The Stupids (film)
The Stupids is a 1996 British-Canadian-American adventure comedy film directed by John Landis. The film is based on The Stupids, characters from a series of books written by Harry Allard and illustrated by James Marshall.
The film follows the fictional family, the Stupids, with a last name synonymous with their behavior. The story begins with patriarch Stanley Stupid believing "sender" from letters marked "return to sender" is a wicked man planning a conspiracy. Adding several misunderstandings, the family unwittingly saves the world from military chaos, while believing a fake story about a fictional man named Sender and his plot to confiscate everyone's mail and trash.
The film was a box office bomb and received negative reviews.
Plot
Joan and Stanley Stupid are convinced they are victims of a conspiracy that steals their garbage every week and in an attempt to uncover this, Stanley follows the garbage truck to the city dump where he stumbles across Lieutenant Neidermeyer who is selling contraband weaponry to a group of terrorists. Neidermeyer believes Stanley to be a secret agent who has uncovered their operation and orders him to be assassinated, and after several attempts on his life result in humorous dispatching of his would be assassins, Stanley narrowly escapes a carbomb and is presumed dead by Neidermeyer.
The Stupids
The Stupids are a fictional family which appear in a series of children's books written by Harry Allard and James Marshall. The Stupids draw their humor from the fact that they are incompetent to the point of confusing the most simple concepts and tasks.
Controversy
The Stupids series of books rank number 62 on the American Library Association's list of 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of the entire 2000's decade. Challengers of the books claim that they describe families in a derogatory manner and may encourage children to be disobedient. They also claim that they promote low self-esteem and negative behavior.
Books in the series
Film version
In 1996, a film version was released starring Tom Arnold, directed by John Landis; It was a box office disappointment. The film details the family's pursuit of their trash, which they believe to be stolen, and the "conspiracy" they uncover in the process.
The Stupids (band)
The Stupids are a Hardcore punk band created by Tom Withers.
Career
Formed in Ipswich, England in the 1980s, The Stupids recorded three sessions for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show in the 1980s, and toured the United States (with Ludichrist) and Australia (the Hard-Ons) as well as Europe, the United Kingdom, and, most recently, Japan.
The band have featured on various CD re-issues, compilation albums (e.g. Sounds and the U.S. skate magazine, Thrasher), collector's singles and BBC session releases released by Strange Fruit.
A live video tape, Drive-In Hit Movie, was released shortly after the band broke up in 1989.
In June 2008, Boss Tuneage released a comprehensive reissues series of the Stupids, co-ordinating six CD and LP reissues of their entire back catalogue; four for release on the Boss Tuneage Retro Series imprint, the other two on Visible Noise.
In 2009 The Stupids released their first studio album in 20 years, The Kids Don't Like it, on Boss Tuneage.
2011 saw the release of Japanese Vacation on Waterslide records, Boss Tuneange's sister label, to coincide with a tour of Japan. They had to cancel their 2012 European tour because Tom has broken his leg.
Podcasts:
