Idiots Can’t “CEE”

Idiocracy was about a man named Joe Bauer, who was working an everyday job for the military and was picked to be part of an experiment seeing if humans could be frozen for long periods of time.  When the experiment was forgotten, Joe ended up having been frozen for over 2000 years.  The new world he woke up in was much different. People had grown stupid and lost knowledge of how things work in the world.  They had forgotten simple things like how water is good for you, and things like that.  This was all due to people believing too much in advertising and big companies. 

The humor is crude, bathroom humor as well as situational humor.  Things such as continually kicking a man in the crotch are displayed as funny in the movie because the people of the future are so dim-witted that this is seen as funny.  It is in this setting that this is comical because you think people in the future will be more sophisticated and would not stoop so low as to join in that type of humor. 

This Post-Apocalyptic movie takes a different approach to depicting the future.  It is man’s laziness and lack of interest that causes mankind to fall into a pathetic way of living.  Instead of a world void of good things because of a nuclear war or of environmental disaster, the world is barren because people have not taken care of the earth in the way that they should and only focus on their own well-beings. 

It also has a play on names, such as Joe.  The movie makes a play on names that an average person or “Average JOE” could come and help in great ways; they just have to be motivated to do so. 

The movie also uses hyperbole that big companies can corrupt people convincing the people of ridiculous ideas.  For example the Gatorade energy drink convinces people that they no longer require water to drink or be healthy. 

Overall the movie Idiocracy is very funny and gives a new perspective to the way things are headed and how badly people can begin to look into brands, advertising and their own selfish wellbeing.  

Idiocracy is Idiotic alright

Before this class, I have never heard of this film. I at first was excited by the cast, for I love Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolf. However, this film did not live up to my expectations at all. The humor in this film was too slap-stick and too crude for my taste. The entire film seemed like I was watching the dream of a teenage boy-utterly obsessed with sex, food, and money. And it’s true- everything in the film had a sexual component. A person couldn’t even get a coffee without getting a hand job. Men spoke to each other using sexual motions and everything was obsessed with butts. The ironic thing is that men spoke about having anal sex, but the biggest insult was to call a person a homosexual. I personally like a film that has “smarter” humor, or humor that requires thinking. While watching this film, I felt just like the people portrayed in the future- stupid and obsessed with watching crude things about sex. I did not really find anything in this film humorous at all.

The film’s main point was to criticize society today and the capitalism that it is obsessed with. The clothes that the people in future wore were covered in ads for restaurants and retailers. The corporations were held at a godly level. For example, Costco was humongous, with no end in sight. It was where law school was held, and where everyone had to go. The Brawndo Gatorade Company had the most power and authority in the film. Water was non-existent, apart from in toilets, because the corporation did not want any competition. They even watered things with the Gatorade and feed it to children and animals. These companies were able to control how people lived and the government itself. This is obviously an over-exaggeration of society today, but it still holds true. Today, many people are brainwashed by what society tells them to do. We get sucked into buying athletic drinks because the media says it will boost our performance. And companies today do have a huge influence over the government by using lobbyists and by manipulating people and the media. Power usually follows those who have money, and giant corporations have tons of money to use.

Society also is more concerned about sex and money than it is about the welfare or education of people. Smart people are usually not the popular people in today’s society because they usually aren’t what society upholds. The Kardashians have no talent whatsoever. However, they get paid for acting stupid and being sexy. This is why on television there are shows such as “Sixteen and Pregnant”. People don’t care about those who are sixteen and smart, or actual responsible parents. Society cares about those who act stupid and promiscuous. We see it everywhere, not just on tv. Who are the most popular college girls usually? Those that sleep around or party all the time. Those that actually work for a goal or work to get the best grades usually aren’t the party animals and therefore usually aren’t the most popular. Just like “Not Sure”, people who actually try to use their intelligence to help people or get further in life are ridiculed and treated like shit. This movie proves this, even if it’s humor isn’t the smartest.

