7 ms·

He also made Beavis and Butt-head, which is just as classic compared to Office Space IMO.

danso 14y ago
And Idiocracy, which was vastly underrated even though marred by what seems to be studio-meddling (the annoying narrator, for instance). Idicoracy is especially amusing because as the years go on, it only seems more prescient. I'd also point out that King of the Hill was a great show, if a little too dry for most tastes.
- stcredzero 14y ago
  Idicoracy is especially amusing because as the years go on, it only seems more prescient. A part of that is just your curmudgeon factor increasing as you get older. [quickly steps off lawn]
- untog 14y ago
  Am I the only one (I realise that is a trope in itself) that didn't enjoy Idiocracy? I kept hearing how great it was, but it felt like it bashed you over the head repeatedly with the points it was making. I felt like I was watching an Idiocracy-era satire. "LOOK, PEOPLE ARE STUPID, SAY AND DO STUPID THINGS"
  - ryanmolden 14y ago
    I don't think it was seriously trying to make a point, it was just a comedy, and it had what plants crave!
    - untog 14y ago
      Perhaps that is the problem. Everyone talked about it as if it was a super-clever take on modern consumerist society. I suppose my expectations were probably wrong.
      - stcredzero 14y ago
        No, that's Portal 2.
      - danso 14y ago
        Really? I thought most people found it pretty mediocre...especially compared to Office Space. The movie itself had a very hard time getting released, IIRC. So maybe my standards were so low coming into the movie that I ended up liking it (which I guess would kind of prove the movie's prophecy in some way...)
  - danso 14y ago
    I think the narrator continually stating the obvious ruined it for me, which was reportedly (citation needed) against Judge's wishes (and unlike his humor stylings in general). I didn't like Idiocracy the first time I saw it...but grew to appreciate it after rewatching it during the 2008 presidential election
  - bryans 14y ago
    The only real point being made was that less intelligent people currently tend to breed more often than more intelligent people, which has potential to lead humanity toward the scenario depicted in the movie. People enjoy it (or at least I do) because it's hilariously scary to think what a world entirely populated by Honey Boo Boos would be like.
    - ihaveajob 14y ago
      Sir, you just put a damp on my evening. We're all doomed.
- iamdave 14y ago
  Now that I live in Austin, I only appreciate King of the Hill even more. I'll never forget the episode where Bobby proposes a town where there's music everywhere, everyone has cool things and drives convertibles, Hank replies: "Ugh, sounds like Austin" Boy I got a good laugh out of that I tell you what. Mike Judge knows how to cut to the bone with everything he creates
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- phillmv 14y ago
  >Idicoracy is especially amusing because as the years go on, it only seems more prescient. Really? Come now.
- hristov 14y ago
  King of the Hill is a terrible show. It looks like a 12 year apology for making office space. Where-ever office space attacks and mocks the traditional power structure, king of the hill carefully reinforces it. King of the Hill is not a little too dry it is a lot too stupid. In fact if I were prone to more paranoia, I would suggest that some Hollywood honcho sat Mike down in some dark office and explained to him that he has done a terrible thing by making office space, and he has to suffer, and only if he suffers willingly and eagerly for more than ten years by continuously making this awful trash called King of the Hill, only then he will be back in the good graces of the powers that be. But of course that is just my imagination. I am sure nobody actually had to explain this to Mike Judge. He likely figured it out on his own.
  - 67726e 14y ago
    Because it couldn't have been satirizing that traditional power structure.
    - freshhawk 14y ago
      It could have but it didn't. On balance is was very much pro traditional power structure and the ability to find happiness within it.
      - tossacct 14y ago
        Did the people in the show seem happy to you? Did it seem like Bobby, Peggy, Hank, or Dale were satisfied human beings? Boomhauer is the only person that really seemed to accept their role in life without regrets, and that's only because I could never understand what he was saying. Note: I didn't watch the show religiously. We can agree that there were specific times when the characters were happy but I think we can also agree that there were times of deep sadness. Mostly the happiness was portrayed as being very superficial, and the sadness was generally existential and deep. In the episodes that I saw, this deep sadness was due to how the "traditional power structure" tried to mold them. It's a pity that they didn't break out of their molds, but as a show I think the zeitgeist was their deep dissatisfaction with their lives, punctuated with small insignificant victories. Think about Beavis and Butthead. Do I think that it glamorized(to some extent) acting like a jackass? Yep. Did it make me want to act or be like either character? Nope. Do I think it "convinced" any normal humans into acting like jackasses any more than the evening news does? Nope.
