, "He was so rude to Michael almost every time they interacted. I've been thinking [about] this for a while, but after re-watching it again it just is hard to miss."
The post specifically mentions Darryl being rude to Michael in The Office Season 5 Episode 4, "Baby Shower," in which Michael approaches Darryl for advice about his girlfriend Jan's pregnancy, "from one baby daddy to another." Darryl advises Michael not to think of himself as a "baby daddy," since Jan's child is not Michael's.
Other fans appeared to disagree with the idea that Darryl is a jerk. Some argued that he speaks bluntly to Michael because of how often Michael makes assumptions about Darryl based on race.
"I feel like Darryl dealt with having an ignorant, racist (albeit well intentioned) boss better than a lot of people would," Reddit user t_minus_freda wrote.
"He speaks to Michael bluntly because that's how you need to deal with him," wrote user fudchuck. "[Darryl] tries suggesting Michael stop calling himself a baby daddy since it's not his kid and catches attitude from Mike for it so he responds with attitude. Daryl is shown to be a pretty good guy (after season 1 at least), sure he can be short with Michael at times but to be fair Michael is a racist... Far from a horrible person for not coddling him."