How to Get someone Up to Speed

Back in my old office job we had these weekly social events every Thursday afternoon, just to blow off steam. Usually, little pockets of conversation would form in different parts of the room. This is way back while they were filming the movie version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. A few of us office nerds were pretty excited about it. While we were discussing the casting I said, “They got Alan Rickman to be the voice of Marvin.”

This apparently got the attention of a coworker across the room, whom I will call Jim.

Jim semi-shouted at me, “Who’d they get?”

Bear in mind that he stayed where he was, across the room from me, as he interjected himself into my conversation.

I said, “Alan Rickman,” now self-conscious because all other conversation has stopped and Jim and I had the room’s undivided attention.

Jim said, “Oh. Who’s he playing?”

I said, “He’s the voice of Marvin.”

Jim thought about this for a second and said, “Oh. Huh.”

I said, “Yeah, I think it’s a good fit.”

Then Jim asked, “What movie is this in?”

And I said, “Man, why do I even talk to you?!”

It’s a miracle that I by accident found my way into an office where they would not only tolerate me talking to a coworker that way, but where it got a big laugh from the entire room. I was later told by more than one coworker that they had often asked themselves why they even talked to Jim.

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