Idiocracy: Pt 1
Sammie Roffman, Ben Silverio, and Ansel Burch are pop culture observers/content creators/excellent friends who can operate a push-button doctor pad and will be happy to tell you what plants crave. They’re here to welcome you into the increasingly plausible future of Idiocracy.
We all remember 2006. If you don’t remember 2006, please keep that to yourself. It will make our bones hurt. Most of us remember 2006, when we thought things were going pretty badly and the world needed a good wake-up call to remember human decency and the aspiration to excellence. Well, here’s the movie that appears not to have helped after all.
Find us online!
Find Sammie Roffman @SRKDall on Instagram, Twitter, and Letterboxd. Check out her podcast, The Lady Killers: A Feminine Rage Podcast
Ben is @bsilverio20 on Instagram, and letterboxed among others.
Ansel Burch is @TheIndecisionist on IG, Facebook, Yowsa, Blusky, Reddit, and Threads.
Check out Ansel’s new TTRPG, Deck! https://the-indecisionist.itch.io/Deck
Come back next week for the review of Idiocracy. It’ll be fun. We promise. After all, around here it’s always Time 2 Party
Transcript
Ben Silverio 0:05
Hey, I'm Ben Silverio,
Sammie Roffman 0:07
and I'm Sammy Rothman, and
Ansel Burch 0:09
I'm Ansel Burch,
Ben Silverio 0:10
and it's time to party.
Sammie Roffman 0:15
You didn't tell me what the music was. That just really got a giggle out of me. I was fully not expecting that. Usually we add the music after so that was great. That was wonderful.
Ansel Burch 0:28
It's called Love of power. It's very legally distinct.
Sammie Roffman 0:32
I'm very aware of what the title track is. My husband loves back to the future. So, wow, perfect.
Ben Silverio 0:42
Oh man, we are not doctors. We don't give medical advice. Please drink responsibly. Today's episode was recorded on December 8, 2025 party people. Welcome to Costco. I love you. No, I'm just kidding, there's time to party. But we still love you the party side. Thank you for joining us.
Ansel Burch 1:01
Package of whatever it is,
Ben Silverio 1:03
absolutely it is December. It is the holiday season, but not when you're listening to this. Sorry, bros. Yes, we are time to party where we take a look at Time Travel media and let you know if it's worth your time. The way it goes is the first episode, we give you a drinking and smoking game so you can re watch the movie. Second episode, we review the movie, talk about it, get in depth with it, really dive in. And then in the third episode, we dive out a little bit, you know, for our very lazy river of information in our edutainment section, so you might learn something, maybe, or just, you know, be like, What the hell are these guys talking about, which is what I feel like they're doing a lot, but
Sammie Roffman 1:51
that's the risk you take with podcasting, yeah?
Speaker 1 1:53
So, of
Ben Silverio 1:54
course, and that voice that you're hearing is the phenomenal Sammy Rothman, thank
Speaker 2 2:01
you
Ben Silverio 2:01
for joining us.
Sammie Roffman 2:03
Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks for letting me pick it, because I'm kind of glad they're not gonna have to watch us around the holidays, because kind of a fucking bummer now that I remembered it. But I'm very glad that I was able to choose this one out of the list. And I almost was like, Is it really time travel? Because, I mean, I guess it technically is, but, you know, they're just sitting in a pod. It's not like they go through a machine or anything. So I, I was hesitant to pick it, but once I got the approval, I thought, well, you guys are professionals,
Ben Silverio 2:33
yeah. Well, you know, we've covered some questionable movies in the past, and you know, it all, it all works, right? All right. And listeners, if you don't know what we're talking about because you didn't read the title or whatever, this month, we will be talking about the Mike Judge film Idiocracy, which in 2026 it is turning 20 years old, and that is insane to me. And
Sammie Roffman 3:01
remember, this future is only supposed to or is supposed to be 500 years into the future. So fun trivia all around this episode, I'm sure,
Ben Silverio 3:14
if you don't know anything about the movie Idiocracy, here's what our friends at IMDb tell us. Corporal Joe Bowers, a decidedly average American, is selected for a top secret hibernation program, but is forgotten and left to awaken to a future so incredibly moronic that he's easily the most intelligent person alive. Wow,
Sammie Roffman 3:35
yeah.
