2006 Mike Judge film, starring Luke Wilson as Joe Bauers, a totally average soldier who is volunteered for a suspended animation experiment, along with a hooker named Rita (played by Maya Rudolph), who refers to herself as a painter and refers to her pimp, Upgrayedd, as her "boyfriend/manager". The experiment is supposed to run for only a year, but they wind up forgotten for five hundred years. When they finally emerge, they discover that due to 500 years of world culture gradually dumbing down to the Lowest Common Denominator, society has become very crude and very dumb. Joe and Rita are now by far the smartest people around, and the world's looking at them to solve some very serious problems....The film wasn't granted a wide theatrical release, and did not do well in theaters. Since its DVD release, however, the film has become a Cult Classic.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "The economy was in a state of deep neglect. A great dust bowl had ravaged food supplies. And the number one movie in the country was called Ass."
Asskicking Equals Authority: President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, porn superstar and five-time Ultimate Smackdown wrestling champion!
Autodoc: There are semi-automatic medical stations; the probes have to be inserted by person. Brain Bleach happens when that person gets confused on which probes should be used on which hole...
Brick Joke: After Joe spends the whole movie calming Rita down and finally convinces her that she is safe from Upgrayedd, he appears in a third pod at the end.
A Child Shall Lead Them: The Secretary of Energy looked like about thirteen, drinks heavily, and had gotten the job by winning an unspecified contest. Not that he seemed any less capable than any other Cabinet member...
A Date with Rosie Palms: Devolved into the word "batin'" and given its own channel on television. It doesn't seem to carry quite the same connotations, though.
Especially the police. The only long words they don't mangle is "particular individual," and only then because they use that phrase every time they refer to any person.
Design Student's Orgasm: Everything in the future has a very bright and over-produced "food court aesthetic."
Distracted by the Sexy: Frito and the cameraman forget to film the plants because a nearby Starbucks is having a handjob sale.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: A hilarious Show Within a Show example, the year's biggest blockbuster movie Ass according to the narrator: "...and that's all it was, for ninety minutes." Yeah, what he said.
Freud Was Right: In the Blood Sport example above, all the monster trucks are equipped with huge weapons that are obviously phallic in design. Joe's little car has a rubber, flaccid penis on the hood.
The Guards Must Be Crazy: Joe gets sent to prison, but immediately talks his way out by convincing them he should be in the line to be released. Justified because, well, they're all idiots.]
They actually wise up the second time he's incarcerated and chain him to a boulder.
I Choose To Stay: Rita. Subverted (and mandated) when it turns out the "Time Masheen" they were looking for is just a cheesy theme-park ride.
In The Future We Still Have Roombas: A floor cleaning robot is shown repeatedly banging into a wall announcing "Your floor is now clean!" over and over. Given the putrid condition of the floor everywhere but where the robot is, it had been at this for a long time.
Ironic Echo: "Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way."
Inferred Holocaust: The premise of the movie, sort of, based on supposed present-day trends.
Additionally: In the end we learn that Joe and Rita have three smart children. Frito has thirty dumb ones. Meaning that yes, everything will be back to the horrific way it was in about 3-4 generations.
Not necessarily. Remember, Upgrayedd showed up at the end. With his (relatively) towering genius, street smarts, and outright badass pimping, it wouldn't be exactly hard for him to, ah, leave his mark on society.
Joe's Lawyer: I'm gonna mistrial my foot up your ass, (if) you don't shut up.
Juggling Loaded Guns: A bunch of cops are firing on the car Not Sure had just exited. One of them has a rocket launcher - which he proceeds to fire backwards. A few seconds later, a 747 enters the shot going down in flames. Later in the film, the U.S. President quiets down a rowdy crowd in the House of Representin' by firing a light support weapon into the air. This is perfectly justified considering the movie is literally an Idiot Plot.
Kangaroo Court: The defense objects to things his own client did that are unrelated to the case. The jury and judge consider it damning evidence of Joe's guilt.
Kavorka Man: Clevon and his son in the prologue: two fat rednecks who nonetheless manage to father plenty of illegitimate children and contributing to humanity's devolution
Law of Inverse Fertility: The smart couple who keep putting off getting pregnant (eventually thwarted by Husband Existence Failure) vs. the idiot who doesn't care and winds up with about three dozen offspring by five to eight different women (and even more after a Groin Attack) in the prologue. This continues after a fashion with Joe and Rita: They have three children of average intelligence — the three smartest kids on earth — while Frito has thirty of the dumbest kids on earth.
My Name Is Not Durwood: Joe says "I'm Not Sure" to a machine, which proceeds to tattoo this name on his arm. Everyone calls him "Not Sure" for the rest of the movie.
Narrator: If you've ever seen a Coors Light beer commercial in your life, the narrator might sound a little familiar...
Newspaper Dating: Joe finds out what year he's in this way, though he doesn't believe it at first.
