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Comment by input_sh | Hacker News Reader

Not quite sure "Ow My Balls / Jackass" argument should count, the Jackass franchise is older than Idiocracy and was most likely an inspiration for that bit.

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For some reason that also reminds me of the TV shows in Robocop.

e.g. Climbing for Dollars and It’s Not My Problem!

When I first saw Robocop these looked so crass it was obvious satire.

Now...? Well, I'd buy that for a dollar.

And I’m reminded of The Dark Knight Returns (1986) graphic novel. There are grotesque parodies of talking head news anchors and even a caricature of then-president Ronald Regan. Situation all fracked up.

Verhoeven makes some extremely heavy handed satire.

A decent litmus test is whether someone understands that the Starship Troopers movie is satire or not.

Climbing for Dollars is from The Running Man[0], the Arnie version from 1987 - same year as Robocop.

Then in 2001 was "Series 7"[1] (which I got flashbacks of from the 2013 White Bear[2] episode of Black Mirror).

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man_(1987_film)

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_7:_The_Contenders

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Bear_(Black_Mirror)

Trivia for music nerds like me: Mick Fleetwood and Dweezil Zappa are in The Running Man.

Very good point. My brain is just one big 80s mashup at this point.

Based.

And also, just because crass shows exists, it does not mean they are the only or dominant thing.

People still enjoy quality, even for entertainment.

Sure, teenagers will rot their brain, but the most watched shows in the US are The Bridgerton, The Night Agent, and The Pitt - not exactly jackass.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/h/charts/

Reality TV shows are a HUGE HUGE HUGE segment; most of them aren't too far off. (Reality TV as a concept precedes Idiocracy but was refined in the 2010s.)

"Ow! My Balls" was less about the Jackass part of it but more about the "numbing your brain and consuming mindless entertainment" commentary. Reality TV fits this category extremely well. See also: Housewives of _x_.

You're assuming we started at zero, we didn't (unfortunately)

That was my first thought too. The site is overall excellent, but that one was a pretty clear circular reasoning.

Upgraydd was also the guy's name in the present. He traveled to the future to be there with them.

probably 1/4 of tiktok is now Ow My Balls

You missed the documentary angle. Getting rid of jackass would be a move in the right direction (and all of the jackass derivatives).

There are quite a lot of dubious matches.

Brawndo is considered a match with "Nestlé CEO says water isn't a human right". Beyond that it has nothing to do with agricultural malpractice, the Nestlé guy is just correct. It doesn't make sense to talk about human rights that way.

"Ow my balls" is considered a match because "YouTube's most popular content is often people hurting themselves", which is just wrong. It's stuff like music videos, children's songs and MrBeast. All quite wholesome.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-viewed_YouTube_vi...

"Costco law degree" is considered a match because ... there are companies that offer credentials which aren't universities. That isn't evidence of stupidity.

"Trash piles are massive" is considered a match because third world countries have giant trash piles. But they always did. Idiocracy was a film about America.

Even the first match is a giant stretch. Elizondo was only a TV star, and he did that work whilst in office. Trump wasn't (just) a reality TV star, he was first and foremost pre-politics a real estate developer. Quite different levels of challenge and respectability. And I don't think the show he did could be described as reality TV anyway.

The apprentice is literally reality tv competition though.

It's a TV show. It's not reality TV as the term was originally used.

I always looked at the Costco law degree as more of a commentary on Costco/price clubs than of degree mills.

Like Costco sells everything and eventually that includes education.

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