Idiocracy

This film was strange. Different from all other movies the class has viewed thus far, and definitely more modern, being made only a short time ago. I guess 9 years isn't that recent, but it sure is closer to this day and age than Modern Times is. With the more modern creation date comes much more modern humor. From this standpoint, I related Idiocracy with the last film we watched, MASH. Both are rated R, but I found little to no similarity in material between the two. Sure, MASH had a few glimpses of nudity, some drug use, and a few curse words. But nothing I would deem R rated material. Idiocracy, however, is soo much worse. The film is coated with extremely crude humor involving sex, drugs, violence and, of course, foul language. This comparison relates directly to the main theme I found in the film.

That is, a criticism on humanity as a whole. In the film, everyone who lives 500 years in the future is unbelievably stupid. No one knows practically anything. It is surprising to me that the human race still existed. If it wasn't for the presence of the machines doing basically all of the work, I don't think there would be a human left on Earth. The main feeling that I experienced throughout the entire film was complete frustration. Every time Joe tried to explain his situation, he was either ignored or mocked for his use of civilized language. No one could understand him. I cannot imagine what I would do in a world where no one could answer a single question I asked. To be honest, I would have an extremely difficult time not going crazy. I felt myself losing a little sanity just watching the movie.

But, I digress from my point. While the film appears to be highly exaggerated, is it really? let me revert back to my comparison of MASH and Idiocracy. As I stated, MASH was filled with little one liners that, on average, would take at least a few seconds for the normal viewer to understand and enjoy. MASH made you think. It wasn't just in your face. I feel as though a lot of the films in earlier times were like this (with exception from a few.... Life of Brian........). Most films, Like Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter, had intuitive humor. Films today, as so clearly demonstrated by Idiocracy, do not. Such films portray humor that the dumbest of dumb understand and laugh at. Jokes such as flipping Fudruckers into Buttf*ckers don't require any thought at all. I think that was actually a joke that I laughed at... When I was in middle school....

As we can see, a dumber world is not a as ridiculous idea as the more educated populous would like to hope it is. We are on the track for becoming a stupider world. So I suppose that this criticism is not so much a criticism at all, as much as it is a prediction. And a scary one, at that.

Idiocracy

            What makes Idiocracy such a good movie is that it thrives on a concept that is very well possible. The concept is that the dumb folks of the world are the ones always reproducing while the smart, business folk are waiting for the right time. Except that time never comes.

            I remember watching this movie once before, and I was very excited when I saw it on the list of movies that we are watching this semester.

            Idiocracy is set up very well. It gives you its idea in the first scene and then throws you into the events caused by this idea. I think this idea is one of the cleverest, single-most funny concepts in film today. This film thrives on the stupidity of humanity. It is like we are laughing at ourselves when watching this movie. We are not necessarily exactly like the people in Idiocracy, but we are headed in that general direction.

            Technology plays a big part in the stupiding of the human race. The first future character that we meet is Frito. He is named after a corn chip. If his name is not enough to show you how stupid he is, then first scene he is in where a time capsule comes shooting through his window and he is glued to the T.V. and does not even bother to turn around to see what is there, should be. The human race of the future relies on technology for everything they do (Not that the human race right now doesn’t). For example, when Luke Wilson’s character was first looking around after he awoke, there’s a woman getting fast food from a vending machine. This shows how lazy humans get with the use of technology, we can’t even cook for ourselves anymore, fast food is the main type of food consumed in the U.S.

            Sex is portrayed very interestingly in this film. For example, when Rita has that fellow paying her to wait for sex, she keeps telling him “soon” and he keeps paying and coming back later. This is a good example of the stupidity of the Idiocracy future. This guy doesn’t ever realized that Rita is just playing him. Another good example is how over the future Fuddruckers turns into Buttfuckers. This shows how sex and sexual innuendos are becoming less and less of a concern in the media. I could see Fuddruckers turning into Buttfuckers in the future.

            This was a great movie. I would definitely suggest watching it.

Idiocracy

While ostensibly focused on a dystopian future "Uhmerica",  Idiocracy is a mirror image of our contemporary society.  The media of today focuses on reducing individuals to a label that is consumed as easily as a fast food meal or sports drink. Similarly, most of the characters in Idiocracy are given single names or labels, during the end credits, Rita, Secretary of Defense, Prosecutor, Doctor, Horny Guy, Slutty Girl, New Slutty Girl, and so on. This is carried to an extreme when the husband and wife at the start of the film are given the names Trevor and Carol, only to be credited as Yuppie Husband and Yuppie Wife.

