50 Fun Facts About Idiocracy

Mike Judge co-wrote Idiocracy with which screenwriter, who later wrote Tropic Thunder and Men in Black 3?

Cohen, a Harvard Lampoon alumnus, had written for Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill. He is not the Coen brother of the similar-sounding name.

What is Joe Bauers's job in the US Army before the experiment?

He is selected because tests show he is the most statistically average person in the armed forces, not for any talent.

Who plays Joe Bauers?

His real-life older brother Andrew Wilson also appears, as the monster-truck rehabilitation officer Beef Supreme.

Joe and Rita are meant to sleep for one year. How long do they actually stay in hibernation?

The base is shut down after a sex scandal involving the commanding officer and Rita's pimp, and the project is simply forgotten.

Who plays Rita?

She was a Saturday Night Live cast member at the time; the same year she had her first prominent film role in A Prairie Home Companion.

Why does the army have to hire Rita for the experiment?

The military drops charges against her and pays off her pimp Upgrayedd, whose scandal with the commanding officer then closes the whole base.

Whose apartment does Joe's hibernation pod crash into after the garbage avalanche?

Frito, played by Dax Shepard, later turns out to be Joe's court-appointed lawyer and spends the trial complaining about his wrecked apartment.

The narrator describes future English as a mixture of hillbilly, Valley Girl, inner-city slang and what?

Joe's own perfectly ordinary 2005 accent is heard as pompous and effeminate, which is what gets him laughed at in court.

At which fast-food chain is Joe first arrested for lacking a bar-code tattoo?

Real brands appear throughout the film, and Terry Crews later claimed the companies' unhappiness with their portrayal helped sink its release.

At the correctional facility, a faulty ID machine registers Joe under what name?

The name sticks all the way to the presidency. He escapes prison by telling a guard he has finished his sentence and is due for release.

According to Frito, the time machine is located inside what kind of building?

It turns out to be an amusement ride. The store's greeter deadpans 'Welcome to Costco, I love you', a line Crews says annoyed the real company.

What does Frito demand in return for guiding Joe to the time machine?

Frito reasons that five centuries of compound interest would make him billions. He gets the vice-presidency and eight wives instead.

Which cabinet post does President Camacho give Joe after his aptitude test?

Camacho gives him a week to fix the crops, the dust storms and the economy or go back to prison. David Herman plays the Secretary of State.

Which soft drink is part of President Camacho's full name?

His full name is Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, and he came to office from professional wrestling.

Who plays President Camacho?

Crews was a real NFL defensive end for the Rams, Chargers and Redskins before acting, and reprised Camacho in Funny or Die sketches before the 2012 election.

What was Camacho's job before he became president?

Judge compared Donald Trump to the character in 2016 and, asked about predicting the future, said 'I'm no prophet, I was off by 490 years.'

In Idiocracy, what ingredient in the sports drink Brawndo, which plants supposedly crave, has ruined the topsoil?

The concentration of electrolytes has wrecked the soil and caused dust storms. Joe's radical proposal is to use water instead.

Brawndo's parent company owns the FCC, the HHS and which other federal agency?

The company's chief executive is played by Thomas Haden Church, fresh from his Oscar nomination for Sideways.

What happens to the economy immediately after Joe switches the crops over to plain water?

Brawndo files for bankruptcy and riots break out because the crops do not recover instantly, which lands Joe back in court.

What is the highest tribunal of 2505, which sentences Joe to public execution, called?

It sentences Joe to public execution, which in this future means a monster-truck demolition derby.

Joe's public execution is a demolition derby against which undefeated 'rehabilitation officer'?

He is played by Andrew Wilson, eldest of the Wilson brothers, who had appeared in Bottle Rocket and The Royal Tenenbaums with his siblings.

How does Rita save Joe from execution?

Seeing the plants growing, Camacho grants a presidential pardon on the spot. Joe goes on to become president himself.

By the end of the film, how many children does Vice-President Frito have with his eight wives?

The narrator calls them '32 of the dumbest children to ever walk on Earth', in contrast to Joe and Rita's 'three smartest kids in the world'.

Who is revealed to be waking from a third hibernation chamber in the post-credits scene?

Rita's pimp walks off to look for her. He is played by Houston rapper Brad Jordan, better known as Scarface of the Geto Boys.

Which rapper, a member of the Geto Boys, plays Rita's pimp?

Judge is a fan: he used the Geto Boys' 'Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta' and 'Still' in Office Space, along with Scarface's 'No Tears'.

Which actor from Judge's earlier cult comedy about cubicle life plays Judge Hector?

