Tandy Corporation employee Mark Dangerlin is being reprimanded after telling a joke in the grey area of political correctness. Mail room attendant for three months, 19 year old Dangerlin is known as class clown amongst the 1982 worker bees in the 64-story Commodore skyscraper. Known up and down the floors for his collection of limericks and funny hats, he was the go-to when workers needed some levity. But as is to be expected from any comedy fan who actually likes Aziz Ansari, it wasn’t long before his poor taste reared its head in the workplace.
A recent internet search for new jokes resulted in a Dane Cook recording of Robin Williams imitating Carlos Mencia’s interpretation of Eddie Murphy’s Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor impression, giving Mark ideas for contextually cool comedic coworker commentary. Taking a page out of comedy’s books on topical humor he raised eyebrows with an anecdote about the 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. It was mid punchline when Dangerlin was made aware that his stockroom mates didn’t take kindly to ribbing the empire, as each was one quarter Austro-Hungarian.
It was not long before the pressurized document delivery tubes emitted an unusually dramatic “whoosh…whoomp…thud” to alert anyone in earshot of a canister’s urgency. A hand-rolled note straight from management’s dictaphone informed Mark that he was only to deliver mail, not jokes, and that displays of tomfoolery would not go unpunished. The Tandy corporation was known for its zero-tolerance policy on World War I humor, and decided to use Mark as an example for anyone who thought the workplace was an open mic night. Dangerlin was given an ultimatum: immediate two week suspension without pay or volunteer at a thumb injury clinic in the local Sailor’s Union. He knew he had a good job and enjoyed the upward mobility of the elevators, so it was an easy decision for Mark. He decided to take the punishment assisting victims of foreign work-orders, writing a note of sincere apologies for disappointing his superiors. Sadly, he decided to rescind his offer, lighting the letter on fire and sticking it in the paper grocery bag he’d been defecating in for two months and three weeks.
