CREED BRATTON (THE OFFICE CHARACTER)

'Creed Bratton' is a fictional character from the US television series ''The Office'' (2005-present). The character is a fictionalized version of the actor who plays him, Creed Bratton.
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Contents

Character profile

Character history

Season 1 & 2

Season 3

Season 4

References

Character profile

Creed Bratton is a taciturn but creepy Quality Assurance representative at the Scranton branch of fictitious paper distributor Dunder-Mifflin. As the result of his drug use during his career as a rock musician in the 1960s, Creed has a phenomenally poor memory; he hardly remembers the names of his own co-workers. Little is known about Creed's life outside the office; the scattered details that emerge (as well as his behavior in the office) are invariably bizarre.

Character history

A product of the 60s, Creed is older than all of the other employees at the office. Prior to joining Dunder-Mifflin, he was most notably a member of the rock band The Grass Roots in the late 60s.^[1] Still a heavy drug user^[1] (primarily marijuana^[3][4]), Creed suffers from its effects: He admits to having poor concentration and regularly forgets even the names of his co-workers, occasionally newly introducing himself to someone whom he has worked with for years.^[5][6][7]
Creed was originally hired by then-regional manager Ed Truck.^[8] He now serves as the Quality Assurance manager. Creed can be counted on to shirk nearly all responsibility, ranging from informal office duties such as Spring Cleaning to his primary job responsibilities as Quality Assurance manager.^[9]
Outside of work, Creed teeters on the edge of homelessness and has professed his willingness to do whatever it takes to avoid becoming homeless again. He lives in Toronto, spending three nights a week there in order to milk the welfare state, and surreptitiously sleeps in his cubicle the remainder of the week.^[10]
Creed appears not to be bound by moral guidelines, exhibited most notably by his passion for stealing. The episode "Casino Night" provides the first glimpse into this side of Creed's personality. He steals gambling chips in order to win the evening's prize and admits in a talking head interview, "I love stealing things." Once revealed, his kleptomania returns in subsequent episodes, either explicitly or implied. For example, he takes a toy from a toy drive drop box^[11] and returns $40 to Michael, which Michael does not recall giving him.^[12]
Creed's lack of shame or morals extends beyond mere kleptomania. He places his wedding card on another guest's gift^[13] and continues to stare at Pam's chest when she wears a low-cut sweater, even after being asked to stop.^[14]
Little is known of Creed's childhood. In an interview,^[15] Creed explains that he was left on a doorstep and adopted by a Chinese family, which also explains his ability to speak Cantonese fluently.^[16] He explains that the family bound his feet, unaware that the practice was traditionally restricted to young girls; he lost a toe in the process.^[17]
Creed believes his blog URL is 'www.creedthoughts.gov.wwwcreedthoughts', but his "blog" is actually a Word document set up by Ryan
, wanting to "protect the world from being exposed to Creed's brain". Ironically, NBC provides the character with an actual blog at 'http://blog.nbc.com/CreedThoughts'.

Season 1 & 2

Creed can be seen in the background and in group scenes in the first season, but no storylines developed around him.
In "Halloween", Michael Scott is ordered to fire someone and he considers Creed (dressed as a vampire) but Creed fights back and suggests Devon instead, and Devon is fired. Later in the season, it is revealed that Creed has four toes on his right foot (because his adoptive Chinese parents bound his feet as a young child) and enjoys arcade-style shooting games. He reveals to Michael that he spent some time in an iron lung when he was sixteen. He speaks simple Mandarin and has friends in China, possibly Huadu. He can identify strains of cannabis in high-resolution photographs. He snacks on nutritious, fragrant mung bean sprouts, which he keeps stashed in his desk on a damp paper towel, though he admits "they smell like death." In "Casino Night," Creed steals poker chips to win the evening's prize, a mini-fridge from Vance Refrigeration. He proclaims he had never owned a refrigerator before.

