Re:Microsoft Outlook/365 still down after 12 hours
by oddIdentities on Friday November 13, 2026 @07:07PM
(#50491993)
What an excellent question. I am no comedian, but let me try and break it down as best I can.
What this joke is: Crude, absurdist satire of corporate DEI culture and cheap "offshoring".
Why it works: It packs quite a lot into so few words:
a) It hijacks a polite IT support cliche "Have you tried... (turning it off and on again)", setting the reader/listener up with a familiar rhythm.
b) It then seamlessly pivots into taboo-breaking; just like South Park (for one of a zillion examples, this stuff is literally older than Shakespeare), the "saying something you are not supposed to say" is what draws laughter.
c) It ends having made a good point: an aggressive focus on profit, rather than quality, has increasingly become one of Microsoft's quintessential characteristics. The outage is unsurprising in that light.
What this joke is: Crude, absurdist satire of corporate DEI culture and cheap "offshoring".
Why it works: It packs quite a lot into so few words:
a) It hijacks a polite IT support cliche "Have you tried... (turning it off and on again)", setting the reader/listener up with a familiar rhythm.
b) It then seamlessly pivots into taboo-breaking; just like South Park (for one of a zillion examples, this stuff is literally older than Shakespeare), the "saying something you are not supposed to say" is what draws laughter.
c) It ends having made a good point: an aggressive focus on profit, rather than quality, has increasingly become one of Microsoft's quintessential characteristics. The outage is unsurprising in that light.