i want you to hit me as hard
as you can... In the year 2006 Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest
reigned supreme at the box office while the Boston crime saga The Departed led to the first
and only Oscar for director Martin Scorsese. But in the 15 years since then, one other film
has also become a cultural milestone due to its weirdly prescient views of the future. A film
so neglected in its initial release that the studio didn't even bother to make a trailer for
it. Dubbed the smartest stupid movie ever made, Idiocracy was barely a box office blip when
it was quietly released in September 2006. Why was this film from renowned creator Mike
Judge tossed aside and left to die by the studio? Mutilate your thirst as we find out
what the [ __ ] happened to this movie! Mike Judge is no prophet, just an average
guy. Born in Ecuador and raised in New Mexico, Judge would later graduate from University of
California San Diego with a degree in physics. But after working several menial jobs in his
chosen field he found himself getting bored. So he did what every person does when they don't
like physics anymore, become a bass player for the Shamu band at Sea World in San Diego and
follow that by touring with blues musicians Anson Funderbergh and Doyle Bramhall. At this
point Judge had also started messing around with animation, even purchasing a 16 millimeter
camera to make his own animated shorts. This led to the creation of Frog Baseball, based
on a conversation he once overheard where two people actually discussed such a thing. Judge
thought to himself, who the hell would do that? How about Beavis and Butthead! This short, which
aired as part of the MTV series Liquid Television, was so popular that it led to MTV signing
Judge to create the now iconic series Beavis and Butthead. The show aired nearly 200 episodes
in the span of just five years with many critics accusing the show of being responsible for the
dumbing down of America. you're a stupid dumbass. That controversy didn't matter as Beavis
and Butthead has become one of television's longest lasting properties with a successful
theatrical film in 1996 a new season in 2011 and more soon to come. Judge would make
the leap to live action with Office Space, based on his animated Milton shorts, another case
of the creator taking inspiration from real life. The character was based on an actual man
he had worked with in his engineering days. Judge noticed that no one would ever talk
to the man so one day he stopped and said hi and that simple gesture gave the man the audience
he had been waiting for to unload all of his frustrations including a threat to burn the
building down if they moved his desk again. Even though we now think of Office Space as
a modern classic, it was actually a blink and you'll miss it affair. Even before its release
the studio showed very little faith in the film, telling Judge he needed to amp up the
energy and get rid of the gangsta rap. Leading up to its release in February 1999
the marketing left a lot to be desired with Judge and several cast members absolutely
hating the theatrical poster of a man covered in post-it notes, making it look more like an ad
for Big Bird or Office Depot, not a comedy film. Office Space would only make 10 million dollars in
theaters. One studio head reportedly told Judge, nobody wants to see your little movie about
ordinary people and their boring little lives. Even though Office Space crashed and burned
theatrically it quickly gained a following on home video, particularly with viewers who could
sympathize with its eerily accurate depiction of nine to five cubicle life. Because of that
eventual success 20th Century Fox was anticipating Judge's next project. It took a few years but
eventually Judge pitched his idea for Idiocracy. The concept of a society that gradually
gets dumber is actually not a new one, previously explored in stories like Cyril M
Kornbluth's 1951 short The Marching Morons. But Judge credited his inspiration for the idea to
a trip he once had taken to Disneyland. While he and his daughter stood in line waiting for a ride
two nearby women, each with children in strollers, began arguing loudly and screaming profanities.
This prompted Judge to think, is this the future Walt Disney had envisioned for his theme park? He
also thought about the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey, contemplating a different futuristic setting
where instead of the monolith and everything being pristine and advanced, what if it was
the Jerry Springer show and giant Walmarts? When Judge sat down to write the script, which
was then titled The United States of Uhh-merica, he used his own school experience as a guideline.