Ben Silverio 3:36
IMDB, really, really going hard this time.
Sammie Roffman 3:40
Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. I've seen a couple of sparse summaries on that site.
Ben Silverio 3:46
Yes. Now, Sammy, you mentioned that you know you picked this movie off the list, and I understand you have kind of a personal connection to it. Can you talk about
Sammie Roffman 3:56
my dad loved this movie? He passed away. It'll be three year this three years, this March. I think man time really does fly. But he raved about this movie. This one, you know, when you grow up, you have, like, your allotted VHS or DVDs without streaming, like, those are the ones that you had. And my dad kind of had a couple of those movies that we always had. This one was one of them. Jack Black's envy was also one of them, which is a movie that not a lot of people know we always had, like the weird bargain bin movies. And this was one of them. He loved this movie, which is ironic, because I I'm kind of glad he didn't have to live to see just how close we've gotten to this movie, if I'm looking on the brighter side of that, but it was always this one happy death day and motel hell were always like the three. Also The Lego Movie. He one time took a picture of Emmett from the Lego Movie to his barber to get his hair cut like him. So I always just remember that. But yes, so those were his favorite movies, and I'm. When it comes to try and travel. This was, this was the one that he always would put on for us. But yeah, I, I it's a very different viewing experience from 2006 to now. Oh yeah, and I didn't fully anticipate it being so prophetic, you know, as opposed to fiction. So I apologize for that. Like, as we were watching it, Mike was like, this isn't fun. I'm not having fun. I know comedy and like, sure, there were times where I busted up laughing still, but there were definitely some points where I was like, Oh, this is, wait, this is scarily close. And I think there's kind of like the one thing that really like kept shining throughout my brain this whole time was a lot of times we talk about how like movies from the 2000s don't really age well because of the language that they use. And there's a lot of, you know, words that we no longer use as a society. But actually, I thought about it for a second and I was like, maybe it did age well because we're seeing so often these words and this verbiage come back online. So I like, almost kind of like, because at first I was like, man, like, I can't believe like that they would still put these words in there. But then I thought about it, and I went, Well, we're actually using them a lot more than we did even 10 years ago. So yeah, maybe, maybe they might judge wasn't so far off as far as where our language is headed. But another fun fact
Ben Silverio 6:24
fully in agreement with you, I want to talk more about that in our next episode, but before we get there, to help you with the kind of bummer that is Idiocracy and how close it is to real life right now, we have a drinking and smoking game to help you as you re watch this movie. So Sam, you want to start us off with your first rule.
Sammie Roffman 6:45
Okay? So we'll just to go back to bummerville a second. I put take a shot or rip, rip a bowl every time you notice something close to our current state of the world, and this might honestly get you sent to the hospital. So maybe don't do this one. But or like, you know, I use your discretion of what you could handle. Yeah, exactly as a as a stoner, I would, I will be taking rips. So I think if I ad to that you I wouldn't be making words by the end of the movie. And then my second one was, every time a fast food company is referenced, I feel like there are a lot of fast food references. Yes, Carl's Jr in particular, which makes sense that a dumb society would just want to eat Carl's Jr given sorry to our good to Carl's Jr's lovers out there and Hardee's, but, uh, there's a certain clientele. Okay, based on the the ads we've been getting over the last 20 years, they have targeted
Ansel Burch 7:50
a specific group of people.
Ben Silverio 7:52
Yeah, very much.
Sammie Roffman 7:53
And I'm not sure it's a specific group of people that I particularly want to hang out with on a regular basis. But again, prove me wrong. Maybe I am wrong, but this Carl's Jr in particular, shouts profanities at you and yells at you so much like ordering there now and then. My last one was, take a shot every time you hear the line out my balls, because it said quite a few times it was valid. So
Ben Silverio 8:19
much.
