Mike Judge directs Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston and Stephen Root in this satirical comedy where a depressed worker in a bullshit job accidentally gets hypnotised not to give a shit about work anymore.

One thing 90s comedies were great at was showing just how oppressive and pointless most jobs were and are. Employment sucks. This movie reaches deep into the Generation X psyche and shows a world without adventure, ambition, expectation or romance. And it is really casually funny. Whereas The Apartment or 9to5 end on the promise of something better… your Office Space or Clerks treat the whole of western existence as a cruel existential joke… the punchline is that joke feels never ending. And I’m there for that. Root and Gary Cole are iconic in smaller roles. Both became memes that stood the test of time. Not bad for a movie that went direct to video in the U.K. “Michael, I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything that I thought it could be.”

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Perfect Double Bill: Fight Club (1999)

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/