The Marching Morons

[EstimatedProphet]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons

A short story by Cyril Kornbluth written in 1951, the Marching Morons postulates a world of the future where the average IQ is 45, because the educated and well-informed stopped their reproduction but the mentally deficient didn't. It's an interesting story, although trapped in the mentality of 1951.

One of the points of the story was how the average person in that society was so stupid that they had to be literally programmed in order to function. The protagonist, a modern-day man who was put in suspended animation for hundreds of years and awoke in the moron society, begins to notice this when he sees an ad for a TV comedy which has the punchline of "Would you buy it for a quarter?" A line which in and of itself has no real meaning or comic value. (This line was paraphrased in the movie Robocop by the way, to imply similar things.) Kornbluth used the example of the comic line, along with other examples, to show how stupid the public had become - the TV show would base the entire script around using the line "I'll buy that for a quarter!" in and of itself, and the audience had become programmed to laugh simply because it was told to laugh when someone would use the line. They found the line funny because they were told to, and not because of any kind of humor value inherent in it or some allusion to something funny. They were programmed.

So...I can't help but laugh a little inside, when I see a pickup truck that has a sticker on it which reads "Git 'R' Done!"

[johnaries]

1. Robocop had a lot of subtle jokes.

Like the most popular car - the SUX5000.

[EstimatedProphet]

6. That and the Nukem board game come to mind too

[evlbstrd]

2. Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?

Not so far fetched.

[EstimatedProphet]

7. Touche

Another good example

[evlbstrd]

9. Dy-no-mite!

Somebody please help me.

[Jim__]

3. I think the laugh track on modern TV sit coms serves much the same

purpose. People laugh because they hear other people laughing. We may already be there.

[IChing]

4. Mike Judge has a new movie that explores that thought

Fox is not promoting it, just like they did not promote Office Space,

"Idiocracy" Mike Judge's new movie (Office Space) Sept 1

Judge recently completed filming his second feature (originally titled 3001, but changed to Idiocracy due to some copyright issues with 2001: A Space Odyssey author Arthur C. Clarke) and, after reading the August 8, 2003 draft of the script, I can tell you that your annoying friend who's been screaming "You're my boy, Blue!" for months on end will finally have a new source of material. Idiocracy is funny. Really, really damn funny. And if Mike Judge can make me laugh half as much in the theater as I did while reading this script, then it will have a very healthy Blockbuster shelf life.

http://www.thedeadbolt.com/reviews/idiocracy_scriptrevi...

For those who dont know, this movie is about an ordinary Joe, who gets frozen in an army experiment, intending to wake up a year later, but the army experiment gets forgotten, and he stays frozen for hundreds of years. Didnt this guy watch Futurama? Anyways in the time he has been frozen, the worlds population has become incredibly stupid, and unable to take care of themselves. When Joe wakes up, he is the literally the smartest person on the planet. Hilarity ensues..

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=21057


Limited opening:

Release on Sept. 1 in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, and Toronto, a spokesperson for 20th Century Fox said. Whether the long-delayed, Austin-shot film will expand to other markets is uncertain. The announcement comes on the heels of a report on the MTV Web site that the film's release was "postponed indefinitely" with rumors of the dreaded limited release. Wrong on the first; correct on the second. Which leads to the obligatory questions: Is it that bad? Will film execs ever figure out Judge's humor?

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oi...


My post was sent to the lounge. His films are political in nature---Beavis and Butthead do America, any questions?

[EstimatedProphet]

5. As a matter of fact, your post is what reminded me of this

and I can't wait for the movie! I hope though he does credit Kornbluth for some of the inspiration...

[IChing]

12. I just hope that it gets played because Fox is not promoting it.

He had to have the independent film maker Robert Rodriguez help him for free to do the special effects.

[EFerrari]

8. People laugh for three reasons.

They laugh because they don't know what else to do with their mouths.

They laugh because they are trained to, i.e., good students.

They laugh because some obscure pain has been relieved in a way that circumvents time and space.

They don't laugh because they are stupid or unaware. Try to get a sleeping person to laugh. They're a tough crowd. Don't even get me started on the comatose or the dead.

[EstimatedProphet]

11. Not exactly what I am getting at

The story wasn't that they laugh at it because they were stupid, it was thet they were so stupid they had to be programmed to laugh at certain times. Therefore any line could have been substituted in for the one they used, so long as the programming was in place.

[EFerrari]

14. Right, not what you're getting at but perhaps, a bit of context

for laughter.

Here's your card. :P

[EstimatedProphet]

15. !

:spank:

You got me. I missed the context.

[EFerrari]

16. I'm no good at set ups. lol n/t

[hobbit709]

10. I remember another one

in the same vein. All the intelligent people had left Earth except for a few techs who kept everything running for the morans. One day they got fed up and left too.

[Mr. Blonde]

Isn't the average IQ always 100

I thought that was the way the system was set up. A normally intelligent person has an IQ of 100. So in a group of morons, the middle of the road is still 100.

[EstimatedProphet]

17. The comparative IQ was 45

It was 45 when compared to present day measurements.

[Mr. Blonde]

13. Dupe

[EvolveOrConvolve]

18. In reality, we have reversed natural selection

Traits born into our species that would have died out under natural laws are now allowed to survive, and the humans with those traits are allowed to procreate. It'd be interesting to be around in a 10,000 generations to see what becomes of the human race.

[EstimatedProphet]

19. Sexual selection is a tricky thing

I liked the story, but I don't give it much credence, other than that it makes me laugh when I see a truck that has "Git 'R' Done!" plastered on it.

The case can be made that some traits that are counterproductive can be carried on because we have civilized ourselves. But who decides what really is counterproductive? If we have a society that has a place for everyone, and methods of curing defects, that counterproductive traits lose their meaning. And, there are social traits that may be attractive sexually (generosity, for example, or altruism) that would draw a mate and allow reproduction, but may be frowned upon by the predominiant culture.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

21. The problem is that eventually we won't have a place for everyone

Humans are breeding like over-sexed rabbits, and we have the technology now to keep people alive through circumstances that even 100 or 50 years ago would have been impossible. I've read that over 1/2 of all human beings ever in existence are alive right now. That doesn't bode well for the future of the earth.

This ability to supercede the laws of natural selection also has positive repercussions. Look at Stephen Hawking; without our advanced medical technology, we would be without one of the greatest minds of our generation.

[johnaries]

20. No longer Homo Sapien, we're now Homo Technologicus. nt

[opihimoimoi]

22. Maybe HOMO IGNORAMUS???

[johnaries]

23. Only 32%. Homo Backwashish.

:rofl: