It stars LaKeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, and Armie Hammer.

The film follows a young African-American telemarketer who adopts a "white voice" to succeed at his job, after which he is swept into a corporate conspiracy and must choose between chasing profit or joining his activist friends who are attempting to unionize.

He struggles with customers until his older co-worker Langston teaches him how to use his "white voice" and adopt a blithe, affluent persona during calls, at which Cash excels.

Though Cash is initially uncomfortable with the job, he is celebrated at work and can now afford a new apartment and a flashy car while paying off Sergio's house, keeping him from joining WorryFree in the process.

Steve explains that WorryFree plans to make their workers stronger, more obedient, and more profitable by transforming them into human-horse "Equisapiens" through snorting a powder that modifies their DNA.

Taking advantage of his infamy as a meme, he appears on the extremely popular television show I Got the Shit Kicked Out of Me, where he endures humiliations and beatings in order to share the video to spread the word about WorryFree's cruelty.

The plan backfires: Equisapiens are hailed as a groundbreaking scientific advancement, a cult of personality develops around Steve, and WorryFree's stock price reaches an all-time high.

Writer and director Boots Riley described Sorry to Bother You as "an absurdist dark comedy with aspects of magical realism and science fiction inspired by the world of telemarketing".

[8] In June 2017, it was announced that production would go forward on Sorry to Bother You, directed by Riley, and that LaKeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, and Steven Yeun had been cast in the film.

Nina Yang Bongiovi and Forest Whitaker served as producers through their company Significant Productions, along with Jonathan Duffy, Kelly Williams, Charles D. King, and George Rush.

[10][11][12] In July 2017, Danny Glover, David Cross, and Patton Oswalt joined the cast,[13] with Kate Berlant, Robert Longstreet, and Michael Sommers added later that month.

It was rumored that Steve Buscemi performed the "white voice" of Danny Glover's character Langston, but Riley revealed it was actually the film's sound engineer Ryan Coursey.

[34] It had its wide release, in 805 theaters, on July 13, alongside the openings of Skyscraper and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, and was forecast to gross around $3.5 million over the weekend.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Fearlessly ambitious, scathingly funny, and thoroughly original, Sorry to Bother You loudly heralds the arrival of a fresh filmmaking talent in writer-director Boots Riley.

[34] James Berardinelli of ReelViews said "Sorry to Bother You blends conventional comedy with political satire to produce a film that will generate laughter and a sense of discomfort in equal doses.

"[41] Peter Debruge of Variety magazine praised the film, calling it "deliriously creative and ambitious to a fault", but expressed reservations about its second half: "As the movie's allegorical relation to real-world problems blurs, audiences are left to wonder what Riley's point is supposed to be.

Club described the film as "often wildly funny, and if its broad arc is familiar stuff about a down-on-his-luck everyman experiencing success but at what cost, at least the plot specifics are unpredictable".

Dowd was critical of the writing and direction: "There's a messy, first-draft quality to how the film fits said ideas together, and a general sloppiness to the execution, with Riley botching the timing on too many jokes ...