I believe you have my stapler

The **stapler** fad was one of the earliest and most popular YTMND fads. It was started in April of 2004 by the user evers. The original YTMND shows a picture of the character Milton Waddams (played by Stephen Root) of "Office Space" fame, looking out from his cubicle desk, with a sound clip of his line “I believe you have my stapler?” The image and sound are taken from different parts of the movie, as Milton still has his stapler in the image.

## Background

In the 1999 movie "Office Space", Milton Waddams is a put-upon office worker who is constantly having to move his desk, and is fired without being informed (thus he still works at the office without recieving pay). Partway through the film, his favorite possession, a red Swingline stapler that he kept after the company switched brands, is taken away by his boss, Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole). Later in the film, while being informed by Limbergh that he has to move again, he utters his famous line.

At the time of the movie, Swingline didn't produce any red staplers, and so another stapler was painted red for the film. Due to the film's popularity, Swingline began producing red staplers a few years later.

## Format

Early fad sites usually had the stapler in the original picture replaced with another object; the sound clip was altered so instead of “stapler,” the item was said. This was the basic format which was popular in 2004, but not as much in the years to come.

Some sites involve inserting Milton's quote into songs, especially those that have the word 'believe' in them; for example, this one. Another such site, called “spread my stapler and fly away”, became popular and was inducted into the Hall of Fame. The site added the words “You have my stapler” into R. Kelly's hit song "I Believe I Can Fly", along with a photoedit of R.Kelly as Milton. The song was later included for YTMND Soundtrack Volume 10.

Most stapler sites today play around with the scene, usually incorporated into other fads (e.g. I want Stapler, a play on the Butterfingers Fad). Milton, or at the very least, his stapler, will very often be included in conglomerate sites.

## Alternate universes

The PTKFGS version of the fad features a blue stapler, and features a contrary claim by Milton (though the audio is actually by "Weird Al" Yankovic). It should be noted, however, that the description for this site says that Milton notices something's not quite right about the alternate universe, meaning it might not actually be the 'true' PTKFGS version.

## Non Milton Stapler Sites

theultrayik created a series of scenes depicting a stapler much like Miltons, however this stapler was engaged in activities such as traveling the world, fighting in battles in the post apocalyptic world and lost love. A few others also engaged in making simillar sites.

## Links

http://stapler.ytmnd.com/ - Original site by **evers**

http://spreadmystaplerandflyaway.ytmnd.com/ - Another by **pineappleclock**

http://conanstapler.ytmnd.com/ - Non-Milton example by **nibbzious**

http://staplerwiththepower.ytmnd.com/ - Another by **syncan**

http://astaplerisforever.ytmnd.com/ - Another by **rykar174**

http://staplercalledlove.ytmnd.com/ - Another by **Dasyati**