What kind of slacker are you?

American Idle

In his new book, Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America, author Tom Lutz chronicles the history of American sloth with surprising industriousness. That's what the blurbs on the back of the jacket say, anyway. Rather than actually read a 320-page book, we called Lutz for the CliffsNotes version. He was kind enough to break out modern American slackerdom into the following five categories:

The Comic Slacker: "This is the guy who gets by without having to work. All our deepest fears and greatest fantasies about doing nothing are wrapped up in this figure. He's a tramp, but it doesn't seem to get in his way." Example: Peter Gibbons from Office Space

The Closet Slacker: "Someone who seems to represent an inordinate amount of wheeling and dealing, but they're always managing to show up at tons of sporting events and parties." Example: Donald Trump

The Closet Workaholic: "This is the flip side of the workaholic. They try to present themselves as people who don't have to work for a living, but in real life they're working incredibly hard, especially on their presentation as slacker icons." Example: Kevin Smith

The Accidental Achiever: "A born slacker that ends up with a great résumé. John D. Rockefeller in an interview in the 1920s said he looked good on paper, but had been a slacker most of his life." Example: George W. Bush.

The Tragic Slacker: "This is the classic lottery winner. However much we think we want a life without work, this figure reminds us we need something to do." Example: Anna Nicole Smith.

- Men.Style.Com, 25 May 2006.