Idiocracy - new Mike Judge movie in superlimited release

Yeah, I was thinking of Mexicans, too. I know that the show sometimes touches on race issues, but even so, I've always found it kinda timid.

Some of the "alley gang" should be at least kinda/sorta racist. Given the culture they represent, this failure seems like a cop-out. How do white, conservative, middle-class, suburban Texans really feel about race? In my admittedly limited experience, people like Dale (and even Hank) are often profoundly racist.

The only actual racist on the show, though, seems to be Khan. Why? Why does the show present such a rosy, "enlightened" view of race-relations in Texas? I understand that everybody on the show is stereotyped to some extent, but why are the non-white characters so consistently stereotyped in terms of race alone? Why aren't there any hispanic major characters? In Texas of all places?

I don't wanna get bogged down in debate. If what I'm saying doesn't make intuitive sense to you, then arguing the point probably won't change your mind. And I don't think you're wrong, necessarily. What I'm talking about is more implicit than explicit.

???

also, when I watched the show regularly(years back), Khan was the best character w/ the best lines.

adam beales did you ever seen the one where hank is worried hes a racist because ladybird keeps reacting violently to the repairman played by bernie mac? or the one with chris rock where bobby writes a bunch of 'black people drive like THIS!' jokes?

PEGGY: I'll tell you something right now: We cannot afford to have that dog running amok, biting every black person she sees. It makes us look like a bunch of ignorant rednecks. Oh, and it's bad for black people too.

BOBBY: You're so lucky, Connie, you're ethnic. Joseph and I are just nothing. We're just white and boring.
JOSEPH: Yeah.

Still, I'm not gonna argue this any further. I can't imagine it going well.

though i can understand if, like adam beales, you have never actually paid any attention to anything hes done before, that the half-assed treatment of maya rudolph & scarface could seem like it (my big draw to the film = mike judge directs film starring maya rudolph & scarface)

I always thought that they should have a throwaway gag "Meanwhile, on the other side of town..." and quickly show a foursome of basically identical black dudes hanging out in their alley sippin' on beers, saying "yep" and then an equivalently imcoherent black-dude ramble from melanin-enhanced Boomhauer.

I don't think it's actively racist in any way. I think it tries hard, in fact, to be progressive -- antiracist. But I have qualms about the ways it goes about this. While I think the show's aims are noble, I think it ends up sweeping the real face of racism under the rug. And for a show that attempts to present a semi-gritty, humane, morally honest view of life in suburban Texas, I think that's a mistake, though a small, harmless one.

I understand that you don't see it this way, and I have no problem with that.

But Idiocracy is another matter. Here, I think Judge isn't really in control of his feelings/ideas about the intersection of race, class and intellect. And I think he ends up shooting himself in the foot. Made it hard for me to enjoy the movie. Why, for instance, do so many white people in the film have Hispanic names? What's the point?

Oh, and strike every instance of the phrase "I think" in ppg 2 of my last post. It'll reduce the impression of moronism by at least 10%.

And out (again).

uh cuz they're actually Hispanic (ie, part of the currently largest and fastest growing ethnic group in the US)?

Honestly, given that the film rather clumsily and literally maps out how the future became populated by the profoundly stupid with no mention of race/ethnicity, it didn't even occur to me.

But the moron-future in this film looked, felt and sounded an awful lot like Tijuana/East LA.