Written and directed by the man behind Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill, Mike Judge, Office Space celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.
Did you know? Office Space is a spin-off of Judge’s animated short, Milton, which aired on Saturday Night Live in the ’90s. And another of his films, Extract, is considered a companion piece to Office Space.
Judge’s screenplay manages to perfectly encapsulate the frustrations of office culture with semi-realistic scenarios that toe the line of being equally hilarious and maddening. Ron Livingston (Sex and the City) portrays Peter Gibbons, a computer programmer working at a software company where he and his work mates, Samir and Michael, all hate their jobs. Watching the characters dealing with management; the clashing personalities between co-workers; and how they’re considered easily disposable and just another number, not a person, your own blood pressure and rage builds along with them – it’s a visceral reaction you cannot escape.
A relative low budget movie in Hollywood standards, Office Space barely made back its production budget. It’s incredible how so many films become cult classics upon their physical media release, and then memes thanks to the internet – Office Space is one on a ever-growing long list.
Despite its poor performace at the boxoffice, Office Space actually made a cultural impact. The character of Joanna (Jennifer Aniston, Friends) wears the minimum required pieces of flair at work and yet still gets hassled by her boss for not wearing more. TGI Fridays actually made changes to their dress code and waitstaff were no longer required to wear “flair”. The Swingline stapler used in Office Space was actually spray painted red for the movie. Due to demand, the company actually produced one in the same colour which was made available for purchase in 2002.
If a work colleague comes up to you and says, “Sounds like somebody’s got a case of the Mondays,” don’t get angry, get tattooed.
The Tattooed Archivist 