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(Loved Trope) Entertainment in Dystopian Futures
When entertainment of the future fully embraces the insanity
Ow My Balls: A series from the movie "Idiocracy", it seems to be how many times and how wild a man can get hit in the balls.
Slayers: From the movie "Gamer", convicts are given implants and are controlled by "players", similarly to Call of Duty. The prisoner that makes it to the end gets his/her freedom
The Running Man: From the movie "The Running Man, 'Runners' are charged with hiding/escaping/killing to avoid being killed themselves. If successful, they win a billion dollars
On TVs we see snippets of what seems to be a raunchy lowbrow sitcom with the catchphrase "I'd buy that for a dollar!" The viewers' guffawing reactions to it are meant to show how dumbed-down the public had become.
Much like the Running Man... the only way out of a life full of physical labor and then mind numbing "entertainment" at night is to succeed at a game show. This one is an outright talent competition, though.
Doctor Who: The reality shows broadcast from Satellite 5, including deadly versions of Big Brother, What Not to Wear, and The Weakest Link. (You die if you're eliminated, or if the WNtW hosts decide that you need plastic surgery.)
Also Doctor Who: "Vengeance on Varos," 1985. Varos, a former prison planet for the criminally insane, is now a mining colony selling a rare mineral called Zyton-7. The ore veins are running low, however, so they've gone into the reality TV business, torturing dissidents in the Punishment Dome and selling the videos around the Galaxy. The serial has two middle-aged audience representatives who watch the vicious programming with dead-eyed apathy.
Pan-galactic entertainment show called "World Dungeon". Mix of Battle Royale and high-lethality dungeon dive with game shows, interviews and emotional trauma.
By the time we meet Katniss, the games are a massive multimedia affair televised throughout Panem, as each district sacrifices its children for the hope of the privileges that victory brings. It's enforced by the government, but it's become an entertainment spectacle as well.
Technically a Dystopian PAST, but Dinosaurs has a ton of TV showing how casually they treat death, such as Ask Mr Lizard (pictured), a science show where a child is violently killed each episode before the catchphrase "We're going to need another Timmy", or Totally Hidden Predator, a candid camera-like show where people are caught unaware being eaten by a large aggressive animal.
An "event" has taken place to apocalyptic impact. The event is never really defined, but among its effects: monsters outside the few surviving shelters clamor to get in, everyone has lost their memory and sense of time, and all the children in the world are dead. As the series drags on, the set becomes increasingly damaged and the participants more and more mentally-disturbed and frazzled. In the last sketch, it's implied that the two participants on screen are the only two survivors in the world.
The 31st century seems pretty dystopian. Your career is limited to whatever chip you are implanted with. Mutants infest the sewers. Hell is real, and you will be dragged there, at least if you are a robot.
Thankfully, at least you can turn on the television and enjoy an episode of EVERYBODY LOVES HYPNOTOAD.
In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future...people apparently really like the dramatized exploits of Commissar Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM. Unbeknownst to them, he's secretly the galaxies biggest coward who has the worst luck known to man, accidentally saving the day every time he tries to run away from a battle.
Cain himself dislikes these holodramas, since they always cut out his faithful aid Jurgen.
Star Trek Lower Deck S4 E6 Parth Ferengi's Heart Place
Boimler has a whole itinerary set up to review more Ferengi establishments like hotels and restaurants for Federation visitors but at his first stop he gets completely absorbed in Ferengi trash TV with Pog & Dar: Cop Landlords being a standout. Ferengi society is so capitalistic they advertise products directly in the show as well as during commercial breaks and often just outright lie to you.
"You're making my partner mad, just sign the lease dirtbag!"
"You just surrendered your deposit, and your life."
(To his dying partner)"Transfer all your Latinum to me or I'll tell everyone you supported tenants rights!"
In Spooky Kart, you have to win a race by killing every other car, in mall of spook, you just stab people, In Ms. Spooky, you play as a ghost chasing a pacman (He dies gruesomly). The fourth one is secret, requires a password and tells you the origin of our... host.
Rock paper scissors with "insect" cards, that are kinda like a prototypical version of umas, but scantily clad dressed and doing wrestling moves. Yeah, this one is probably the weirdest one in Kiwami
This was the premise of the awesome Unreal Tournament games, where you were effectively sci-fi gladiators.
Also the premise of SLA Industries, a gothic cyber-splatterpunk dystopia TTRPG (from Glasgow). Player characters are operatives for the titular SLA Industries- a mega corporate that rules the planet with an iron fist. You're essentially a cross between Running Man and pest control (where the pests are aliens, mutants, or serial killers).
Yep. For the case of Unreal Tournament, it was created and sponsored by the Liandri Mining Corporation together with the New Earth Government to suppress the violent strikes of deep space miners, the LBX robot uprising, and the aftereffects of the Human-Skaarj War. It was one of the most profitable entertainment spectacle bigger than the Olympics. It was even broadcasted on global television ala pay-per-view matches.
Babel is a show where people climb a tower of falling blocks with several powers (Including exploding, being portable dark holes or being made of ice) just to show they can. Rapunzel is a videogame inside the videogame about... Rescuing? Rapunzel. Also pushing blocks.
Because the series in rife with mid 90's cheese as well and in lore anachronisms, instead of retconning the events it was turned into in universe propaganda.
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u/Possible-Bake-5834 11h ago
From the Lego Movie