Mike Judge’s Office Space (1999) became a cult favourite on home video after its theatrical run failed to impress audiences and studio Fox, and part of the film’s success comes from an effectively dry tone that balanced the script’s satirical jabs at corporate blandness with moments of brilliant absurdity.

The film’s soundtrack contained score, songs (most released on a song-only CD by Interscope), as well as pure silence to allow the ridiculousness of corporate pinhead behaviour to sink in with audiences.

John Frizzell’s score is very brief, and at 20 mins. it does suffer a bit on CD from a fractured flow. Most of the cues run around a minute, and the score usually appeared in montages and connective scenes, as well as underscore for scenes in which the rebels started to enact their clever financial revenge scheme against evil Initech.

Frizzell’s approach overall is light and warm, as illustrated by a Hawaiian / fifties pop-bop style with wordless vocals in “Peter Ignores Lumbergh,” or a short but amusing rendition of the classic tune “Beautiful Dreamer.” The score’s main theme is a skittering, scheming motif of bass notes on keyboards, with a tense vibe pulse, and a jazzy / funky string bass (“Peter Accepts Promotion”).

“Big Bank Account” is more jazz oriented, and Frizzell uses his sparse ensemble to maintain a sense of intimacy between the characters and the audience. For Frizzell, this was his second association with Judge (after Beavis and Butt-Head Do America), and represents the near-end of his brief ‘comedy period,’ before the composer became more renowned for his horror scores, and developed an increased interest in fusing orchestral and digitally manipulated sounds into terrifying hybrids.

Theodore Shapiro’s career has also involved a fair share of comedy scores (Starsky and Hutch), and for Judge’s Idiocracy (2006), the composer wrote a large scale orchestral work that pays generous homage to the robust action writing of Alan Silvestri and Jerry Goldsmith.

In addition to a few electronic cues (namely the cheesy funk track “Masturbation Network,” and the cheap fuzz-guitar machismo in “Hail to the Chief”) there are generous moments of lightness (the regal “President Jo Bauers” is lush and soothing, with solo woodwinds bleeding saccharine notes), but Shapiro’s emphasis is on grand, faux heroism.

Shapiro’s use of colours and rhythms is very adept. “Garbage Avalanche,” for example, pokes fun at Silvestri’s use of frenetic string writing and heavy brass (think Judge Dredd), with subtle traces of choir suggesting a level of desperation tied to the very fate of mankind, whereas “Joe Wakes Up” is filled with the echoey danger of Goldsmith’s Alien and Silvestri’s Predator. Shapiro also integrates a theremin emulation, which wiggles around the stereo spectrum amid brooding brass and wooden taps in the cue’s more pensive areas.

“Fleeing the Cops / Joe Finds Rita / Harboring a Fugitive / Shooting Frito’s Car” is a lengthy action suite that shows off Shapiro’s flair for dynamic orchestral colours, with robust percussion and brass that sound wry and almost menacing – a very clever balancing act.

The suite also contains a funny allusion to Goldsmith’s Planet of the Apes (specifically the Forbidden Zone music), consisting of a percussive pulse and counterpoint hits which initially appear as a motif for furtive behaviour, but blossom into full homage in the lengthy “Beef Supreme / Supreme Flames / Supreme Fires Again” when Shapiro works in Goldsmith's syncopated, ping-ponged brass notes.

As a comedy score, Idiocracy is beautifully robust, and it would be interesting to hear his take on a straight, edgy action film. Cues like “I Owe You One” are filled with paranoia and gravitas, but their brevity means Shapiro has just a few moments to play with cyclical rhythms and ornamentation. “Into the Coliseum” is equally brief, but the urgency and desperation that permeates his main theme is nicely developed into a fast-rising orchestral crescendo.

Danel Schweiger’s liner notes contain plenty of quotes from the composers, and provide excellent details on the films and score styles that make this a perfect comedic double-bill, and mini-tribute to Mike Judge’s satirical canon.

© 2010 Mark R. Hasan