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Tubi, the free streaming TV service, has released a Chrome extension aimed at people who sneak in some streaming while at work. The extension includes what’s known as a boss key which will stop the video and instantly replace it with a productivity-looking website, giving your boss the impression you’re working.

While this is just a stupid PR stunt, the extension turned out to be more robust than I anticipated. It also got me thinking back to some of the fun boss keys that used to be included with computer games in the 80s and early 90s.

See the Tubi boss key and a few classic ones in my latest video!

Tubi promoted this with a press release that claimed 84 percent of Gen Z users watch movies or TV shows at work. That number seemed high to me. Back when I worked in an office, I might throw on a podcast while doing mindless tasks, but full shows felt like more of a commitment. Still, the extension itself turned out to be worth a closer look.

Inside the folder where the extension is stored, I found some customization options. The HTML page that appears when the boss key is triggered can be edited or replaced, so it’s possible to swap in something from a corporate intranet or a more believable screen. There’s even decent documentation included for modifying its code.

The extension only works on Tubi out of the box, but it looks possible to adapt it to work on other sites too. I ran the code through Google Gemini to see if it was sending anything back to Tubi, but it appears benign and limited to their site.

The idea of masking your screen with a fake productivity page has a long history. Back in the early 80s, computers could only display one program at a time, so a quick swap was the only way to hide what you were really doing.

The earliest example I came across was on the Apple II. A game called Bezare, written by Roger Wagner, had a boss key that displayed a fake VisiCalc screen—the spreadsheet program that was the Apple II’s killer app. Later, a DOS version of Tetris had one too, swapping to a Lotus 1-2-3 lookalike when triggered. Sierra Online built them into several of its adventure games as well. Leisure Suit Larry popped up a colorful chart of sales data for contraceptives, while Space Quest III flipped the idea on its head by ratting you out with a dialog box showing how long you’d been playing.

I spent part of my weekend firing up emulators to revisit a few of these boss keys, and it was fun to see how far back the tradition goes. For something a little more modern, the NCAA has long had a “boss button” on their March Madness website.

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