James looks at Mike Judge’s career as a director, focusing on Office Space, Idiocracy and Extract.<\/em><\/p>\n

Office Space<\/span> is definitely a workplace comedy. It is about people doing jobs that you and I could see ourselves having, but probably not wanting.\u00a0Beyond this, it is interesting to note how much of Mike Judge\u2019s filmography can be viewed as being influenced by his employment record.\u00a0The most famous and blatant example would be his first live action feature film, Office Space<\/span>. It has become a cult classic for many who work in Information Technology, but \u00a0has connected with an even broader audience: anyone who has worked in a cubicle, in an office or in a white collar job can relate to it.\u00a0Although I could have guessed this without reading the interviews, Judge has stated many times that much of the material for this film was drawn from his life. He had worked in offices and noticed how mundane, frustrating and dull the work can be, as well as how condescending and redundant having a series of bosses can be. He worked these jobs, such as alphabetizing purchase orders, or a job in the 80s working at an engineering firm that he describes as \u201cin the heart of Silicon Valley and in the middle of that overachiever yuppie thing, it was just awful,\u201d up until Beavis and Butthead became successful enough for him to work in film and television full-time.\u00a0When he was given a chance to make a film more realistic than Beavis and Butthead Do America<\/span>, it was these employment experiences that he drew upon. This led to more work and while it was just as personal to him, it grew increasingly alienating for moviegoers.<\/p>\n

Office Space<\/span> did not perform very well in theatres.\u00a0It made its budget back, but only barely.\u00a0However, it has since found a huge market on home video and in television showings of the film.\u00a0When it premiered on Comedy Central in August of 2001, it was greeted with 1.4 million viewers.\u00a0Over the next 2 years, it was aired on that same channel 35 times, in reflection and contribution to its cult status.\u00a0Its rental figures were very impressive as well, making $9 million in rentals and becoming one of the top 20 DVDs Fox has released in terms of sales.\u00a0It is widely regarded as a cult classic.\u00a0Even today, 12 years after the fact, this film is still viewed as relevant and popular.\u00a0I still hear this movie quoted constantly, and in researching this article I discovered that thousands of people are still having Office Space <\/span>parties.\u00a0It has been referenced in Family Guy<\/span> (even before\u00a0100\u00a0pop culture references an episode over 9 seasons meant the show had to mention\u00a0every piece of media created since Seth McFarlane was born)\u00a0and has an intensely devoted fanbase.\u00a0It has also been described as something of a cultural litmus test: if you’re a middle-class, educated person and someone doesn\u2019t get your Office Space <\/span>quote, you don\u2019t want to be friends with them.\u00a0Many in that class seem to think you\u2019re either with us or against us, and if you don\u2019t get Office Space<\/span> quotes, you\u2019re clearly against us.\u00a0One recurring object in the film is a red Swingline stapler, an office supply dear to one of the characters.\u00a0This stapler was not in production at the time of the film, but public outcry caused Swingline to start producing them again and this is chalked up to Office\u00a0Space<\/span> and its fans.\u00a0Unless I\u2019m missing something, I can\u2019t really think of a fanbase so intense that they had a company create office supplies for them outside of a merchandising tie-in.\u00a0How could a film that hits home with so many people have been such a lacklustre box office performance?<\/p>\n

The comedic style of Office Space<\/span> can be partially blamed for its mediocre theatrical run.\u00a0Judge\u2019s style is most often a quieter, more subtle form of humour. There is very little slapstick and most of the laughs come from sly or satirical jokes. These types of jokes are difficult to market and don\u2019t make for great trailers and commercials. I believe the film\u2019s impressive home video numbers and massive cult following don\u2019t have as much to do with the style or amount of humour in the film but are more easily attributable to thematic elements.\u00a0Office Space<\/span> is the workplace comedy of our generation not because it is the funniest movie set in a work place but because it is a good comedy movie that nails so many elements of what is frustrating about the contemporary workplaces of so many people.\u00a0However, I feel we often forget something about workplace comedies while they poke fun at our jobs: that making these movies is somebody else’s\u00a0job.\u00a0While Judge\u2019s next 2 films, Idiocracy<\/span> and Extract<\/span> are less easily classified as workplace comedies, particularly Idiocracy, they are both informed by Judge\u2019s continuing working life.<\/p>\n

