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Idiocracy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mike Judge
Screenplay by	Etan Cohen Mike Judge
Story by	Mike Judge
Produced by	Elysa Koplovitz Mike Judge
Starring	Luke Wilson Maya Rudolph Dax Shepard Terry Crews
Cinematography	Tim Suhrstedt
Edited by	David Rennie
Music by	Theodore Shapiro
Production company	Ternion
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	September 1, 2006 (2006-09-01)
Running time	84 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$2.4 million
Box office	$495,303

Idiocracy is a 2006 American science fiction comedy film co-produced and directed by Mike Judge from a screenplay written by Judge and Etan Cohen based on a story written by Judge. The plot follows United States Army librarian Joe Bauers and prostitute Rita, who undergo a government hibernation experiment. Joe and Rita awake five hundred years later in a dystopian anti-intellectual society. The cast includes Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, Terry Crews, David Herman, Justin Long, Andrew Wilson, and Brad Jordan.

The concept of Idiocracy dates back to a concept Judge envisioned in 1996. Judge finished a script with the working title 3001 in 2001, rewriting the film a year later. Filming took place throughout 2004 at Austin Studios and other cities in Texas. Idiocracy serves as a social satire that touches on issues including anti-intellectualism, commercialism, consumerism, dysgenics, voluntary childlessness, and overpopulation. 20th Century Fox was hesitant to promote the film, refusing to grant it a wide release, and did not screen the film for critics. The decision not to market Idiocracy was seen as unexpected, following the success of Office Space (1999), and led to speculation. According to Crews, the film's satirical depiction of corporations made the film financially unviable, while Judge attributed 20th Century Fox's decision to negative test screenings; Judge stated that 20th Century Fox believed that the film would develop a cult following through its DVD release, similar to Office Space.

The film was released in the United States on September 1, 2006. Despite its lack of a major theatrical release, which resulted in a $495,000 gross at the box office, the film received positive reviews from critics and has since become a cult film.

Plot

In 2005, United States Army librarian Joe Bauers is selected for a government suspended animation experiment as the most average individual in the armed forces. Lacking a suitable female candidate, the military hires a prostitute, Rita, by dismissing charges against her and paying off her pimp, Upgrayedd. A scandal involving the officer overseeing the initiative and Upgrayedd forces the closure of the military base under which Joe and Rita were placed in hibernation, suspending the project indefinitely. Over the next five hundred years, average intelligence decreases due to societal expectations, discouraging well-educated individuals from having children as the less-educated reproduce indiscriminately; genetic engineering is forgone in favor of hair loss and erectile dysfunction treatments. As a result, infrastructure deteriorates, low comedy and vulgarity defines culture, and consumerism is left unfettered.

Five hundred years later, a garbage avalanche disturbs Joe and Rita's hibernation chambers. Joe awakens in Frito Pendejo's apartment in previously-occupied Washington, D.C. Seeking assistance, Joe's higher register conflicts with average anti-intellectualism. He enters a hospital, believing the army administered hallucinogenic drugs to him. Joe realizes the year upon reading a magazine and his hospital bill, but he is arrested at a Carl's Jr. for not having a bar code tattoo and being unable to pay his bill. Joe is sent to trial; Frito represents Joe but alleges he destroyed his apartment. The judge perceives Joe to have an effeminate voice and homosexual demeanor, finding him guilty and sentencing him to prison. Rita resumes her job as a prostitute.

Joe is sent to a correctional facility, where a faulty identification machine registers his name as "Not Sure", and takes a simplified aptitude test. He escapes from prison after deceiving a guard by saying he had served his sentence and was scheduled for release. Joe visits Frito, who agrees to guide him to a time machine—located within a large Costco Wholesale store—after Joe promises to create a savings account in Frito's name, earning him billions in compound interest. With Rita, Joe and Frito enter the store, but Joe is arrested after his bar code is scanned. Joe is taken to the White House and appointed secretary of the interior by president Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho due to extraordinary performance on the aptitude test. In an address, Camacho states that Joe will resolve unfruitful crop yields, dust storms, and a stagnant economy, among other issues, within a week or face imprisonment.

Joe and Rita visit a crop field. Frito gives him an incomprehensible map to the time machine. Joe discovers that the country's crops are being watered with Brawndo, a sports drink whose parent company owns the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Federal Communications Commission; the concentration of electrolytes in Brawndo has destroyed natural topsoil, causing dust storms. Despite opposition to his plan in the form of circular reasoning from the Cabinet, Joe convinces Camacho to use water instead of Brawndo in irrigation. Consequently, Brawndo—who employs half of the population—files for bankruptcy, inciting riots as immediate improvement to the crops did not materialize.

