In 1999, three grown men accomplished what so many yearn to do: they brought a frustratingly faulty printer to justice, and they did it in the most fulfilling way possible–taking it to a field and beating it mercilessly with a baseball bat.
Countless memes, parodies, and GIFs have been created to exalt this iconic scene. Peter, Michael, and Samir, for all intents and purposes, own the phrase ‘printer smash’.
As a fan of Office Space, a poster in the mail room featuring a film still caught my attention. Perfectly applicable and relevant,the poster was announcing the replacement of the current problematic appliance (which also happened to mysteriously error out in the middle of my print job, oooh the irony, allowing me ample time to read and snap a pic of the hilarious invitation). To be sent off in such an esteemed fashion is reserved for only the truly horrific, dependably dubious, ultimately vexing of office equipment.
My timing was perfect as I needed to wait only one day before witnessing the mail room staff deliver their final goodbyes in the form of a rage-releasing beat down–though for safely purposes, it would be in the form of a slightly less gratifying miniature enactment. This included a pinata-esque printer model that was whacked to bits with an interesting and impressive array of plastic toy
weapons ranging from effective to ‘for-show’: swords, bow and arrow, and Nerf guns.
I was happy to learn that, despite the modest staged dramatics, there will be someone who’s job entitles them the satisfaction of literally smashing the retired printer into a mangled mess of metal, or as the DVD chapter is titled (queue Geto Boys): Payback.