2006\u2019s Idiocracy<\/span>, Judge\u2019s first feature film after Office Space<\/span>, dealt with a contemporary man played by Luke Wilson being frozen as part of a military experiment, only to wake up 500 years later in a culture completely overrun by consumerism and anti-intellectualism.\u00a0Advertising is ubiquitous and extremely crass.\u00a0 Carl Jr’s slogan has become “Fuck You, I’m Eating” and Starbucks sells handjobs.\u00a0 It’s not just the lowest common denominator form of advertising.\u00a0 Corporations wield significant power in daily life and even government.\u00a0While these criticisms can be understood by everyone watching the film, as we are bombarded by increasingly prevalent and\u00a0insulting advertiser in our live,\u00a0Judge criticizes television networks of the future and companies with huge advertising budgets with a special insight.\u00a0In between writing\/filming Office Space<\/span> and Idiocracy<\/span>, Judge dealt with 2 projects that led him to an increasingly pessimistic view of how large corporations and advertisers do business.\u00a0He had been through the unpleasant experience of Office Space\u2019s <\/span>marketing and release, as well working on TV’s\u00a0King of the Hill <\/span>with increasing interference by the Fox Network.\u00a0It was 20^{th<\/sup> Century Fox that helped to make Office Space <\/span>and they didn\u2019t always see eye-to-eye with Judge.\u00a0He recalls hearing from the studio after seeing what he had shot each day and saying everything needed to have \u201cmore energy\u201d and that he was failing as a director before the film was even done.\u00a0Judge\u2019s style, in film and television, is rarely one of high energy.\u00a0Judge has a complete vision of where the humour will come from, but it is not as obvious as the people at Fox clearly wanted it to be. He was not even able to complete the film as he wanted to.\u00a0When the picture was done being edited, he felt the entire 3rd<\/sup> act needed a rewrite but Fox wouldn\u2019t have it.\u00a0We will return to the ending of this film later.\u00a0The problems between the studio and Judge were still not over, even after editing was complete. The posters, the commercials, the trailers and the tagline were all handled by Fox while Judge was vocal about how he felt they were getting it all wrong.<\/p>\n}

Things weren\u2019t much better with King of the Hill<\/span>, the animated show Judge did for Fox from 1997-2009. The first few seasons of the show did very well, even outperforming The Simpsons<\/span> at times, the widely recognized champion of prime-time animation.\u00a0The ratings were good and the show had started to be syndicated, a great money maker for the studio.\u00a0However, Fox started to intervene in this show as well, pressuring Judge to make changes to the content.\u00a0After seeing how much money could be made from syndication, they demanded episodes become more self-contained, with fewer multi-episode story arcs.\u00a0With each episode as a self-contained unit, it is easier to sell into syndication.\u00a0The show was doing well in its own timeslot, but Fox wished to make more money from it elsewhere as well. Fox intervened and had Judge and his crew change their vision. I have not seen all of these episodes of King of the Hill<\/span>, perhaps the ones he was pressured to change are just as funny or maybe funnier, but it seems like when such restrictions are made, the creative vision for the show is impeded upon and the work is bound to suffer. This request in particular could very easily lead to less characterization and simpler, less subtle and clever jokes.\u00a0It\u2019s easy to imagine that this kind of dumbing down and corporate intervention that made informed the dystopian, overly-commercialized culture we find in Idiocracy<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Instead of middle management, Judge now had other entities instructing him on how to better do his job.\u00a0He had studios and advertisers on his back.\u00a0Instead of the quiet, somewhat feeble characters like Bill Lumberg as antagonists we find in Office Space<\/span>, our protagonist in Idiocracy<\/span> is up against faceless, disturbingly powerful corporations reaching into our lives for monetary gain.\u00a0 His fight is to protect our culture and species from the effects of these powerful corporate machines, an idea that seems to resonate well with Judge.<\/p>\n

