History Literature / BastardOperatorFromHell

* BigDamnMovie: The Commodore 64 game ([[http://cadaver.homeftp.net/games.htm yes, you heard right]]) sees the BOFH fighting off crazy activists who have evacuated the building and taken all the computers hostage. He's not aiming to save the day, mind you, but simply to regain his beloved control and power.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[TagLineIn disk space, nobody can hear your files scream.]]]]

** Part of the joke is that most of the people the BOFH deals with are only marginally better than him. The helpdesk is utterly incompetent, the beancounters are out to screw everyone out of their budget, the Security people are stupid and greedy, all of upper management are {{Pointy Haired Boss}}es or {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s or a combination of the two, and vendors and head-hunters are out to screw everyone only to increase their bonus. Demonstrated best when one nosy boss got killed not by the BOFH or PFY, but the CEO and Security because he was nosing into dodgy tax situations and conflicts of interest.

** The BOFH also uses this to switch whoever is calling him into "Dummy Mode", by overloading the luser's brain with so many technical terms that it turns off, at which point the luser will do anything the BOFH tells him to do (such as inserting metal objects into mains electrical sockets, sending incriminating email or starting fires).

* CrapsackWorld: The bastard gets away with almost every last thing he does. The only times he doesn't is when another bastard is involved, but it certainly won't lead to any justice (directly or indirectly).
** And, as noted below, it's implied that everyone else in the world is as much of a bastard as the Bastard himself. He's just a lot better at it.

%%* DisneyDeath: The Bastard, more than once.

%%* InnocentBystander: There are just so damn many of these.
%%* InsultBackfire: Calling the Bastard... well, a bastard.
%%* LoveableRogue: The BOFH often shows traits of this.

* BavarianFireDrill: aka ''dummy mode''.
* [[BigDamnMovie Big Damn Game]]: The Commodore 64 game ([[http://cadaver.homeftp.net/games.htm yes, you heard right]]) sees the BOFH fighting off crazy activists who have evacuated the building and taken all the computers hostage. He's not aiming to save the day, mind you, but simply to regain his beloved control and power.
* {{Blackmail}}: A favourite tool of both the BOFH and the PFY.

* ComedicSociopathy: Very yes.
* CompressedVice: A couple stories play this for laughs.
* ConspiracyTheorist: The PFY, on occasion.

* InnocentBystander: There are just so damn many of these.
* InsultBackfire: Calling the Bastard... well, a bastard.
* LoveableRogue: The BOFH often shows traits of this.

* PreemptiveDeclaration: Among ''numerous'' other examples, [[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/13/bofh_2006_episode_2/ in an argument with an engineer...]]
-->'''PFY:''' Well maybe not Alzheimer's, but what about a bang on the head?
-->'''Engineer:''' I haven't had a-
-->'''>CLANG< >thud<'''
-->'''PFY:''' You have now...

---> '''BOFH:''' Just a word of warning. If you say - or even hint - that it's because you might want to print them on the very expensive "True-Colour" auto laminating printer that you had us install just outside your office door there's a very real chance that my assistant will pop upstairs and PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE.
---> '''(L)user:''' *gasp* Are you threatening me?
---> '''BOFH:''' No, not at all. This is a friendly warning. Like a storm warning in a weather forecast. Think of me as a meteorological expert as far as IT support beatings go. I look at high and low pressure regions and predict - to the best of my abilities - what might come as a result of them. And my long range forecast is a beating on the horizon.

* VillainProtagonist
* VitriolicBestBuds: The Bastard and PFY. Very, very vitriolic.
* WalkingTechbane: Many of the users.

-->'''*Beginning*'''
--> "HE PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE!" the Director shouts, gesturing both wildly and furiously at the absent PFY's desk.
--> "Well yes," I say calmly, "but let's be reasonable about this - he WAS asking for it."

--> '''*Ending*'''
--> "SHE PUNCHED HIM IN THE FACE!" the Director shouts, gesturing both wildly and furiously at Gina, once the ambulance has left.
-->"Well yes," I say calmly. "But let's be reasonable about this – he WAS asking for it."

