Idiocracy

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'''''Idiocracy''''' (2006) is a 
documentary about the [[2016 U.S. presidential election|distant future of 2016]], [[2024 U.S. presidential election|or 2024]]
 movie written and directed by Mike Judge that's about a literal average Joe who, due to 
a cheesy plot device
 [[cryonic]] experiments, finds himself 500 years in the future… and due to idiots outbreeding smart people, he is now the smartest living human based on an [[IQ]] test. Brought to you by Carl's, Jr.®!

While the introductory segment comes off as a pro-[[eugenics]] [[propaganda]] piece, the majority of the film actually criticizes the ''culture'' which glorifies idiocy more than anything else. Especially [[Fox News]] parody within the film that included moobs-and-boobs co-anchors,<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D48vWi3CvaM Fox News in 2505 - Idiocracy] (Apr 13, 2024) ''YouTube''.</ref> which led to the production company, Twentieth Century ''Fox'', doing everything it could to bury the movie; eliminating the entire budget, spending nothing on [[advertising]], then releasing it in only 6 theatres for one showing after midnight, then declaring it a flop.<ref>[http://www.ew.com/article/2006/09/15/fox-hides-mike-judge-film-idiocracy Fox hides Mike Judge film ''Idiocracy'': Fox hides Mike Judge film ''Idiocracy'' — The film was released without fanfare despite the cult status of ''Office Space''] by Josh Rottenberg (September 15, 2006 at 04:00 AM EDT) ''Entertainment Weekly''.</ref> Viacom managed to find a copy of it, and then played it on Comedy Central whenever they could.<ref>[https://press.cc.com/press-release/2009/01/26/012609_ntp_idiocracy Comedy Central Presents the Network Television Premiere of "Idiocracy" Sunday, February 15 at 10:00 P.M.] (January 26, 2009) ''Comedy Central''.</ref> It's actually not that bad.

==Plot (spoilers)==
{{expand section}}
Well, the plot isn't too in-depth.  It starts off with a "case study" of two couples; [[Stereotype|stereotypical]] [[Yuppie]]s, and stereotypical rednecks. The Yuppies wait to have kids, because they aren't financially ready yet, only to develop fertility problems; the husband eventually dies of a heart attack induced by [[masturbation]] at a fertility clinic and the wife never has a kid. The redneck husband, Clevon, can't figure out how [[condom]]s work and somehow keeps knocking up everyone else at the trailer park, while his [[football]]-playing son knocks up a bunch of cheerleaders, while Clevon [[Incest|gets to share one of them too]]. The result being that idiots overpopulate the world.

Then the movie starts.
{{video|youtube|sP2tUW0HDHA}}

===Culture===
[[File:Brawndo.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator!]]
The main problem for human society in the movie is not that "idiots are allowed to breed", but that idiots were held up as something to worship… which is what ''causes'' the dumbest ones to be able to outbreed the smart people. Talking in proper English makes you a fag<ref>Not to be confused with [[homophobia]], it's just that intellectualism is considered 'faggy' by the population.</ref>, and [[intelligence]] of any form is considered retarded. Executions have become a public spectacle, molecules have become buzzwords to sell tacos, and film has been degraded to just staring at a man's ass. (the film in question, simply titled "Ass", won 8 Oscars, including one for "Best Screenplay") And no, not as a practical joke by {{wpl|Taylor Mead's Ass|Andy Warhol|.}}{{efn|''Taylor Mead's Ass''<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244835/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 Taylor Mead's Ass] (1965) ''IMDb''.</ref> foreshadowed ''Idiocracy'' by 40+ years and foreshadowed the fictional film-within-a-film by 500+ years.}} The President is the amalgamation of every idiot, though more intelligent than most others alive at the time (and [[African American]], played by {{wpl|Terry Crews||;}}) he's a [[porn]] star action hero who drinks heavily and shoots guns constantly, and nearly every other word is a swear word or an advertisement. (A hilarious opposite of the actor) Advertising is everywhere; clothing is made up of brand names, and television is more advertisement than show. Brought to you by Carl's, Jr.!

Interestingly, it also takes a stand on [[Citizens United|the importance of keeping money out of politics]]; a megacorp, Brawndo (the thirst mutilator!) buys up the FCC, allowing them to advertise whatever they want. The result is that Brawndo replaces all [[water]] (except toilet water — eww!), and the electrolytes (what plants crave!) end up [[Irony|killing the crops and causing a near-total collapse of society]].