- derleth 14y ago
  > Idicoracy is especially amusing because as the years go on, it only seems more prescient. This is just you turning into a curmudgeon; that is, your mind ossifying and you being unable to absorb new ideas as readily.
  - danso 14y ago
    Hmm, I don't think so. We can limit our examination to the tech sector: In Idiocracy, medical care, among other decisions, are issued through simple touch-screen devices. Currently, the popular idealized interface is finger-touch, such that even a toddler can figure it out. Styluses and keyboards and other peripherals are ostracized as laughably archaic/geeky ways to do input, and are probably not far from being seen, as Idiocracy's citizens would put it, "faggy". Bret Victor has a good rant on this: http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesign/ http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesi... In Idiocracy, despite decent progression in technology, the result has been more passive consumerism than active creation of media From the Times: Wasting Time Is New Divide in Digital Era http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/us/new-digital-divide-seen-in-wasting-time-online.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/us/new-digital-divide-seen... (To underscore that point, I think it's not a stretch to say that the iPad is geared much more towards media consumption than creation) Ow My Balls Actually, Ow My Balls was pretty good for an early iOS game. I'm thinking of the popularity of "Fart Sounds" and every freemium social game that dominates the top-grossing list. I'm not as big into the gaming scene anymore, but from my distant perspective, it seems that the future of gaming (despite Zynga's current troubles), is moving more towards Angry Birds or worse...Nintendo is floundering. It'll be nearly 7 years since the PS3 was released (the PS3 was released 6 years after the PS2) and no release date yet for the PS4...I love Angry Birds, but in terms of gaming, I'd consider it more "Idiocracy" endpoint than "non-Idiocracy"
    - derleth 14y ago
      > Currently, the popular idealized interface is finger-touch, such that even a toddler can figure it out. OK. That's bad... why? How is it bad to remove accidental difficulty? 'Accidental difficulty' being difficulty imposed by a bad interface, such as how annoying it was to drop a deck of punched cards. Sorting punched cards is not an essential part of programming; it is accidental. This terminology is due to Brooks, in The Mythical Man-Month. > Styluses and keyboards and other peripherals are ostracized as laughably archaic/geeky ways to do input As long as keyboards remain available, reasonably high-quality, and not too expensive, I'll be happy. If most people don't use them, that's fine with me. > the result has been more passive consumerism than active creation of media Most people have never created most kinds of things. Most people don't want to and are not good at it. Besides, whenever we do focus on user-created media, what do we do? Laugh at blogs and GeoCities pages. There is literally no way to please the kinds of people who think Idiocracy makes good points. > Ow My Balls Bear baiting. When bear baiting makes a comeback, come talk to me.
- rayiner 14y ago
  Did you know the average IQ is increasing over time?
  - alanctgardner2 14y ago
    Isn't IQ normalized relative to your cohort? The mean IQ should always be 100 if you're doing things right. I would be interested in changes to the test historically. Edit: my tablet reinterpreted 'doing things' as 'dong tongs'
    - pliny 14y ago
      I assume your parent is referring to the Flynn effect [0], and that by an increase in IQ he means that the average person today, taking a test normalized for the average population a few years in the past or more, would score above 100. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
- Homunculiheaded 14y ago
  King of the Hill is definitely one of the more underrated animated series out there. I actually think it's daring that it doesn't aim for 'gut busting' humor the way most American comedies do, and it's very nuanced in the way it portrays its characters. On the one hand it's under appreciated, on the other as cartoon with a complex view of american life that isn't going for the "big laughs" I'm surprised it wasn't cancelled in a week.
  - surement 14y ago
    You're right, Fox did do some bold things. Married with Children is probably another.