When a teacher would be disappointed in the classes test scores and point out the Judge was
the only student who did well, the other school kids would be furious and say we are going to beat
the [ __ ] out of you after class. So when writing the movie he essentially imagined his junior high
class taking over the world. Once the production got rolling the film's cast came together quickly
with Luke Wilson as ordinary guy Joe Bauers, later known as Not Sure, a remarkably unremarkable
army librarian selected for a suspended animation experiment that goes wrong. He's joined by SNL
regular Maya Rudolph as prostitute and future first lady Rita, Dax Shepard as avid tv watcher
and lawyer Frito Pendejo, and Terry Crews as President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert
Camacho, a role he auditioned for several times, even telling the casting director, if you
could find anyone better than me for this role, cast him immediately. The movie, tentatively
retitled 3001, filmed around Texas in 2004. According to the cast and crew it was a
relatively straightforward and fun shoot, but behind the scenes judge was dealing with
headache after headache from the studio. The budget was only a few million dollars
but they were nickel and diming him, refusing to pay for several visual effects shots.
This resulted in Judge asking his friend Robert Rodriguez to do some of the shots, which the
filmmaker kindly supplied free of charge. Another hassle Judge experienced was making sure
his futuristic movie actually seemed like it was set in the future, which meant choosing wardrobe
that could be plausible 500 years from now. One day the production's costume designer brought
in some clunky footwear that was made of plastic. Judge thought, look at these stupid plastic
shoes, you'd have to be an idiot to wear them! He was wary of using them in the film out of
concern they could actually become popular by the time it was released but he was assured that
could never happen. Cut to two years later and Crocs were everywhere! Another time Judge wasn't
far off from reality was when he shot two minutes of just a bare butt for the movie within a movie
titled simply Ass. The crew went to a reform school and used 250 students for a scene where a
packed movie theater audience can't stop laughing at this quote-unquote film. Judge assumed he
would have to direct the crowd since a movie featuring just a flatulent butt surely wouldn't
make any sense without context. To his surprise and dismay the audience all started laughing
without direction and couldn't stop. Judge turned to his director of photography and pondered why
they were even bothering to make Idiocracy when they could just release this. But the film's
true challenges came after production wrapped. Test screenings began in March 2005 yielding
some pretty terrible results. The cast and crew reconvened for reshoots to address some of the
problems and the second round of test screenings garnered much higher results. Judge and the
studio butted heads over how to market the movie. Judge felt burned by how Fox mishandled Office
Space and didn't want the same fate for Idiocracy. He said the studio was treating it like some
kind of deep what if time travel was real movie and not what he said it actually was, the story
of an average guy who winds up in a stupid future. With Office Space a newly minted cult hit and
Beavis and Butthead still popular, you might think Fox would have launched a heavy marketing campaign
to let the world know something new was coming from Mike Judge. And yet for months, silence.
Idiocracy sat on the shelf for over a year and no one involved with the film knew what was going on.
Judge speculated that with Office Space the studio spent millions on advertising only for the film to
fail theatrically but become a hit on home video, and perhaps the studio was thinking the
same thing would happen with Idiocracy, so why spend money to promote it? Others claim
that Fox was simply disappointed because they were under the impression that Idiocracy was going
to be dumb yet funny like Beavis and Butthead, and instead what they got was a funny movie that
makes fun of the dumb. But the consensus seems to be that Fox got cold feet when the companies that
had allowed their brands to be used in the movie got wind that their brains were actually being
mocked. Welcome to Costco, i love you. While making the film the studio's lawyers actually told
judge to make fun of several big name brands as a way to get them all to agree, as opposed to only
choosing one or two and having them feel like they were being singled out. This led to the creation
of the red light district scene. Allegedly prior to the movie's release several of these
companies complained to Fox about their depictions and not wanting to hurt potential future
sponsorships, the studio agreed to bury the movie. Just months before the film's release Judge was
interviewed by Esquire magazine about his career. During the interview Judge was waiting for Fox
to call and allow him to show the reporter the trailer for Idiocracy. The call from the studio
never came. In fact no theatrical trailer was released prior to the film hitting theaters,
no press screenings were given to reviewers, there were no ads of any kind save for a single
theatrical poster, something a former marketing head at Fox said he had never seen before.
