Idiocracy

We don't have television in our house (let alone cable), but we do rent a DVD on occasion and watch it on the computer. Not having a television has disconnected me from the stream of movie promotions, so when I go I'm often faced with endless shelves of movies of which I have not heard. Last night's strategy for movie selection:

• here's a movie they have a bajillion copies of
• almost all of them are checked out
• the title is Idiocracy
• it's by Mike Judge
• scan the back: in the year 2505, stupid people have outbred intelligent...

I'm sold. Let's go.

As I was watching it, I was convinced that I was seeing the best film depiction of a dystopian future ever. (It was only after the movie was done that I recalled Brazil.) Fortunately the movie avoided the question of whether the decline of civilization was the result of dysgenics or memetics. The latter would be sufficient, of course, as monster-truck-rally parents tend to beget monster-truck-rally children -- unless life hands them Alex P. Keaton, that is. The two in combination would be an unthwartable combination to be sure, and five hundred years from now the over-educated and reluctant-to-procreate people have lost the war.

"We are so doomed," I thought to myself. But at the same time, I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud so much.

I couldn't find it in the credits, but I think the announcer in the arena was the voice of Strongbad. No other voice can say the phrase "guitar army" quite like that.

Interestingly, the Faux News Network didn't seem to change much in 500 years. I searched YouTube and found that clip from the movie: now I can see, upon closer inspection, that Fox News anchors are showing more skin in the year 2505.

Rent this movie now. Think of the children!