  - ismarc 14y ago
    I didn't really get much of the humor in King of the Hill until I moved to Texas. It is very much a parody and exaggeration of each particular "stereotypical" Texan you actually run into. Now that I've lived here for a significant amount of time, it is much more humorous.
- larrys 14y ago
  And Children's Hospital, largely unknown... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs5QbUjmtt8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs5QbUjmtt8 Edit: Sorry, not by Judge, it's just really funny.
- michaelochurch 14y ago
  I find it hilarious that Idiocracy wasn't mothballed because of its message (dysgenic threat) or potential for being seen as insensitive regarding mental retardation but, instead, because it disparaged large corporations. Idiocracy was good but not as good as Office Space. I think that there was an extremely dark humor (see also: Borat, Bruno) that hit the spot during the Bush years, but now seems less funny. Or maybe I am just older and less into schadenfreude.
  - commandar 14y ago
    >I find it hilarious that Idiocracy wasn't mothballed because of its message Are you sure about that? >The film's scheduled release date was August 5, 2005, according to Mike Judge.[7] In April 2006, a release date was set for September 1, 2006. In August, numerous articles[8] revealed that release was to be put on hold indefinitely. Idiocracy was released as scheduled but only in seven cities (Los Angeles, Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and Mike Judge's hometown, Austin, Texas),[4] and expanded to only 130 theaters,[9] not the usual wide release of 600 or more theaters.[10] According to the Austin American-Statesman, 20th Century Fox, the film's distributor, did nothing to promote the movie;[4] while posters were released to theatres, "no movie trailers, no ads, and only two stills,"[11] and no press kits were released.[12] >The film was not screened for critics.[13] Lack of concrete information from Fox led to speculation that the distributor may have actively tried to keep the film from being seen by a large audience, while fulfilling a contractual obligation for theatrical release ahead of a DVD release, according to Ryan Pearson of the AP.[9] That speculation was followed by open criticism of the studio's lack of support from Ain't It Cool News, TIME, and Esquire.[14][15][16] TIME's Joel Stein wrote "the film's ads and trailers tested atrociously", but, "still, abandoning Idiocracy seems particularly unjust, since Judge has made a lot of money for Fox."[15] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy#Release http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy#Release

danso 14y ago

And Idiocracy, which was vastly underrated even though marred by what seems to be studio-meddling (the annoying narrator, for instance). Idicoracy is especially amusing because as the years go on, it only seems more prescient. I'd also point out that King of the Hill was a great show, if a little too dry for most tastes.

stcredzero 14y ago
Idicoracy is especially amusing because as the years go on, it only seems more prescient. A part of that is just your curmudgeon factor increasing as you get older. [quickly steps off lawn]
untog 14y ago
Am I the only one (I realise that is a trope in itself) that didn't enjoy Idiocracy? I kept hearing how great it was, but it felt like it bashed you over the head repeatedly with the points it was making. I felt like I was watching an Idiocracy-era satire. "LOOK, PEOPLE ARE STUPID, SAY AND DO STUPID THINGS"
- ryanmolden 14y ago
  I don't think it was seriously trying to make a point, it was just a comedy, and it had what plants crave!
  - untog 14y ago
    Perhaps that is the problem. Everyone talked about it as if it was a super-clever take on modern consumerist society. I suppose my expectations were probably wrong.
    - stcredzero 14y ago
      No, that's Portal 2.
    - danso 14y ago
      Really? I thought most people found it pretty mediocre...especially compared to Office Space. The movie itself had a very hard time getting released, IIRC. So maybe my standards were so low coming into the movie that I ended up liking it (which I guess would kind of prove the movie's prophecy in some way...)
- danso 14y ago
  I think the narrator continually stating the obvious ruined it for me, which was reportedly (citation needed) against Judge's wishes (and unlike his humor stylings in general). I didn't like Idiocracy the first time I saw it...but grew to appreciate it after rewatching it during the 2008 presidential election
- bryans 14y ago
  The only real point being made was that less intelligent people currently tend to breed more often than more intelligent people, which has potential to lead humanity toward the scenario depicted in the movie. People enjoy it (or at least I do) because it's hilariously scary to think what a world entirely populated by Honey Boo Boos would be like.
