These are the opening words with which Lars von Trier announces his movie The Boss
of It All (2006). What can we expect from a film introduced with such modesty and
diffidence? The story that soon after von Trier’s blasé introductory voice-over unfolds
appears to be a light-hearted comedy on corporate life. It’s a fish-out-of-water plot
about a boss who has invented a fictitious owner, the ‘boss of it all’, to hide behind
when unpopular decisions need to be taken and paves the way for subtle humour, jokes
and wittiness. In contrast to von Trier’s previous melodramatic epics such as Breaking
the Waves, Dancer in the Dark or Dogville, The Boss of It All seems to invite the
spectator to just ‘sit back, relax and enjoy the flight’ through the absurdities of
corporate reality. Such an injunction provokes the reverse though, as no one is more
inclined to be engrossed with what is happening. The announcement that as a comedy
The Boss of It All is ‘harmless as such’ also appears to only scratch the surface. Indeed,
with the ‘carnivalesque practice of inversion and overturning’ of power relations and
social conventions comedies are not ‘innocent’ at all (Rhodes, 2001; Czarniawska and
Rhodes, 2006).