Brawndo, It's Got Electrolytes. It's What Plants Crave

"This week's film blogs have been left aghast as Mike Judge's grotesque fictional energy drink Brawndo from the movie Idiocracy became a reality. To recap: Fox wouldn't support a film about Brawndo, the energy drink that destroys plants, debases the human race, and makes those who drink it 'win at yelling' but they are now putting wholehearted support behind the actual drink?" And if you haven't seen Idiocracy, you are missing out. It is the smartest stupid movie I've seen. Whoever did production design on that thing deserves an Oscar.

Comments

Except for Soylent Cola

[technoextreme]

But you know it varies from person to person.

Idiocracy

[opec]

I had to be dragged kicking and screaming into watching Idiocracy. I thought it would be another bland, generic comedy full of juvenile humor and low jabs at the government.

Now I tell everyone that they must go and see it. Mike Judge is a genius when it comes to social commentary (see also: Beavis and Butthead, Office Space, King of the Hill). He has really corrected (distorted?) my view of our sinking-ship society.

Re:Idiocracy

[0100010001010011]

If nothing else when at a friend's house I tell them they have to watch the first 15 minutes. I have numerous engineering friends, peope who fit the description of the couple that never had kids.

Usually they're hooked after that.

Re:Idiocracy

[Neoprofin]

I rushed to see it because I love Judge's other work and really enjoyed the premise of it.

I was sorely disappointed with the movie however. For me the laugh potential of a fat redneck say "he talks faggy" is one, sadly the line was repeated roughly every ten minutes. The social commentary is fine, we can all see the Costco with a thousand aisles, but from all the hype it got from people I know about being hilarious I just didn't see it.

Re:Idiocracy

[ucblockhead]

Having everyone refer to normal relatively intelligently spoken English as "talking faggy" was part of the social commentary.

Just browse at -1 here to see what it refers to.

imdb link

[Anonymous Coward]

Idiocracy on IMDB, for those too lazy to have set up an imdb keyword search in Firefox.

What next?

[xobes]

Soylent Green?

Hilarious movie.

[DrEldarion]

The intro of the movie can be found here: http://www.glumbert.com/media/idiocracy It'll give you a good sense of the tone and style of humor of the movie.

It really is a must-see.

Re:Hilarious movie.

[ChromeAeonium]

One thing I'd like to point out about the intro is that it's just that: an intro to a movie. Nothing more. As a Trevor type who descended from a Clevon type, I find it sad that so many people are so ignorant of genetics/sociology (and full of themselves, like Wonder Gamete here) to believe that the 'idiots' are going to overpopulate and subsequently take over the world unless the 'smart' people do something about it. Lamarckian evolution was proved false long ago; just because a group of people isn't educated and therefore doesn't make use of their intelligence does not mean that their children will be stupid. They're just more likely to go uneducated and continue the cycle. What I'm saying is, it's nothing a little education couldn't cure, and even if nothing is done about it, intelligent people will never die out, they'll just rise up from 'unintelligent' sources.
/soapbox.

Re:Hilarious movie.

[ultramk]

I have to both agree and disagree. While education is certainly the largest facet of an individual's "intelligence," it isn't everything. It is not unreasonable to assume that at least part of an individual's intellectual potential is inherited.

We have all known people who were given every opportunity, every advantage in life, and still ended up stupid as a post. Hell, we breed dogs for various traits--personality and intelligence being two of them--why should we assume that we're immune to the same thing?

Re:Hilarious movie.

[moco]

I had the same reaction originally. But then, just imagine for a moment that the genetic origin of stupidity is substituted for a social/cultural origin. A society/culture that consistently rewards dumb actions while frowns uppon smart ones. The movie's point is still valid, isn't it? In that sense, the genetics part is just a vehicle for the movie to present a "how we got there" in a funny way.

Re:Hilarious movie.

[a_nonamiss]

I believe I have a reasonably strong understanding of genetics, and I'd like to disagree with your premise. Yes, there is definitely an education component involved, and it's important to acknowledge that, however, intelligence is highly genetic. That doesn't mean you have to have smart parents to be smart, but it does mean that your level of intelligence is highly affected by what genetic ingredients you have in you. Remember 9th grade biology when you studied Mendel's pea plants? It's very possible from two tall plants (dominant) to product a short one. (recessive.) However, both tall plants must posses the recessive short gene. I think the point of the demonstration in the movie is that over long periods of time, that Trevor gene could eventually become less and less prominent, perhaps one day disappearing completely.

