English edit

Etymology edit

Brent +‎ -ism, after the character David Brent in the TV mockumentary The Office.

Noun edit

Brentism (plural Brentisms)

  1. A self-satisfied, hypocritical, or embarrassingly inappropriate remark.
    • 2011, J. Jeremy Wisnewski, The Office and Philosophy: Scenes from the Unexamined Life:
      The genius of Gervais is to let Brent get too close to reality in his portrayal of management technique. We all witness Brentisms every day.
    • 2014, Sedge Beswick, 140 Ultimate Twitter LOLs, page 72:
      This account challenges its followers to secure a date on Tinder using classic, squirm-inducing Brentisms, and later share the conversations on Twitter. As you might imagine, the results aren't always successful, but they're always funny.
    • 2016 August 11, Andrew Bullock, “David Brent REVIEW: Life on the Road goes from painfully funny to just plain painful. Ouch”, in Sunday Express:
      The iconic character from The Office has always been designed to be laughed at, not with. [] The first third of the film is laugh after laugh; Brentism after Brentism. But half an hour in and this movie gets unnervingly dark and is an uncomfortable watch at times.