==Things to come==
[[File:Trump-WomensMarch 2017-1060585 (31638091963).jpg|thumb|right|165px|Not a documentary?]]
Many people see this movie, notice some "peculiar" comparisons to our current reality and its perceived trajectory, and conclude it's a [[prophecy]] of the future. This doesn't ''quite'' stand up to [[reality]]; average intelligence has ''not'' been decreasing, in fact, the opposite is true.<ref>[http://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/03/smarter.aspx Smarter than ever? Over the past century, the average IQ in industrialized countries has risen to keep pace with the complexity of modern life. IQ researcher James Flynn discusses why those gains have occurred and whether they are likely to continue.] by Lea Winerman (2013) ''Monitor on Psychology'' 44(3).</ref> The main driver of this is public health campaigns; it turns out that all those [[parasite]]s and diseases that we had in the 19<sup>th</sup> century were not good for developing minds. The question is if ''genetically'' we are better or worse off. This is not so easy to test, in part because there ''is no'' single "smart gene",<ref>[https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/traits/intelligence Is intelligence determined by genetics?] ''Genetics Home Reference, U.S. National Library of Medicine''.</ref> but rather a complicated mesh of many different genes.

When it comes to the dumbing-down of culture, pop culture has always been doing this. People don't actually swear more than their parents did; they just use different swear words. While today you might say "[[fuck]]", "shit" or "damn", words that would make your grandparents blush, you can damn well bet that you wouldn't say the fucking shit your grandparents used to say all the time, like "[[cunt]]" (at least in North America), "[[Homosexual|faggot]]" or "[[nigger]]".  Words change meaning over time and many old swear words are forgotten or fall out of use: {{wpl|Deadwood (TV series)#Use of profanity|''Deadwood'' used modern swear words}} because the profanity of the time sounds comical today. As for "stupid, low-brow culture", this was exactly the complaints people had about [[Shakespeare]] in his time. Part of the wonders of getting a bachelor's degree in English is that you get to learn so many new dick and poop jokes, like the ''very first scene'' of ''Romeo and Juliet'' where the guys brag about how they will poop on the girls' heads before murder/[[Rape|raping]] them, while joking about the size of their dicks.<ref>[http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/full.html Yes that is in there!]  When Sampson is talking about lining the girls against the wall, it's because, in the days before widespread plumbing, British toilets overlooked the street.</ref>

In August 2016, director Judge and writer Etan Cohen attempted to make advertisements using the President Camacho character from the film. Cohen had become horrified at how close reality had gotten to ''Idiocracy'',<ref>[https://archive.is/8jzvJ I never expected #idiocracy to become a documentary.] by Etan Cohen (9:27 AM - 24 Feb 2016) ''Twitter'' (archived from 20 Apr 2016 03:37:53 UTC).</ref> but the project was stymied by a combination of prematurely labelling the advertisements as "anti-[[Donald Trump|Trump]]" (rather than just [[satire]]) and opposition by Fox and specifically Fox's owner, [[Rupert Murdoch]].<ref>[http://www.slashfilm.com/idiocracy-president-camacho-ads/ Fox Rejected ‘Idiocracy’ Director’s “Anti-Trump” President Camacho Ads] by Jack Giroux (Sunday, August 21st, 2016) ''Slash Film''.</ref>

More importantly, it's a movie; in the real world, it actually takes some [[emotional intelligence]] to have a relationship, even one that only lasts long enough to get [[pregnant]]. Also, there is little correlation between intelligence and fecundity in humans, and things like the [[Darwin Awards]] suggest that said correlation is ''directly'' proportional, not inversely.

=="Time Masheen"==
{{cquote|Oh, that's easy. You go down by the museum and stuff... It's like — it's, like, by the museum… Sorta by… Actually, not really. More like on the street, you go, um… Wait, let me start over. Okay, you know where the time masheen<sup>[sic]</sup> is?|||Frito}}
As the main protagonist, Joe Bauers has a miserable time in the [[dystopian]] future, he thinks that since he and his companion got sent into the future, that people must have invented a [[time machine]] by now that can send him back into the past. His lawyer, Frito, confirms that such a machine exists and agrees to take him there with sufficient bribery. When Joe, his time traveling companion Rita, and Frito finally arrive at 'The Time Masheen' near the end of the film, it turns out to be a decrepit amusement park ride that goes past a Charlie Chaplin-as-[[Hitler]] mannequin{{efn|This references Chaplin's satire about Hitler, {{wpl|The Great Dictator|''The Great Dictator''|,}} though the mannequin is instead dressed as Chaplin's Little Tramp character.}} followed by ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' models posing as events in history ([[US]] vs. [[Nazi Germany]], and [[UN]] peacekeeper). This segment would seem to be riffing on [[Kent Hovind]]'s failed [[Dinosaur Adventure Land]], which featured [[Bible]]-based [[dinosaur]] rides, and went kaput in 2002.

==External links==
*[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808 ''Idiocracy'' on IMDb]
*[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/Idiocracy ''Idiocracy''] on [[TV Tropes]]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20190905165549/https://thescriptsavant.com/pdf/Idiocracy.pdf ''Idiocracy'' (2006)] — the script

==Notes==
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==References==
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[[Category:Films]]
[[Category:Government incompetence]]
[[Category:Stereotypes]]

Categories: Films, Government incompetence, Stereotypes