At the Extreme Court, Joe is sentenced to public execution in a monster truck demolition derby against undefeated rehabilitation officer Beef Supreme. Rita and Frito discover that Joe's reintroduction of water to the soil allowed crops to grow. Rita pays a cameraman to broadcast the crops on the stadium's Jumbotron, prompting Camacho to grant Joe a presidential pardon. Joe discovers the time machine was an amusement ride, a detail Frito was aware of. Joe becomes president and marries Rita, with whom he has three children. Frito becomes vice president and has 32 children, all stated to be "the dumbest kids ever to walk the earth" in contrast to Joe and Rita's children, who are "the three smartest kids in the world."

Cast

• Luke Wilson as Joe Bauers / Not Sure – A former librarian in the United States Army and eventually the president of the United States.
• Maya Rudolph as Rita – A prostitute and eventually the first lady of the United States.
• Dax Shepard as Frito Pendejo – A lawyer and eventually the vice president of the United States.
• Terry Crews as Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho – The president of the United States.
• Andrew Wilson as Beef Supreme – A rehabilitation officer
• Brad Jordan as Upgrayedd – A pimp

Other cast members include David Herman as the secretary of state, Justin Long as Doctor Lexus, Stephen Root as Judge Hector, Anthony "Citric" Campos as the Secretary of Defense, Thomas Haden Church as Brawndo's chief executive, and Sara Rue as the attorney general in an uncredited role.

Themes

The idea of a dystopian society based on dysgenics can be traced back to the work of eugenicist Sir Francis Galton. H. G. Wells' 1895 novel The Time Machine postulates a society of humans which has devolved due to lack of challenges, while the "Epsilon-minus Semi-Morons" of Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel Brave New World have been intentionally bred to provide a low-grade workforce; perhaps the best parallel is provided by the 1951 short story "The Marching Morons" by Cyril M. Kornbluth.

Production

Early working titles included The United States of Uhh-merica and 3001. Filming took place in 2004 on several stages at Austin Studios and in the Texas cities of Austin, San Marcos, Pflugerville, and Round Rock. Test screenings around March 2005 produced unofficial reports of poor audience reactions. After some re-shooting in the summer of 2005, a UK test screening in August produced a report of a positive impression.

Release

Idiocracy's original release date was August 5, 2005, according to Mike Judge. In April 2006, a release date was set for September 1, 2006. In August, numerous articles revealed that release was to be put on hold indefinitely. Idiocracy was released as scheduled but only in seven cities (Los Angeles, Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and Mike Judge's hometown, Austin, Texas), and expanded to only 130 theaters, not the usual wide release of 600 or more theaters. According to the Austin American-Statesman, 20th Century Fox, the film's distributor, was entirely absent in promoting the feature; while posters were released to theaters, "no movie trailers, no ads, and only two stills", and no press kits were released.

The film was not screened for critics. Lack of concrete information from Fox led to speculation that the distributor may have actively tried to keep the film from being seen by a large audience, while fulfilling a contractual obligation for theatrical release ahead of a DVD release, according to Ryan Pearson of the AP. That speculation was followed by open criticism of the studio's lack of support from Ain't It Cool News, Time, and Esquire. Time's Joel Stein wrote "the film's ads and trailers tested atrociously", but, "still, abandoning Idiocracy seems particularly unjust, since Judge has made a lot of money for Fox."

In The New York Times, Dan Mitchell argued that Fox might be shying away from the cautionary tale about low-intelligence dysgenics because the company did not want to offend either its viewers or potential advertisers portrayed negatively in the film. This theory has been given extra weight by Terry Crews, who stars in the movie as President Camacho. In a 2018 interview with GQ Magazine, he talked of advertisers being unhappy at the way they were portrayed, which affected the studio's efforts to promote the movie. He said, "The rumor was, because we used real corporations in our comedy (I mean, Starbucks was giving hand jobs) these companies gave us their name thinking they were gonna get 'pumped up', and then we're like, 'Welcome to Costco, we love you' . All these real corporations were like, 'Wait a minute, wait a minute' ... there were a lot of people trying to back out, but it was too late. And so Fox, who owned the movie, decided, 'We're going to release this in as few theaters as legally possible'. So it got a release in, probably, three theaters over one weekend and it was sucked out, into the vortex".

In 2017, Judge told The New York Times that the film's lack of marketing and wide release was the result of negative test screenings. He added that Fox subsequently decided to not give the film a strong marketing push because the distributor believed it would develop a cult following through word-of-mouth and recoup its budget through home video sales, as Judge's previous film Office Space had.

