http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/

Considering a number of people on sciforums tend to complain about the woo-woo community that seems to spring up with classics like:
"The world is flat"
"God made us all"
"Fire is an illusion"
"Evolution is something that the Illuminati made up"
"The planet is hollow"
"Mars is populated with Martian beings"
etc.

I thought mentioning this particular film by Mike Judge (Beavis & Butt Head, King of the Hill fame) might bring them some amusement although be it at a very low(sloping)brow level.

To give you a brief run down of what it's about, just imagine if the future didn't live up to the expectations of Clever people doing even cleverer things but actually went the otherway, Where Darwin's theory of evolutions was not tested by a survival of the fittest but by survival of the most reproductive (and in this instance dumb). Simply, you get to see the future as infomercials, Commercials and urban slang might evolve if the smart people allowed it.

Sounds like a rip-off of The Marching Morons, a 1951 short story by C. M. Kornbluth. This wouldn't be so bad if any of the reviews I've seen had given even a nod to the story. Instead they seem to give Mike Judge all the credit for the idea.

Sounds like a rip-off of The Marching Morons, a 1951 short story by C. M. Kornbluth. This wouldn't be so bad if any of the reviews I've seen had given even a nod to the story. Instead they seem to give Mike Judge all the credit for the idea.

Nobody says it's an absolute rip, since I'm not familiar with the story myself, however people over the internet say there are a number of difference's making more likely that Mike Judge perhaps had read the story and then kicked up his own ideas.

I saw "Idiocracy" and found it prophetic of my following day. For example, I popped into a Carl's Jr for a cup of coffee. On the door was a sign stating "ATM INSIDE". I could see the ATM through the glass doors. It was lit up with big signs saying "ATM". Overhead was a hand-made sign saying "ATM" with an arrow pointed down at the ATM. As I went to the counter, another handmade sign with an arrow pointed at the ATM declared that the ATM was to my right. At first I laughed to myself imagining the number of idiots who must have walked in and asked if they had an ATM. Then I met the counter help and learned who the signs must have been for...

What's worse Oxygen, is that many places like that have signs that read "ATM Machine".

OMG, I've seen that! Maybe I should feel somewhat better that these signs only read "ATM"? Somewhere in the world of high-tech is an acronym that, somehow, is an acronym for another acronym. Sometimes I don't know if I'm living "Idiocracy" or "Monty Python"!

Nobody says it's an absolute rip, since I'm not familiar with the story myself, however people over the internet say there are a number of difference's making more likely that Mike Judge perhaps had read the story and then kicked up his own ideas.

There are a lot of differences between Farewell to the Master and The Day the Earth Stood Still or Make Room! Make Room! and Soylent Green too, and there are major differences between Mimsy Were the Borogroves and The Last Mimsy, but at least these original stories were acknowledged as the genesis of the ideas. I just think credit should be given where credit is due, even if its only a "lightly based on a story by...".

Sounds like a rip-off of The Marching Morons, a 1951 short story by C. M. Kornbluth. This wouldn't be so bad if any of the reviews I've seen had given even a nod to the story. Instead they seem to give Mike Judge all the credit for the idea.
As I recall The Marching Morons was mainly about social/economic class structure. There were smart people, and they basically ran the world while the majority of stupid people simply did what they were told.

There are a lot of differences between Farewell to the Master and The Day the Earth Stood Still or Make Room! Make Room! and Soylent Green too, and there are major differences between Mimsy Were the Borogroves and The Last Mimsy, but at least these original stories were acknowledged as the genesis of the ideas. I just think credit should be given where credit is due, even if its only a "lightly based on a story by...".

I dare say you have a point and I can imagine a better thread for it discussing intellectual property laws and perhaps teaching people respect for credit over theft of credits. I'd say that greed tends to go hand in hand with the whole futuristic idiocracy, people want more for less and are willing to pay less for more.

It was also stated that at one point Hollywood's Screenplay wells were drying up, their scribes apparently couldn't muster new, interesting plays to fill the bankroles, so out comes the old film stock, a slight dusting, a touch of colour (a basic revamp) and viola, a new film to a new audience a generation or two later. Perhaps they think the credits will crumble into dust with time, who knows.

I saw some of it. It uh, it sucked.