Did you catch The Office last Thursday?? Not only did Ricky Gervais finally make a guest appearance–for anyone who doesn’t know, long before Gervais offended everyone at this year’s Golden Globe Awards, he wrote, directed, and starred in the show that inspired NBC’s The Office–but Michael Scott (Steve Carell) played a Greek character.
We’ve seen Michael take on a lot of different personalities over the years. Who can forget Date Mike? The persona he puts on for dates is decidedly less cool than his normal self. There was Caleb Crawdad, a personality he took on for a murder-mystery game. He once even put on a fat suit and called himself Michael Klump, after the Klumps from the Nutty Professor. And there is Ping, his offensive portrayal of a Chinese food delivery man, mentioned again in last week’s episode.
In last week’s episode, “The Seminar,” he dresses up as a Greek character named Mykonos to help Andy with a seminar. “Mykonos is loosely based on another Greek character I do, Spyros, who is more about the ladies,” Michael explains to the camera.
He unbottons the top few buttons of his dress shirt. The pointy collar sits over the outside of his jacket. He slicks his hair back. Essentially, he’s the Greek version of a “Guido.”
As with most of Michael’s characters, though, Mykonos doesn’t sound Greek at all. At one point he utters German, and then later on he gets called out for seeming more Italian than Greek. Of course, there’s also the fact that Mykonos is not a Greek name but rather the name of a Greek island.
Endearing Holly saves the day. She gives him a character background that explains his mixed-up portrayal, and even joins in, with a pretty good Greek accent, as his wife.
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No word yet on a Greek version, but, as a Greek-Swedish-American (Greekish-American), I’m happy to report that a Swedish version of The Office is scheduled to air this fall.
Stephanie Nikolopoulos 
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