Box office

From a budget of $2.4 million, Idiocracy earned a worldwide total of $495,303; $444,093 domestically, and $51,210 internationally.

Reception

Although it was not screened in advance for critics, Idiocracy received positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 71%, with an average rating of 6.4/10, based on 52 reviews. The website's "Critics Consensus" for the film reads, "Frustratingly uneven yet enjoyable overall, Idiocracy skewers society's devolution with an amiably goofy yet deceptively barbed wit." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 66 out of 100, based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Los Angeles Times reviewer Carina Chocano described it as "spot on" satire and a "pitch-black, bleakly hilarious vision of an American future", although the "plot, naturally, is silly and not exactly bound by logic. But it's Judge's gimlet-eyed knack for nightmarish extrapolation that makes Idiocracy a cathartic delight." In an Entertainment Weekly review, Joshua Rich gave the film an "EW Grade" of "D", stating that "Mike Judge implores us to reflect on a future in which Britney and K-Fed are like the new Adam and Eve." The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin found Luke Wilson "perfectly cast ... as a quintessential everyman"; and wrote of the film "Like so much superior science fiction, Idiocracy uses a fantastical future to comment on a present. ... There's a good chance that Judge's smartly lowbrow Idiocracy will be mistaken for what it's satirizing." Gerald Casale, a founding member of the new wave band Devo, said Idiocracy is "the movie Devo should have made."

The film was also well received in other countries. John Patterson, critic for The Guardian, wrote, "Idiocracy isn't a masterpiece—Fox seems to have stiffed Judge on money at every stage—but it's endlessly funny", and of the film's popularity, described seeing the film "in a half-empty house. Two days later, same place, same show—packed-out." Brazilian news magazine Veja called the film "politically incorrect", recommending that readers see the DVD and wrote "the film went flying through theaters and did not open in Brazil. Proof that the future contemplated by Judge is not that far away."

Critic Alexandre Koball of the Brazilian website CinePlayers.com gave the movie a score of 5 out of 5. Another staff reviewer wrote, "Idiocracy is not exactly ... funny nor ... innovative but it's a movie to make you think, even if for five minutes. And for that it manages to stay one level above the terrible average of comedy movies released in the last years in the United States."

Home media

Idiocracy was released on DVD on January 9, 2007. It has earned $9 million on DVD rentals, over 20 times its gross domestic box office revenue of under $450,000. In the UK, uncut versions of the film were shown on satellite channel Sky Comedy on February 26, 2009, with the Freeview premiere shown on Film4 on April 26, 2009.

Spin-offs

In August 2012, Crews said he was in talks with director Judge and Fox over a possible Idiocracy spin-off featuring his President Camacho character, initially conceived as a web series. A week before the 2012 elections, he reprised the character in a series of short sketches for Funny or Die. Before the 2016 presidential election, Rolling Stone published an article stating that Judge and Cohen would produce Idiocracy-themed campaign ads opposing Donald Trump's presidential campaign if given permission from Fox to do so. Crews later told Business Insider that the ads would not go forward as planned, but that they would have featured Camacho wrestling in a cage match against the other candidates.

Legacy

During the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, the film's co-writer Etan Cohen and others expressed opinions that the film's predictions were converging on accuracy, a sentiment repeated by director Judge during the elections that year. At the time, Judge also compared Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump—who was later elected president—to the film's pro wrestler-turned-president Camacho. When asked about predicting the future, he quipped, "I'm no prophet, I was off by 490 years."

Comparisons have been made between the film and Trump's first presidency. An article for Collider pointed out the ways in which Trump's positions echoed the political decisions of the characters in the film in areas such as science, business, entertainment, environment, healthcare, law enforcement, and politics. Internet memes have spawned comparisons to Trump and characters in the film.

See also

• Dumbing down
• Dysgenics
• Kakistocracy
• "The Marching Morons"

References

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External links

• Idiocracy at IMDb
• Idiocracy at the TCM Movie Database
• Idiocracy at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films

• 2006 films
• 2000s science fiction comedy films
• American science fiction comedy films
• American satirical films
• 2000s English-language films
• Films directed by Mike Judge
• Films about suspended animation
• American dystopian films
• 2000s dystopian films
• Films about fictional presidents of the United States
• Films set in 2005
• Films set in the 26th century
• Films shot in Austin, Texas
• 20th Century Fox films
• Films about television
• Films set in Washington, D.C.
• Films set in the White House
• Films with screenplays by Etan Cohen
• Films with screenplays by Mike Judge
• Films scored by Theodore Shapiro
• 2006 comedy films
• 2000s political comedy films
• Films about intellectual disability
• 2000s American films
• English-language science fiction comedy films