Long before "The Office" became a huge phenomenon, director Mike Judge showed us just how ridiculous the life of a corporate drone could be in "Office Space." To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the endlessly quotable comedy gem, here's some fun trivia to tide you over to you get your stapler back.

1. "Office Space" is actually an adaptation of a series of animated shorts Judge created featuring the Milton character. They originally aired on "Saturday Night Live" and MTV in the early '90s.

2. The film is also very loosely based on a short story by "Moby Dick" author Herman Melville called "Bartleby the Scrivener."


3. Actor David Herman was determined to appear in the move despite being locked into a contract with "MADtv." Herman's solution was to get himself fired by shouting all his lines at a table read.

4. The role of Joanna had to be expanded after the very bankable Jennifer Aniston was cast, which resulted in the memorable scenes where Joanna argues with her manager about flair.


5.Matt Damon was Fox's top choice to star as Peter Gibbons. Judge insisted that Peter needed to be played by an actor with less star power.

6. Judge was inspired to write the iconic printer scene after struggling with a faulty printer during the making of "Beavis and Butthead Do America."

7. That printer scene has proven so popular that it's been parodied in everything from an episode of "Family Guy" to one of Ted Cruz's presidential campaign ads.


8. While the film wasn't a box office success during its theatrical run, reruns on  Comedy Central are largely credited with transforming "Office Space" into an enduring cult hit.

9. Actor Gary Cole revealed the original cut of the film included a scene where his character Bill Lumbergh gets angry at seeing his Porsche towed. This scene was removed in order to maintain Lumbergh's perpetually emotionless state.

10. Judge was very displeased with the studio's choice of poster, even blaming it for hurting the box office gross. He was able to convince Fox to add an image of Milton to the cover of the home video release.


11. The restaurant Chotchkie's is meant to be a parody of the T.G.I. Fridays restaurant chain, though the scenes were actually filmed inside an Austin, TX-based restaurant called The Alligator Grille.

12. Stapler manufacturer Swingline didn't actually make a red model like the one seen in the film, but they eventually made one available in 2002 in response to growing demand.


13. According to Judge, there have been discussions about possibly continuing "Office Space" as either a sequel or a TV series. For now, Judge describes 2009's "Extract" as a "companion piece" to "Office Space."

14. All the license plates featured in the movie are fake, in order to avoid revealing the state in which the movie takes place. However, Peter's personnel file lists his home address as being in Illinois.