How it started
I've always been the one that is fun to pick on. I love the good healthy banter between my fellow colleagues but I've been known to take it over the top. This story starts as an ordinary prep call before the all-hands meeting the next day. We each had 7 minutes to deliver our message and we needed a practice round. It started in a premeeting for our all-hands call. My coworker Randy, thinking he’d give me a shoutout for some great work, threw up a slide pairing me with Joe Exotic from Tiger King. He claimed it was because I’m from Oklahoma and jokingly suggested Tiger King was a relative. I joked saying, “He is my cousin, but he isn't the strangest one in my family." But when I asked him to ditch the slide, he doubled down, saying it was coming anyway. I cautioned him that he’d regret it but he persisted.
The Therapist and Scoreboard
That's good Randy. I'll let you have both of those points.
The counter attack.
The next day, Randy used the “Tiger King” slide in the all-hands call. I smiled, laughed, and got to work. I decided to own Randy Rooney. As it turns out, I can own him. I bought the domains randyrooney.com, randyrooney.org, and randyrooney.art—just in case. Then, I built a website for world famous Network engineer where he could tell the tales of losing to Wacker.
Showcase his tales, favorite tech, and his hero.
He could also share with the world his incredible true story about a war he shouldn't have started. I decided he should also showcase his favorite technology such as Fax machines, IPv7, Rotary phones, and BetaMax. Lastly, he really wanted to write the story of the Triumphant American Prank Legend Wacker and his swift defeat of Randy.
Carol Baskins - His therapist
https://youtu.be/EycYF7m3evw
I thought long and hard... Is this enough for a triumphant win? Almost. It would be really neat if I could somehow find the real Carol Baskins to support him. Cameo to the rescue! I hired the REAL Carol Baskins to congratulate Randy for “entering the work contest” (me vs. him) and finishing second. I wanted her to know how proud we were of Randy. I uploaded her video to his website. Her words were truly inspiring.
Lastly, I added a section for comments and well-wishes, including questions like, “Why do you think Randy would think he could win against ‘King Wacker’?” little brighter
The after-hours "all-hands" meeting
I hosted my own “all-hands” call to unveil Randy’s website, complete with the Carol Baskins video (check it out here: [https://youtu.be/EycYF7m3evw?si=uxKQqWQhJq3Nii-x]). The reactions were priceless—people left hilarious comments, and Randy… well, let’s just say he’s still recovering.