Sammie Roffman 8:20
But again, Jack guys just jackass. Like, it's the like, we have these shit, so it's like, every time I was like, No, there's no way we would get this bad. Our television couldn't get this bad. It's already that bad.
Ben Silverio 8:33
It's already that bad.
Ansel Burch 8:34
Open up YouTube, I guarantee you can get that exact same
Sammie Roffman 8:37
experience, like the reality shows and stuff. Now, every time my algorithm shows me something, a part of me feels like better about myself, but also just very sad. So yeah, that's
Ben Silverio 8:49
why my algorithm has to give me cute little animals in between all the really dumb stuff to
Sammie Roffman 8:54
I get. A lot of I'm getting I'm on Beaver talk right now. And by that, I mean the critters I like I was telling you off, off because, not to be construed with anything else, but I was telling you off, Mike, that I'm very excited for hoppers coming. This is a hoppers plug from Pixar. And so I've been really into beavers videos lately.
Ben Silverio 9:16
I've been getting a lot of otters.
Sammie Roffman 9:19
That's great. They're
Ben Silverio 9:20
very cute.
Ansel Burch 9:21
Yes, they are. Yeah, apparently
Ben Silverio 9:24
there's like a zoo in Texas that you can go to and just hang out with otters.
Sammie Roffman 9:28
Oh, I
Speaker 2 9:29
and I'm
Ben Silverio 9:29
like, Oh man, I have to go to Texas.
Speaker 2 9:32
I
Sammie Roffman 9:32
know. I know that's Yeah. It's like being, you know, whenever I have to go see my boy, figment and I have to go to Florida,
Speaker 2 9:40
I
Sammie Roffman 9:40
bring him here, bring him to California. Give me Epcot here, please.
Ben Silverio 9:44
Oh, my God, just put journey into imagination in tomorrow.
Sammie Roffman 9:48
You
Ben Silverio 9:49
What else are they doing over there? Nothing?
Sammie Roffman 9:51
That song certified classic. It's a gone platinum in my house.
Ben Silverio 9:57
I love bringing it up because I like to see. Say that Ansel is my dream finder, because you just put
Sammie Roffman 10:03
like him.
Ben Silverio 10:04
See,
Sammie Roffman 10:06
please, for Halloween, you need to dress up as the purple dragon. You have to get him a top.
Ansel Burch 10:12
Yep,
Sammie Roffman 10:12
and
Ansel Burch 10:13
I already got
Sammie Roffman 10:14
the top. Now that I see it, I cannot unsee it. And he it's honestly a shame that they took him like all the branding for the ride,
Ansel Burch 10:24
a
Sammie Roffman 10:24
figment time to ride podcast, because I will go off. I was very sad for you, because I know you went and he wasn't there. And I haven't stopped thinking about it since you told me about that, and that was like, like, weeks, months, yeah, and I still thought about how devastated I would have been if I went there and I was like, piggy break.
Ben Silverio 10:47
I did see a very cute figment pumpkin outside of the attraction Halloween time. But, like, I wanted to hug the big guy.
Sammie Roffman 10:56
His embrace is so warm and wonderful. I got his autograph too. It was, you know, no big deal, like they somehow
Ansel Burch 11:03
made the, like, the giant fursuit, extra huggable.
Sammie Roffman 11:08
Oh yeah, it's very plush. And it's a giant fur suit. I mean, yes, it is. You're not wrong. He has scales. Technically, he would be a dragon so he doesn't have any furry orifices. But those are my three to go off on my tangent. Sorry,
Ben Silverio 11:31
no, it's great. I was gonna keep talking about all the references that I love in Journey to imagination, but I guess we should talk about
Sammie Roffman 11:39
probably like I'm known to do this to go on a tangent, so I apologize,
Speaker 2 11:48
as
Ansel Burch 11:48
are we, we have a whole fourth episode for everything I have to cut out of this
Sammie Roffman 11:52
perfect awesome that makes me feel great, because I imagine I'll be making an appearance,
Ben Silverio 11:58
yeah, if I were to go in hard on how much I love the Flubber references in the dream Institute.
