I tried standup towards the end of college. My routine was kinda funny but couldn’t come up with new material so I gave up, but this was one of my bits:
“You know what’s the craziest movie I’ve seen? Office space...”
(Someone usually hoots at this point)
“You think fucking Inception was some trippy shit? (I sometimes said the Matrix instead) Nah nigga, Office...SPACE!!"
(Usually a small laugh)
(I would look for another black guy in the crowd)
“Fellow black man, what is your name?”
(If the dude has a regular name I would say “Otis?” he would of course correct me then I say “Oh you said Darius, my bad.” Usually the most guaranteed laugh I would get.)
“So Darius...have you seen office space? (Look around at the crowd) I have to ask, because our black movie lexicon is a little different...I mention Animal House around my niggas and they think I’m trying to buy some weed. (Big laugh) I was quoting Caddy Shack and my momma thought I was having a stroke (black people found this joke funnier).
“Anyways Darius let me tell you about Office Space. Some dude and his two friends skim hundreds of thousands of dollars from their employer, something fucked up so he was going to fess up but didn’t have to because the building burned down. Some printer gets fucked up, an Arab man breakdances, an Applebee’s subplot, it’s an amazing movie...but do you want to know WHY he fucked around and stole the money?”
(Black guy says why)
“Get this..........because he was Booooooooooooooored!!!!!”
(Big laugh)
“Why the fuck couldn’t this guy just get another job, his life empty so he gotta fuck shit up huh? What kinda bullshit is that!”
“Stick it to the man? He read the job description, he knew he was going to have work weekends sometimes, fuck outta here!”
“And this movie came out in ‘99, didn’t white people get rich off of domain names back then? Mutherfucker would buy ceilingfan.com and get a cool 2 mil from G.E because fuck it, why not.!”
“But all them post OJ and pre 9/11 movies were about weird responses to nihilism though “we conquered capitalism now what!?...Tom Cruise in an orgy cult?! fuck it. Brad Pitt plays the personification of your violent subconscious?...fuck it.
Alright I’m out, next time I’ll talk about movies that make sense damn sense, like Belly! Peace Y’all. (Not a good joke to end on, because White people didn’t know wtf belly was)