  - ihaveajob 14y ago
    Sir, you just put a damp on my evening. We're all doomed.
iamdave 14y ago
Now that I live in Austin, I only appreciate King of the Hill even more. I'll never forget the episode where Bobby proposes a town where there's music everywhere, everyone has cool things and drives convertibles, Hank replies: "Ugh, sounds like Austin" Boy I got a good laugh out of that I tell you what. Mike Judge knows how to cut to the bone with everything he creates
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
phillmv 14y ago
>Idicoracy is especially amusing because as the years go on, it only seems more prescient. Really? Come now.
hristov 14y ago
King of the Hill is a terrible show. It looks like a 12 year apology for making office space. Where-ever office space attacks and mocks the traditional power structure, king of the hill carefully reinforces it. King of the Hill is not a little too dry it is a lot too stupid. In fact if I were prone to more paranoia, I would suggest that some Hollywood honcho sat Mike down in some dark office and explained to him that he has done a terrible thing by making office space, and he has to suffer, and only if he suffers willingly and eagerly for more than ten years by continuously making this awful trash called King of the Hill, only then he will be back in the good graces of the powers that be. But of course that is just my imagination. I am sure nobody actually had to explain this to Mike Judge. He likely figured it out on his own.
- 67726e 14y ago
  Because it couldn't have been satirizing that traditional power structure.
  - freshhawk 14y ago
    It could have but it didn't. On balance is was very much pro traditional power structure and the ability to find happiness within it.
    - tossacct 14y ago
      Did the people in the show seem happy to you? Did it seem like Bobby, Peggy, Hank, or Dale were satisfied human beings? Boomhauer is the only person that really seemed to accept their role in life without regrets, and that's only because I could never understand what he was saying. Note: I didn't watch the show religiously. We can agree that there were specific times when the characters were happy but I think we can also agree that there were times of deep sadness. Mostly the happiness was portrayed as being very superficial, and the sadness was generally existential and deep. In the episodes that I saw, this deep sadness was due to how the "traditional power structure" tried to mold them. It's a pity that they didn't break out of their molds, but as a show I think the zeitgeist was their deep dissatisfaction with their lives, punctuated with small insignificant victories. Think about Beavis and Butthead. Do I think that it glamorized(to some extent) acting like a jackass? Yep. Did it make me want to act or be like either character? Nope. Do I think it "convinced" any normal humans into acting like jackasses any more than the evening news does? Nope.
derleth 14y ago
> Idicoracy is especially amusing because as the years go on, it only seems more prescient. This is just you turning into a curmudgeon; that is, your mind ossifying and you being unable to absorb new ideas as readily.
- danso 14y ago
  Hmm, I don't think so. We can limit our examination to the tech sector: In Idiocracy, medical care, among other decisions, are issued through simple touch-screen devices. Currently, the popular idealized interface is finger-touch, such that even a toddler can figure it out. Styluses and keyboards and other peripherals are ostracized as laughably archaic/geeky ways to do input, and are probably not far from being seen, as Idiocracy's citizens would put it, "faggy". Bret Victor has a good rant on this: http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesign/ http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesi... In Idiocracy, despite decent progression in technology, the result has been more passive consumerism than active creation of media From the Times: Wasting Time Is New Divide in Digital Era http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/us/new-digital-divide-seen-in-wasting-time-online.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/us/new-digital-divide-seen... (To underscore that point, I think it's not a stretch to say that the iPad is geared much more towards media consumption than creation) Ow My Balls Actually, Ow My Balls was pretty good for an early iOS game. I'm thinking of the popularity of "Fart Sounds" and every freemium social game that dominates the top-grossing list. I'm not as big into the gaming scene anymore, but from my distant perspective, it seems that the future of gaming (despite Zynga's current troubles), is moving more towards Angry Birds or worse...Nintendo is floundering. It'll be nearly 7 years since the PS3 was released (the PS3 was released 6 years after the PS2) and no release date yet for the PS4...I love Angry Birds, but in terms of gaming, I'd consider it more "Idiocracy" endpoint than "non-Idiocracy"
  - derleth 14y ago
    > Currently, the popular idealized interface is finger-touch, such that even a toddler can figure it out. OK. That's bad... why? How is it bad to remove accidental difficulty? 'Accidental difficulty' being difficulty imposed by a bad interface, such as how annoying it was to drop a deck of punched cards. Sorting punched cards is not an essential part of programming; it is accidental. This terminology is due to Brooks, in The Mythical Man-Month. > Styluses and keyboards and other peripherals are ostracized as laughably archaic/geeky ways to do input As long as keyboards remain available, reasonably high-quality, and not too expensive, I'll be happy. If most people don't use them, that's fine with me. > the result has been more passive consumerism than active creation of media Most people have never created most kinds of things. Most people don't want to and are not good at it. Besides, whenever we do focus on user-created media, what do we do? Laugh at blogs and GeoCities pages. There is literally no way to please the kinds of people who think Idiocracy makes good points. > Ow My Balls Bear baiting. When bear baiting makes a comeback, come talk to me.
