Talk:Office Space

Romantic Comedy?

This film doesn't contain any of the hallmarks of modern-day romantic comedy, so I took that part out. This film really doesn't have that much romance in it. 134.117.125.20 (talk) 19:19, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

TPS Reports

Do we -really- need every single solitary mention of TPS reports in pop culture ever? Lots42 (talk) 20:32, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

One man's trash is another's treasure. Just because you don't want it doesn't mean it should go.

That said, Office Space has made a fair impact on pop culture and the number of instances listed here is just a testament to that. Cburnett (talk) 21:25, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

However, if this article is ever going to get promoted to GA status or better, than this list is going to have be converted to prose and cited.--J.D. (talk) 21:29, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Where did I object to that that necessitated you arguing for it? Cburnett (talk) 05:01, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information. Saying something like 'TPS reports have been seen or mentioned in multiple video games and movies, including but not limited to...'. We don't need a detailed rendering of every time a ref pops up in some obscure corne of a shoot 'em up video game. This'd make the article a mess. Lots42 (talk) 03:28, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Amen. Carl.bunderson (talk) 03:30, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

"Me too"s are hardly valuable to a discussion. Cburnett (talk) 05:01, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

They indicate consensus, so yes, they are. Carl.bunderson (talk) 05:15, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

"Indiscriminate" is wholly vague and hardly agreed upon. Cultural references to something specific is hardly indiscriminate (quite discriminate if you ask me). I also think you're being quite melodramatic about "every single solitary mention" and "of every time a ref pops up". What is your basis in determining that every single solitary mention of TPS report is present in this article? Baseless assumption to make things seem "worse" off then they are? Seems as though you've tipped your hat on your bias and have come here not looking for discussion but a reason to go nuts with your delete key. Cburnett (talk) 05:01, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Lists of occurences in pop culture invite non-notable items and trivia. Moreover, even if these references should be in WP, they would be better placed in TPS reports than in this article. Carl.bunderson (talk) 19:40, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

What Carl said. Lots42 (talk) 10:07, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Conserning the bar scene

I believe in the movie that durring the bar scene where Peter is telling Michael he is going to be fired, Samir is not there, but the wiki says he tells his two friends in the bar. I didn't correct the article because I could't recall if it was true or not. Could someone with the dvd check? Tonkatsu182 (talk) 01:42, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

I remember that it was just Peter and Michael at the bar. They tell Samir of the situation later on in Peter's apartment.--DavidD4scnrt (talk) 08:48, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Plot

The plot section, in my opinion, needs to be rewritten from the ground up. Too long, too much past tense and odd grammar and sentence fragments abound. Lots42 (talk) 01:18, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Picture of a stapler in the plot section

Although it may seem cute or chuckle-worthy to the people who have seen the film, the inclusion of a picture of a stapler in the plot section serves no useful purpose in improving this article. I see it akin to including a picture of a quarter in the plot description of No Country for Old Men (film). I have removed it. Please let me know if you disagree.
Thanks. SWik78 (talk • contribs) 16:20, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

In other media

I've moved this section here because it is largely unsourced and just a collection of points or random references. If this film is going to be upgraded to GA status, this stuff has to be converted to some kind of coherent prose, cited properly and placed in other sections. Anyways, I've placed it here for posterity.--J.D. (talk) 19:22, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

TPS reports are real life documents. Therefore, saying any reference to a TPS report in media is an allusion to this movie is false. --71.170.209.16 (talk) 16:30, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

Any, sure. SOME...naturally. A few well sourced 'cultural refs' (few as in thee or four) would be a cool aspect of the article. In my opinion. Lots42 (talk) 21:18, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

