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Before I
moved into my first cubicle and joined Corporate America, I never understood why people
thought Dilbert comics were so funny. But suddenly I got the joke. In fact,
every comic suddenly seemed so true-to-life that I began wondering if Scott Adams, the
comic’s creator, had been following me around and spying on the company where I worked.
I had the same reaction when I first saw Mike Judge’s Office Space. In fact,
after seeing it in the theater the first time, I immediately made arrangements for
another viewing with a huge group of my cubicle-dwelling
friends.
Office Space stars Ron Livingston as Peter Gibbons, a
fed-up software-programming drone who spends more time “spacing out” and going out for
coffee with his friends, Michael Bolton (no…no relation) and Samir Nagheenanajar (which,
for some reason, no one can ever pronounce). When Peter is hypnotized by an occupational
hypnotherapist (who, unfortunately, dies suddenly, before he can take Peter out of his
trance), he begins to take a completely different attitude toward his stupid job, his
mentally-unstable coworkers, and his unholy boss. He stops showing up for work (unless
he needs a place to clean the fish he just caught), and he finally gets up the nerve to
ask beautiful waitress Joanna (Jennifer Aniston) to go out with him. Things are great
for Peter—who’s even given a big promotion by the consultants who show up to do
lay-offs—until Michael and Samir are laid off. The three then decide to set up a scam
that will make the company pay…
Anyone who’s ever spent eight hours a day
in a cubicle will love this movie. So much of it—from the opening rush hour traffic
scene (accompanied by the perky mambo sounds of Perez Prado) to the
lay-off paranoia to the printer that never works—is frighteningly accurate yet
outrageously hilarious. Don’t miss this quotable, funny-because-it’s-true
comedy.
Of course, if you happen to be The Boss, you probably won’t find
it funny at all. My boss decided to watch it to see what we were all talking about, and
he just didn’t get it—which only made it that much funnier for the rest of us.
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