The Not So Harmless Punishment: Joe is sentenced to one night of rehabilitation when his decision to irrigate crops with water caused population riots after the price of the Brawndo Corporation's stock plummeted. It turns out that "rehabilitation" is a type of public execution modeled as a Squash Match with Homicide Machines.
Our Presidents Are Different: Oh how very different indeed. President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho is the five-time Ultimate Smackdown Wrestling champion, a porn superstar, speaks with as much profanity and insults as the average American, and is only slightly smarter than everybody else. This makes for an especially hilarious teleprompter crawl.
Carl's Jr. (the most common or popular portion size is "Extra Big-Ass", such as their fries, and whose motto has devolved into "Fuck you, I'm eating!"),
Fuddruckers (shown devolving into...well, use your imagination, but is actually one of the few businesses to keep their function as a burger place),
Costco (grown to the size of a small city, with its own subway system and law school),
"Welcome to Costco. I love you."
Crocs shoes (for prisoners),
Fox News Channel (which is still a news network, but having devolved into pure entertainment, with its newscasters dressed like porn stars).
Starbucks, H&R Block, and several other places have become brothels. In fact, it seems that in the future, parents will name their kids after food companies.
Joe's lawyer is Frito, the president's middle name is Mountain Dew, and there's even a reporter named Velveeta. And one named Formica. Essentially every named character from the future has some kind of Product Placement in their name.
One cabinet member constantly drops ad slogans into his normal conversation, because they pay him each time he says it.
Brought to you by Carl's, Jr.
Additionally, all clothes consist entirely of logos (usually foods).
Though, this is one case where it's not exactly beneficial to the company to be included. There just might be such a thing as bad publicity.
Allegedly, Fox intentionally torpedoed the movie's release (no promotion, minimal distribution, etc.) as a reaction to the dismay of some who regretted allowing their proud brands to be shown in a vulgarly devolved state.
Ralph Wiggum: The entire human race is totally 'tarded n' shit. "Fo sho, dawg," is the accepted affirmative.
Rape as Comedy: The Cabinet is not-at-all subtle about how they will treat Rita if Joe stops vouching for her.
Though, while the sex is is made clear, what would happen if she wasn't willing is not (people there don't seem to be unwilling, considering that hyper-reproduction is what led to the world in the first place).
Reactive Continuous Scream: When Justin Long's character realizes that Joe is an "unscannable", while Joe is freaking out about realizing how long he's been frozen.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Relative to the typical citizen of 2505, President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho is intelligent, eloquent, and unselfish. He sentences Joe to "rehabilitation" because he needs to quell the riots, but quickly pulls Joe out once it's revealed that the plan to restore the crops is succeeding.
Ridiculous Future Inflation: Fridge Brilliance that this probably happened, not as a side effect of poor economic management, but as an intentional choice so that everybody can be amazed at how they have millions of dollars.
Ridiculously Average Guy: Joe was chosen for the Human Hibernation Project specifically because he is exactly this. Heavily lampshaded, as Collins describes this fact as "remarkable," and proceeds to show a series of graphs, with Joe exactly at the midpoint in every one.
Rule of Funny: It is just not scientifically accurate (and if it were it would be advocating eugenics). It does not have to be. It is a comedy, and it is funny.
Salt the Earth: Not the result of malice, but stupidity. A Gatorade expy got a law passed at some point to make the farmers spray their crops with their sports drink, because it has "electrolytes," which is "what plants crave." For those not quite scientifically savvy enough to see the mistake (they sure as hell didn't), the electrolytes in sports drinks are salts dissolved in water.
Share the Male Pain: A rare aversion, as the most popular TV show in the future involves a man being slammed in the crotch over and over.
Show Within a Show: the aforementioned Ow, My Balls and Monday Night Rehabilitation, and the multiple-Academy Award-winning film (including Best Screenplay) Ass.
Shout Out: The female cabinet member's outfit looks suspiciously like Cutey Honey's.
Several scenes imply that the culture has been coasting on everyone's lifestyle being heavily automated.
At the same time, several scenes also imply that they were about to starve to death (and maybe be buried in their own garbage) before Joe rescued them.
Unusual Euphemism: Nearly every business will somehow become a brothel and use whatever product it was once known for as euphemisms. For example, Starbucks has "lattes," which are now handjobs.
"Hey! Wanna go 'Family-Style'?"
Wafer Thin Mint: A truck adds to a massive pile of garbage. It gets compressed, but stays intact; Then a single can falls out of the truck, triggering an avalanche dozens of meters high.
You Have to Believe Me: The newscast describes Joe as saying this, presumably trying to tell the court that he's woken up from a centuries-long cryogenic sleep, but they just mock him.
Violence Channel correspondent Formica Davis: Well it started off boring and slow, with Not Sure trying to bullshit everyone with a bunch of smart-talk! "Blah blah blah, you gotta belieeeve me!" That part of the trial sucked!
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