Workplace humor walks a fine line between fun and foolishness.

So when a playful theme park photographer joked with the park’s most famous mouse during a meet-and-greet, the costumed “boss” decided to discipline him like a misbehaving kid in front of guests.

What started as a harmless gag quickly turned into a picture-perfect case of malicious compliance.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one!

The Boss wants me to stand in the corner? Okay!

Years ago, I was a photographer at a major theme park and worked with the characters on an almost daily basis. Our famous character is a mouse that owns the whole park.

Everyone who worked there either referred to him as “Boss” or “Mr. Mouse” around guests. For the purposes of this post, I’ll refer to him as Boss.

This boss didn’t take himself too seriously, which made things fun for everyone.

One morning, I was assigned to work with the Boss. He was in a mischievous mood and being an overall goofball.

I enjoyed this, and so did our guests and character attendants.

One of his favorite things to do when he was in a mischievous mood was try to pass me the autograph books he had signed, conveniently ignoring the fact that I had my hands full with a camera.

As I went to take them, he’d drop them and run away, making a laughing motion.

So the boss played up this trick for laughs from a nearby family.

So we’re with this family, and Boss does his usual “pass the autograph books to the photographer” stunt. He holds them out expectantly, and I said, “I’d love to, Boss, but you know I don’t know my ABCs.”

At this, the Boss drops the books, takes my hand, moves me to a corner, and points to the floor, telling me to stay like I was a naughty child.

Malicious Compliance Mode: ACTIVATED!

But the boss had no idea just how much this photographer was willing to play along.

“Okay, I guess I’m grounded,” I said, pouting.

Everyone at this point is howling with laughter, even our head manager (Diane), who had stepped in to watch. So Boss continues his interaction with the family.

Now at the end of the session, we have the family pose with the character. So Boss gets everyone together and poses with the popular “Ta-Da!”

Except… there’s no photographer.

The boss takes notice and marches back over.

After a moment, the Boss motions to the family to wait and stomps over to my corner. I’m fighting back a grin at this point as he turns me around, points to my camera, and then holds his hands up as if to say, “What gives?!”

“Boss, you told me I’m grounded, remember?” I said with a sweet, innocent smile.

It’s at this point Diane pipes in with, “That you did, Mr. Mouse.”

The boss is forced to go back on his earlier direction to get things moving again.

Boss playfully drags me back to my spot and poses again. We get the photo and send the family on their way.

Diane stepped out with them and offered to send them through again to get more pictures because I didn’t take many (on account of me being grounded).

Luckily, the family got quite a kick out of it.

The family accepted… although the dad (who had tears in his eyes at this point) said it was the hardest he’d laughed in a long time.

To this day, it still brings a smile to my face.

What a wholesome story!

Redditors are sure to get a kick out of this one.

This user’s got puns galore!

This compliance is more wholesome than malicious.

If this person was in a similar situation, they wouldn’t have taken it nearly as well.

Bringing people joy is one of the best parts of a job like this.

The best kind of malicious compliance is the kind that ends in laughs all around.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.