Brawndo, It's Got Electrolytes. It's What Plants Crave 397
"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.
Nothing. beats. the. great. taste. of. Slurm. (Score:3)
Except for Soylent Cola (Score:4, Funny)
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Idiocracy (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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I don't think I'd call it genius, but compared to most 'comedies', it's definitely a cut above.
Re:Idiocracy (Score:5, Insightful)
Usually they're hooked after that.
Idiocracy Test (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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Re:Idiocracy (Score:4, Insightful)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
Just browse at -1 here to see what it refers to.
It's not supposed to be hilarious (Score:4, Insightful)
It's supposed to be sarcastic. It's social commentary.
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This is exactly why we breeding licenses for humans.
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What you MUST do is go to the Brawndo site and view the commercial [brawndo.com].
imdb link (Score:3, Informative)
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What next? (Score:3, Funny)
Watch that movie again! (Score:5, Informative)
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 [royalsociety.org].
The medical center scene... (Score:3)
The medical center scene reminds me of a joke...
Q. What's the difference between an oral probe and a rectal probe?
A. The taste.
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I actually carry electrolyte tabs in the med kit I pack with me for training and hiking. It's not generally a life-threatening issue unless you let it get
Re:The medical center scene... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The medical center scene... (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, it's scary.
Me too (Score:3, Interesting)
The "he talks faggy" bit gave me a chuckle. I actually had to learn how to talk to people in my rural home town and not use language that confused them. The scary part is that I used to do it unconsciously. I'd go to college and communicate normally, then come home and "adjust" for the locals. First time I noticed what I was doing it gave me the serious creeps.
And I can still do it if I wish, and I haven't lived there in a dozen years. One minute I can be talking about Heisenberg, the next moment I c
Re:The medical center scene... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Hilarious movie. (Score:5, Insightful)
/soapbox.
Re:Hilarious movie. (Score:5, Insightful)
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. (Score:4, Informative)
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.
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Re:Hilarious movie. (Score:5, Insightful)
The Irony (Score:5, Informative)
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 [gnxp.com], to start (the focus here is on population differences, but heritable individual differences in IQ are even more strongly supported).
Re: brains and genes (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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The language is the best part of the movie. I love the pseudo-"cops" jargon from all the police, and the doctor's speech is one of the funniest things on film.
Re:Hilarious movie. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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Nobody is suggesting LaMarckian evolution. I think t
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient#Heritability [wikipedia.org]
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Well shit. (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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Rather devious a plan that is, if indeed it is premeditated.
Re: Umber Oppressor? (Score:2)
What's an umber oppressor? Is that like the brown screen of Ubuntu that tells me I'm bricked when I forgot my password?
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Re:Well shit. (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Don't blame the teachers (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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Re:Don't blame the teachers (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Who's forcing him to be a computer teacher... (Score:5, Insightful)
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If you think teachers are either well paid, or have any freedom over what they teach in the classroom, you are a misinformed douche.
Re:Well shit. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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I've also begun applying the Jeff Cooper awareness system to it. If you spend life in condition YELLOW (not harmful and not really stressful, but merely active awareness of your surroundings) you begin to spot this kind of stuff, and even get to find it funny. I travel with friends whom I'm teaching that system of awareness to, and I'm noticing the change as they begin to apply it. All of a sudden they're harder to trick and to fool into things, harder to bait, wh
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Re:Well shit. (Score:5, Funny)
This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.
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Carl's Jr.: Fuck you, I'm eating!
I'm more scared by your post (Score:2)
If you honestly think that will happen you are really deranged. Im not entirely sure about the FCC but the FDA is full of people Im sure would r
Re:Well shit. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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"Professional" wresting is exactly jingoistic, themed-warrior reality TV, and the amount of steroids they use seems to be killing at least some of the contestants.
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What makes you think... (Score:2)
What makes you think that they actually missed the point?
This is Fox, we're talking about -- not exactly the banner for corporate America respecting the intelligence of their customers. (e.g. "When Animals Attack," "The O'Reilly Factor," "Who Wants t
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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
There is a basic, fundamental difference between government and business. The US Government isn't a corporation where you could buy all its devalued stock and then "own" it. The only thing NewsCorp could conceivably do would be to bribe elected officials through campaign contributions to get favorable treatment. Sadly, it's morons like you that illustrate exactly how close we actually are to an Idiocracy.
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As opposed to buying the movie itself... which contributes money to the very thing the movie was preaching against?
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Company's website
http://www.drinkredux.com/ [drinkredux.com]
Press release
http://drinkredux.com/downloads/Brawndo_Press_Release.pdf [drinkredux.com]
Economics of this stupid decision (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
I'm so shallow (Score:2)
I must admit, though, that I'd watch "Ow! My Balls".
*hangs head in shame*
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It's happened before... (Score:2)
Difference is, I don't think there's much Fox can do now, other than commission a second season, and they'll never do that, right?
Re:Economics of this stupid decision (Score:5, Insightful)
Alternately, you could just dial a random video in Youtube...
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Hit up YouTube and look for a TV show called "Maximum Exposure", or "Max-X". It's as close to "Ow! My Balls!" as I've ever seen. It's basically America's Funniest Home Videos combined with fire/flood/disaster/riot/sporting event footage, and a commentator from Idiocracy. "Now watch this dude. He's walking along the seawall with his buddies, and he doesn't see the wave behind him. But heyy-- the wave sees him! Boom! And he's sucked out to
We are talking Fox here (Score:2)
Hey slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
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It could be Fox's idea of cross-marketing for a new, as-yet-unannounced RoboCop movie.
Another thing worth noting, the site mentions a lack of high fructose corn syrup.
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I'd just like some water please (Score:5, Funny)
This is good news. (Score:2, Funny)
guitar army (Score:2)
Well, that's the first thing that came to my mind in the Rehabilitation Night scenes that showed the Guitar Army.
On a different note, who did the voice of the monster-truck arena announcer? I swear it's the voice of Strongbad, but I can't find any credit.
the film industry is known for immitating a win (Score:2)
It's okay (Score:2, Interesting)
President Camacho. (Score:4, Funny)
Overreacting much? (Score:3, Insightful)
Christ, get some perspective.
Is that for real ? (Score:3, Informative)
First, is it too ironic to be moronic
Second, I have already seen spoof ads like that on youtube that seems to be made by the same guy.
Third, the video is hosted on youtube
Fourth, the website works fine on Firefox in Linux. That's not something Fox would actually be able to do.
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He doesn't put his name, his age is 27, he is from the United States and is the user number 15512 to prove that Slashdot doesn't do any kind of source checking.
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Re:The film focused my fears into a productive act (Score:2)
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Re:You're wrong, Taco (Score:5, Interesting)
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...
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Maybe I wasn't being specific enough, or the mods are unfamiliar with the movie. The 'quotable' portions of the movie are composed of incredibly stupid statements (for instance, the "it's got what plants crave" quote FTS). The people who quote this part of the movie are, in effect, committing one of many atrocities that the movie rails against--repeating something they heard, just because it sounds funny.
The rest of my post, e.g. "the only redeeming quality" remark, was a statement of opinion (IMHO: in my
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I can't believe that all these people REALLY go for this movie.
There are so many asinine holes in the logic regarding the near sub-human intelligence that it just plain isn't interesting. Who the hell fixes the cars? How do they DRIVE the cars? They have enough trouble with menial tasks that it makes no sense that the society in the movie actually survives.
That, and the inane love story reminds me of Adam Sandler movies.
I'm with you. The movie is worthless as commentary. Give me A Clockwork Orange
Just wait... (Score:3, Funny)