Bruce Bingo

There is a guy at work named Bruce. Not only is he a very likeable guy, but he kind of has his own lingo. He has certain phrases that are just kind of Bruce’isms that no one else says. For example, if you ask him “how’s it going?” he’s likely to respond “Just kickin’ around, man!” Or if he’s worried he’s interrupting you while you’re working hard, he might say “Do you have time for a question, or are you in a mode?” If he thinks you’re mistaken about something, he’ll accuse you of being drunk. Stuff like that.

At some point I and others got the idea of collecting all these phrases, and creating Bruce Bingo. So we collected over 40 such phrases, and I wrote a little application to create bingo boards (5x5 squares with a star in the middle), and randomly select phrases to go in each box. I printed out about 30 of these game sheets and have secretly distributed them amongst the software developers here, all unbeknownst to Bruce. And since then, it’s been kind of crazy around here.

Whenever he talks, now, people listen really intently. During meetings, people can be seen scribbling notes and smiling at each other when he says one of his key phrases. There is a specific “no Bruce-baiting” rule, meaning you can’t try to lead him into saying something on purpose, but I think after a day or two, I’m going to lift that rule. I’m pretty sure all hell will break loose at that point. So far, at least, he doesn’t have any idea about it, but I expect the beans to be spilled at some point.

I was a little worried when I realized what a distraction this could turn into, but luckily my supervisor not only is totally on board with it, but actually commented that this came at the right time (meaning a time when we’re all a little demoralized at having to work extra hours through the holidays and so forth). So that’s good.

God, after re-reading this it sounds like it’s straight out of The Office. That’s kind of sad. 