While the bulk of the story is set 500 years in the future, the scenes set in 2005 already show signs of a decaying society, the written news stories about Officer Collins and Upgrayedd being arrested are poorly written, "...arrested on several counts of attempted to run and use a call service..." and "Upgrayedd research, these 420 crimes are everywhere across the country, surfacing only recently..."

The extreme lengths the film goes to with a potential future carry the audience into humorous situations that are recognizably possible today.  Joe's soon to be attorney first stands up to tell Joe to shut up, and we see that he has been sitting on a combination toilet lounger, which flushes automatically. The blind corporate greed of a company buying up government institutions to help support its stock price. Starbucks logos incorporated on the printed money of 2505 and a Costco box store that spans miles on a side.

The labeling carries on with the description of Joe when he is identified by "Hair: Yes" and "Eyes: Yes". Further still, anyone who is working at their job has labels on their shirt sleeves, such as Attorney at Law and Secretary of Interior.

During the end credits, the "Ow! My Balls! Guy" is not credited as Hormel Chavez, but instead as "Main Character". This turns the movie back onto the viewing audience, pointing out that the movie itself has been one extended episode of the Ow! My Balls! television show. While Joe Bauers is the protagonist of the story, we have watched and laughed as he is put through physical and emotional pain. As the humor of the film is primarily focused on painful slapstick, sexual innuendo, and laughing at dumbed down caricatures of the government, the credits are poking fun at the audience for having watched and laughed at the movie.

The final message of the film is that if we dumb ourselves down, we leave ourselves to be taken advantage of by those who do not dumb themselves down. Watching past the credits, Upgrayedd awakens from the same Army experiment that took Joe and Rita into 2505. As Upgrayedd walks down the street, we know that he will be able to take advantage of the society of 2505 in the same way Rita did and how Joe became President.

idio.. what?

Idiocracy proved to be a lite hearted movie about heavy subjects. It dove deep into many issues and fears that plague us as humans. One of the first things that popped out at me was the fact that we had a narrator. Now the narrator was not as heavily used as we have seen in previous movies, but none the less he was there. I believe that he played the role of father time. Not necessarily the role of God but a being that has been carried us through time and provides the time gap information.

For gender roles we see them cut all ties. In the beginning we see a study done to two different families. With the first family we view them as the average Americans trying to make it in the world with a family. The second family is what I would call a hick family. Right off the bat we see them having problems with adultery. The man in that situation is just using the women for their body and sex.  But both sides progress until they are split up. An interesting little side note is when the “American” women in the study says she has some eggs frozen and just waiting for the right man. I believe that was a foreshadow for the whole plot of the movie. Just after that scene we see Joe Bauers frozen on ice and become the right “egg” for the future world. Eventually we see that both sides of the study fall apart and can’t handle the most natural part of being a human (reproduction).

Names in the movie play a huge role as well. Our first character is Joe. Now what is the most common phrase used with the name Joe. “Average Joe” is blatantly used to describe him on countless occasions as well as described by his actions. Second we see UpgrayDD this is a huge play on words. First we notice the spelling issue. This tells us whoever this name belongs to is probably not the brightest person on the planet. Second we can see it was spelled with two D’s. I believe that this was because he was a pimp and used “double d’s” to describe boobs. Last we see Frito; this was just a reference to the future.  It proved how lazy that generation was and they named a child after a brand of chip.

But this movie dug deep into the fear of the human psyche and brought out our true fear. What problems do you see know that were addressed in the future part of the movie. Trash was the main concern of the future. We are facing that problem today and we see it highlighted in the movie heavily. Also we see this same problem addressed in other movies, Wall-e for instance. The second is crops; we can see this problem all around us today and again it is highlighted in the movie.

Ps. I think I found a trope in the movie, when the wrestler president was making his speech he was using a Rhythmic trope which I think is called Monophonic? But it sure as hell moved the people.

P.s.s I hope you watched after the credits.

Idiocracy

I loved Idiocracy since the first time I watched it. I thought it was hilarious because of all the lowbrow crude humor. Over time I began to notice similarities between the film and actuality and have come to the conclusion that the sequence from the beginning of the film might actually become reality.

