Trivia / Idiocracy

• Acclaimed Flop: Like Judge's previous film, Office Space, this was positively reviewed but due to absolutely no advertising and doing the bare minimum of releasing the film theatrically, it couldn't even break half a million.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $25 million. Box office, $495,303 (though see the Screwed by the Network entry below to see how a lot of that was down to Fox sabotaging the film).
• Completely Different Title:
  • France: Planet Stupid
  • Croatia: Idiots of the Future
  • Czech Republic: Absurdistán
  • Portugal: Land of Idiots
  • Japan: 26th Century Young Man (a Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title to 20th Century Boys)
  • Turkey: Idiots
  • Ukraine: Planet of the Idiots
  • Hungary: Stupid Paradise
  • Taiwan: Idiot Evolution
• Creator Backlash: Judge had a really hard time making the movie, which sullied his impression of how it turned out. He had a lot of fun with the conceptual part and developing the story but no one really understood what the movie was trying to be and the studio felt it was just too weird, leading to some changes after a disastrous test screening.
• Defictionalization:
  • Not long after the movie was released, a real-life company started producing a "Brawndo" energy drink. AVClub did a taste test of it here. Said company is perhaps the ultimate example of this, being named Omni Consumer Products, whose whole shtick is this.
  • The truTV series It Only Hurts When I Laugh is Ow, My Balls in all but name.
• Fake Mixed Race: President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho sports a Hispanic surname and an extra Hispanic surname thrown in as a second first name, implying he is at least of Black Latino ancestry. His actor, Terry Crews, isn't.
• Flip-Flop of God: Originally, the writers have stated multiple times that they did not intend to write the film as satire on the decreasing intelligence of mankind^note It's closer to satirizing societal apathy. Mike Judge himself said it's more like a Deconstructive Parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey after how the real 2001 was nowhere near the pristine, idealistic future that that movie had predicted. However, after events leading to the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, such as the massive accidental poisoning of water and plants for money, the election of Donald Trump, and general success of sharing half-truths to complete falsehoods among the population, Judge and the other writers have started to agree with fans who claim that the movie may be coming true after all.
• Not Screened for Critics: As part of being Screwed by the Movie Studio; see below.
• Production Posse: Mike Judge has a couple of Office Space holdovers in Idiocracy: Michael Bolton (not that Michael Bolton) is in President Camacho's cabinet, and Milton is a judge (using his Buck Strickland voice, to boot).
• Real-Life Relative: Luke (Joe) and Andrew (Beef Supreme) Wilson.
• Referenced by...: The title is visible (but obscured by a tree) on the theater marquee in the first revival episode of Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head.
• Screwed by the Network: 20th Century Fox wanted to shuffle the film off to the DVD racks as quickly and quietly as possible. However, the film's contract stipulated that this film would get a theatrical release... so it premiered in about twelve theaters nationwide (Moviefone simply listed it as "Untitled Mike Judge Project"), with hardly any promotion at all, and was shown for only a week. It's often speculated that it was due to the movie's constant jabs at corporate product placement and Fox themselves, but according to Mike Judge himself, Fox was banking on it gaining a cult following the way Office Space had.
• Uncredited Role: Sara Rue appears uncredited as the Attorney General.
• Vindicated by Cable: To Fox's credit, they were right that the film would get a cult following similar to how Office Space did.
• What Could Have Been: Artie Lange auditioned for a role.
• Working Title: Used both 3001 and The United States of Uhh-merica.

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