How The Smartest Sci-Fi Of The 2000s Was Destroyed And Doomed By Greed And Cowardice
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Despite the high potential of Idiocracy to become a box office sleeper-hit, 20th Century Fox decided to squash Mike Judge's time travel movie before it even had a chance, and the reasons behind their decision are terrible. The movie was saved by independent publishers like Cinema Blend and sci-fi fans with a sense of humor, but could that ever happen again in the future? Maybe not.
Find out more about Google's attack on independent publishers here: www.giantfreak...
Gotta feed the plants. They need electrolytes.
Brawdo has what they crave
@@GiantFreakinRobotagreed 😅
My response is that, when you really look at "Idiocracy", the dysgenic mechanism breaks everything we know about human intelligence (the Flynn effect, etc.) and how "dumb" the actual population is (it's less stupidity and more a poorly designed primary and secondary school system mated to an awful economic system.) 20th Century Fox probably was paying attention to what Universal Studios did to Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" (1985) and said "we can do better than that."
They really do! All they needed in The Future was BRAWNDO FOR PLANTS! Maybe it's BLUE. Brawndo for People can be the same. Brawndo for plants is FERTILIZER, people! It doesn't have sugar in it, probably. Cows I don't know. Maybe they can drink Brawndo for People? Or just water!!!
It bombed cause it was shite.
Long story short: MIke Judge is a genius. Fox is a bunch of morons.
Well of course. They ultimately sold out to Disney.
Look what Fox did to Donald Trump.
and now onto why Firefly was destroyed
Fox didn't promote it because it hit too close to home. Idiocracy is comedy, documentary, and prophecy all rolled into one.
Could be, but I note that Fox TV cancelled Firefly after one season. Maybe they're just too stupid to know quality when they see it.
@@andrewfleming8103 it's the same reason though. They didn't want *those* kind of rebellious sentiments getting traction.
There's something poetic about a movie about decay being buried by the agents of decay, as told by a reputable news outlet being replaced by AI slop.
It's like it's breaking the 4th wall just in the backstory of the movie itself.
Who knew back then that his movie would actually be prophetic.
Anybody with a brain.
It's kind of the whole point.
@@ValiantGarton THAT´S where the problem is located!
It's not prophetic though. In the film, they found the smartest person on the planet, made him science advisor *and took his advice*.
It was when Crocs first came out. The wardrobe person brought them to Mike Judge and he thought they were so hilariously ugly and stupid that they were perfect for the movie because, you know, no one is ever going to actually buy them.
Man, we got this in even in Norway. Loved it! At the time we thought it to be sadly accurate and with time only proving it self at so many levels.
The UK (government) is using 1984 for its national model, while the US has been modelled on 'Idiocracy', in recent years.
👍
I dunno I'd say idiocracy meets 1984 has been a western civilization wide go for the so called leaders of our land for years now.
Can we trade Trump for Terry Crewes?
No, America has been using 1984 as well. Certainly since at least 2021 it has.
🇬🇧: Yeah, don't believe every thing you read online
Considering how far the world has fallen in the last 20 years i think Idiocracy is a best case scenario in 500 years.
I think we are headed there but the dummies will be of a different type.
005 years*
50 the way things are going
The current generation in the US has taken the 95% literacy rate my generation had and turned it into 50%. That difference only took 20 years. I agree Idiocracy is a best case scenario.
88 mph
Johnny Dangerously had been my favorite unnoticed masterpiece until Idiocracy. I hope your video makes a lot more people aware it's there.
Johnny Dangerously! Oh man have not thought about that one in a long time.
@@GiantFreakinRobot It shoots through schools.
Add the movie Oscar to that list and you have 3 of the best hidden movies.
Well. Reality was quicker. We are way closer to that than they anticipated.
Mike Judge is, and always has been, a hero. Thank You for everything you’ve done, Sir.
Idiocracy was a documentary.
November 5th proved it
@@bob_the_bomb4508 Cry harder, boo
@@NordicDan you get the government you deserve
@@bob_the_bomb4508 Yep and we're about to get a vastly improved one after the last four years of hell.
@@bob_the_bomb4508 Yep and we're about to get a vastly improved one after the current 4-year nightmare ends.
It failed because most of the audience and ALL of the studio heads thought it was a documentary and not a satire. It’s terrifying that it’s actually a prophesy.
The really funny part is how VERY realistic this future could be.
