Mike Judge makes small workplace humiliations painfully funny, and we rate him most when he cares about the people enduring them. He is less reliable when a plot needs moving along, or when mockery turns to contempt.
Fi1m perspective
Four men staring at a lawnmower can be enough for a Mike Judge joke. In King of the Hill (1997), he and co-creator Greg Daniels let the pause last, trusting that ordinary men taking an ordinary machine seriously will be funny. Judge had already established himself in animation with Beavis and Butt-Head (1993). Here the human proportions and flat suburban browns and greens help keep the jokes close to everyday life. His own clipped, exasperated delivery as Hank Hill sets the pace.
In Office Space (1999), managerial pettiness provides much of the comedy before the plot has to do any work. Gary Cole’s Bill Lumbergh can make a small aggravation seem capable of consuming an entire working day. We felt mean for laughing at Milton, because Stephen Root makes his routine mistreatment so recognisable. Judge gives that discomfort time to register without stopping the jokes. The final third is weaker: the thin story cannot keep these carefully observed people usefully occupied.
Idiocracy (2006) gives stupidity an entire future society, and Judge and co-writer Etan Cohen find plenty of funny variations on the idea. The prologue’s contrast between a childless professional couple and a father in a vest is nastier than it needs to be. The poor are loud and covered in logos, and the mockery grows tiring without much affection to soften it. An insistent narrator and another thin plot make this a qualified recommendation.
Silicon Valley (2014), co-created with John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, finds plenty to mock in people who love their work. Richard Hendricks, played by Thomas Middleditch, loves the work that leaves him flinching and anxious. Alec Berg and the writers take technical detail seriously, which makes the founders’ repeated promise to improve the world funnier when the words fall flat. The editors, including Gina Sansom and Paul Zucker, keep individual scenes brisk and free of redundant explanation.
Across six seasons, however, the same basic plot keeps returning, and the later runs feel the strain. That is a substantial caveat for a comedy whose individual scenes are often so exact. For Judge at his warmest, start with King of the Hill; the stories sometimes wear thin there too, but the neighbours remain worth spending time with.
Biography
Mike Judge is an American actor, animator, writer, producer and director. He wrote and directed the film Office Space (1999), in which he also appeared as Chotchkie's Manager. He is best known for creating the animated series Beavis and Butt-Head and co-creating King of the Hill, as well as directing the films Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996), Idiocracy (2006) and Extract (2009). He co-created the live-action series Silicon Valley (2014–2019).
Judge was born on 17 October 1962 in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a degree in physics before turning to animation and music. His early short films led to the development of Beavis and Butt-Head for MTV.
