Relate much?
We’re all guilty of it, even though we all swear we won’t do it. I’m talking about bringing your work home with you. It’s a particularly contemporary flaw, and a product of our 24-hour world; no matter how much we try to delineate between our work selves and our home selves, the former always bleeds into the latter. Think about it: what’s the first thing you talk about when you get home from work? Work. What do you discuss when you meet up with friends for a drink after work? Work. What’s one of the first questions you ask or get asked when you meet someone? “What do you do for work?”
For better or worse, usually worse, we are in a major way defined by what we do for a living, and as much as we like to think we can shut things off when we clock out, we can’t, not entirely. This unfortunate phenomena is given a hilarious bent in the short film Bad News from sketch comedy duo Mid-Brow, made up of writers-directors-actors Alex Cooper and Tom Blackwood.
Two friends are attempting to meet for a drink after work. One is delayed. In communicating this delay, both can’t seem to shake the cadence and jargon of their day jobs, which – no spoilers here – makes for a pretty amusing conversation-style.
Clocking in at just under three minutes, Bad News is pitch-perfect sketch comedy: succinct, sharp, and all punchline. Once you’ve given it a watch, be sure to check out the other couple sketches at Mid-Brow’s Vimeo page.