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Surveillance Station Slacker: Difference between revisions
"comics"->"comic books", added fanworks section and example, spelling
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In a variety of jobs, a person has to be watching out for something important, poised and waiting for a certain emergency situation. For example, a big satellite dish could be constantly listening for any signal, any sign of life from the stars. Or it could be some sort of asteroid early-warning system, or it could even be an inbound-missile warning system on a space station. And in movies and tv, at the other end of all that surveillance equipment is a tiny shack/room absolutely stacked with computer equipment, one integral computer screen, and the '''Surveillance Station Slacker'''. He's usually one guy (very rarely female) sat watching the readouts for weeks with absolutely nothing happening, in a state of utter boredom. Invariably this guy will be goofing off all day knowing that the screen will never bleep, eating pizza and watching a portable tv or something, and due to this is often portrayed as overweight.
If the computer screen
The Slacker sometimes comes with a workmate/companion, someone to tell him to stop lazing about so much, who is often portrayed as a grumpy elderly man.
Often overlaps with [[The Guards Must Be Crazy]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* The long-suffering Maytag Repairman, sitting by the phone waiting for someone to call (the joke, of course, is that Maytag appliances never need repair).
== [[
* In the Image Comics series ''[[Chew]]'', the Gardner-Kvashennaya International Telescope in Siberia has a $34 million-a-year budget to basically monitor a single mysterious planet light-years away. But since the telescope only needs $3 million-a-year to actually run, the scientists use the rest of the money to spend on whatever they want, and these things get extensively bigger, weirder, and more hedonistic as the scientists get bored with regular pleasures. Up until the protagonists arrive following an investigation, of course. Then all hell breaks loose.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* The priest of the temple of Layiru in chapter 6 of ''[[Relatively Absent]]'' who misses a mysterious alert (in the form of a flaring gemstone in an intricate mosaic). Exactly what it was an alert ''about'', though, we'll never know, thanks to the story's enforced [[Dead Fic]] status.
== [[Film]] ==
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* ''[[WarGames]]''. Two U.S. Air Force officers are in a missile silo control room carrying out their standard routine - they're fairly bored and not expecting any problems. Suddenly there's an alert message from NORAD telling them to prepare to launch their missiles.
* ''[[Sneakers]]''. A security guard who appears to be in his teens is sitting around in a bank late at night watching TV. All of a sudden the fire alarm goes off and he panics, scrambling around trying to find the instruction book and find out who to call.
* ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'' begins with two technicians at an isolated base in
* ''[[The Day After Tomorrow]]'' has that shack full of British guys who watch a soccer game rather than pay attention to their equipment.
* Subverted in ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]] 3'': the toy watching the cameras never sleeps. [[Uncanny Valley|Ever.]]
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* In the ''[[A to Z Mysteries]]'' book ''The Jaguar's Jewel'', Dink's uncle forgets that his office has a security system even when a thief steals the titular jewel from his office. Leaving it up to our three heroes to find the video and decipher the clues.
== [[Live
* "Homer," a one-shot character on ''[[The X-Files]]
* This was essentially Martin's job, as a graveyard-shift security guard in an office building in ''[[Frasier]]''.
* ''[[The Day Today]]'' spoof about the swimming pool features [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob1rYlCpOnM a night watchman who spends his time doing puzzles and trying on abandoned swimming costumes], leading him to miss 40 people breaking into the pool and eventually one of them drowning. He defends himself saying, "I have been working here for 18 years. In 1975, no one died. In 1976, no one died. In 1977, no one died. In 1978, no one died. In 1979, no one died. In 1980, ''someone'' died."
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