HRWiki:STUFF/Archive/underlings

Office Space Reference

From: underlings
Posted on: 23:29, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Arguments for:

1. (Re Against 2) Unless there's a cultural phenomenon going on somewhere in the country that I'm not aware of, "...going to need you to..." (the specific way it's said/written) is a phrase that either originated in or was popularized by Office Space. There are a lot of other places (since Office Space) that have used that particular phrasing, but in almost every case, those are either references to or parodies of the movie.

Arguments against:

1. Just ordinary speech.
2. Ok, maybe it's just because I've never seen "Office Space", but... besides "...going to need you to...", which, as noted, is just ordinary speech, how are these two lines at all alike?

Additional comments:

• Actually, this FF should be rewritten as: "We're going to need you to flush twice" is a reference to Bill Lumbergh, the boss in Office Space, who often began his requests and commands with "Yeah, I'm going to need you to ..."
  • Revision proposed.

Proposed revision:

Arguments for:

1. This version refers to the character who popularized this phrasing style, and doesn't call out a specific line in the movie.

Arguments against:

1. Now it's TTATOT. Ordinary speech. That's all it is.

Additional comments:

• Here are two videos where he says the line eventually:
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZiXoo3TGco
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnUrPjXczYc
• This isn't much better, but it's not TTATOT.
• I'm going to need you to check out lady fan, in which Strong Bad says, "Yeah, cool. I'm gonna go ahead and need you [Homestar] to never say 'twees it out' ever again." Although a little different, the basic construct is the same, and no one tried to claim that was a reference to Office Space.
  • And I'm gonna need you to check out lady fan#Real-World References. There's currently a fact there reading, "Strong Bad saying, 'I'm gonna go ahead and need you to...' is the catchphrase of boss Bill Lumbergh in the film Office Space."
    • So it is. Never noticed when that one was added. Frankly, I consider that one no more valid than this.

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Awkward Social STUFF

From: underlings
Posted on: 00:22, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

NOTE: This vote is only for the part in bold.

Arguments for:

1. The names are similar, and though the band itself doesn't claim to be emo, the BC may be toying with the idea that that they could be percieved as such.
2. In response to the arguments against: that the easter egg is a reference to emo culture is not completely explicit, though it is settled upon in the wiki. Not everyone with one-sided bangs will call themselves emo, though they may consider themselves to be socially awkward -- and many of them are the fanbase fore Broken Social Scene, which could by some definitions be called emo. The use of such a loosely defined term as "emo" here may just not be a good idea. Is it necessarily a reference to BSS? No, but the readership should know that it may be one.
3. It's a cd. This may just be because emo is also a type of music. Or it may be because Broken Social Scene is a band.
4. The names are pretty similar. It's concievable that the BC, upon creation of the phrase awkward social sun, made the mental connection with Broken Social Scene -- which, all else aside, is a pretty emo name by some accounts (a weak argument, admittedly, but it's there...). And a weaker one yet: maybe the Brothers Chaps don't know anything about Broken Social Scene besides that they think of it as "emo."
5. This email comes from Canada. BSS also comes from Canada.
6. Awkward Social Sun is a very random thing to say, even for TBC.
7. BSS has a song titled: "Looks just like the sun."

Arguments against:

1. The band doesn't claim to be emo, so there is no connection between the two other than the name
2. The name isn't even very similar.

Additional comments:

• re: against #1; doesn't claiming to be emo make you un-cool and non-emo? in which case, im completely emo.
  • <irony>Yeah, just like denying being a spy only confirms it, because that's exactly what one of them would do.</irony>
• re: against #2, the name is very similar phonetically, as the last two words are essentially identical, and the first word is a poetic synonym.
• At ArgFor5: How is this even relevant? If the email went exactly the same, except the sender was from Mexico, would that make the (alleged) reference any more there?
  • Um. No. Not a bit. But it is from Canada which does make the reference... more there.

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