This fall, the cult classic comedyIdiocracywill celebrate its 10th anniversary. While the movie wasn’t a big hit in theaters, earning just $444,000 during its brief theatrical run, it went on to become a cult classic, much like directorMike Judge’s previous effort, 1999’sOffice Space. Earlier this year,IdiocracywriterEtan Cohenrevealed on Twitter than he “never expectedIdiocracyto become a documentary,” which actually served as the impetus for a new anti-Donald Trumpcampaign, reuniting the writer with directorMike JudgeandIdiocracystarTerry Crews.
Idiocracycenters on an average man named Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) and a prostitute named Rita (Maya Rudolph) who take part in an Army hibernation experiment. The experiment doesn’t exactly go as planned, with Joe and Rita waking up 500 years in the future, where they are the smartest people on the planet.Terry Crewsplayed President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho.AsDonald Trump’s Presidential campaign started picking up steam,Etan Cohenrealized there were plenty of similarities between Trump and Camacho. According to a new report fromBuzzfeed,CohenandJudgeare now planning to shoot these anti-Trump ads withTerry Crews, after Fox clears the rights with the actor. Here’s whatEtan Cohenhad to say about the similarities between Camacho andTrump.
“(It started as) just a general lizard brain kind of thing: Thepresidencyis all about entertainment value. Then it started to get, as the year went on, weirdly specific. People pointing out things like, ‘Oh, Camacho was a wrestler and Trump was a wrestler.’ … It’s like, the more things go on, the more it actually seems to be kind of merging in a very specific, eerie way.”
Etan Cohen’s original tweet from February currently has over 3,900 retweets and 3,600 likes, which surprised the writer because he didn’t think anyone would notice it. The tweet created headlines, and even a group lobbying to classify the movie as a documentary. The writer added that they found it hard to satirize Trump because his behavior is already so outrageous, but he felt that this campaign was too important to give up on. Here’s what he had to say about the similarities and differences between Trump and Camacho.
“This is whatsatireis for … to be able to hold up a mirror and say, ‘This is crazy.‘Idiocracywas like that, but this all of a sudden felt like a very immediate need for the true meaning of satire and what it can actually do. If you’re makingIdiocracy 2, and you’re trying to write whoever’s the heir to Camacho, if you put in Trump, it would be too silly to be in a movie. They both seem to be intent on destroying the world. But maybe Camacho more accidentally? The most dangerous contrast to Trump is that Camacho actually realizes he needs advice from other people, and knows that he’s not the smartest guy in the room.”
It isn’t known whenMike Judge,Etan CohenandTerry Crewsplan on shooting these ads, or when they will debut. While it won’t be official until theRepublicanNational Convention this July, Trump is presumed to be the Republican candidate for President. We’ll be sure to keep you posted with more on theseIdiocracy-themed anti-Trump ads as soon as more information is released.