Television

• The animated Office Space short appeared on Liquid Television (MTV) in 1992, involving Milton and his stapler.
• In the similarly-themed British television series The Office, "Pete Gibbons" is mentioned on two occasions as a former Wernham Hogg employee.
• Although Gary Cole is credited as supplying numerous voices on the Fox series Family Guy, he reprised his role as Bill Lumbergh in the episode titled "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Fonz."
• In the television series Lost, John Locke has a flashback of working in a cubicle office and being harassed by his obnoxious boss, Randy, asking about TPS reports.
• In the episode "The Redneck on Rainey Street" of the animated series King of the Hill, Kahn Souphanousinphone tells his boss on the phone that he has filed his TPS reports. King of the Hill is another Mike Judge production.
• A red Swingline stapler is seen in an episode of Scrubs ("My Bright Idea") when Dr. Percival "Perry" Cox (played by John C. McGinley, who portrayed one of the Bobs in the movie) is seen talking to Elliot Reid through such a stapler.
• In the "High" (originally aired 8/22/07) episode of Rescue Me a scene opens with Janet Gavin at work as she hands a colleague some papers and says, "The TPS reports."
• Actor Greg Pitts appeared as himself in a second season episode of The Sarah Silverman Program ("Ah, Men", original air date 10/31/07). Throughout the episode he is referred to as "the 'oh face' guy from Office Space" and repeatedly recites his famous catch phrase.

Commercials

• In the series of Reebok commercials featuring "Terry Tate: Office Linebacker", after one of his devastating hits on a co-worker, he yells "You know you need a cover sheet on your TPS Reports, Richard! That ain't new, baby!"
• In a promotional ad for an episode of the show 30 Days about job outsourcing, series creator Morgan Spurlock is seated in an office cubicle. He drinks from a coffee cup and says the Lumbergh line "Yeah, we're gonna have to move your desk ... to India."
• Blizzard Entertainment used a scene in this film in a commercial for World of Warcraft. The scene in particular was of Peter playing Tetris on his work computer while blowing off Lumbergh. The Tetris game running on the monitor was digitally replaced with footage from World of Warcraft, and the game's box was digitally added to the top of the monitor. Additionally, the Cheetos on Peter's desk were digitally replaced with WoW CDs.
• A commercial for Absolut Vodka themed for "Absolut: Case of the Mondays" uses the scene of the printer being pummeled.
• The 2007 Super Bowl Ad for CareerBuilder, "Promotion Pit," features a character covered in sticky notes.

Music video

• In the video "Virus Alert" from the album Straight Outta Lynwood by Weird Al Yankovic, people are observed running from the flaming Initech building.

Video games

• In the video game Enter the Matrix, in a scene set in a post office building, there is an area where the player can hear two employees discussing TPS reports, and referring to one having the other's stapler.
• The video game F.E.A.R. contains several levels with shootouts set among cubicles in an office building. Papers entitled "TPS Report" litter desks, notes with the phone number to "Chotchkie's" are on cabinets and there is a red Swingline stapler on one of the desks. A poster entitled "Planning to Plan" is seen.
• In the MMORPG City of Heroes robotic office workers/adversaries refer to 'TPS Reports'.
• In the computer game Counter-Strike, as well as the Source engine sequel, TPS reports can be seen on the shelves in the multiplayer online map cs_office. On the same multiplayer map, the same computer screens display a Windows desktop with an open Excel spreadsheet titled "TPS Report." The same screen has a command prompt window with the command "embezzle.exe" typed at the prompt.
• In the game Doom 3, one of the magazines called "UAC" has a red stapler on it and has the caption "Where is my Stapler?"
• In the mod Zodiac for the game Deus Ex, you infiltrate an office complex modelled after the workplace in the movie, with Milton sitting in a corner enclosure talking about his stapler, TPS reports on his desk.
• In the MMORPG Guild Wars: Eye of the North, in the map Magus Stones, there is a NPC called Blimm that is searching for his staff and thinks that his ex-employer stole it. He says to players: "And, if you see my red staff, bring it back to me. It's not okay, and if she took my staff, I'm going to burn the laboratory down." as a reference to Milton.
• In the movie, Peter Gibbons is implied to like computer and video games. He plays tetris on his computer, and even has a Nintendo 64 in his apartment.

References

In popular culture

This section is not cited or cited very well and is basically a list. It needs loads of citations and changed into prose and integrated into other sections. I'm putting it here for safe keeping.--J.D. (talk) 19:06, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Several phrases, items and concepts from the film have found their way into common usage - particularly in office environments.

