Arrogant, smug, narcissistic, self-absorbed and downright patronising. Simon, the computer geek, is all these things and more. The truth is that his character is based on other IT workers out there who possess similar attributes. Here at David Brent Quotes, we can attest to having worked with a “Simon” before.
His appearance aptly sums him up – mid length hair, a thin chain, and a waistcoat with a Jack Daniels shirt beneath just to show that he doesn’t conform to corporate culture.
Simon only appears in one episode of The Office in a sublime scene along with Tim and Gareth. The scene starts off with Simon fixing Tim’s computer. When Tim asks what he’s doing on his computer, Simon tells Tim that he doesn’t need to know. When pressed he tells Tim he’s installing a Firewall.
“It protects your computer against script kiddies, data collectors, viruses, worms and trojan horses and it limits your outbound internet communication. Anymore questions?”
The scene then cuts to him working on Gareth’s computer with Gareth sitting alongside him. Gareth tells him that he went go karting over the weekend which opens pandoras box on go karting for Simon. It turns out Simon is an expert at go karting. So good in fact that the owner of one of the go karting tracks told him he should join the Formula 1.
In another go karting story wrought with hyperbole, Simon regales how someone had left a ramp out on the track and as he came round he hit the ramp, flew up into the air, turned over the in the air, and then landed on his wheels, got out his car and said “what were worried about?”.
This scene reaches its crescendo when Simon and Gareth discuss a topic that is revered by many computer geeks – Kung Fu, and in particular Bruce Lee.
The scene ends when Tim makes a joke about Simon’s theory that Bruce Lee faked his death so he could work undercover for the Hong Kong police infiltrating drugs gangs in the Triads. In response Simon asks Tim if he’s gone off Dawn, as he sees Rachel chatting to Tim.
Who Plays Simon?
Simon is played by Matthew Holness. He was born in Whitstable, Kent in 1975. Holness read English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and was a member of the Cambridge Footlights.
Holness created the fictional horror author and actor, Garth Marenghi. The horror comedy, Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place has attained cult following in Britain in split of its low ratings.
In addition to television acting, Matthew Holness has acted in four films, namely, Festival, Cemetery Junction, A Gun for George and Possum.
Holness has also written several short stories, such as ‘Possum’, ‘The Toad and I’, and ‘The Mastiff: A story of The Diggers’, which have all been published in horror anthologies and as e-books.