Now, I'm not necessarily advocating that we start sterilizing the stupid or anything, but it's incorrect to say that anyone, with the proper education, can become a Trevor. Personally, I believe that we are on a track towards a divergence in our evolution. (if we don't kill ourselves first) I'm talking hundreds or thousands of generations in the future, not anytime soon.

Re:Hilarious movie.

[wall0159]

Because people's brains are much more plastic (adaptable) than dogs'. People are born in a more underdeveloped state (eg. puppies walk within a short time of being born - babies take months) and our brains' development are much more environmentally influenced.

Anyway, yes, some people are inherently smarter than others. It doesn't mean that their entire germ line is also smarter - there are many cases of smart parents having a stupid child - even one given every advantage.

Well shit.

[Internet Ronin]

Now I'm scared.

I mean, talk about missing the point Fox. I mean, seriously, the movie is about rampant commercialism destroying society because people are gradually becoming too stupid to resist more insistent and clever marketing tactics, and now they're rolling out Brawndo?

I mean, WTF, I hope no one that saw Idiocracy goes and buys this, because it's contributing money to the very thing the movie was preaching against. Now we've only got to wait until the U.S. government endures a financial crisis (whoops) and then Fox can attempt to buoy the FCC and FDA and buy them out, and we're looking at the degradation of the world. Of society.

I always wondered if the other countries in the world had devolved as much as America had in the movie, maybe it's time to consider a change of scenery.

Re:Well shit.

[DaedalusHKX]

Ahhh, but therein lies the problem, lack of proper education, and yet we keep paying teachers more, even though all they do is teach obedience in schools, and listening to authority, but they don't teach proper survival skills, neither in the wild nor in the concrete jungles that we call "modern society."

That leads me to believe that perhaps the problem isn't having watchdogs to "protect us from rampant commercialism" but perhaps we should have the ability to judge for ourselves what we NEED and what we WANT and how best to achieve it... but that would involve freedom, liberty and less control by others over our lives.

Not likely to happen anytime soon if the majority has its say.

Re:Well shit.

[El Yanqui]

It was about rampant commercialism? I thought it was about a guy getting kicked in the balls a lot. And an ass movie.

This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Re:Well shit.

[NMerriam]

I mean, talk about missing the point Fox. I mean, seriously, the movie is about rampant commercialism destroying society because people are gradually becoming too stupid to resist more insistent and clever marketing tactics, and now they're rolling out Brawndo?

I had the same reaction years ago when The Running Man had been popular, and some TV executive saw this post-apocalyptic movie about jingoistic, themed-warrior reality TV combat and thought "gosh, that IS a great idea!". American Gladiators was on for what, 5 or 6 years? At least they didn't actually kill the contestants.

Re:Well shit.

[nine-times]

Ahhh, but therein lies the problem, lack of proper education, and yet we keep paying teachers more...

Wait... are you actually suggesting that teachers are over-paid? In most places that I've been or even heard about, teachers barely make a livable wage. If anything, it's a problem that it's hard to attract and keep good teachers because they're paid poorly and mistreated by principals (and other school bureaucrats) and parents (who refuse to believe that their little darling has ever been anything but perfect). And part of the reason kids never get a chance to learn anything but "obedience" is because class sizes are way too big (sometimes as much as 35 kids to a teacher). The teacher doesn't have time to do anything except try to keep the classroom under control.

If we paid teachers decently, if parents got involved in their kids educations, and if we had 15-20 kids per class, you'd see a huge difference in our education system from that alone.

perhaps we should have the ability to judge for ourselves what we NEED and what we WANT and how best to achieve it

In case you don't understand, the problem some people have with "commercialism" (consumerism) is the fact that it's inherently filled with grand efforts to prevent people from using their own judgment. We're constantly being inundated with attempts to brainwash us. I know, it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but read up sometime on advertising/marketing/PR theory, and you'll see that it's pretty scary stuff. They all aim at making false unconscious connections between positive feelings and the product/person/company that they're trying to sell. Advertisers have even spent a lot of time studying cults and fascist regimes in order to mimic their methods.