Idiocracy was way ahead of its time.
WAS!
Not for long anymore... 😖
Was it? It's basically the same premise as HG Wells's the time machine written 110 years earlier. Man goes into the far future to find culture stagnated and mankind deteriorated into imbeciles because their inventions removed the struggle of life. The only thing missing is the morlocks. Everything else is just a more modern up to date version of the same thing.
The one thing the movie got wrong was that it won't take 500 years to get to that level of self-destructive stupidity.. I love the flick, but nowadays the humor is almost undermined by the pessimistic feelings derived from watching it happen in real life.
I saw it in theaters,and I never had any idea how small a release it had. It was Labor Day weekend,and it was up against Snakes on a Plane. Essentially nothing else was playing that was worth anything, so those of us who didn't want to see Snakes on a Plane were watching Idiocracy. Right after the first Ow My Balls scene there was uproarious laughter and screaming from the neighboring theater, and every single person in our theater laughed because we just KNEW some snake had bitten some guy in the crotch.
seeing Hulk Hogan rip his shirt off at the RNC was almost exactly like the movie.
I thought of this film (though I have never seen it) when Hulk Hogan did that and so many other times.
Same with Biden's inability to form a coherent sentence and Harris with her constant cackling.
@deadon4847 Trump speaks at the level of a 12 year old, literally. Other world leaders speak English better than he does. Trump was making just as many gaffes from civil war airfields to covfefe. He suffers from malignant narcissism according to mental professionals. He refuses to release his medical record just as he never produced his taxes. Just about everything he says is a lie and he is as thick as pig shit and has threatened to sue any school that releases them. He also refused to divest his businesses which is massively illegal but Obama should present his birth certificate. The FBI believe he is almost certainly a foreign agent. He is also a rapist and a traitor who continually lied about winning the election. He cared more about himself than Americas problems. If it had been a secret ballot he would have been impeached and he was Epsteins best friend. He can't grasp the most basic economics like how tarriffs work and inherited a great economy from Obama and screwed it up adding more to Americas debt....why am I bothering, there is no end to how unsuitable he is. And Kamala doesn't cackle all the time the propaganda were trying to come up with anything.
Trump has always reminded me of Camacho. For me, that's a positive comparison, because Camacho cares about his job and the country, and actually looks to find someone more capable than him at solving the problems. He doesn't try gaslighting anyone that there's no problems out there.
I liked the fact his attorney in the movie graduated from Costco law school. That was hilarious
Welcome to Costco, I love you.
Idiocracy aged like the finest wine. It was a foreshadow of a near future. And was spot on.
Right on, it predicted crocs.
The future is going to be mix idiocracy and demolition man.
Ok so how do you use the seashells?
@@yellowstone024Idk, that's part of the idiocracy. Is paper hard git in the future?
Russians live in savagery already.
@@shayneevans4260 Didn't see Frito wiping when he got off his chair to throw out Joe did you?
@@yellowstone024One flushes, one wipes, one removes the tampon.
Fox also destroyed Firefly, which was an even more 'idiotic' move because it didn't insult their friends, and it was made by the Buffy creator so he had a good track record too.
Watch the movie Serenity> He kills the main cast in the most brutal ways possible.
Everybody should see "Network" from 1976. Now that's really prophetic, and it was nominated and should have won Best Picture (sorry Rocky).
great movie....
About ten years ago I saw the DVD in a thrift shop. I knew nothing about it but it looked interesting so I bought it. I've watched it several times and lent it to friends. A great movie :-)
10:11 Mike Judge felt like the actor they hired to play Jennifer Anniston's boss, wasn't getting the character right. So Mike Judge did it himself. That's him in the scene with Jennifer.
The mistake was going through a big studio to make this movie. An independent studio might not have had as much money, but they would have tried to market it. And this wouldn't be that hard to market. It's a high concept premise. "What if you fell asleep and woke up 500 years later only to find you're now the smartest man alive? "
Idiocracy became a live-action event, and we're all participating.
It truly feels that way. The crocs and the healthcare, the jail setting, even the politics to some degree, all we need is to have Costco dominate the world instead of Amazon and we'll be truly living in this movie.
I guess I am one of the lucky few who was able to see the movie in theaters.
My first thought as the movie ended was "This movie was a documentary."
On the few occasions someone mentions the movie, I still refer to it as a documentary.
