Photo courtesy of my friend Kathy R
Earlier this week, I had the good fortune to watch a tenth anniversary screening of Mike Judge’s second sleeper hit and somewhat prescient film Idiocracy. Alamo and a series of other art-house theaters screened the movie simultaneously while bookending the movie with comments from Mike Judge, Maya Rudolph and Terry Crews.
Overall the movie sadly holds up. I stand by my original review too; Idiocracy is a world run by the assholes who peaked in high school and those who fear critical thinking.
I didn’t know the costumer chose Crocs as the common footwear before the company became wildly successful. They remain disgusting shoes in my opinion. Kids wearing them, OK. Adults? No. They’re up there with wearing socks and sandals together…gross. Another thing Judge explained was how he legally got to ridicule all the corporations in this Dystopia. According to Fox Legal, if there were numerous pokes at them, none could claim they were singled out. Despite their political leanings, I think Fox News preferred to be mocked over being ignored.
There was mention of some type of sequel to the cult classic. I think an episodic TV show would be the best route. Something scathing Judge could air on AMC, HBO or a network that isn’t afraid to mock the dumb people put into positions of power. A world with dilapidated statues of Palin, Bush II, Le Pen, Farage, Putin and Trump.
Personally I think we are slowly drifting toward a world in which the stupid are growing in power. Not necessarily in America alone. We don’t have a monopoly on idiocy. There’s the rise of Right-Wing parties in Europe which have “all the answers.” Demagogues are a common theme in the history of the Third World. The majority of humans aren’t very patient and have difficulty with long-term thinking, something technology is exacerbating. However, I think the world is separating into a minority of Haves and a majority of Have Nots along the lines of HG Wells’ The Time Machine. The difference is that the Morlocks will reside on the surface amongst the ruins and the Eloi are hiding underground, on another continent or some place safe. Neither party helps the other. The Eloi will still have dumb offspring (see the Bush clan) occasionally, they just will safeguards to keep them from screwing stuff up.
Alamo Extras: Women in bikinis firing guns, this was either a satire or a real NRA propaganda piece; a bit from The Dana Carvey Show I’ve seen before; and a review of the 11 dumbest trends imitated on the Internet: planking, setting oneself on fire, etc.; what the rest of us call natural selection.