- Mike Judge film Idiocracy serves as a prophetic exploration of anti-intellectualism, capitalism, consumerism, and political campaigning.
- The spread of disinformation and the decline in media literacy are highlighted in the film, reflecting real-world issues.
- President Camacho’s character bears a striking resemblance to former President Trump portraying an anti-intellectual political administration.
Mike Judge is an astute social critic who has demonstrated his ability to elicit laughter from the public while at the same time paying more attention to his worldview. Bye office space is one of the funniest films ever made, as well as a hilarious satire on the inhumane nature of corporate governance and the problems of American work culture. In a similar way, king of the hill is a more insightful comedy series about what “Middle America” really looks like than most drama projects on the same topic. While his concept sci-fi film Idiocracy Considered nothing more than a standard R-rated comedy upon its first release in 2006, the film was hailed as a prescient, almost terrifying exploration of anti-intellectualism, capitalism, consumerism, and political campaigning. Idiocracy plays very differently after the Trump administration, the growing threat of global warming and the COVID-19 crisis.
What is “idiocracy” about?
Idiocracy follows U.S. Army Librarian Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson), a person that most would call simply “average”. Bowers not only represents the typical American worker; The military defined him as literally the most average person in the world. Because of this research, Joe is sent to a high-priority hibernation experiment in which he is frozen intact to study what the future might look like. Unfortunately, after Joe’s departure, the world became less intelligent, and the experiment was eventually forgotten by the world, which abandoned scientific reason and logic. Joe wakes up 500 years after his life to find a strange dystopia in which society has fallen into a deep decline and he is literally “the smartest man in the world”. It’s Judge’s creative comedic idea, but the world he envisions in 2505 is fast approaching.
The most obvious early sign that Joe realizes that things are not as they should be is his interaction with the person who accidentally woke him up, Frito Pendejo (Dax Shepard). Frito resembles the person Joe might have been if he had grown up five centuries ahead, as Frito is also classified as an “average working person”. The difference between the two is that Frito doesn’t have any common intelligence and sticks to ridiculous conspiracy theories and pseudo-scientific beliefs. Judge uses this to create many great jokes; at one point, Frito waters his (dead) Gatorade plants “for electrolytes”. It’s a funny moment, but Frito just acts like a random idea he overheard, with some grain of truth, should be dictating his actions. This is usually the behavior he displays throughout the film.
Even if Frito’s Idiocracy is an exaggeration, it has much in common with the rapid spread of disinformation we see today. With conspiracy theories so widely believed and disturbing news articles circulating on social media, it’s safe to say that media literacy is dying at a rapid pace. What is he doing Idiocracy the somewhat horrific movie right now is that some of the specific examples it uses are based on actual conspiracies. Joe is arrested at Costco for a tattoo scanner in parallel with the barcode conspiracy theory that has taken root among some extremist political and religious groups.
Are we moving towards “idiocracy”?
While Frito is barely able to function due to his lack of basic understanding, at least he is not violent or particularly aggressive in nature. What could not be said about the administration of the city. IdiocracyPresident Duane Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho (played in an incredible comedy performance Terry Crews). To say that Camacho predicts Trump in some way would be an understatement; he’s a former reality TV star who gave up his TV persona to win the election, and his followers treat every word of it like gospel. In fact, this is a much more convincing (and accurate) depiction of an anti-intellectual political administration than Meryl Streepimage of the President of the United States Adam McKayWith Don’t look up or any other post-Trump satire. In the midst of the Trump administration, Crews and Judge actually responded to the disturbing parallels by bringing the character back for a series of “come to the vote” advertisements.
Camacho answers every question with a hail of shots, and it’s amazing that he can handle weapons at all. Violence is not caused by anything for Camacho; it’s just how he chooses to communicate, which is very similar to the rise in violent crime around the world. The Camacho administration itself discusses problems and never solves them, and entrusts incompetent officials with tasks that they did not even hope to complete; It’s not even satire, it’s just politics. Issues of particular concern to Camacho are the country’s food shortages, overpopulation, pollution, and a ruined economy; this is a segment of the film in which Judge actively draws attention to issues that were current in 2006 and have only escalated since the film’s release.
Idiocracy ends up optimistic. Despite being tasked with somehow solving the world food crisis in a short amount of time as the newly appointed Home Secretary, Joe finds a simple solution to a problem that is wiping out the world’s resources. He learns that the electrolyte drink that has become so common is being used in agriculture, which has both destroyed the environment and eliminated potential food sources. He traces this back to the corporate owner of the drink, who literally owns the FDA, FCC and USDA. Luckily, he was able to come up with an irrigation system that uses real water.
After proving to the world that his new device is effective, the presidential administration agrees to forgive him for his crimes and quickly put the tool into action. This is the moment when Judge makes the assumption that the citizens of 2505 will listen to logic and take action. Will the world of 2023 do the same? Idiocracy it’s the type of movie where you laugh as much as you cringe because it feels too real these days.
Source: Collider
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