Same thing happened to series called Houseos based in Australia. People thought it was a documentary! Funnest series ever. Can't ever seem to find it anymore. It's worth the watch if you can find it.
Art imitates life imitates art.
Mike was more prophetic than even he might have realized! Idiocracy is happening NOW!!!! Has been for the past 10 years. But now, this shit is FUKIN REAL!!!!!!
Idiocracy has become iconic
500 years into the future? Ha! We're right here in Idiocracy, now. That'll learn them smart people!
My friend and I were one of the few, who saw Idiocracy and Office Space in the theater.
Rare!
Wow, not even a single trailer. They didn't want this movie to be seen.
Yeah, it's a movie about stupidity, society doesn't want us to feel stupid, they want us to feel like we are smart, but only the rich and educated rise up. Though that's just what I think.
@GiantFreakinRobot I don't know. I think it is more about corporate needs above the needs of the individual. I still have to see the movie. Anyway nice vid and greetings from Germany!
thank you!!!!
I bet this would be a blockbuster if they re-released it in theaters today.
probably not, most people today have already devolved near that level of idiocy and degeneracy. maybe if offer 'em some burger, donut or whatever they gave to those that decided to get needled with the safe & effective inoculates... 🙄
yeah, especially right now with all the election stuff. I agree that it would be a blockbuster.
I heard about this movie via a podcast back in the day. And it’s a great movie. Unless you’re a Fortune 500 executive with zero sense of humor.
Like that reviewer from Variety. A good example of why Independent media matters
They killed Firefly too.
😢
Firefly is a rip off of outlaw star 😂😂😂
@@KallusGarnetyour point?
That's a somewhat lesser loss to culture.
Yes, in Serenity, they just BRUTALLY murdered the main cast!
Funny story about how I heard about Idiocracy. Our newspaper att had a txt in style 'letters to the editor' & in it a person wrote a humorous message about the state I lived in saying "a movie was made about you lot that really sums up your state, it's called Idiocracy, it's so true to life I was amazed" until I eventually Googled it I thought it was really about my state. It was a difficult and expensive movie to buy on DVD, but it's one of my favourites. BTW, it really does sum up where I live to a tee... lol 😂😂😂
One of the best sci fi of the last 25 years, had a lot to say about our culture and society’s trajectory into the future
The S.F. author C.M. Kornbluth wrote a story in the 1950's called "The Marching Morons" that had the same premise: educated people had fewer children than uneducated people so evolution would lead to humans being less intelligent. It was not a comedy. He had more than one story based on this idea. One of them, "The Little Black Bag", was filmed as an episode of the TV show Night Gallery.
"Joe was able to understand them, but when he spoke in an ordinary voice he sounded pompous and faggy to them" 😂
Things you could never say in a modern comedy lol
It was/is a funny and prophetic movie. It comes up in so many conversations these days.
I remember reading 'The Marching Morons' by Cyril M. Kornbluth, which had a man waking up in the future surrounded by morons. The premise is the same... provided inspiration, perhaps?
No. Actually Judge said he was inspired by the movie 2001, it got him wondering what the exact opposite future might look like. I’ll check out the book though!
Woody Allen's Sleeper is very similar to this movie as well.
@@GiantFreakinRobot Short story, actually. One of the other stories was about a doctor's bag from the future being sent to the past. It was adapted to a Night Gallery episode.
I'm familiar with The Marching Morons. As soon as I watched Idioocracy I considered The Marching Morons an unacknowledged inspiration.
Loved that short story and had thought it inspired Idiocracy.
The other real life documentary is "Demolition Man".
When San Angeles happens?
I have my DVD! I dont trust streaming. 😂
This is the Way.
That quote is the best thing to come out of Disney Star Wars.
Like TH-cam 👍
Better rip it and have several hard-drive copies, but NOT solid state, they can lose charge over time.
The DVD plastic can get brittle over time. I need to start ripping my shelves .... dear, what a project ...
This movie is one of those hidden gems everyone should watch.
I actually remember it in my local theater. Title sounded stupid so I passed it by. lol
It seems that the corporate advertisers and Fox Studios got scared because they didn't believe people would discern between their real companies and the ones parodied on screen.
That says a hell of a lot about modern corporations and their hypersensitivity to any kind of negative exposure. Frankly, the parody versions in Idiocracy are so ridiculous that there is little chance a customer of, say, Starbucks is going to stop buying coffee there just because it's depicted as a brothel in a parody movie. In fact, the opposite would more likely be true, putting the brand at front of mind from the sheer lunacy of it all.