The way that things are going not only will humans will become as stupid as the movie suggests, but the planet will also be as overheated and filled with trash. This may not be fact but I believe that a large population of people, especially in the United States, have become a lot dumber and more ignorant.  Is the gun toting, obese, motorized scooter riding, American shown below too different from the Americans shown in the movie? I think not. If more people do not begin to lower the amount of trash thrown away, then the Earth might be pretty close to the Earth depicted in the movie. The combination of these two things, the stupidity and wastefulness of humans makes me draw a similarity between Idiocracy and Wall-e. In both movies, humans were a lot dumber than they are now and the earth is covered in trash and waste.

I noticed that Idiocracy had something to say about gender roles as well. In the movie women were probably as dumb as the men, as evidenced by the Attorney General, and were also used for sex constantly.  Every major corporation became some kind of sexual enterprise. Rita, as a prostitute, could be fine in a world like this.

I know people like money now, but that feeling seemed to be exaggerated in the movie. Frito would constantly be distracted by any kind of money talk.  Even thought the dollar had depreciated greatly, Frito still wanted some and would get tricked in to doing something for imaginary money quite often.

I don’t like or want to say this, but I think the rap genre of music and current television could start a trend similar to the one shown in Idiocracy. Neither uses particularly correct English, and all that is shown or heard is either violent or about sex, money, or women.

The humor in this movie is really childish and crude. The show Ow My Balls is slapstick humor that teenage boys would like, it crude but can be funny. Same goes with the rehabilitation one can even see similarities between that and NASCAR or WWF. This childish humor is an example of schadenfreude, pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. Some laugh at Ow My Balls because we know it hurts to get hit in the balls and its funny because it’s not happening to us.

This movie is really funny (at least to me). But it does make me fear for the future. I can actually see Idiocracy happening in real life. It may sound terrible but its true. I hope that we can escape this grisly fate and we can if we promote literacy, recycling, and shy away from things that dumb us down.

An Idiot's Reh-jeem

An Idiot’s Regime

            I had never heard of Idiocracy before this class, so I had no idea what it was going to be about. When I started the movie, I was pretty sure it would be really stupid, but by the end, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t horrible. To me, it resembled the tv series Futurama in that it was about a person that got cast into the future. Both this movie and that tv show are about “normal” people who are forced to live in a completely different world. Besides that, the notion of intelligence is addressed in both of the movie and in Futurama. I also initially thought that both Idiocracy and Futurama are based around social commentary, but I found that Idiocracy seemed to be more about making fun of a social commentary. This movie plays with the idea of intelligence and stupidity, and plays with these ideas through the use of fallacies. I wasn’t looking for fallacies when I started watching this film, but as soon as I identified one fallacy, I noticed that the entire movie utilized different fallacies to demonstrate the stupidity of the future people or to push the plot forward.

The entire plot of the movie is even based on fallacy; the narrator of the film states that because “stupid” people reproduce much more than “smart” people, the entire world would of course be filled with stupid people in 500 years. This statement isn’t even one fallacy; it rolls a slippery slope and a genetic fallacy into one concept. Considering the type of movie this was though, I actually thought the use of fallacies to be intentional, which made the comedy even more appealing to me. As the movie moves forward, the viewer is brought to a place where they understand the future people to be stupid not only because of their speech and their actions, but because of how they reason. When Joe is brought before the court, his trial is based purely on how he speaks and is called a “fag” which leads the court to erupt in laughter and then leads to his incarceration, the people base their reasoning for Joe to be guilty because of his character, not the fact that he doesn’t know how to operate in the future. This ad hominem fallacy is used very often throughout the movie, especially with whatever trouble Joe gets himself into. Every time he does something wrong, he is accused on the basis of him talking like a fag or, as written on one sign at his rehabilitation, he’s guilty because “he’s a dick”. Even though putting millions of people out of their jobs probably wasn’t the best decision Joe made, the only way the future people were able to put his wrongdoing into words was through this fallacy.

The fallacy that I initially noticed in this film was when Joe had his first meeting concerning the crops after seeing that they were watered with that electrolyte Gatorade-like drink; brawndo. When Joe was trying to argue in favor of water, the argument kept circling back to water being gross because it comes from the toilet, a genetic fallacy, and brawndo having “what every plant craves, its got electrolytes.” When Joe asked what was so important about electrolytes, his cabinet just kept talking in circles, saying that electrolytes are used to make brawndo because brawndo has electrolytes.

