The unappreciated genius of Mike Judge
(Classical music playing in the background…) Plato. Weber. Socrates. Comte. Judge…
In the pantheon of the greatest philosophers and sociologists of our times, lies the story of Mike Judge, our current muser, thinker, pontificator…
And creator of Beavis and Butthead, (stylus scratches off the record…)
Yes, you heard me correctly. The creator of Beavis and Butthead, and the movies Idiocracy and Office Space is one of the greatest geniuses of our time. Let me explain.
The first example is the peak of self realization that is Office Space, where our tragic hero lives out and full fills every sentient beings’ dream… He doesn’t care if he gets fired from the patronizing and utterly inept corporation, and acts out this terminal drama.
He shows up late, if at all. He wears a Hawaiian shirt. He cleans a fish on his desk. He reclines and puts his feet up while playing video games. He tears down the cubicle wall for a better view of the outside window. He meets with higher management, and tells them….the truth.
The opening 5 minute monologue of Idiocracy explains why we are becoming dumber as a society. Have members of Harvard or Stanford been able to explain this to us thus far? No. Have the top minds in public policy? No. PhDs in sociology? No.
Only Mike Judge.
The opening scene interviews two intellectual, low testosterone, soy drinking yuppies who ring their hands and fret over the serious implications of having children, and keep “waiting for the right time,” i.e., they don’t reproduce their superior intellect, like Khan in Star Trek.
The Appalachian couple that are interviewed consider no such worries, concerns, trivialities. “Let’s get ur done…” Animal cravings and desires trump all reason. The couplings don’t even remain within the same relationships.
So while the family tree of the first couple on the “left” fails to even take root, the bunny like hormonal explosion of offspring occurs in the backwoods family tree, an exponential supernova of DNA from the shallow end of the gene pool.
Done and done, in 5 minutes. Mike Judge explained to the world why society as a whole is growing dumber. And in fairness, he makes fun of both sides, equally.
The easiest relation to real life is Beavis and Butthead. The reason this resonated so well is because I was Butthead, at least by the age of 11. And he nails the character. Stupid grin, stupid laugh, stupid things said, preoccupation with all things naked and sexual in nature. Even the wind blowing. Like little spider monkeys, that need a good hosing down.
Have any universities of hallowed higher learning awarded this societal genius with an honorary doctorate? Not that the internet was aware of. Here is a list of the (un genius) celebrities who earned honorary doctorates;
Kermit the Frog, Bill Cosby, Stephen Colbert, Oprah Winfrey, Bob Barker, P. Diddy, Alec Baldwin, Kanye West, Jon Bon Jovi, Celine Dion, Jimmy Kimmel... The list goes on and on. It’s as if everyone has one except Mike Judge.
Have any of these people contributed greater to the understanding of human nature? No.
In the immortal words of one scholar, they are “dumbasses.”