Office Space<\/span> was a very cool movie to like. It was subversive. It poked fun at management and had characters listening to gangster rap and essentially stealing from their bosses. It was not a huge theatrical success or popular when it was released, which makes it cooler and less mainstream to enjoy.\u00a0 Whereas Office Space<\/span> barely made its budget back in theatres, Idiocracy<\/span> lost money.\u00a0While this wasn\u2019t great for Judge or Fox, it makes it an even cooler and less mainstream<\/em> movie to enjoy.\u00a0Office Space<\/span> was about hating your boss and your job, but Idiocracy<\/span> was about hating corporations and everyone dumb enough to fall for their advertising, which made it even hipper than its predecessor. If Office Space<\/span> was Radiohead, then Idiocracy<\/span> was whatever the fuck Radiohead listens to\u2026 I just don\u2019t know who that is because I\u2019m not cool enough.<\/p>\n

In one way, Idiocracy<\/span> is less personal than Office Space<\/span> because it is no longer about the people and the jobs in these big companies, but the companies themselves. However, the subject matter is still personal to Judge. These corporations have become his coworkers and his bosses as he moves up the ranks in the entertainment world.<\/p>\n

This brings us to Extrac<\/span>t.\u00a0This was to be the follow-up to Office Space<\/span> that would get the proper opportunity that evaded Idiocracy<\/span>. Extract<\/span> was to\u00a0have a full theatrical release with some big name stars in the cast made by \u201cthe guy who brought [us] the cult classic, Office Space<\/span>.\u201d Extract<\/span> was a disappointment to nearly everybody and often for different reasons.\u00a0First, it didn\u2019t do very well in theatres.\u00a0This was disappointing to Judge and his producers, who had set up a production company to avoid the corporate interference Judge had experienced in the past. It was distributed by Miramax, who surely would have enjoyed a more profitable performance.\u00a0Extract<\/span> didn\u2019t fail in a cool way like Office Space<\/span>, in that it gained a massive cult following only after its theatrical run.\u00a0It didn\u2019t suffer from a distribution nightmare like Idiocracy<\/span>, which largely served to prove the point of that film: corporations are dumb and evil and great art and entertainment barely see the light of day because of this.\u00a0Extract<\/span> just wasn\u2019t very good, and it performed that way, with few excuses this time.\u00a0 The Washington Post called it “the most disappointing American comedy of the decade” and I have heard many disagree.\u00a0 It’s not the worst American comedy of the decade, but with all the hype surrounding Judge’s long awaited return to workplace comedies and his increased control of the product, it was the most underwhelming.<\/p>\n

There are a few main themes in Extract<\/span> that could easily be linked to Judge\u2019s then-recent experiences as both a film director and his work in television.\u00a0The first is the constant threat of litigation: much of the plot revolves around lawsuits. Many main characters are involved in trying to press charges, sue, create or destroy evidence that could get a lawyer on their ass. I have little doubt that the long and tedious legal trouble that Judge had in relation to Idiocracy<\/span> helped to inform this view as legal action as a threat and weapon.\u00a0After an excruciating back and forth, Fox released Idiocracy<\/span> in 7 cities on under 200 screens. It is a widely held belief that this was done after a long legal battle and Fox only gave this much to fulfill its contractual obligations.<\/p>\n