These different fallacies, as well as some others are used to help the viewer identify with the stupidity of the future people, and to help sympathize with Joe’s frustration in dealing with them. The use of these fallacies really added to the comedy of the film, as well. Overall, this movie was actually very funny and it helped me to identify and see the different uses a fallacy can have.

Idiocracy

            The title explains the whole movie. Joe Bauers, the symbol for the average American, is satisfied with how his life is. Not doing much but just coasting by at his job, which is just sitting at a desk. He gets ordered to participate in a top-secret government program that freezes people for hibernation. Rita, another character, is also a participant in this experiment. The experiment starts but quickly fails and instead of being frozen for a year, it turns into 500 years.

            During Joe and Rita’s slumber, people are not increasing intellectually, but decreasing in intelligence. So the future is full of unintelligible people. Due to the unintelligent people reproducing the most and creating more unintelligent offspring. Not the ideal future we would want. Not only criticizing the unintelligent people but the government as well.

            Seeing the opposite of what we have been told about the future, this movie does make you wonder what if. I do not think many people think the future will be completely full of idiots, which is what adds to the humor of this movie. An unexpected outcome that is to ridiculous to be taken seriously.

                        

Idiocrazy

Holly Reese
3-17-13
Idiocracy

Idiocrazy

     The humor of the film Idiocracy is idiotic-- but in a good way. When the film began and the premise was introduced I was hesitant. I am not usually a fan of humor that relies heavily on bathroom and sexual jokes. Even though Idiocracy was heavy on this style of humor, it was effective it telling its story and making its point.

     Idiocracy reminded me of post apocalyptic films but it’s idea of the future was much more frightening. A world of idiots constantly reproducing and living in filth is much more terrifying than a world that has been overtaken by machines or aliens. I can’t imagine anyone seeing this film and thinking, “Wow, a future like that seems awesome!” This film was made in 2006, but criticism of mass media and advertising has been around long before this film portrayed it in its extreme. This issue is still relevant today. Idiocracy criticizes media and advertising throughout the film’s entirety. One obvious example is the secretary of state who gets paid every time he says “Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.” In the future, there is an overload of advertisements and sponsorship and while this may be absurd as we watch the film today, the obvious exaggeration makes a valid argument about the media of our culture today.

       As ridiculous as this film might be, it makes the audience think. At one point in the beginning of the film, the narrator says “The years passed, mankind became stupider at a frightening rate. Some had high hopes the genetic engineering would correct this trend in evolution, but sadly the greatest minds and resources where focused on conquering hair loss and prolonging erections.” This scene of the film is humorous, but when you really think about it there is some truth within it. Today, there are still no cures for cancer, the common cold, or other life threatening ailments but there are a vast majority of treatments and cures for erectile dysfunction and hair loss. Granted, cancer is a much more serious issue than erectile dysfunction (some people may disagree) but what if the money and efforts that are put forth in research of erectile dysfunction was switched to cancer research? Wouldn’t having more doctors and scientists work towards the bigger issues help to solve the problem? Maybe, maybe not. This is just one idea that was sparked as I watched Idiocracy.
 
       While I don’t think this film was made for the sole purpose of warning people about the world’s future, I do think that Mike Judge does an effective job criticizing the “what ifs.” Society is constantly wondering about what the future holds for mankind. There are dozens of theories and Idiocracy’s cannot be counted out as a possibility. This film used humor effectively to force audiences to think about mankind’s potential humor. I enjoyed Idiocracy, and even though I was laughing as I was watching it, I also cringed at the thought that someone would want a recliner with a toilet built into it. I enjoyed that this film made me laugh but also made me think.

Idiocracy

     If there was a movie out there that was absolutely ridiculous it would be Idiocracy, but this movie did have some very interesting points. It was a satire about the future and society. First, when I saw the trash heap it made me think of Wall-e and maybe they took some of those ideas from this movie. In Wall-e the people lived on a ship because Earth was inhabitable and all of the people became so fat that they had hovering chairs. In this film, some of the ideas are similar. Earth is still partially habitable except all of the people became stupid.