Really, it's even public knowledge, if you care to study it. So in order to educate people properly and allow them to exercise good judgment, we may have to take some steps to reduce the influence of these brainwashing techniques.

Economics of this stupid decision

[xant]

I think what happened here is what happens to a lot of cult movies these days. Producers (Fox) expected it to tank, so did not spend money promoting it. Instead of tanking, it garnered a big cult following. Fox now wants to cash in on that big cult profit center by promoting the DVD. Hence, Brawndo as a tie-in to the movie, basically a promotion for the DVD since it's now too late to promote it at the box office. And this exactly is the sort of movie that makes more money on DVD even in the best case scenario.

Still, I can't help thinking that all of the Fox channels and Fox News in particular would be well-served by the world as depicted in Idiocracy, a world which the fictional Brawndo helped build. Maybe they think it'll happen in reality, too.

Coming soon: "Ow! My Balls!" on your local Fox affiliate.

Re:Economics of this stupid decision

[Mex]

I'm not american but from the episodes I saw of "America's funniest home videos", was't it pretty much "Ow! My Balls!" ?

Alternately, you could just dial a random video in Youtube...

Hey slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

Your shits all fucked up, and you talk like a fag.

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[account_deleted]

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I'd just like some water please

[charlievarrick]

like from the toilet

Re:The medical center scene...

[CrazyDuke]

I keep watching that Trevor (IQ: 138) & Carol (IQ: 141) versus Clevon (IQ: 84) scene at the begining over and over. It's so true, it's scary.

Re:You're wrong, Taco

[Ellis D. Tripp]

The crotch injury and fart jokes served to define the state of the society at that point. They weren't really meant to be laughed at in and of themselves.

Much like Beavis and Butthead, the actual targets of the humor just laugh at the stupidity, without realizing that THEY are being made fun of...

Re:The medical center scene...

[binaryspiral]

Growing up in a small rural area, I knew people just like Clevon. And they were regarded as the alpha males because they were good at sports. Some got a free ride to state college for their physical skills. Unfortunately they didn't complete the first year of college because they treated it like high school...

Yes, it's scary.

Don't blame the teachers

[poet]

Blame the establishment.

Teachers work 12-16 hours a day... yet a "class" day is only 6 hours (after you subtract breaks, locker time, lunch etc..).

Where is that other 6-10 hours going? Consider that...

Frankly I don't think we pay teachers nearly enough. I think it is ridiculous that they guy that "taught" Computer Science will likely make a third of what a computer scientist makes.

Re:Don't blame the teachers

[RicoX9]

If you think that any teachers work from 7am until 11pm more than once in their entire career you must be deranged.

I was married to a HS teacher for 17 yrs. Most teachers DO work 12 hr days. In the week or 2 leading up to midterms/exams, they turn int 16+ hr days. The last 2 weeks of school it was 20 hr days.

I hate the bitch for cheating on me and breaking up our marriage, but credit where credit is due - Most teachers are hard working, dedicated people. You have to LOVE the job to put up with the BS. I saw many people come, work a semester, then tell the administration they would not be returning for the next semester. They also spend a significant amount of their breaks readying for the next term or year.

You are the one deranged. They don't print enough money to get me to work as hard and put up with as much crap as they do.

President Camacho.

[Steauengeglase]

After the Bush administration, this guy is totally electable.

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[account_deleted]

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Watch that movie again!

[StefanJ]

Soylent Green came out in 1973.

The lead character's room mate, "Sol," was played by Edward G. Robinson. The author of the book on which the movie was based, Harry Harrison, was on set during the filming. (Among other things, he suggested that a character visiting a butcher bring her own plastic bag with her.) Robinson, best known for his tough-guy gangster roles, asked Harrison what the hell his character was about. Harrison told him, (paraphrasing) "You're me, as a dying old man. You remember the world before everything went to shit."

One of the things Sol rants about to Charton Heston? The greenhouse effect.

