Destroy an office printer, I mean. Maybe you've seen this before, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if I've posted it before. The first two scenes here are from earlier in the movie, the rest near the end. (Office Space, and it's very funny.) Warning: a bit of rough language, and I think that stretch of silence may represent the removal of some of the crude stuff on the rap sound track.
Personally I hate and fear printers and copiers and avoid using them.
When Father was showing me around the office, we walked into the room where the copier lives and I said, “And this is the monster.” 😉
So far, it hasn’t been too bad, but it does get jammed several times every week when I’m printing the bulletin. That’s why I print it on Thursday instead of Friday.
AMDG
Life imitated art the following year when my workplace got a new manager. It was like living Office Space…
I think most people who have worked in the offices of medium-to-large organizations can relate. To me it seems especially relevant to high-tech companies but maybe that’s just because that’s where my experience was.
I used to have a job fixing and maintaining printers in a large corporation. Often times I would show up to fix a problem and the user (I love that term) couldn’t get it to have the same problem it was having just minutes before.
This would happen to one high level secretary often. One day she called me (she was so high she didn’t have to follow the normal help line procedure) and said she had a very important document to print and she wanted me to come down and stand by the printer while she printed the document so that it wouldn’t screw up.
I’ve had many users (I didn’t bat an eye at the term, because I’m so used to it, but when you step back a bit it is rather funny) remark on the same phenomenon, only with me it’s software rather than printers. Although no one has actually asked me to come and be present while, e.g., payroll is running. But I’ve heard variations on “It won’t do it while you’re here!” many times. And for that matter I’ve often suspected that the probability that a printer or copier will jam when I’m using it is proportional to the urgency of my need for it to work correctly. If superstition correlates with reality often enough one does begin to wonder…
I don’t feel this way about printers especially. But it’s how I feel about photocopiers. And they have special sensors to adjudicate the degree of urgency and anxiety about the job, making them proportionately more likely to screw up if I need the copying for a class in 10 minutes time.
This is why you NEVER print anything on the day you have to have it. If you demonstrate such hubris you will: run out of toner, have a paper jam in which the paper ends up in a place that can only be reached by a technician, or get big black streaks on your copies. Or maybe, someone else will start a four-hour long job right before you get to the copier. These are just the facts of life.
AMDG
I do generally get away with photocopying right before class. No doubt it gives me high blood pressure.
I’ve done just enough teaching to know not to attempt either printing or copying right before class. I’ve gotten away with it, too, but it wasn’t worth it.
It’s more fun. I do sometimes photocopy ahead of time, but it’s kind of boring ….
Do you also like sky-diving? Racing trains?
No!
Glad to know there are some limits to your thrill-seeking.
Probably the difference, Grumpy, is you don’t live in constant fear that if the next copying job isn’t completed on time, you might lose your job.
AMDG
I think Grumpy just likes living on the edge.
I wanted to share a funny scene from “The Castle” about a photocopier, but sadly there is blasphemy in it. It has swearing too, but that doesn’t bother me. It’s a pity, b/c the scene is so apt for this post.
Light On Dark Water 
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