Work Text:
“So we love your application and we think you’d be a good fit for this company. However, we do have one question: can you explain why you included ‘willing to work naked?’”
The three executives looked at the applicant before them, a young animator by the name of Ken Karam, who was smiling nervously and internally regretting his decision.
Oh, at first it made sense; Ken had long dreamed about getting a job at Jelly Studios. As a young child, he watched their Golden Age cartoons starring Milton Monkey from weekday afternoons to early Saturday mornings. When he saw Jelly Studios’ adaptations of Where the Wild Things Are and Mistress Masham's Repose in theaters, Ken knew he wanted to become a professional animator on movies.
When a position for an animator opened up for Jelly Studios’ feature film department, he knew he had to get the job by any means possible. After looking through the trivia of the studio and their founder, he thought he had a little detail that would help. This was at least his thought process before realizing how foolish it would look when put into action.
“Well as you know, Jerome Jelly was interested in the lifestyle; not only did he practice it at home but he tried to make a version of The Emperor’s New Clothes that appealed to naturist sensibilities. I feel bringing that up shows my commitment to the legacy of Jelly Studios.” Ken knew how absurd that sounded but damn if it wasn’t going to try to salvage this.
The bald executive, Mr. Zimmerman, simply looked at him with dry disbelief, his steely eyes burrowing into Ken. The female executive, Ms. Blanchard, was similarly unamused and said, “Well interesting tidbit it may be, I’m not sure if nudism is the right fit for our company…”
“I say we give him the job,” interrupted Mr. Riley, the smiling, bearded executive.
“You’re giving me the job!?” squeaked Ken.
“You’re giving him the job?” asked Zimmerman and Blanchard in a deadpan tone.
“I already had a good feeling about you Mr. Karam; you built up an impressive resume with Disney and Warner Brothers TV animation and your portfolio shows you’re very artistically inclined,” beamed Mr. Riley, “but that bit about willing to work naked? It shows you grasp the madness that was Jerome Jelly’s genius. I’d be happy to bring in such an out of the box thinker to our humble studio.”
“You can’t be serious,” Ms. Blanchard groaned. “Working naked in an animation studio can never work out in the long run. It comes off as weird…and deviant and…”
“Didn’t you say something similar when I decided to take a chance on adapting Where the Wild Things Are? Didn’t we end up millions of dollars richer?” Mr. Riley asked impishly.
“That’s different from the situation at hand. Why am I not surprised a hippie like you would support such nonsense,” sighed Zimmerman agitatedly.
“You know, you might be right about me supporting complete nonsense,” deadpanned Riley, “I’ll just let you two talk me out of this like when you talked me out of buying the rights to that book about the ogre named Shrek. Remind me, how did that end up?”
The two executives sat silently for a minute before Mr. Zimmerman spoke up, “As much as the mere idea of you coming in to work sans clothes perturbs me, I’ve learned to never argue with my associate on certain matters. You…have the job.”
Ken had to contain himself from jumping out his seat in pure joy. “T-Thank you so much! I-I promise you won’t regret this, I’ll be the hardest worker you’ve ever hired!”
“Your position is to help us work on adapting a Terry Pratchett novel into an animated feature. You start first thing next week Mr. Karam,” Mr. Riley said warmly.
“Why don’t you come into work naked your first day,” Ms. Blanchard added, a sinister half grin on her face. “If it’s on your resume, then it shouldn’t be a problem to show up in your birthday suit, should it?”
“It certainly won’t be a problem, right Mr. Karam?” Mr. Riley smiled warmly at the young animator, giving him his vote of confidence.
Ken froze for a moment, the full weight of his actions now setting in. He already got the job, was he going to ruin it now by not backing his word? Did he actually have the guts to work naked? Ken swallowed the lump in his throat as he gave his final answer to the board…
Ken was walking towards his work station on the first day of his new job, striding confidently with each step. There was a bit of deliberation when making that critical career choice but there was no doubt in his mind that he made the right decision.
The young animator was so happy that he didn’t notice or even care about the variety of shocked, amused and appreciative looks he was getting from his co-workers. And why would he? He finally got his dream job with his favorite studio after years of working hard. Might as well let the rest look on as he walked about Jelly Studios wearing only shoes and an ID card on a lanyard, a towel under his arm.
As he approached his desk, he pulled out his chair and laid his towel down. Plopping into his seat, Ken picked up his pencils and began working on the storyboards for the new Terry Pratchett picture the studio was working on. As he sketched on, the only thought running through his head was, ‘Best damn feeling in the world.’