Scary Movie 5 opens today, and not only did it not screen for critics, it actually canceled its midnight screenings in most places, according to anecdotal reports. It’s not like anyone expected it to be good, but it’s amusing just how embarrassed of it the studio seems to be (more amusing than the actual movie, I’m sure). Then today someone sent me this, video of a throwaway bit in Scary Movie 5 that’s an exact replica of a throwaway bit in Idiocracy. I don’t necessarily think the Scary Movie writers (David Zucker and Pat Proft) purposely stole the joke (comedy writers come up with similar jokes independently all the time, and there are plenty other examples of guys misremembering ideas they liked as their own), but it’s a testament to how lazy they are that they wouldn’t know an Idiocracy reference that most of us would probably get, simply because most people I know who are into comedy know Idiocracy like drunk bros know Journey songs. It’s not the greatest, most clever joke in the world (especially not compared to the rest of Idiocracy, which had some bits that were pure genius) but it’s an interesting comparison, if only to see how much worse it is in Scary Movie 5. In Idiocracy, it’s a joke about a future medical technology as administered by morons, and it’s a straightforward, believable moment in that context. In Scary Movie 5, it’s part of a shoehorned-in reference to a movie that came out three years ago (Inception parodies were already done a lot better and then exhausted years ago), typical of the modern spoof style where references to pop culture just sort of show up in the story because haha reference. And then they make their shitty joke even worse by making it the entire point of the bit, as delivered by another random, pointless pop culture reference (Simon Rex) whose reaction shot is like a visual whoopie cushion screaming HAHA, LOOK AT THE JOKE I JUST MADE! Yeah, guys, we got it, it sucked.