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This is a very insightful article on the way Fox has utterly buried Idiocracy, the new film from Mike Judge. We all know Judge can be extremely commercially successful - Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill were pop culture hits, and his film Office Space, which also came and went from the theaters with little fanfare, has gone on to great success in the long tail marketplace of television and DVD. Yet, Fox has released Idiocracy with so little fanfare that it can’t even be seen in major markets like New York, and most casual filmgoers (including fans of Judge) are not even aware of its existence.

There are a lot of theories, including one that the film is far too anti-corporate (and makes too much fun of stupidity) to be promoted by Fox, corporate home of rah-rah flag-waving and When Animals Attack (though to be fair, Fox did also keep Arrested Development, one of the smartest shows on TV, on the air for 3 seasons). Time correspondent Joel Stein floats a different theory, one that speaks more to the cluelessness and creative bankruptcy of marketing departments, than to cultural censorship. Interesting stuff, indeed.

::: Dude, Where’s My Film?
Joel Stein, Time, Sept. 10, 2006

Thanks to Jeff Swindoll on Mobius for bringing this (belatedly) to our attention.