Idiocracy was released on only 130 screens in September 2006, with many accusing the
studio of giving it a theatrical release purely to fulfill a contractual obligation. Fox
even went so far as to label the movie Untitled Mike Judge Comedy on popular ticketing sites like
Moviefone and Fandango, creating confusion for people that may have actually been looking for
Idiocracy. With all of that working against it, it's no wonder the film only managed to take
in less than half a million dollars in its entire theatrical run. The movie that the
studio clearly wanted to fail did just that. But then something happened. Critics who were
denied an early screening finally saw the film and began praising it, hailing it as the most potent
political film of the year. Variety critic Robert Koehler called it daring, saying it was one of the
few films with any ideas. With the movie getting a quick turnaround to home video, people were
finally able to see Idiocracy. And see it they did, as it amassed over 9 million dollars in home
video rentals. For most movies that would be where the story ends, but for Idiocracy that's only
part of the story. When Judge sat down to write this movie he exaggerated to such extremes that
he never thought they would actually come true, at least in his lifetime. When asked about this in
a recent interview he commented, I'm no prophet, I was off by about 490 years. There have been
countless videos made comparing a certain political leader's speeches to those by President
Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho. Fox even shut down the possibility of Terry Crews
reprising his role as President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho for a series of
fake campaign ads before the 2016 U.S. election. The studio feared the comedic videos would
be viewed by some as attack ads. Even the movie's jokes that seemed outrageous, like the
secretary of state being sponsored by Carl's Jr. I'm the secretary of state brought to you
by Carl's Jr. practically became prophecy when the actual CEO of Carl's Jr. was nominated
to become the United States secretary of labor. But it's not just political aspects that have
made Idiocracy so relevant. Its depiction of a society reliant on pictures for communication
mimics the growing obsession with emojis. The film shows a world where curse words are no longer
taboo but used as powerful marketing tools, which seems familiar. Much like the movie's
omnipresent fluid Brawndo we would actually come to see COVID testing sites shamelessly
sponsored by big name stores and drink companies. Even a show like Ow My Balls or a clash between
phallic monster trucks don't seem like they would be that out of place on one of today's
countless cable channels and streaming services. Corporate mega mergers like the movies ATT Time
Warner Taco Bell have practically become reality, look no further than Disney's acquisitions of
giant brands like Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel and Idiocracy's owner 20th Century Fox. perhaps most
outlandish of all was the movie's concept of coffee shops that also offered sexual favors. Damn
I could really go for a Starbucks you know. Yeah well i really don't think we have time for a hand
job Joe. Who would imagine that would become a real thing? And yet there's the real-life Fellatio
Cafe located in Geneva Switzerland. Sure it's not Starbucks but are we really that far off? In 2017
Mike Judge was being interviewed on the Sony lot by the New York Times. Tom Rothman, head of Fox at
the time of Idiocracy's release, interrupted them to admit that Idiocracy's failure was entirely his
fault, to which Judge quickly replied, I agree. Rothman said that Judge and the film were ahead of
their time and perhaps the movie was made 10 years too early. The past few years have seen a rise in
comparisons between Idiocracy and the real world, even the respected Time magazine published an
article titled We Have Become an Idiocracy. The term has become so much more
than just the title of a great movie, it's now used regularly when something moronic
happens and the press dubs it an Idiocracy moment. Three years after Idiocracy, Judge would
return to directing with the comedy Extract, which he financed independently after learning
his lessons dealing with studios. Otherwise he's been busy with the short-lived animated show The
Goode Family, creating the hit HBO series Silicon Valley, and more adolescent debauchery with new
Beavis and Butthead material. Mike Judge has said that with Office Space it was such a sweet success
when it found an audience after the fact, but with Idiocracy he doesn't feel that same sense of
pride because that film's success has come at the expense of the dumbing down of America. After all,
he never dreamed he was making a documentary, and yet here we are. Thank you for watching, if you
like what you see please subscribe to our JoBlo videos channel, tell your friends who like this
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I remember finding this movie in the Blockbuster 2 for $10 DVD pile. Never heard of it before that. Then it became an instant classic with me and my friends. We tried to get everyone we knew to watch it.
I like money
Thanks for this - I never really knew the whole story, love these videos from them though
IDIOCRACY became Reddit.
The United States of UhhhMerica.
Welcome to Costco I love you.
These are the same assclowns at Fox that canceled Futurama. Fuck them.
I rewatched it a month ago.
I completely forgot how frequently they use the f slur. The 00s were wild.