If you’ve ever asked yourself what would happen if idiots succeeded in out-breeding people with average intelligence over hundreds of years, then Idiocracy is the answer to your question. Mike Judge is one of those filmmakers who knows how to extrapolate simple premises to the point of absurdity, and this film is a prime example of how a worldwide lack of intelligence can be depicted so brilliantly.

Idiocracy is a cautionary tale about how quickly the world can be reduced to grunts, how mind-numbing television series about getting kicked in the private parts, and Costco memberships can ruin society if left unchecked.

Idiocracy, like most of Judge’s intellectual properties, boasts a simple premise that tackles big issues through the use of irreverent humor.

Luke Wilson Forgotten In Hibernation

Beginning in the year 2005, Idiocracy centers on Luke Wilson’s Joe Bauers, the most remarkably average member of the United States Army. Joe is upset to find out that he’s being removed from his position as a military librarian in order to participate in a government-sanctioned hibernation experiment. Going into the experiment under the assurance that it will only last a year, Joe is horrified to find out that the government forgot about the project after its lead researcher gets incarcerated for illicit activities.

The Smartest People On The Planet

Idiocracy introduces Maya Rudolph’s Rita to the experiment when the Army can’t find a suitable female subject, and has to look for willing participants in the private sector. In Rita’s 2005 life, she was employed as a sex worker on Upgrayedd’s (Brad Jordan) payroll, but tells Joe that she worked as a painter. Waking up in the year 2505, Joe and Rita find themselves interacting with an impossibly stupid society that sends its citizens to Costco to pursue college degrees, and waters their crops with a sodium-rich energy drink called Brawndo.

Terry Crews Is President

The United States government, under the leadership of President Dwayne Camacho (Terry Crews), learns that Joe is the smartest person in the world upon reviewing the aptitude test that he took in order to be assimilated into modern society. Relying on his average intelligence, which is considered that of a genius in the year 2505, Joe is sworn into his new position as Secretary of the Interior, and tasked with fixing the crops, the dust storms, and the economy. Joe realizes how daunting this task will be because nobody is willing to listen to, or able to properly understand his superior intellect in this context.

Not Your Average Dystopian Sci-Fi

Of all the dystopian science-fiction properties, Idiocracy is among the most light-hearted takes that can be found in the genre. Through the use of toilet humor and the excessive use of what I refer to as “gamer words,” Idiocracy paints a bleak picture of the future, but in a setting that’s so ridiculous that its stark social criticisms land with a soft impact. It goes without question that the pursuit of intelligence needs to be glorified more in the present day if we want humanity to continue to thrive hundreds of years from now, and this film aims to tell us why.

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