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Comment by teddyh | Hacker News Reader

I’ve never liked the BOFH stories, even when I first encountered them in the early 90’s I never thought they were particularly funny, and as I’ve since become a more experienced sysadmin I’ve actually come to despise them and the attitude they symbolize. Sure, the stories are parodies and written in an exaggerated manner, but the underlying humor seems to be saying “Isn’t this what we all really think? Isn’t this how we would all wish we could behave?”, which is an attitude I find deplorable.

I’ve elaborated about this here in the past, first here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10320829#10322378

and later here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16724962#16725937

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The relatableness of the BOFH seems to rest on what's often called the "structured violence" of the work world. In the US, someone with the BOFH's skills would have eventually taken his PFYs and went and started his own business, and, well of course he wouldn't have been able to be a bastard anymore.

But no, the BOFH is stuck in a world (the UK corporate world) where he has to make the most out of the limited opportunity he has. And everyone around him knows he's stuck there with nowhere really to go. So they give him a ton of crap just because they can. I can see how this might have gotten missed by some readers. You're expected to see BOFH as a hero because he beats them at their own game.

You wouldn't be able to laugh at the stories if you didn't feel like the victims had it coming. It's a classic morality play.

> You wouldn't be able to laugh at the stories if you didn't feel like the victims had it coming. It's a classic morality play.

As I recall the stories, it was very hit-and-miss whether the victims of the BOFH deserved it, or if they were just hapless people who the BOFH thought it would be funny to be cruel towards. And even if they deserved something, what the BOFH dealt them was always way out of proportion. Imagine if Judge Dredd has been played as a comedy, with mostly horribly disproportionate violence and death for minor offenses.

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