Season 3

Creed says that he made love to many women during the 1960s (outdoors, in the mud and rain), and could possibly have made love to a man, as "there'd be no way of knowing." When Pam, at insistence from Kelly, wears a slightly more revealing shirt than is usual, Creed comes to her desk and stares at her for an awkwardly long time. When she asks him what he wants, he says he is "just looking."
In "Business School", he is easily recruited for "an alliance" with Dwight to destroy Jim, who has led Dwight to believe a bite from an errant bat has turned him into a vampire. He fashions a stake out of a broom handle using tools he has readily available at his desk. In "Cocktails," Creed reveals that he runs a Fake I.D. business out of the trunk of his car with a laminator that he stole from the Sheriff's Department.
In the episode "Diwali", he immediately recognizes a sexual position in the Kama Sutra book by name (the "Union of the Monkey"). In the episode "Branch Closing", he expands on his love of stealing by selling $1200 worth of office equipment when he thinks his branch is closing. When Hannah Smoterich-Barr exposes her breast to put milk in a baby bottle, he takes a picture of it and puts it on the computer. He joins Pam and Karen's party in "A Benihana Christmas", performing a real song of his titled "Spinnin' N Reelin'".
Creed's memory problems are revealed in The Return when he confuses the death of Ed Truck with the departure of Dwight Shrute from Dunder-Mifflin. He does seem to remember some facts, such as the funeral for the bird in the parking lot, but colleagues like Jim are skeptical about most of what Creed says. In "The Negotiation," he created an extreme tale of Roy's attack of Jim, falsely claiming that "Halpert" had stolen Roy's car. He also said that Roy came in with a sock filled with nickels, and that "Schayrute" defended with a can of hair spray and a lighter. When he tells this version of events, Angela denounces him as "useless."
In "Product Recall", his negligence leads to paper being sent out with an obscene watermark. Every week he is supposed to do a four-hour quality spot check at the papermill, and he is indignant that the watermark problem happened the one year he skipped out on those duties. He then does everything he can to keep his job, like "what I did when I was a homeless man". Creed engineers the transfer of blame from himself to a paper mill manager, for whom he procures a card and farewell money collected from all the workers; on his way out, he pockets the money and tosses the card. In a deleted scene, it was revealed that Creed faked his own death 10 years ago "for tax reasons", and admits that he draws benefits as his own widow.
He claims he is a "pretty normal guy", but he does one weird thing, "I go to the woman's bathroom to do number two. I've been caught several times and I have paid dearly." Creed's initial statement implies that he may tender money for this privilege, though later dialog reveals that he merely gets in trouble for this act.
In "Beach Games", Creed is seen catching a fish with his bare hands, and then shows up later to a hot dog eating contest holding a fish skeleton and says, "Nobody told me we were having hot dogs!"
In "The Job", Creed reveals his preference for natural breasts. He also informs Pam that he has blogged her speech to Jim and the others on the beach (from "Beach Games") and gives the website address to his blog during the "talking head" interview, which is then immediately followed by Ryan Howard's interview, where he reveals that Creed's "blog" is nothing more than a Word document he made for Creed with a fake address at the top. Coincident with the episode's premiere, NBC created the Creed Thoughts blog. In this, his general musings run alongside commentary on Pam's speech to Jim. He describes Pam as a woman he has never seen before in his life (due to his memory loss, which is ironic, given his attraction to Pam), and suspects she's on "cocaine... maybe 'drines".

Season 4

In a preview for Season 4, Creed states that he now has grandchildren ''and'' children, presumably from his many relationships in the 1960's ("The Office Summer Vacation" NBC promotional video).

References

1. Episode "Booze Cruise", deleted scene.
2. Episode "Booze Cruise", deleted scene.
3. Episode "Drug Testing".
4. Episode "Back from Vacation", deleted scene.
5. Episode "The Secret".
6. Episode "Valentine's Day", deleted scene.
7. Episode "The Convention".
8. Episode "The Carpet".
9. Episode "Product Recall".
10. Episode "The Coup", deleted scene.
11. Episode "A Benihana Christmas".
12. Episode "The Negotiation".
13. Episode "Phyllis' Wedding".
14. Episode "The Coup".
15. Tough Day at 'The Office'
16. Episode "Dwight's Speech".
17. Episode "Take Your Daughter to Work Day".