Root, who played stapler-obsessed Milton Waddams, also voiced Bill Dauterive and Buck Strickland on Judge's King of the Hill.

Which actor, then famous for Apple's 'Get a Mac' ads, plays Doctor Lexus?

The doctor tells Joe his condition is 'retarded' and 'talks like a fag', the film's blunt sample of future medicine. Long later became a horror 'scream king'.

Which Oscar-nominated Sideways star plays the chief executive of Brawndo?

Church, best remembered as Lowell on Wings and Sandman in Spider-Man 3, plays the executive whose product is destroying the soil.

Which actor plays Frito, later famous for the podcast Armchair Expert?

Shepard had come up through the Groundlings and MTV's Punk'd. He co-founded a baby-products company with his wife Kristen Bell.

One of the film's early working titles was a year. Which?

Judge finished a script under that name in 2001, having first had the idea in 1996. Another working title was The United States of Uhh-merica.

Filming took place in 2004 in and around which Texas city, the director's hometown?

Sound stages at Austin Studios were used along with San Marcos, Pflugerville and Round Rock. Judge was born in Ecuador and grew up in Albuquerque.

Reshoots after a 2005 test screening were reportedly done to address what?

Ain't It Cool News reported the reshoots and liked the cut it saw; the site later became one of the loudest critics of Fox's handling of the film.

On what date was Idiocracy finally released in US cinemas?

The original date had been 5 August 2005. It reached DVD on 9 January 2007, where it made about $9 million in rentals.

The film opened in only seven cities. Which of these was NOT one of them?

Los Angeles, Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Austin got it. New York, the media capital, was skipped entirely.

At its widest, how many theaters showed Idiocracy, against a normal wide release of 600 or more?

Fox released posters but no trailers, ads or press kits, and only two stills for the press. It did not screen the film for critics at all.

Roughly how much did Idiocracy gross worldwide in cinemas, from a $2.4 million budget?

The exact figure was $495,303. DVD rentals later brought in about $9 million, twenty times the domestic gross.

In a 2017 interview, what did the director say was the reason Fox gave the film no marketing push?

Judge said Fox expected it to find a cult audience on DVD, as Office Space had. Terry Crews blamed corporations unhappy with how they were portrayed.

Which real coffee chain did the actor who played Camacho say the film mocked, upsetting advertisers?

Crews told GQ the companies had lent their names expecting to be 'pumped up' and were horrified, so Fox released it 'in as few theaters as legally possible'.

A founding member of which new-wave band said Idiocracy was 'the movie we should have made'?

Gerald Casale's band was built on the idea of de-evolution, so the compliment was on-brand. Rotten Tomatoes has the film at 71% positive.

Asked in 2016 about predicting the future, Judge said 'I'm no prophet, I was off by' how much?

The film is set 500 years after 2005; the joke was that its America had arrived in 2016. Comparisons resurfaced in 2025 and 2026.

Idiocracy topped which newspaper's reader poll, for America's 250th, of films best capturing the American experience?

Not bad for a film its own studio would not screen for critics. The same paper had run early reporting on why Fox seemed to be burying it.

Before turning to animation, Mike Judge studied which subject at the University of California, San Diego?

He lost interest in a science career and turned to short films, which led to Beavis and Butt-Head. He was born in Ecuador and raised in Albuquerque.

Idiocracy was Judge's third film. Which of his films came immediately before it?

Office Space (1999) had also flopped in cinemas before becoming a huge cult hit on video, which is the model Fox claimed to be following.

Which actor, brother of the film's star, plays Beef Supreme?

Andrew is the eldest of the three Wilson brothers, and Luke plays Joe Bauers.

What is Frito Pendejo's profession in 2505?

He is later appointed vice-president once Joe becomes president.

Roughly how much has Idiocracy earned from DVD rentals, over 20 times its domestic box office?

Fox reportedly expected the film to find a cult following on home video, as Office Space had.

According to Mike Judge, what was Idiocracy's original planned release date?

It eventually reached cinemas more than a year later, in September 2006, with no trailers, ads or press kits.

What score does Idiocracy hold on Metacritic, based on 12 critics?

Rotten Tomatoes lists 71% positive reviews despite the film never being screened for critics before release.

A week before the 2012 US elections, Terry Crews reprised President Camacho in sketches for which humor website?

Crews had earlier discussed a possible Camacho spin-off with Judge and Fox, initially conceived as a web series.

Which Sky channel showed the uncut film in the UK in February 2009, ahead of its Film4 premiere?

Fox had never given the film a proper cinema run in Britain, so TV was many viewers' first chance to see it.