Not So Crazy Anymore: Difference between revisions

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* The film ''[[Network]]'', which revolves around the exploitation of a mentally unstable newscaster by a TV network for ratings, reveled in over-the-top satire with events that would have been viewed as far-fetched back in the 1970s. Fast forward to the 21st century, where [[Reality TV]] shows [[Point and Laugh Show|ridicule and shame]] their contestants for sensational TV, and [[24-Hour News Networks]] have commentators ranting about the state of the world and what's wrong with it, and ''Network'' comes off as far less outrageous. Even the darkly comedic ending, which has the network executives {{spoiler|deciding to kill off the madman because the ratings for his TV show are dropping, and making his killers the stars of one of the network's reality shows in order to boost that show's [[Ratings]]}}, seems scarily plausible. Just look up what happened to R. Budd Dwyer.

** In an early 2000s interview, Sidney Lumet steadfastly maintained that ''Network'' had never been intended as a satire, claiming that it was "sheer reportage", drawn from his and Paddy Chayefsky's shared experiences working in television. Apparently such shenanigans had been going on for decades, with the general public only now starting to get a good look at them. Lumet concluded the segment saying "the only thing that hasn't happened is we've never seen {{spoiler|[[Blood Sport|anyone killed]] [[Condemned Contestant|for ratings]]}}."

* A scene from the first ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movie plays on this deliberately: Dr. Evil holds the world for ransom for one million ~~dollars -- then~~, seeing everyone's reaction, changes it to one ''hundred billion'' dollars. His threats are to blow a hole in the ozone layer, increasing the level of skin cancer; and making it look like members of the [[British Royal Family]] are involved in sex scandals.

* A scene from the first ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movie plays on this deliberately: Dr. Evil holds the world for ransom for one million dollars—then, seeing everyone's reaction, changes it to one ''hundred billion'' dollars. His threats are to blow a hole in the ozone layer, increasing the level of skin cancer; and making it look like members of the [[British Royal Family]] are involved in sex scandals.

** This is made [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] when one considers Greece's 120 billion dollars bail-out package.

* ''[[Demolition Man]]'' presents the absolutely absurd idea that [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] became President of the USA... and when the main character asks how it happened, they say that he became Governor of California first. It's still unconstitutional for an immigrant to be president, though. ([[The Economist]] magazine from proposed a change in that law, for that very reason, although they may have only been half serious.) In the movie there was a Constitutional Amendment made specifically to let him in.

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** The small, white, hand-sized music players that everyone owned. That they used to close out the world outside. Ray Bradbury himself commented on this around the century-shift.

* ''The Mote in God's Eye'' featured a parody of wine snobs, a "coffee connoisseur". When it was published, in the 1970s, the idea of someone taking coffee that seriously was inherently comical.

* The novel ''[[A Tale of Time City]]'' features a 42nd-century treat called a "butter-pie." It is essentially a chilled cake on a stick, with a warm, buttery center. Not long after the book's writing, the "lava cake" became ~~popular--a~~ cake with a solid exterior and molten interior. The only true difference between the two is the stick.

* The novel ''[[A Tale of Time City]]'' features a 42nd-century treat called a "butter-pie." It is essentially a chilled cake on a stick, with a warm, buttery center. Not long after the book's writing, the "lava cake" became popular—a cake with a solid exterior and molten interior. The only true difference between the two is the stick.

* [[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]: Jules Verne wrote in 1869 about Captain Nemo, a man from an oppressed eastern country who [[Majored in Western Hypocrisy|had training in the west,]] and has [[Fiction 500|money enough to pay a country’s national debt,]] who decides to create an [[NGO Superpower|organization strong enough]] to [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters|fight ]] an [[The Empire|entire Western country]] [[Moral Event Horizon|through terrible acts of violence]], [[The War on Terror|and therefore is chased as a menace by all established countries in the West.]] Since the beginning of his career as a writer, Verne was being accused by critics of being [[Sci Fi Ghetto|‘’”only”’’ a HardScifi writer that paid little heed to the social ramifications of technology]]. After [[Osama Bin Laden]], September ~~11th~~ and [[The War on Terror]], we must admit that Verne's ideas really reflected much more than anyone ever suspected about how the world will turn in the next 130 years!

* [[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]: Jules Verne wrote in 1869 about Captain Nemo, a man from an oppressed eastern country who [[Majored in Western Hypocrisy|had training in the west,]] and has [[Fiction 500|money enough to pay a country’s national debt,]] who decides to create an [[NGO Superpower|organization strong enough]] to [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters|fight]] an [[The Empire|entire Western country]] [[Moral Event Horizon|through terrible acts of violence]], [[The War on Terror|and therefore is chased as a menace by all established countries in the West.]] Since the beginning of his career as a writer, Verne was being accused by critics of being [[Sci Fi Ghetto|‘’”only”’’ a HardScifi writer that paid little heed to the social ramifications of technology]]. After [[Osama Bin Laden]], September 11 and [[The War on Terror]], we must admit that Verne's ideas really reflected much more than anyone ever suspected about how the world will turn in the next 130 years!

== [[Live-Action TV]] ==