Also, the big ugly secret of the movie -- Soylent Green is People -- is just a sympton. Soylent Green is supposed to be made of krill and plankton. Heston's character finds a secret research study commissioned by the Soylent Corporation revealing that humanity has managed to kill off the ocean ecosystem.

The Irony

[Anonymous Coward]

Lamarckian evolution was proved false long ago; just because a group of people isn't educated and therefore doesn't make use of their intelligence does not mean that their children will be stupid.

Individuals differ in intelligence. Intelligence is (partly) heritable. These points follow logically from a basic understanding of Darwinian evolution (not to mention being supported by reams of empirical evidence). Read this, to start (the focus here is on population differences, but heritable individual differences in IQ are even more strongly supported).

Re:Who's forcing him to be a computer teacher...

[Coryoth]

And not a computer scientist? Nobody's forcing him to stay in that job. If he was good enough to teach, he could have gone and also done the "computer scientist" job, but he / she didn't. Why not? Its called RISK AVERSION... otherwise known as fear of uncertainty. Having to provide goods rather than just preach a doctrine is different. Right, and by paying teachers not even close to the same sort of salary a competent individual in the field can make, we ensure that the only people who go into teaching are the risk averse and the least competent. The reality is that teachers do have to provide the goods, where the goods are educated students who have developed a good grasp of the material. You can argue (as you do in the rest of your post) that teachers don't do this, and I might well agree with you. But then if you're in the market and the people you hire consistently fail to deliver the goods, what do you do? Ideally you start hiring better people who, though they might cost more, can actually deliver. By saying "teachers do a poor job, so we shouldn't pay them much" you just ensure that the only people who will go into teaching are exactly the risk averse people who are poor teachers -- the position holds limited appeal for anyone else. I'm sorry you didn't have any good teachers. Your experience, does not, however, mean that good teachers don't exist. It simply means that no-one capable of being a good teacher was willing to accept the pay and work conditions of teaching in the sort of high schools you went to...

Idiocracy Test

[solprovider]

"Idiocracy" is a personality/intelligence test. People have one of these reactions:
1. Think the movie was hilarious. Did not get the message. The first group does not understand the movie is about them, the truly stupid people.
2. Think the movie was hilarious because they got the message. The second group is wannabe evil overlords.
3. Did not understand the movie and found only occasional humor. The third group is normal. They need a higher class of humor but did not understand the message. Please explain the message to these people.
4. Understood the movie. Found some humor, but mostly sad. This group includes all of my friends.

My parents had two children. The welfare family across the street had eight children. Almost no adults I respect have more than two children. Having two children only retains most of your genes for one generation. If you respect yourself and your spouse, you must have at least three children.

Re:The medical center scene...

[Anonymous Coward]

Intelligence is our defining trait. It's the reason we matter. There's no shortage of animals who are stronger, faster, more vicious, or faster breeders. Sure, lots of random sports fucks spent just as much time as I did getting better, the difference is while it's unlikely I'll contribute anything to our civilization, they never can because what they do is utterly useless. If we could somehow exchange a hundred Barry Bonds for one more Stephen Hawking, we'd be crazy not to.

Re: brains and genes

[drwho]

It can be shown that native intelligence is heritable to some degree. There's even racial differences in average IQ - with east Asians being the smartest (oh that ought to get me a lot of flack).

But more importantly, is the idea that intelligence is self-selecting. When the stupid choose to have sex with the stupid, they'll also do stupid things during pregnancy (drink Brawndo, for instance), treat their children stupidly (i.e. without enough the proper stimuli) and the combination of genetic inferiority, developmental inferiority, and a society that glamourizes both will create a society that will ruin itself faster than lead pipes ruined Rome.

What I find amazing is that people today choose to be stupid, even as adults who are have a reasonably high IQ. There's huge social pressure to act stupidly.

I could say that humanity is on the cusp of a drastic change, but we've been in a period of drastic change for a while so that sounds a bit stale. But if we can manage to survive the great social upheaval that will accompany a change in energy sources, we will modify the DNA of every living thing. This, coupled with eventual space colonization, is one possible outcome, Idiocracy is another. I don't know which will happen, but things will NOT be as they are now in a century.

It's not supposed to be hilarious

[Weaselmancer]

It's supposed to be sarcastic. It's social commentary.