Photocopylore
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Like email and chain letters, office technology has given new life to various forms of practical jokes, urban legends, and folklore. Photocopylore, or "xeroxlore," is the term given to these sometimes funny, sometimes offensive bits of human nonsense that roll off photocopiers. It encompasses copying jokes or cartoons, xeroxing various items (natural and unnatural), fake memos, etc. The items are usually office-related, such as spoof agenda for meetings, spurious descriptions of ridiculous training programs that all staff will allegedly be required to attend, and so on. Names may be whited out and replaced with someone in the office, making it a joke on a particular person, or details may be altered making an item more topical.
The first official use of the term came in A Dictionary of English Folklore by Jacqueline Simpson, and Steve Roud (Oxford University Press: 2000).
[edit] References
- Dundee, Alan. Sometimes the Dragon Wins. (Syracuse University Press: 1995).
- Hatch, Mary Jo and Michael Owen Jones. "Photocopylore at Work: Aesthetics, Collective Creativity, and the Social Construction of Organizations." Studies in Culture, Organizations and Societies, Volume 3 No. 2 (Aug 1997).
- Michael, Nancy. "Censure of a Photocopylore Display." Journal of Folklore Research, Volume 32, No. 2 (May-August 1995).
