i want you to hit me as hard as you can
in this week's installment of the best movie you never saw we get in our way back machine
and head to the utopian year of 2006 to discuss mike judge's idiocracy hailed by many as one of
the smartest dumb movies of all time idiocracy had an unceremonious theatrical release
that resulted in a box office gross of less than half a million dollars you'd be forgiven to think
that this movie just went direct to dvd so how did judge's third film go from obscurity to becoming a
movie that many find has become so eerily close to our own reality for those of you that don't
already know the name mike judge the filmmaker and actor got his start in animation in the early
1990s with the mtv series liquid television his milton frog baseball shorts earned him the series
beavis and butthead fernani's kids like me beavis and butthead were the epitome of
anti-establishment rule breaking foul-mouthed and hilariously nasty judges series paved the way for
other boundary pushing series like south park when beaverson butthead ended judge began a 13-year run
with the fox series king of the hill a much more wholesome sitcom about an animated texas family
during the run of that series judge made his live action feature debut with office space now
i likely don't have to tell you much about that 1999 film which has become a pop culture stalwart
and a major inspiration for the office however like idiocracy it was a box office flop and only
ever really took off on vhs and dvd thank you for watching joe blow videos if you enjoy our
shows please subscribe to our channel right now like this video and click on the bell so you'd be
notified each time a new video goes up now back to the show it actually took seven whole years before
judge was able to make another live-action effort and it was all due to disneyland
apparently while on vacation at mickey mouse's amusement park judge witnessed two women pushing
strollers the parents began arguing and spewing profanities at each other in earshot of their two
small offspring judge was taken aback and thought how horrible it would be if all humanity was like
this in the future using the idea of dumb people propagating and taking over the majority of the
world's population became the crux of idiocracy judges idea of a dystopian society populated by
devolution has been a common one throughout history including h.g wells as the time
machine and to a lesser extent planet of the apes partnering with eaton cohen not ethan cohen eaton
cohen screenwriter of the film's tropic thunder and men in black 3 judge's script went through
the works being titled the united states of america and 3001 before settling on idiocracy with
a budget of just 3 million dollars filming took place in 2004 in austin texas and the surrounding
area production was a challenge with judge saying it was a similar experience to making office space
saying that he was working on an impossible schedule and an impossible budget and every day
seemed it was at least 16 hours so it was a pretty tough shoot early drafts for idiocracy did not
feature the now infamous president camacho at all but rather ai through rewrites and
inspiration from the world around them the script began coming together the character of joe gelled
with the casting of luke wilson just you know your average guy well judge says that he never imagined
terry crews as camacho but looking at it now how could it be anybody but terry crews
budgetary constraints also limited judges vision for the future which was imagined to look
something like lawrence of arabia in regards to scale this wasn't going to happen since the budget
was so limited most the future world had to be achieved with computer effects or small scale sets
hiding the limited scope production was also rushed and dealt with many challenges the film is
meant to be set during a drought but it was filmed during one of the rainiest seasons on record
they even had to kill grass with gasoline to get the visual look they needed for the landscape
originally set for 2005 test audiences apparently reacted very negatively to the film which prompted
reshoots and a one-year release delay these guys they know what they're doing don't worry they've
tested it on dogs and everything when it finally hit screens it was only in 130 theaters with
little to no fanfare while posters did advertise the movie 20th century fox promoted no trailers or
ads for the movie and they didn't screen it for critics when a film does not screen in advance
we always call it a suicide release because basically the studio just doesn't care anymore
and it almost always bodes very poorly for the finished project with judge having made 20th
century fox a lot of money thanks to office space why do they have so little faith in idiocracy
you're the smartest guy in the world you're pretty dumb sometimes chances are those test screenings
likely had something to do with it as the limited theatrical release seemed unusual for a big broad
comedy but it was also prompted by the studio having concerns surrounding the rampant bashing
and spoofing of real corporations and brands while it is not uncommon for studios to dump
projects the marketing was so non-existent for this film that theaters promoted it as
untitled mike judge project yet despite the poor test screenings idiocracy ended up with
overall positive reviews from critics holding an overall 74 on rotten tomatoes idiocracy's
politically incorrect satire of our world would go on to even more success but it would take a
full decade for that to happen regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum it's difficult
not to see parallels between president dwayne elizondo mountain dew herbert camacho the former
wrestler turned commander-in-chief with a certain former reality star who later became president
both screenwriter eton cohen and director judge concurred with the similarities between idiocracy
and you know the 2016 election with judge saying i'm not a prophet but i was only off by 490 years
like office space idiocracy has turned in a devoted cult following in the 15 years since
it was released like office space and judges hbo series silicon valley idiocy works by mocking the
conventions of the very real world that we live in and that mocks both the right and the left people
the film opens in 2005 with joe bowers played by luke wilson being selected for
a special experiment since he represents the most mediocre and average soldier in the armed forces
cryogenically frozen alongside prostitute rita played by maya rudolph joe has forgotten for
five centuries when the pair are revived in the year 2505 the world's intelligent population has
decided not to procreate and left the door open for the dumbest of people to prosper and spread
their subpar dna things have devolved resulting in companies running major governatorial agencies
films produced just shots of butts and sports going from organized efforts to well just things
on fire when joe's journey takes him through the new world he is quickly revealed to be
the smartest person on the planet that means you guessed it he is elevated to a position of power
and given the task of solving the world's problems in just one week obviously chaos ensues but the
plot of idiocy is not why it is stood the test of time nor white is so beloved by fans idiocracy
is a film that is far more prescient than it should be and in very disturbing ways whether or
not you subscribe to the similarities to the trump campaign and you may not there are other things
that this movie foresaw including the rise of crux as a popular form of footwear the malign sandal
was merely a startup when the movie was made and has become as much of a mainstay in society as any
other brands idiocracy is notable for the takedown of many companies including costco pepsi and many
more fun fact of all the companies featured in the film most logos were either fictionalized
or have been changed the lone exception being fox news whose current logo matches exactly what you
see in this film the big beverage corporation in the movie brondo serves as a spoof of gatorade and
other energy drinks while echoing the agricultural conglomerates in our world like monsanto the movie
also features great supporting turns from dak shepard justin long and luke wilson's own brother
andrew as demolition derby driver beef supreme while luke wilson and mai rudolph are great in
the roles the mvp of the movie is definitely terry crews the popularity of president camacho
resulted in a series of web shorts leading up to the 2012 presidential election and a development
of a spin-off that sadly never came to be but i suppose it's never too late to be honest idiocy is
far from a brilliant movie in fact it likely isn't even the second best live-action film from mike
judge that honor and our opinion goes to his most recent film 2009's extract starring jason bateman
and mila kunis which is a great little movie if you haven't seen it this movie is very dumb but
that's an intentional decision and one that echoes a similar narrative from fox's futurama both focus
on an average guy who finds himself a fish out of water the difference is that idiocracy's profane
and provocative satire of our world is sadly far closer to reality and doesn't seem like that's
gonna change anytime soon it's a shame that idiocy has only settled for a cult following
as it deserves a much wider fandom than has had 20th century fox thrown more support behind it
even a little some of judges and cohen's more ambitious takedowns could have become a reality
and you know what maybe people could have seen it and realized you know what a satire the human race
in some ways is becoming of itself still the movie we got is bitingly funny comedy that gets really
really real with each passing year and again it really doesn't matter which side of the political
spectrum you're on in this one so idiocracy check it out nobody went to see it in theaters but
it's gonna have a lot longer of a shelf life than most other big hits that came out that year
and mike judge why aren't you making more movies come on come back to us we need you
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