Ansel Burch 12:06
Okay, so my
Sammie Roffman 12:06
first Flubber earlier this year. Yes, give me dream finder. Please tell us,
Ansel Burch 12:14
Oh, I wanted to, well, first off, I want to jump off of sammy's first rule with one of my rules, which is very similar. So just as an homage to your rule, take a drink every time you get sad about a joke.
Speaker 2 12:30
Yeah, there's
Ansel Burch 12:32
a very earnest joke, and it just makes you feel real bad.
Sammie Roffman 12:37
A lot of the presidential stuff was, I was like, Oh man, I've seen this on TV already this year. So yeah, that's where I was starting to get a wee bit melancholy during the walk.
Ansel Burch 12:52
The caricature is not big enough,
Sammie Roffman 12:55
no.
Ansel Burch 12:58
But yeah, I wanted to propose a shot out of respect here at Time to party like to pour one out for someone who deserves the extra respect. And by out, I do mean into our face, and I think the person who's punching above their weight class, who deserves the extra respect in this show is Maya Rudolph. Maya Rudolph just absolutely brought it for this one. And I just love everything she does. So
Sammie Roffman 13:28
I always forget. I'm like, Oh yeah, that's like, she's married to Paul Thomas Anderson. It's like, the crazy I love that relationship, like, just so cool, because she seems like the funniest person. And he's made some of my favorite movies where I'm like, man, to be a fly in that house, just to listen and hear, then just see everything like, it's just like, so two of, like, the most prolific people together, I just match made in heaven. So, yeah, I agree.
Ansel Burch 13:52
You got to wonder how often they're actually in the same room. It must be
Speaker 4 13:56
true. Yes.
Ansel Burch 14:00
I also wanted to as a little like gesture towards some one of one of Ben and I's favorite rules came from our very first episode when Aaron observed the absolute love for wheels on the ground from Mr. Cameron. If you re watch Terminator, you'll notice,
Sammie Roffman 14:19
okay,
Ansel Burch 14:20
James likes to start a shot at the ground level on the wheels of a thing, and then move up the machine to go, ooh, look how big this
Sammie Roffman 14:27
I feel. Like, Titanic does that too. Like, even with the boat and I avatar, I think kind of does it a little
Speaker 2 14:34
too,
Ben Silverio 14:34
absolutely.
Sammie Roffman 14:35
Yeah, all right, I'm gonna keep that in mind next time
Speaker 2 14:38
I watch
Ansel Burch 14:38
Terminator. Mr. Cameron, he likes to, he likes to tilt up. That's, that's
Speaker 2 14:43
his
Ben Silverio 14:43
move.
Ansel Burch 14:44
Look how big the thing is, and it's
Sammie Roffman 14:49
probably actually real, and takes up space, which I love that he used to do.
Ansel Burch 14:54
Yeah, full respect on that. So for my little gesture towards that, this movie loves a C. Thick pile of trash. It's very clear that the Seth people like, needed something to fill voids, and pile of trash was the go to option. So every time you see a big pile of trash, take a little sip. Don't kill
Sammie Roffman 15:16
yourself.
Speaker 2 15:17
Yeah,
Sammie Roffman 15:19
it almost looked like, you know, the where the Grinch lives, like his little mountain, that's what, where the Grinch lives his Yeah, thank you. Thank you. It looks a little like that, made of trash. Also, fun fact, the thing that tips it over is a recyclable can, which is just so sad that, like, you know, gosh, like, even then, you know, when I saw that, like, piece of trivia, I was like, man, he really put a lot of effort into, like, it's like The Simpsons, you know, with, like, the visual gags that you don't really pick up on it until a bunch of watches, which I'm finding with my Simpsons watch, and so you get this one, like, to watch. It was like the third or fourth time. At this point I was like, picking up on things that I hadn't before, and that was one of
Ansel Burch 16:06
them, nice. And then my last one is take a drink. Every time the characters use a keypad, it is the single most popular way I found for them to interact with a device or open a thing. I guess because we can't operate things with keys and locks and whatnot in the future, because we're all too dumb.
