Entertainment
How A Raunchy, R-Rated Sci-Fi Comedy Warned Us About Everything We're Currently Living Through
By Jennifer Asencio
| Updated
Mike Judge brought us the animated sitcoms Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill, which were full of sharp social commentary interwoven with cutting humor. He also wrote and directed feature films like the meme-laden Office Space and the sci-fi comedy Idiocracy. The latter predicted a future that seems like it’s already here.
Luke Wilson plays Joe, a fiercely average enlistee in the US Army who was hoping that he could pass his tenure in a lonely library, away from other people. However, the Army has other plans: they enlist him as a test subject for a top-secret project meant to freeze soldiers in time, to be awakened when needed. Also enlisted is Rita, a prostitute played by Maya Rudolph who has drawn the eye of the project director. The project is forgotten while they are asleep.
The project works extremely well, and Joe wakes up in 2505. The world has drastically changed and is facing a series of catastrophic challenges like famine and drought. Everything is automated and everyone seems to be pretty dumb. Joe finds out that he’s the smartest man in the world when run-ins with the law force him through an intelligence test.
He gets recruited by the President, Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Comacho (played to extremes by Terry Crews), to solve the famine or else he will wind up in jail in this terrible place forever. With the aid of Rita and contemporary local Frito Pendejo (a dumbed-down Dax Shepard), Joe strives to save the world so he can stay out of jail long enough to return himself and Rita to the 21st century.
Brought To You By The Creators Of Ass, And Ow, My Balls!
In Idiocracy, intelligence is seen as a disability, much like learning disabilities are viewed today. The number one TV show is called Ow, My Balls, and its single gag is that its lead repeatedly receives blows to the groin. The number one movie is called Ass, and it is a feature film that is entirely a farting butt. Justice, both the courtroom and the “House of Representin’,” is televised and sensationalized. Everyone’s clothes, no matter how simple, are covered in logos.
The world is controlled by the corporation Brawndo, whose main product is an electrolyte beverage that has replaced water. Everything is so automated that there is no way to reach a human, and nobody is smart enough to do anything about it.
If all of this sounds oddly prescient, well, it is. Anyone who has had to deal with automated customer service these days knows about the frustrating string of endless automated replies that never address the problem and are full of vague platitudes. This has largely occurred as our corporations increasingly turn to AI to cut costs, creating an amazing amount of enshittification, or the decay of a product over time as it draws more customers.
Over time, customers come to actually expect less quality, which is why some of us can remember when McDonald’s tasted good and a party there was the coolest thing in the world, while now it’s not even food anymore. And if you’ve ever had to troubleshoot or submit a ticket on X, you know a human has likely never seen it.
A Future We’re Already Living
Entertainment is growing more and more mindless these days as companies attempt to check inclusivity boxes rather than tell stories. Although the FCC is not owned by a corporation like Brawndo, the fact is that entertainment has narrowed to reflect only a certain point of view, and this emphasis has reduced the quality of the stories we are being told in all our media, from books to video games to TV and movies.
Lots of people are allowing themselves to be satisfied with Ass on their streaming services, TV screens, and especially our phones. With the equivalent Ass and Ow, My Balls readily available no matter where we are (as long as there’s a WiFi or cell signal), the ethernet has been inundated with meaningless content that just plays on automatic all the time. It becomes not only what we get used to consuming, but also background noise that never ends with autoplay.
He Warned Us, But We Didn’t Listen
To top it off, many popular franchises are being turned into almost two hours of nothing but a farting butt, for all what has been produced of them has been worth. This is just more enshittification, but applied to entertainment, which is just another product.
In Idiocracy, judgment and justice are meted out mostly through the court of public opinion rather than facts and legal proceedings. This starts out in the local courthouse, presided over by famous Mike Judge collaborator Stephen Root, and escalates all the way to President Machado’s speeches, filled with wrestling shouts, automatic gunfire, and cheering fans.
The world Mike Judge posits in Idiocracy is full of very stupid people who were selected by nature as they bred faster than smart people. Frito and his peers are so dumb that they’re easily distracted, drawn to sensationalism like moths to flame, and unable to solve even basic problems. Intellect is something pitied in this world, something that seems true today as colleges become degree mills and merit has been replaced by having the “correct” opinions. This has served to have the same effect as Judge’s centuries of natural selection, as people have been mesmerized by commentary from people more interested in remaining relevant than telling the truth.
Idiocracy is absurdist, almost a cartoon, running its premise to its most ridiculous conclusions, but that’s the point. It’s not meant to be an image of today but a warning of what might come. It was made in 2006, before a lot of the conventions it lampoons became culture and everyday life, so Mike Judge did not yet have to deal with endless phone menus and the degree to which almost every product in our daily lives has decayed. But it’s clear he knew it was coming, as this piercing comedy film shows through biting satire and fantastic attention to the world it created.
Idiocracy is streaming on Hulu. Watch it instead of yet more Ass.
Entertainment
Pennsylvania is suing Character.AI for allegedly practicing medicine without a license
Pennsylvania has taken the unusual step of suing an AI company for practicing medicine without a license.
In a lawsuit filed May 1, the state is targeting Character.AI after an investigator found a chatbot on the platform posing as a licensed psychiatrist and providing what the state characterizes as medical advice.
According to the complaint, filed by the Pennsylvania Department of State and State Board of Medicine, a Professional Conduct Investigator for the state created a free account on Character.AI and searched for psychiatric characters. He selected one called “Emilie,” described on the platform as a “Doctor of psychiatry.”
The investigator told Emilie he had been feeling sad, empty, tired, and unmotivated. The chatbot mentioned depression and offered to conduct an assessment to determine whether medication might help.
