Idiocracy – Movie Recommendation
by Izzy Kalman (April 2007)
Humor shows us how stupid people are, and Idiocracy fulfills this mission nicely. It is a “science fiction comedy” about an average man and a less-than-average prostitute who take part in a government program in which they are put into hybernation and supposed to be woken up one year later. Unfortunately, the program gets closed in a hurry and our protagonists are forgotten about. They find themselves waking up 500 years in the future. Meanwhile, humanity has been continuing to get dumber, and our average man is now the smartest person in the world.
The film is actually a commentary on today’s society, for the futuristic society is essentially a conglomeration and exaggeration of the stupidity that we see in our own culture.
Idiocracy is a good complement to a movie I recommended a few months ago, Akeelah and the Bee. That terrific movie shows that it’s cool to be smart; this one shows that’s it’s uncool to be stupid.