Sammie Roffman 16:27
Or like, the three things that get, one gets put in your butt, in your mouth, and you're like, what does the third one, I think, was like, in his nose or something like that, yeah. Which exactly you want to keyboards and those types of things at a doctor's office, it's exactly what you want to see
Ben Silverio 16:45
totally we don't want like universal healthcare or anything,
Speaker 1 16:51
just things
Ansel Burch 16:53
how much cheaper universal healthcare would be? Very
Speaker 3 16:56
true,
Ben Silverio 16:59
you know, Ansel going off one of your rules with the keypads. I had a rule about a very different finger gesture. Take a drink whenever someone's giving the finger, the middle finger,
Sammie Roffman 17:09
that's a lot of finger that happens. They do it, or each time you see it, because, like, sometimes one character does it a bunch of times in a row,
Ben Silverio 17:17
that's a
Sammie Roffman 17:18
lot of drinking. Yeah,
Ben Silverio 17:19
I think that's that's the players prerogative, like, how
Ansel Burch 17:24
how
Ben Silverio 17:24
fucked up are you trying to get? Also,
Sammie Roffman 17:29
how fucked up you are willing to get will change throughout the course of the film, depending on your reaction to it as it goes deeper and deeper into the labyrinth.
Ben Silverio 17:39
Oh yes. And you know that Labyrinth is kind of build up on product placement. And I also have a rule that I put a very important caveat on. I said that you should take a drink every time a real brand is referenced, you know, like Starbucks or Carl's Jr or fudruckers, because if you do all of the fake product placement, also, there's just so so much
Sammie Roffman 18:08
brondo.
Ben Silverio 18:10
Yeah, it has electrolytes. Yes, water is for toilets.
Sammie Roffman 18:16
Yeah, that's what they
Speaker 2 18:18
say
Ben Silverio 18:18
toilet.
Sammie Roffman 18:20
I would love to know how our bodies even get to a point where they wouldn't need water anymore, like that. Our bodies would just run on Gatorade.
Ansel Burch 18:28
I mean, there's, there's some water in
Speaker 1 18:32
Gatorade.
Ben Silverio 18:35
So my next rule is to take a hit whenever Rita's job goes over Joe's head.
Sammie Roffman 18:42
I know it's such a good bit. I love that bit.
Ben Silverio 18:45
I love that bit
Sammie Roffman 18:48
painting somewhere. Yes.
Ben Silverio 18:52
And finally, my last rule is another shot rule, as much as my Rudolph deserves all the respect. I'd like to spotlight someone that we've seen recently. I mean, not we as in a podcast, but we as a society have seen recently because of wake up dead man knives out mystery. He's also known for his roles in sideways, easy, a and two Spider Man movies. But to me, he's a Lowell Mather from wings. That's Thomas Hayden church,
Sammie Roffman 19:23
deep cut, literally, because Mike's favorite, one of my husband's favorite movie is, like, one of them is sideways. So, like, he came on the screen, and I immediately was like, sideways guy. Sideways guys. I always forget his name, but it is Hayden Christian Church and or and then I love him. And easy. I just rewatch that too. So
Ben Silverio 19:42
good. But you know the lovable mechanic from wings? I mean, I know he's like an award winning actor now, but like, he's just such a sweet boy.
Sammie Roffman 19:51
Never forget where you came from. You know
Ben Silverio 19:53
exactly he came from the cheers verse, and he should be very proud of that,
Sammie Roffman 19:57
the cheers verse at an airport.
