Kevin Malone

For the former Los Angeles Dodgers general manager, see Kevin Malone (baseball).

Kevin Malone is a fictional character from the US television series The Office. He is played by Brian Baumgartner. Kevin's counterpart in the UK series is Keith Bishop.

Overview

Kevin Malone is an accountant at the fictitious paper distributor Dunder Mifflin. Kevin is bald, overweight, and seems to have just three facial expressions: a slack-jawed gaze, a scowl, and an impish grin. He speaks in a slow, monotone voice, rarely expressing any emotion, although he is often prone to giggle at things that would typically amuse a child. Much of Kevin's humor derives from the incongruity between his deadpan personality and his juvenile sense of humor.

Biography

Kevin is typically quite subdued with his hangdog face, although he is known for making blunt or offensive comments regarding the other employees. He hints toward unbecoming Internet habits, most likely pornography, as alluded to in the episodes "E-mail Surveillance" and "Take Your Daughter to Work Day". He is very concerned about the e-mail surveillance uncovering the contents of his hard drive and actually flees an interview with the cameras to ensure that his fiancee's daughter had not found the same content.

Kevin was engaged to a woman named Stacy, who has a daughter named Abby. Stacy was the fourth woman to whom Kevin proposed, but the first to say yes, and he was very happy, though he secretly considered her a second choice to one of the other women, Melissa Riley. Little is known about Stacy, and it is hinted that their relationship is somewhat peculiar. Kevin plays drums and is also the lead singer in a local tribute band. The group initially was a Steve Miller Band tribute called "Jokers and Tokers", but recently refocused on the music of The Police, and rebranded accordingly as "Scrantonicity", a homage to their album Synchronicity. However, after getting into a fight with his bandmates, Kevin breaks off and forms a new band, "Scrantonicity II". Kevin is a fan of the Detroit Pistons, his favorite foods are Cup Noodles and M&M's, and his favorite movie is American Pie 2, he also likes Weekend at Bernie's and The Cannonball Run. His favorite number, not surprisingly, is 69, after the sexual position. According to Jim in a deleted scene from "The Dundies", Kevin is interested in naval history and enjoys bowling.

Malone is not given much responsibility by his supervisor, Angela Martin, but he is allowed to shred company documents and says that is all he really needs. In "Health Care", it was revealed that he suffers from anal fissures. In "Casino Night", he reveals that he won a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2002, but he nonetheless suffers defeat at the hands of an unwitting Phyllis Lapin. As seen in the "Kevin Cooks Stuff in The Office" short, Kevin is currently brewing beer in the cabinet beside his desk, much to the disgust of his coworker Oscar Martinez. Kevin states that, "rules say I can't bring beer into the office, but they don't say anything about making beer in the office." He also has recipes for office-made quesadillas and creme brulee.

Kevin suffers from plantar hyperhidrosis ("Grief Counseling" deleted scene). Angela is regularly disgusted by Kevin's feet and he protests that she knows about his medical condition.

Kevin is the only minor character in The Office to be directly based on a character from the British original version. He is based on Keith Bishop, who shares Kevin's lack of communication skills, and became particularly popular after an episode where boss David Brent conducts a staff appraisal, to which Keith stoically fails to respond to questions. Keith shares Kevin's musical interest (as a disc jockey, not a musician), but not Kevin's childish sense of humor.

Slate magazine named the character as one of the reasons they were looking forward to the return of the show in Fall 2007.

Season 1

Kevin is one of the more featured supporting characters and has many comic moments. While making a basketball team for a game against the warehouse employees, Michael ignores Kevin's plea to join the team, but it later turns out that Kevin is in fact an excellent player, as opposed to Stanley Hudson, whom he assumed to be talented based merely on the fact that he is African-American, though he was actually clumsy and slow. He often tells people that Pam is "hot", though when Katy, a purse saleswoman, comes to the office, he tells Pam that Katy is prettier than her. On "Diversity Day", when the employees are given a card with a specific race written on it, Kevin is given "Italian". In the same episode, he attempts to reenact for his coworkers a race-themed Chris Rock routine without offending anyone; Michael complains that Kevin has butchered the routine.

Season 2

Kevin is the winner of the "Don't Go In There After Me" award at the 8th Annual Dundie Awards (a reference to his bathroom odor). This is referenced again later when he is seen coming out of the men's room with a lit candle. His favorite games to play at work are a paper football game which he and Oscar call "Hateball" (because Angela hates it), and "How Many M&M's Can You Put In Your Mouth?" (Angela points out that only he plays this).

Kevin's relationship with Stacy begins this season. Kevin is despondent on Valentine's Day when he doesn't know where she is, but in a deleted scene he becomes very happy when she calls and says she's back in town. In Take Your Daughter To Work Day he brings her daughter Abby to the office, where she quickly becomes pals with Jim.

On Michael's birthday, Kevin gets tested for skin cancer, which takes the mood away from party festivities, much to Michael's displeasure. The results end up negative (though Michael thought that meant that he had it).