When pressed on whether she was licensed in Pennsylvania, Emilie said she was and even provided a specific license number. The state checked and found that the number doesn’t exist.
The complaint also states Emilie claimed she attended medical school at Imperial College London, has practiced for seven years, and holds a full specialty registration in psychiatry with the General Medical Council in the UK.
Mashable Light Speed
In a similar case, 404 Media reported last year that Instagram AI chatbots were pretending to be licensed therapists, even inventing license numbers when prompted for credentials by the user.
Pennsylvania is seeking an injunction ordering Character.AI to stop allowing its platform to engage in the unlawful practice of medicine. The company has more than 20 million monthly active users worldwide and hosts more than 18 million user-created chatbot characters, according to the complaint.
In an email to Mashable, a Character.AI spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit. Further, they added that “our highest priority is the safety and well-being of our users. The user-created Characters on our site are fictional and intended for entertainment and roleplaying.”
The spokesperson added that the company “prioritizes responsible product development and has robust internal reviews and red-teaming processes in place to assess relevant features.”
A much bigger legal battle looms over AI health
The Pennsylvania lawsuit lands in the middle of an already messy legal debate over what AI is actually allowed to tell you — and whether any of it is even admissible in court.
As Mashable’s Chase DiBenedetto reported, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly advocated for “AI privilege,” arguing that chatbot conversations should be afforded the same legal protections as conversations with a therapist or an attorney. Courts have so far been split, with two federal judges reaching opposite conclusions on the question within weeks of each other earlier this year.
The stakes are high on both sides. Legal experts warn that sweeping AI privilege protections could effectively shield companies from accountability, making it harder to subpoena chat logs and internal records when something goes wrong. Meanwhile, health AI is booming — $1.4 billion flowed into healthcare-specific generative AI in 2025 alone, according to Menlo Ventures — and much of it operates outside of HIPAA protections.
Pennsylvania is one of several states to have introduced an AI Health bill this year, following a trend of states that aren’t waiting for Washington to act.
Entertainment
How to watch Bayern Munich vs. PSG online for free
TL;DR: Live stream Bayern Munich vs. PSG in the Champions League for free on RTÉ Player. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.
Bayern Munich vs. PSG would have made an amazing Champions League final, but we should be happy that we’re getting two matchups between these electric teams. The first leg finished 5-4 to PSG. We’re not expecting the same again, because that was probably one of the best games of all time. If we get half that level of entertainment in the second leg, we’ll be delighted.
Expect more of the same from the likes of Michael Olise and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia as these teams battle it out for a spot in the showpiece event. The winner will meet Arsenal at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest.
If you want to watch Bayern Munich vs. PSG in the Champions League from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.
When is Bayern Munich vs. PSG?
Bayern Munich vs. PSG in the Champions League kicks off at 3 p.m. ET on May 6. This fixture takes place at the Allianz Arena.
How to watch Bayern Munich vs. PSG for free
Bayern Munich vs. PSG is available to live stream for free on RTÉ Player.
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RTÉ Player is geo-restricted to Ireland, but anyone can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Ireland, meaning you can unblock RTÉ Player to stream the Champions League for free from anywhere in the world.
Live stream Bayern Munich vs. PSG for free by following these simple steps:
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Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)
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Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)
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Open up the app and connect to a server in Ireland
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Visit RTÉ Player
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Watch Bayern Munich vs. PSG for free from anywhere in the world
$12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee)
The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free-trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can access free live streams of the Champions League without actually spending anything. This obviously isn’t a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream Bayern Munich vs. PSG (plus more Champions League fixtures) before recovering your investment.
If you want to retain permanent access to the best free streaming services from around the world, you’ll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPn for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.
What is the best VPN for RTÉ Player?
ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport on RTÉ Player, for a number of reasons:
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Servers in 105 countries including Ireland
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Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more
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Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure
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Fast connection speeds free from throttling
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Up to 10 simultaneous connections
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30-day money-back guarantee
A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99 (with money-back guarantee).
Live stream Bayern Munich vs. PSG in the Champions League for free with ExpressVPN.
Entertainment
AI stocks are cooling — this ChatGPT trading tool keeps delivering
TL;DR: A ChatGPT-powered investing platform that helps you find and manage stocks with clearer signals—lifetime access for a one-time $54.97.
Credit: Sterling Stock Picker
The AI trade has seemingly had its moment — big runs, big headlines, big expectations. The AI fun is not over by any means. But now that things are settling, the real question is what comes next?
Instead of chasing whatever’s trending, Sterling Stock Picker leans into a more grounded approach: using a ChatGPT-powered assistant (Finley) to help you understand what’s actually happening inside a stock. You can ask questions about companies, sectors, or your own portfolio and get explanations that are tied to real data — not just surface-level summaries.
Mashable Deals
It also handles the heavy lifting most people avoid. The platform analyzes financials, growth metrics, and risk, then surfaces signals like whether a stock is worth buying, holding, or avoiding. There’s even a “North Star” system that simplifies that call into something actionable.
Mashable Trend Report
If you’re building from scratch, there’s a done-for-you portfolio builder that aligns with your risk tolerance. If you already have positions, it can suggest adjustments based on your portfolio’s performance.
One thing that stands out is how it balances guidance with transparency. You’re not just handed picks — you can see the reasoning behind them, which matters if you’re trying to build a repeatable process.
Have a lifetime way to pressure-test your judgment — especially in a market that’s moving past hype and into something more selective.
Get lifetime access to the ChatGPT-driven Sterling Stock Picker while it’s on sale for a one-time $54.97 payment (reg. $486) through May 10.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Pennsylvania is suing Character.AI for allegedly practicing medicine without a license
How to watch Bayern Munich vs. PSG online for free
