With 104% tariffs on China and coal coming back, I think it's safe to call Mike Judge the Nostradamus of our time. Not crap. Camacho was a thousand times cooler than Don.

“Not sure” “It’s what plants crave” the “St God’s Hospital” sign all live happily in my core memories

There are certainly memorable (and timely) scenes and quotes but as a whole not a good movie (and I was a big fan of Office Space).

While there are many, many things wrong with the film...

Nearly the entire film is quotable.

NC; WF: 0

GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY JUNK!

It's not a good film, but it presaged the Trump administration. You can't really argue with its historical significance.

The Camacho character is probably where the 'prophetic' stuff starts and ends though. While it's interesting and admirable that the movie blamed society's downfall on mindless consumerism and reality TV, I'm not sure that's what made people dumber. The internet and social media did.

Parallels between Camacho and Trump are WAY overblown.

Camacho actually gives a shit about trying to fix things for the greater good.

As I recall it was basically cancelled during filming, and completed with a narrator covering the gaps. So it's either surprisingly good or a bit of a mess, but either way it has its moments and there are some very apposite quotes.

A small industry developed around the first Trump presidency -- when Idiocracy was first being called prophetic -- pointing out that 'actually this film literally advocates eugenics'. It's quite the hot take, and I suppose the silly setup sort of suggests it. But I find it difficult to see the central message is "the intelligentsia must out breed the juggloes".

I think anyone saying that the movie advocates for eugenics is reading too much into it. I don't think it goes beyond "all the stupid people are breeding."

I heard all the comparisons during the first administration, but the shit is really taking hold now.

pldms wrote: Wed Apr 09, 2025 9:38 am As I recall it was basically cancelled during filming, and completed with a narrator covering the gaps.

I didn't realize that, but yeah the last time I tried watching it (made it maybe 30 minutes) I was struck by how clunky and low budget it seemed, and it wasn't exactly coming from some underground director and actors.

We still say "welcome to CostCo, I love you" nearly every time we go, which in hindsight is a funny target considering they told Trump to fuck off with their anti-DEI policies and they pay livable wages.