Jim and Pam encounter his Police tribute band Scrantonicity, while searching for bands for Pam's wedding and Roy asks him to play for them which he accepts (although the marriage ends up being called off).

In a special webisode, Angela sarcastically calls Kevin a genius, though Kevin secretly thinks his IQ of over 100 makes him a genius.

Season 3

Generally, he doesn't get much responsibility, so in "The Merger", he is delighted that he gets to shred company documents. However, in the excitement of showing everything that it can shred, he puts in his own credit card. He later uses the shredder to make a salad. After some deliberation, Kevin joins Angela's party in "A Benihana Christmas", but only because of the double-fudge brownies. Scrantonicity got to perform at "Phyllis' Wedding". It was the third wedding they performed at, having also played at their bassist's wedding and their guitarist's wedding.

During "Cocktails", Malone is asked if he and Stacy have set a date for their wedding. Kevin says they have, but it is very complicated, hinting that they may have separated. During "The Merger" (deleted scene), he hides his M&M's under his desk so "they" (the new employees from Stanford) won't get to them, but is willing to share with Jim. In "The Convict", Kevin implies that he is involved in insider trading, but wasn't aware of the legal implications. He greatly enjoys the hot dog eating contest during Beach Games, saying that laying on the beach eating hot dogs is "all he's ever wanted".

Season 4

In the season premiere, "Fun Run", Kevin openly suspects Jim and Pam of "hooking up" and is determined to prove his speculations to his neighboring accountant Oscar. Oscar is not convinced, but Kevin is vindicated in the episode "Dunder Mifflin Infinity", when Jim and Pam reveal their relationship to their coworkers.

Kevin suffers a series of setbacks during the season. In the episode "Money", Kevin announces that has split from the band "Scrantonicity" and formed "Scrantonicity II", however none of his coworkers come to support his new band. He also reveals in the episode The Chair Model that he and his fiancee Stacy have ended their engagement. Also, Kevin, along with all of the other Dunder Mifflin employees (except for Michael) are made to park in a satellite parking lot, which angers all of them. Kevin is one of the most distraught, and he teams up with Andy in order to do something about it. They suggest to Michael that an assembly be called between the "Five Families". He later explains that the "Five Families" are the five companies which share the Scranton business park, and that the bosses "rarely meet". When Michael denies him the opportunity to call a meeting, Kevin and Andy decide to call a meeting anyway. At the meeting, Kevin and Andy attempt to be polite and in charge, since Michael isn't there. Kevin finally breaks down, demanding the parking spaces back, claiming that "some people have to park really far away and walk all the way to the office, and some people sweat too much for comfort." Kevin's later success in resolving the parking space problem in Dunder-Mifflin's favor gives him the small victory that he really needed. In "Job Fair", Kevin's zeal to gamble during a trip to the golf course with Jim, Andy and a prospective customer implies that his gambling may be a compulsive behavior rather than just a casual hobby, as he takes money from petty cash in order to turn it into "this month's rent."

In "Goodbye, Toby", Dwight tells the office's new HR representative Holly that Kevin is mentally retarded and got his job at Dunder-Mifflin through a special program. Holly pays special attention to Kevin, praising him for being able to drive a car, and helps him pick out a snack from the vending machine. Kevin, however, interprets Holly's frequent praise and breathy condescension as sexual interest in him.

Season 5

At the beginning of "Weight Loss", the season premiere, HR rep Holly still believes Kevin is mentally challenged. However, after Holly steps in when Angela berates Kevin over a mistake he made, the truth comes out and Holly is obviously embarrassed.

In a deleted scene from "Baby Shower", it is revealed that Kevin donated sperm to the same sperm bank Jan went to, proclaiming "I might have done it with Jan" afterwards. She is then taken back at the idea that he might be the biological father.

Webisodes

During the time period between the second and third seasons, NBC posted The Accountants, a season of "webisodes" (online mini episodes) with Kevin, Oscar, and Angela attempting to solve an accounting error. The error ends up being the fault of Angela and when it is discovered, Kevin says it is the best day of his life.

Throughout the summer between the fourth and fifth seasons, NBC's website featured a new season of webisodes entitled Kevin's Loan. The five online episodes detailed Kevin's attempts to find money in order to pay his gambling debt back to his bookmaker. Kevin settles on trying to get a small business loan under the auspices of selling ice cream. When his first attempt goes poorly, Darryl joins Kevin in making the proposal to another loan officer at the same bank and they bring a sample into the meeting. Darryl flirts with the female loan officer and asks her to "taste the ice cream". When she does, she remarks that it tastes like Breyer's. The first loan officer comes in and Darryl asks him to taste the ice cream. The loan officer asks if they made the ice cream or bought it in a store and Kevin throws a nervous fit, hissing at Darryl to abort their mission. The webisode season ends with Kevin selling ice cream outside of the office to pay back his debt. Stanley comes out to buy but refuses to pay the ten dollar cost.