By comparison, the British counter-culture magazine VIZ founded back in 1979 became so popular that it had advertisers lined up for the chance to feature on one of its pages, despite a contract that stated that one of the illustrators was allowed to deface their full-page ads to whetever extent he wanted. The magazine, similar to MAD Magazine but with a darker tone, features both real and parody ads for everything from milk to government employment opportunities.
In marketing, there's no such thing as bad publicity
im just here to read all the unique comments about the movie "becoming a documentary"
Great film and review. Double feature it with "God Bless America", by none other than Bobcat Goldthwait!!
Bobcat movies are wild!
God Bless America also ignored because the right come off as accurate.
"The English language has deteriorated" into garbage slang like "cap" and "stan"
Word. It cringe
Don’t diss Stan. He’s cool.
Never insult the advertisers, they'll make you pay. Great film, though.
May fortune favor the foolish.
"The Marching Morons" - C. M. Kornbluth, 1951.
Joe Bob says, "Check it out!"
What up fellow mutant
@Fikel-q8c - 'Up' is a relative concept with no intrinsic meaning. - Doctor Manhattan
@@good2f1nd indeed it is naked godly blue man 😂
It's not just a cult classic, it's part of the cultural meme zeitgeist.
Yep! And it almost wasn’t
I think I was able to see it the theater. It's probably most prophetic movie ever.
We are in a very elite and very small club!
so we can thank rotten tomatoes and giant f robot for being on top of things back in the day
This was a documentary from a parallel universe warning of the impending collapse of the empire. It had it all, and everyone ignored the warnings and signs.
It’s not a sci fi movie. It’s a documentary
This was exactly the sort of movie I didn’t like. I didn’t like the style of humor, the foul language. And yet I couldn’t stop watching it. Lost count of how many times I have watched it again.
Ironically if it had been promoted for theatrical release, I probably would never have watched it.
Like 1984, it is actually a book of now.
Didn't know that Fox tried to kill it. Loved the movie since I saw it many years after it was published and never understand how so few people had seen it cause most who seen it liked it.
Very interesting and educational clip about this _great_ movie.
(and a very, Very, underrated gem around prophetic movies - Idiocrazy is already real which e g things like Blade Runner, Jurassic Park or Star Trek can't compete with)
It's up there with Brazil
Greed And Cowardice by a studio destroyed a movie?
"I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!"
Regardless of how well it did on relase, it has become a well known and widely loved movie since then.
I recently started gardening a little... and who knew? Plants DO CRAVE electrolytes! Just not the same ones that people do! I buy them in sacks. I love Idiocracy so much I bought some green dye and Brawndo stickers, and when I mix up soluble fertilizer I make it look like Brawndo! I keep hoping someone will ASK.... I even found Brawndo T-shirts online. That's another level there, we don't in fact raise crops on just water!!!!! Joe isn't that smart, and doesn't know anything to speak of.... I think all those people in the future are going to die anyway! But that's a topic for another time. Maybe I'll write a BOOK!
Yup. Idiocracy is proving to be a far better prediction of the future (our present) than I would have ever imagined. It was also a really fun film.
That's the same company that played Firefly episodes out of order then blamed the show for not being coherent. As previously stated, what a bunch of morons.
Torgo's executive powder has a thousand and one uses
I'm one of those twelve people that saw it. I was checking the listings for the local multiplex (Simi Valley, Ca) and discovered it was out. Its listing in the movie times was the only mention of it in the paper and I already knew Fox was going to shitcan it after the contractual week, so zipped on down, watched it, and loved it.
I am surprised that since every IP short of "Mein Kampf" has been stripmined, they haven't brought "Ideocracy" back as a limited series. It has a much better rep now, and the storyline is loose enough that they could take potshots at everything. Go for it, Iger!
We are now brothers. A very small and elite group.
@GiantFreakinRobot I raise my glass of Brawndo to you...(It's got electrolytes!)
Why is it always Fox when something good gets abandoned?
They snuffed out Firefly as well. For which I will never forgive them.
Yes!!!! You are not alone on holding that grudge.
Disney nowadays: Hold my woke Kool-Aid!!
The corporate criminals didn't want their plans shown to everyone.
yeah no kidding.
Isn’t the lack of box office success an indictment of the decline of society it portrays and therefore actually a success?
