Setting Some Ground Rules

The camera comes in to the halls of an NGW house show. We see Janet Torre laying flat on the ground looking under a table. She’s wearing blue coveralls with an NGW logo and a name tag on it.  With an intense look in her eyes, she growls and pushes herself up, metal broom handle in hand.

Hey rookie!

The camera looks up to show a man in a matching outfit in the background, broom in one hand and his phone in the other. Janet waves him over, so he lays his broom against the wall and slides his phone in his coverall pockets while walking to her. Janet stares straight into his eyes.

I thought you already cleaned this area.

The rookie, not knowing what’s happening, recoils in confusion.

But when I look around, I’m seeing dust everywhere! A bunny here, a bunny there, lazy. But that?

She points down down under the table. The camera pans down to show a large pile of grime: what looks to be a slimy pile of dried soda covered in dust and dirt.

That is absolutely unacceptable!

The rookie slightly leans back, but ends up shrugging.

I don’t see anything.

Janet’s eyes widen for a split second and her grip on the handle tightens, but she takes a quick breath and covers her anger with a small smile. She lets out a quick chuckle.

You don’t see it? You barely looked.

She points to the ground.

Get down and look again.

The rookie moans, hands on head.

Janet, I don’t get why you need to be so anal about everything, nobody is going to look down there, so why waste our time? If we cleaned every small detail, we’d be here for hours!

Despite her best efforts, Janet’s smiles fades and she begins to shake.

Get down and look again.

The rookie sighs.

Janet’s I said-

Janet takes her metal broom handle and strikes the rookie custodian in the back of the knee. He collapses down, gasping in pain. Janet puts her boot on the back of the prone rookie’s head, and pushing it down into the grime. He squeals.

Can you see it now? Huh? Can you?!

She slowly squats down, adding more pressure between the rookie and the concrete floor.

You have one job! One! Clean up these halls! What is it with people nowadays and not doing their jobs?! People like you really piss me off!

The rookie cries out some more, tapping out against Janet’s leg. She reponses by pushing down even harder onto the concrete and grime.

You think that’s going to make me stop? You think you can just laze around, then quit when the going gets tough? You disgust me! You need to understand the importance of what we’re doing here! If there’s even a single piece of dirt here, the entire hallway is dirty! If the hallway is dirty, it lowers morale! If morale is low, the talent become dirty!

She pushes down even harder, causing the man to start flailing his legs around.

The locker room here is so filthy because of people like you! The locker room here can’t get a damn thing done right because of people like you! Do you understand?!

The rookie cries out in pain.

Yes! Yes! Please, I’ll clean it!

Janet keeps pushing down for just a few more seconds, but finally lets him go. She stands there, breathing heavily and staring as he goes into the fetal position, grasping his head.

Good boy. Now get up and get back to work.

Neither person moves a muscle. A few seconds pass by, and Janet lets out a growl. She reaches down and grabs the rookie by the scruff of his neck, forcefully pulling him up to his feet. He yells out, but his pleas are ignored by the pissed off cleaner. Once up, Janet pushes him into the wall where his broom is resting.

You have thirty minutes. If the north corridor isn’t spotless by then, we are going to have a serious problem, understood?

The rookie fraily grasps his broom and nods, tears running down his face. A mix of dust and slimy dried soda cover his cheek.

Good. Now chop chop, don’t disappoint me again.

Janet turns and walks away, leaving the rookie custodian to sweep up the grime from under the table. Small wails of sadness can be heard as the scene fades to black.

I loved these promos, never stop using this character.