One\u00a0major change between Office Space<\/span> and Extract<\/span> is an inversion of the relationships in Office Space<\/span>.\u00a0Whereas in Office Space<\/span>, we were supposed to identify withprotagonist cubicle-dwelling\u00a0Peter and perhaps his co-workers who occupy a similar rung near the bottom of the corporate ladder, Extract<\/span> asks us to empathize with management. Joel is the owner and founder of an extract company and he is the protagonist we follow throughout the film.\u00a0While he does lots of things that we could feel sorry for him about (including a largely sexless marriage, a shortage of real friends, employees that try to take advantage of him, lawyers looking to sue him and a woman playing with his feelings to get money), he is still the highest figure within his company and he gives the orders. This, I suspect, may have a lot to do with why Extract<\/span> could never be a cult hit in the same way that Office Space <\/span>was. There simply aren\u2019t enough managers and factory owners that could get together and watch Extract<\/span>, even if it were as\u00a0funny as Office Space<\/span> (which it certainly is not).\u00a0It could never be anthem of the down-trodden, a rallying cry for the proletariat, a summation of the feelings of a subculture, as cult classics often are.\u00a0\u00a0It is not hard to see how\u00a0Judge’s success could have caused this switch.\u00a0 Even while making\u00a0Beavis and Butthead<\/span> Judge describes himself as working alone or at least seperately from others involved.\u00a0 However, as work became more and more popular, he was given people to work under him.\u00a0 As the executive producer and co-creator of a successful TV he, likely begrudgingly,\u00a0started giving orders to people.\u00a0 As the writer and director of major\u00a0motion pictures later in his career, he described having more than 100 people working under him.\u00a0\u00a0He was the boss.\u00a0\u00a0He was the one telling people\u00a0how to do their jobs and he maybe even had to ask them to come in on…”yeah, Saturday.”\u00a0\u00a0People who dislike\u00a0Extract<\/span> have said he lost his touch on reality in Hollywood.\u00a0 The truth is, his reality is simply much different than many people who watch his movie and can’t relate to being in charge and having\u00a0to worry about people taking advantage of him and not doing the work\u00a0they were paid for.\u00a0 In Extract<\/span>, we are meant to sympathize with the owner, the manager, the white collar guy who tells everyone what to do and that is not what the masses want to relate to.<\/p>\n

Office Space<\/span>, while being funny and popular, fails in the same way that most social commentaries of its kind fail: it fails to provide a satisfying resolution. There is no way out provided for these characters. It is an attack on something\u00a0without providing an alternative to it, similar to Rage Against the Machine. They taught me to rock out and dress like I\u2019m fighting in a South American civil war and that guitars can sound like turntables, but this did little to provide me with ways to bring down the evil governments and corporations they made music about.\u00a0None of the characters in Office Space<\/span> provide a viable resolution at the end.\u00a0Peter’s colleagues Samir and Michael Bolton go work at a rival firm despite their rejection of cubicle culture and dissatisfaction with the work.\u00a0Milton, the\u00a0Red Swingline wielding mumbler, \u00a0is the only one who ends up in\u00a0a favourable position.\u00a0 After Peter leaves the stolen money and a confession in the office of his bossPeter\u2019s solution at the end of the film is to get a job with his friend Lawrence, our representation of the blue collar workforce throughout the film.\u00a0He is a loud, crude, beer-drinking, porn-loving manual labourer who lives next to Peter.\u00a0When Peter quits, he works alongside Lawrence.\u00a0His first job is to clean up his former workplace after arson destroys it.\u00a0I feel that after they are done cleaning up the remnants of the burnt down building, which Peter would love, he would be just as unhappy with this job.\u00a0He wants to do nothing.\u00a0 When asked what he would do if he had a million dollars at one point he states he would just want to sit on his ass and do nothing.\u00a0It\u2019s a lot harder to get away with doing nothing in a manual labour job.\u00a0Writing an email to your friend and backing up bank files for the Y2K switch probably don\u2019t look that different from a distance, but Peter would have someone making sure he was moving at all times on the job site. He could expect more intense labour, more extreme weather conditions and maybe longer hours.\u00a0More importantly, Lawrence (and perhaps eventually by Peter), seem like the characters we find inhabiting the future in Idiocracy<\/span>.\u00a0It seems that our only escape from the mundane white collar world is to become what eventually causes the downfall of our society.\u00a0Mike Judge, you succeed in making good movies about the intellectual regression of our culture and the dangers of modern corporate power, but you fail to provide any possible solutions.\u00a0I know he did not make these movies as a social call to arms or a guide to bringing down capitalism, but even within the worldview of his own films, the messages are self-contradictory.\u00a0As Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine would say… “COME ON!”<\/p>\n

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