     Realistically, you would think that society would get smarter from all of the evolving technology. In the movie the technology declined. For example, when Joe goes to see a doctor and the lady at the desk trying to help him could not figure out which button to push. That key pad she had looks like a toy that toddlers would use. It was so simple and yet she still could not figure out where to send Joe.

     Another thing was all of the names and advertisement. Like starbucks. It was something about hand Jobs. That just does not make any sense. And fudruckers became something else that I am not even going to type.  A lot of things in this film were contradictory and that is what was criticizing and satirizing in the film.

     Another thing I wanted to add was about their president. I am not sure if I interpreted this correct, but society had always been against having a black president. In the old days, people thought black people were not the most intelligent president. They could not even read, but in the film the president was reading a teleprompter.  So I wonder if the director did this on purpose. One thing I did notice about mis en scene in the film was when the president said he had three reasons that Joe was the guy to help he held up 4 fingers. He goes on through his list on three and when he got to three I was expecting a fourth reason but then remembered that he only said three. If I had not watched his fingers then I would not have reacted the way that I did. 

Idiocracy - Criticizing Society

In the film, Idiocracy, current society is satirized through the depiction of a future society which displays an extreme downward trend in educational and technological advancements. The movie follows Joe Bauers, a private in the army. Joe becomes part of a secret military experiment in which he and a woman named Rita are frozen, to test whether or not the long term freezing and storing humans is plausible. They are forgotten and are unfrozen in the year 2505 to find that humanity has undergone the mass reproduction of society’s least intelligent members. Joe and Rita find themselves saving the human race of the future from inevitable collapse. Through the future society the movie satirizes current methods of advertising, the legal and political systems, as well as exploring the values and consequences of modern society on the future of humanity.

It is not uncommon to see advertising almost everywhere in our day to day lives; Idiocracy takes this to the extreme. In the society of the future, clothing can be pulled from a box, like a tissue, and is emblazoned with company names and logos. There are advertisements on the sides of buildings, water fountains, cars, and any other viable surface. Amusingly, this is very similar to our current society. Television programming is constantly interrupted with commercials for new goods, buildings and billboards are plastered with advertisements for this service or that store, the clothing and gear of professional athletes really is covered in corporate sponsors and logos. I believe that these parallels are meant to show the similarities between the current society and the “future” society, in order to warn people about succumbing to advertising and materialism.

The legal system and political system in Idiocracy are both ridiculous caricatures of the worst aspects of today’s system. The courtroom is ruled by popular opinion and the defense, prosecutor, and judge are incompetent and uninformed on the matter of correct legal proceedings. At one point Joe’s court appointed attorney turns around and begins telling the courtroom of all the bad things Joe has done and why he deserves to go to jail. The people in the courtroom are thrilled to see someone sentenced to time in jail and they yell at Joe, ignoring the intelligent points he makes. This not only draws attention to faults in our court system and the frequency with which mistakes and questionable decisions are made, it also satirizes the way people react to sensationalized court cases. The political system in Idiocracy is just as damaged as the court system. The President is not only intellectually incompetent, but he really serves no actual purpose. He does not do any of the things that one would expect. He does not help the economy, or agriculture, or make informed decisions for the good of the people. Instead President Camacho gives obscure speeches, sings, and promises the people that someone else will fix all of their problems. While this does not necessarily reflect the presidency itself, it does reflect and satirize the way which people approach it. Society is obsessed with the scandals of the presidency and the “viral video worthy” moments in a president’s career than what they are actually doing for the country. People only seem to care about the president’s true purpose when they have an excuse to complain about him.

While Idiocracy may appear to be no more than an ordinary comedy film, the sole purpose of which is simply to make people laugh, it is really a commentary on modern society and a warning about what is to come if the people in our society do not reevaluate their morals and values. If people continue to put their desire for fun and leisure before learning and self-improvement, then society really will begin to generate less intelligent generations with no willingness to do anything. Sex is even portrayed as the pastime of the less intelligent, as it is the people who have been having partaking in sex the most who reproduce the most (i.e. the dumb people). This movie even addresses the implications and limitations of intelligence. While Joe was the smartest person in the future society, he never caught onto the fact that Rita had been a prostitute, proving that even the most intelligent people can be naïve on some matters. Almost every laughable moment in this film ridicules an aspect of society that must be changed in order to avoid ruining the world for future generations.