Office Space

Office Space is the most accurate comedy ever made about the modern workplace — a film that captures the soul-crushing absurdity of corporate life with such precision that it has become a survival manual for cubicle workers worldwide. Mike Judge, who created Beavis and Butt-Head and would later create Silicon Valley, brought his gift for observational satire to the story of Peter Gibbons, a software engineer at Initech who decides to simply stop caring about his job.

Gary Cole's Bill Lumbergh is the greatest boss villain in comedy history. His passive-aggressive 'Yeahhh, if you could go ahead and...' has become the universal shorthand for corporate managerial incompetence. Stephen Root's Milton Mumm — the mumbling, stapler-obsessed basement dweller — was originally a character from Judge's animated shorts and became the film's unexpected breakout. The red Swingline stapler became so requested that Swingline actually began manufacturing it in red.

The film bombed in theaters and became a massive hit on home video and cable, where office workers discovered it and recognized their own lives on screen. The printer destruction scene — Peter, Michael, and Samir beating a malfunctioning printer to death in a field while gangsta rap plays — is one of the most cathartic scenes in comedy. Every person who has ever fought with a copier feels that scene in their bones. Office Space does not exaggerate the corporate workplace. If anything, it understates it.