rayiner 14y ago
Did you know the average IQ is increasing over time?
- alanctgardner2 14y ago
  Isn't IQ normalized relative to your cohort? The mean IQ should always be 100 if you're doing things right. I would be interested in changes to the test historically. Edit: my tablet reinterpreted 'doing things' as 'dong tongs'
  - pliny 14y ago
    I assume your parent is referring to the Flynn effect [0], and that by an increase in IQ he means that the average person today, taking a test normalized for the average population a few years in the past or more, would score above 100. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_effect
Homunculiheaded 14y ago
King of the Hill is definitely one of the more underrated animated series out there. I actually think it's daring that it doesn't aim for 'gut busting' humor the way most American comedies do, and it's very nuanced in the way it portrays its characters. On the one hand it's under appreciated, on the other as cartoon with a complex view of american life that isn't going for the "big laughs" I'm surprised it wasn't cancelled in a week.
- surement 14y ago
  You're right, Fox did do some bold things. Married with Children is probably another.
- ismarc 14y ago
  I didn't really get much of the humor in King of the Hill until I moved to Texas. It is very much a parody and exaggeration of each particular "stereotypical" Texan you actually run into. Now that I've lived here for a significant amount of time, it is much more humorous.
larrys 14y ago
And Children's Hospital, largely unknown... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs5QbUjmtt8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs5QbUjmtt8 Edit: Sorry, not by Judge, it's just really funny.
michaelochurch 14y ago
I find it hilarious that Idiocracy wasn't mothballed because of its message (dysgenic threat) or potential for being seen as insensitive regarding mental retardation but, instead, because it disparaged large corporations. Idiocracy was good but not as good as Office Space. I think that there was an extremely dark humor (see also: Borat, Bruno) that hit the spot during the Bush years, but now seems less funny. Or maybe I am just older and less into schadenfreude.
- commandar 14y ago
  >I find it hilarious that Idiocracy wasn't mothballed because of its message Are you sure about that? >The film's scheduled release date was August 5, 2005, according to Mike Judge.[7] In April 2006, a release date was set for September 1, 2006. In August, numerous articles[8] revealed that release was to be put on hold indefinitely. Idiocracy was released as scheduled but only in seven cities (Los Angeles, Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and Mike Judge's hometown, Austin, Texas),[4] and expanded to only 130 theaters,[9] not the usual wide release of 600 or more theaters.[10] According to the Austin American-Statesman, 20th Century Fox, the film's distributor, did nothing to promote the movie;[4] while posters were released to theatres, "no movie trailers, no ads, and only two stills,"[11] and no press kits were released.[12] >The film was not screened for critics.[13] Lack of concrete information from Fox led to speculation that the distributor may have actively tried to keep the film from being seen by a large audience, while fulfilling a contractual obligation for theatrical release ahead of a DVD release, according to Ryan Pearson of the AP.[9] That speculation was followed by open criticism of the studio's lack of support from Ain't It Cool News, TIME, and Esquire.[14][15][16] TIME's Joel Stein wrote "the film's ads and trailers tested atrociously", but, "still, abandoning Idiocracy seems particularly unjust, since Judge has made a lot of money for Fox."[15] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy#Release http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy#Release