• PMITA prison refers to 'pound me in the ass prison' as opposed to soft time in "white-collar resort-prison". (FPMITA is probably the Federal version of it.)
• TPS report — denotes any type of pointless office paperwork, based on the film's satirical example of such work.
• PC Load Letter — an actual HP laser printer error message indicating that the printer needs letter-sized paper, but more generally a catch-all for any nonsensical error message. The "PC" in the phrase stands for "Paper Cassette", a paper reservoir for many printers. This error is more common in Europe when printing US documents on printers loaded with size A4 paper.
• Did/Didn't you get that memo? — refers to a question a worker is asked by multiple supervisors at varying levels.
• A case of the Mondays — refers to expressions of frustration at one's job (especially on Mondays); phrase is used by a cheery co-worker to describe Peter's attitude at the start of the film, and again later by Brian, the insufferably upbeat Chotchkie's waiter.

• Red Swingline stapler — The item that is the only constant in the life of abused employee Milton Waddams, who snaps after it is stolen. Swingline hadn't made red staplers in years, and a red Swingline was not available from office supply shops when Office Space was released (a prop department employee, named Ric Trzeciak, painted one PPG red, according to the film's commentary), but due to popular demand Swingline released a limited run of the red version in 2004. The official Swingline product page describes the product thus: "Discover the stapling star of any office space - the bold head-turning design and legendary performance of Swingline's Rio Red Stapler."

The Swingline 747 Classic stapler in red

• No-talent ass clown — expression of Michael Bolton's antipathy for the pop singer Michael Bolton, with whom he shares his name. The term is now used to refer to a celebrity or performer who is successful despite having only marginal talent. It is also used as a general term of derision. The term "ass clown" was also used in the film Bad Santa, by Ajay Naidu, as a tribute to this film. WWE wrestler Chris Jericho was known for using 'ass clown' during his earlier years with the company.
• Pieces of Flair or chotchkie — refers to the many buttons and pins Joanna must wear while working at the fictional Friday’s-esque restaurant "Chotchkie's", as in the title of the 2005 "Special Edition, with Flair" DVD release. (Tchotchke is a Yiddish word meaning "worthless trinket"—like the pieces of flair). Peter Gibbons criticizes the practice, saying, "You know, the Nazis had pieces of flair they made the Jews wear." In addition, a popular Facebook application called "Pieces of Flair" debuted in 2008 and allows users to create "flair" to post on a mock-bulletin board using any image file. The "flair" is then traded and shared among Facebook users.
• The O-Face is made famous by the character named Drew, who says "If things go well I might be showing her my O-face. 'Oh... Oh... Oh!' You know what I'm talkin' about."

References

Misplaced Decimal Point?

I do not remember a misplaced decimal point creating the excess cash. As I recall, it was simply the large amount of money going through the system that caused the excess cash. Lots42 (talk) 18:03, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

No, Michael says that it's a misplaced decimal point. "That's not a mundane detail, Michael!" EVula // talk // ☯ // 18:13, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Conclusion

The movie is about the life of an employee named Peter who as a symbol of minority is trying to get out of cubicles caused by individualism in USA. The movie begins by Peter driving alone in his car changing lines to break free, and the movie ends showing that the freedom he is looking for, is achieved by destruction of the organization as a symbol of government. The movie shows that although finally Peter finds his ideal environment, his two friends chose to go back to a similar system. So it argues although western kind of freedom brought by individualism could be the answer which majority of people are looking for, but other kinds of freedoms must coexist to satisfy minorities or they will rise and bring destruction to achieve it. --AndrehShahbazian (talk) 03:47, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

Do you have a source for this or is it your own original research? Either way, I think that there is way too much being read into the movie if these are anyone's ideas. Dismas|^(talk) 05:15, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

This is my NPOV. Please check the source of the idea which the movie insists on at this link  :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Paul_Sartre 83.147.219.124 (talk) 21:47, 25 October 2008 (UTC) To feel the dept, I suggest watching the documentary by Adam Curtis called "The Trap" first. go:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Curtis 91.184.92.140 (talk) 17:47, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Printer?