Speaker 2 20:00
Yeah,
Sammie Roffman 20:00
yes. They thought, You know what, this bar could use an airport version of it, where everyone wants to go and hopefully will know my name. Listen,
Ben Silverio 20:13
I had the greatest pitch for the Fraser reboot, where I just wanted them to go to Nantucket so they could visit the airport from wings
Sammie Roffman 20:25
of the century. Yes,
Ben Silverio 20:27
but Frazier has already been to the airport from wings because he tried to do one of those seminars where you're, like, trying to self help people.
Sammie Roffman 20:37
Yeah, because I've watched the show through I'd barely run. I just remember when Sam comes back, because it's always like a big deal. You know when, when he makes an appearance?
Ben Silverio 20:45
Yep. In fact, Kelsey Grammer got nominated for some award. I forget which one, for his guests, appearance on wings for that episode, because he showed up with with Lilith. And it was really great.
Sammie Roffman 21:01
I love one of the best episodes, oof. I love I love that that we managed to get Frazier in here for a conversation on the Idiocracy episode. Man, we're really good.
Ansel Burch 21:14
Guess who gave an award at the the cracked Kennedy Center Honors, it was our very own giving out the
Trump he
Ben Silverio 21:26
was Yeah,
Sammie Roffman 21:30
too. Fraser never would.
Ansel Burch 21:33
Fraser never
Sammie Roffman 21:34
Yes. Sorry, like Frazier listens to NPR, Fraser would not have voted for Trump absolutely for sure,
Ben Silverio 21:44
and neither would Dr Hank McCoy because he believes in science. The
Sammie Roffman 21:47
beast would never
Ben Silverio 21:50
Oh, man. Kelsey Grammer sucks, but beast
Sammie Roffman 21:52
characters are great. Yeah.
Ansel Burch 21:55
He plays consistently awesome characters.
Sammie Roffman 21:58
Yeah. Man, happens to the best of them. I've seen my fair share of actors go through that.
Ben Silverio 22:03
Oh, geez. Well, party people, I think you should go back and re watch Idiocracy with these rules that we have just bestowed upon you, these party favors, if you will.
Ansel Burch 22:15
Remember, this is an a la carte list of rules do not
Speaker 3 22:18
do and
Ben Silverio 22:21
you don't have to drink alcohol. You can just drink something else that'll you know, whatever we're not going to judge you.
Ansel Burch 22:27
You will still need to be a great deal based on what we just gave you.
Ben Silverio 22:31
Yes. Now, armed with these party favors, you can find us on the internet. I'm at B Silverio 20 on all the platforms that I care to be on.
Sammie Roffman 22:43
You can always find me at SRK doll, that is on Instagram. I'm on Twitter. I'm on letterbox, at s r, k, D, A, L, L, and then you can find me weekly hosting lady killers, a feminine rage podcast over on the bloody disgusting Podcast Network too.
Ansel Burch 22:58
Hell yeah. And I am at the indecisionist on all the platforms that I care to be on, including the meta for now and and blue sky, which is a delightful breath of fresh air. For now, we'll see how long that
Speaker 3 23:14
lasts until
Ben Silverio 23:15
it turns into a hellscape.
Ansel Burch 23:16
We're also on letterboxed, where you can check out all of the movies we've watched in the past and in a bunch of the movies that we're considering from the future. So if you want to see a particular movie, show up on time to party, interact with us there. That is a great spot to talk about movies. So what? What better place to
Sammie Roffman 23:32
it's what they say.
Speaker 1 23:34
Yeah, right.
Ben Silverio 23:36
If you're still on a platform that uses hashtags, you can join the conversation by using hashtag time to party. That's time, the number two party
Ansel Burch 23:44
Special thanks to April maralba for our podcast art and to Marlon longitud of Marlon and the shakes for our amazing theme song. This has been an indecisionist production.
Ben Silverio 23:54
Time to party has what plants crave, and it's got electrolytes. So while you ponder on that one, friends, and wait until our next episode, where we'll get into Idiocracy with the lovely and amazing Sammy Rothman, remember, Be excellent to each other
Sammie Roffman 24:12
and party on, dude.
Ben Silverio 24:14
Yeah.