I love this movie and hate it at the same time because every time I watch it i look around and think its actually coming true
I had never heard of Idiocracy until I had seen it on the new release wall of Blockbuster Video, the synopsis seemed hilarious so I gave it a try and absolutely loved it.
Seen it, funny movie. Did not know about the Fox dud launch. Thank you.
What do you mean?
@@GiantFreakinRobot Did not know about the poor cinema support
We'll run out of burrito wraps way before the movie predicts so mass starvation isn't off the table, for the near future in my not so humble opinion.
And what happened to the shoes they all had on ??? Crocs became popular, OMG!
It wasn't promoted because it hit too close to home. It was meant to be satire, but it turned out to be a documentary.
Remember, we have this movie to thank for the invention of Crocs shoes.
to thank??? they are supposed to be shower shoes!!!! I see people wear them to formal events.
@GiantFreakinRobot They were created for this movie.
The idea was to create a ridiculous looking shoe that no one would wear. Lol!
And it caught on.
Makes sense that Fox's powerful business partners felt insulted by the critical product references and made them bury the movie.
Such a shame, it was a fantastic movie.
I love this movie and I did see it in the theaters!!! And I own a copy so I can watch it whenever I want.
We have free speech, so long as you don’t bite the hands that feed it?
Fox did much the same thing with Firefox. Didn't understand it, didn't fit their 'idea' of a show, and the execs kept fiddling\emplacing themselves with the production and writers.
It was doomed to fail.
Star Trek in the 60's was much the same way, but Lucile Ball and Dezilu Studios stuck with it, to oppose NBC, but could not last more than three years.
I remember Idiocracy, never seen full because a friend who have a video store talk about it when other friends and my brother decide to have a video saturday, we reunite 5 pm and buy beer and nachos our video store friend come with the films all new dvd releases , 1 am after many beers the last film was Idiocracy, i only remember parts of it. When i want to see it again my friend say that someone rent it and never retuned, never see again in a state that i can appreciate it.
Well it’s not too late
@@GiantFreakinRobot One of the first signs of decline is bad grammar. 😂
@@Three_Random_Words sorry for the bad grammar, english is not my firts lenguage.
A prophecy? Nope we're there already!!!
And now it's a classic that is coming true
he never realized he was making a documentary.
Actually, I’m pretty sure he did…
@Wolf359inc well, now he does. I meant when he was making the movie.
@ so did I.
just found you in 2025 really enjoying it already great job 👍
It's whole creation, was a ironically a mirror of the subjects in the film,, no wonder it's a classic
One of the best things about it, weirdly
Fictitious Company Corporate 1: Guys, our plan is being outed by this new movie Idiocracy.
FC2: How much?
FC3: Everything but where we'll be. Should be ok.
FC1: Still too risky. Bury it, can't risk losing the scientists before they transfer their knowledge and abilities to AI and machines.
FC2: Yes, they have to make themselves extinct "naturally".
FC3: You mean by not having babies "because the world is so bad" and instead supporting all the worthless humanitarian causes we throw out there?
FC1: Shush. Somebody might be listening.
FC2: Maybe that's how they got the idea for the movie.
FC3: I'll fix their release. There won't be enough intelligent people left to revive it once I'm finished with it
You're giving them too much credit
Well idiocracy was ahead of it's time, but only by 20 years...
I never thought this movie would be documentary.
Thinking Idiocracy is the smartest "sci-fi" of the 2000's doesn't say much about the quality of the genre during this period.
Some things will never fade,
Outshining their normal grade,
I say with a cheer,
Have a cold beer,
And Idiocracy's the best movie ever made.
It's a really fun movie. Also rewatchable. I hope Mike Judge will end up being proud of it.
Yeah he seems so traumatized by it still he can’t enjoy it’s success
My friends and I still quote this movie weekly.
If they tried to remake Idiocracy today, it would be a documentary.
There would be this one scene where people watch a movie trailer and they all think they are geniuses for saying the exact same thing.
It may have bombed at the theater but it's one of my favorite movies all time and is unfortunately feeling more like a documentary these days.
This movie isn't smart. It has some weirdly dangerous ideas like 'stupid people have stupid kids.' The whole movie is based around this obviously wrong, unrealistic and potentially dangerous idea.
The greatest issue with Idiocracy... is the humor. The movie ISN’T funny! For me, it was physically painful to watch.
this movie sadly aged so good.