There's several mentions of the "printer" in the article .. wasn't the machine they smashed up a fax machine? - Mblaxill (talk) 20:13, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

I believe it was a copy/fax/printer--all in on sort of thing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.162.129.52 (talk) 01:38, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

I think it should be double-checked. I always understood it to be an HP laser printer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.69.2.114 (talk) 12:57, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

This came up again in a recent edit. I don't think the movie states it explicitly, but one prominent scene includes the dialogue: "PC Load Letter? What the fuck does that mean?". PC Load Letter appears to be an error specific to old HP Laserjet printers, suggesting that it was in fact a printer مفكر1 (talk) 17:22, 12 January 2018 (UTC)

Milton

I'm confused where it says Milton was fired 2 years ago but still gets paid due to a glitch, and then it says he had to move to a roach-infested basement because he doesn't get paid.Landroo (talk) 15:06, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

besides not firing him and just fixing "the glitch", the boss humiliates him too .. in other words, he doesn't move to the roach infested basement "because he doesn't get paid" - he just moves there because Lumberg is enjoying having someone to pick on .. hope that explains it. All best - Mblaxill (talk) 15:49, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

I don't believe it was to humiliate Milton. It was more a passive aggressive way to get rid of him, probably hoping he would finally stop coming to work. I once had a high-level executive say something like that to me. Along the lines of "You don't always have to fire someone. If they're not promoted or given pay raises, not given interesting work, they'll generally leave." (Robo45h (talk) 22:08, 22 December 2020 (UTC))

Location of the company

Does anyone else feel that it is important to note where the company in question is located? Personally I don't think it's critical to understanding the plot in the summary at all but I thought I'd bring it here for discussion since the editor adding it feels so strongly about it. Thoughts? Anon IP I'd love to see why you think it's relevant enough to add. Millahnna (talk) 04:42, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

It's not important. It's trivia and borders on original research. Doctorfluffy (robe and wizard hat) 03:45, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

Judge said recently that while it was filmed in Texas, he purposely avoided any hint of an actual location and tried to keep it as generic as possible (which is part of his point), down to using generic license plates on most of the vehicles. Daniel Case (talk) 22:38, 3 February 2019 (UTC)

With regards to the 80% Fresh rating from RottenTomatoes.com

All of these reviews from Rotten Tomatoes are from many years after the film initially hit theaters, many from 2005 or later. Therefore they are not accurate reflections of how the film was received by critics upon its initial release, as the article insinuates. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.215.55.194 (talk) 15:27, 19 July 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing that out. We'll have to make an effort to find some contemporary reviews (if any are available) and make sure to rephrase the critical reception to make it clear that some reviews (currently all) are from after the fact. Millahnna (talk) 22:20, 19 July 2011 (UTC)

Milton's stapler

Stapler-swingline-red.jpg was linked in the Plot section with the description, "Milton's stapler". As is well documented by fans, the red stapler that Swingline currently sells is not Milton's stapler. The Rio Red stapler is a 747, which looks very different from the 646 that Office Space's prop department painted red. I actually found a 545 at work, and it's a pretty close match, whereas the 747 has a huge block of metal on both sides near the rear hinge. Unable to buy Milton's stapler from Swingline, many fans locate 646s and paint them red.

My first instinct was to change the description to something like "a stapler similar to Milton's stapler", but what's the point of having a picture of a stapler that somewhat resembles Milton's stapler? So I'm just going to delete the image link, and I trust that this will not be controversial. DOSGuy (talk) 21:30, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

other cast

closing credits other names, not part of opening or closing title cards:

• Kinna McInroe as Nina
• Linda Wakeman at Laura Symkkowski
• Jennifer Jane Emerson as Female Temp
• Kyle Scott Jackson as Bob Newhouse
• Barbara George-Reiss as Lumbergh's Secretary
• Tom Schuster at Construction Foreman
• Ruperto Reyes Jr. as Mexican Waiter
• Jackie Belvin as Swanson's Patient #1
• Gabriel Forse as Swanson's Patient #2
• Jesse de Luna as Cop at Fire
• Mike Judge (credited as "William King") as Stan, Chotchkie's Manager
• Justin Possenti as Spectator
• Jack Betts as Judge