Working in retail can be a pretty taxing job at times, which is why having a manager with a good-natured sense of humor can be a real relief. With this in mind, employees at one particular Target must have appreciated their boss’s efforts to pump them up for a long day of Black Friday selling with a brilliant Lord of the Rings-inspired speech for the ages.

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Just before his store’s doors opened this past Black Friday, the Target manager leapt onto a counter and portrayed Target employees’ attempts to sell things to holiday shoppers as an epic struggle of righteousness.

“Brothers, sisters, hear me now!” he bellows before pointing to the Black Friday customers clamoring outside the doors. “They’re standing out there. Any moment now those doors will be breached. Whatever comes through those gates, you will stand your ground with a smile on your face! They come here with bargains in their heads and fire in their eyes… and we shall give those bargains to them! We will show them that we are not just the best store in this neighborhood… Because this is more than a store. This is a team! This is a family! This… is… Target!”

The cynical side of us thinks that this is just a phony viral video stunt cooked up by Target’s marketing department. On the other hand, the speech is delivered with such awesome conviction and the manager is so enthusiastically nerdy that we really hope it’s the real deal. Check the whole thing out below.