-->'''Boss:''' Excellent, [[XDaysSince ten days since the last accident.]]
-->'''PFY:''' I think you'll find that's a binary number.[[note]]two[[/note]]
-->'''BOFH:''' And that's only because we don't count disappearances as accidents.
-->'''PFY:''' Or people who don't work here.
-->'''BOFH:''' Or disappearances of people who don't work here.

'''This series provides examples of:'''

* ADayInTheLimelight: A few post-2000 stories feature the PFY without the BOFH.

''Bastard Operator From Hell'' (often abbreviated to BOFH) is a long running series of short stories by New Zealand writer [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Travaglia Simon Travaglia]]. First published in 1992, it is about a MagnificentBastard system administrator (who is also Travaglia's AuthorAvatar, given that the character's name is Simon the very few times any first name is used at all) that abuses his position to (a) inflict misery upon those around him and (b) advance his goals of getting more money, more alcohol, and less actual work. He accomplishes this through the use of a great many {{plan}}s abusing his skill with electronics to great effect.

* TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch: If the BOFH or PFY are talking about the fate of a previous boss/user/salesman/other annoying person, it'll often take this form, often including a veiled threat that if you try pulling what they did (such as trying to move IT to the cloud), you'll suffer the same fate. The previously-mentioned CatchPhrase could also count.

-->An hour after that, Security find
-->Tragic misadventure (misadventure underlined).

* DisneyDeath: The Bastard, more than once.

* MillenniumBug: After finally getting fired in early 2000 for faking his death, the BOFH revealed that he'd left the company a little gift in the form of total [[MillenniumBug [=Y2K=]]] ''un''-compliance (with near-viral microcode designed to completely annihilate the network on Leap Day, February 29th).

* BreakTheMotivationalSpeaker[[http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/0000/bastard20.php 's Neck]] with own briefcase even.

* SustainedMisunderstanding: Done deliberately to annoy the Boss [[http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/1998/bastard98-22.php here]]:

** The last episode of 1999 [[http://bofh.ntk.net/Bastard.html found here]] is written from the PFY's perspective as though he were Watson to the BOFH's Holmes, detailing the struggle against [[Literature/SherlockHolmes Arty Murray]]. There are plenty of Holmes references including the [[spoiler:BOFH apparently dying in the 'Right-Out-Back faller']] only to [[spoiler:[[BackFromTheDead return in the next episode]]]]

You can read all of Travaglia's work [[http://bofh.bjash.com/ here]] and [[http://www.theregister.co.uk/data_centre/bofh/ here]]

* ShoddyKnockoffProduct: The BOFH finds himself contending with a delivery of "Crisco" equipment in [[http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/1997/bastard97-39.php here]].

'''PFY:''' But I don't want to visit Microsoft!

** The [[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/31/bofh_2017_episode_4/ second arc]] shows a guy named James who wants to see and modify a security program of the BOFH's making. By the end of the arc, he's already starting the defenestrations. [[spoiler:Namely, the current Director.]]

You can read all of Travaglia's work [[http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/ here]] and [[http://www.theregister.co.uk/odds/bofh/ here]]

* GroinAttack: Also known as a Non-Maskable Interrupt

* TechnologyMarchesOn: Reading the entire archive from start to finish provides a neat cross-section of just how far computer technology has come. In one early story, stealing 32MB of RAM from the helpdesk [=PCs=] was a significant victory. A later chapter quotes that exact amount as a ludicrously weak machine being palmed off to some sucker.

** A particular example stands out: via manipulation of CVs, TerribleIntervieweesMontage and good old blackmail, the BOFH manages to hire as his new boss a person who ''doesn't exist''. The boss is not visible the first day (visiting clients) or the second (sick leave, and somehow a computer program manages to sound like a sick man high on cough syrup), though he still manages to authorize an extensive series of purchases and business trips. When the head of IT storms in demanding an explanation, they reveal that sadly, Roger has been run over by a delivery van that very day.