Super Sci-Fi Review Selection 12: "Idiocracy" Uses Purile Shallow Humour To Criticise Dumbing Down

[philosoraptor42]

Idiocracy (2006)

Moderately funny in places.



What, you want more? Well the basic gist is the classist eugenicist view stretching back at least as far as the Victorian era, that because less academic and cultured families are producing the majority of the children, the human race can only possibly go down the intellectual toilet as a result. To demonstrate this idea, a man in a cryogenics experiment gone wrong finds himself in a future where he is suddenly the smartest man on the planet.



The result is that much of the humour is supposed to come from characters who can mainly only grunt at one another. Considering how "Idiocracy" seems to look down on society for being too dumb, this isn't a terribly intelligent film.



There are admittedly a few points where the satire works quite well. After suggesting that they water their crops with water rather than Gatorade (well basically that's what it is), there is an outcry because practically every person in a country is a stakeholder in Gatorade and so the decision causes enormous negative economic consequences.



Considering the recent economic recession, it was interesting to see the film highlight how countries are often more beholden to economics than to common sense sometimes.



But overall this is a fairly typically bland American comedy, ironically catering to the lowest common denominator even as it mocks them.

D-