It was, all things considered, surprisingly easy.
Convincing anti-vaxxers that, in reality, ALL science caused
autism, and that therefore the only way they could keep their children
completely safe from the ravages of the modern world was to move them to a
commune and live lives free of technology of any sort, medical or otherwise,
took less time and WAY less effort than we’d budgeted. We were, after all,
telling them what they already sort of believed and, by virtue of who they
were, they weren’t terribly interested in testing the scientific validity of
what they were told.
Once on the commune, struggling to set up a viable farming
community with basically zero knowledge about the raising of crops, our hidden
cameras gave us a look at their day to day lives that we then cut together and
brought to our viewers, who ate it up, as we had predicted they would.
After all, these were the sort of people who would argue
AGAINST medical science for hours at a stretch, the conflicts started early,
came fast and furious and were frequently hilariously insane. Even if you
didn’t like the premise of the show, it was hard not to watch.
And watch people did, by the millions. It debuted at number
one in its time slot and by it’s fourth episode it was the third biggest show
on TV.
“Wake Up, Sheeple!” was a huge hit, and we were rightly
celebrated for producing it.
And yet, in spite of this, we never got a second season.
In hindsight, introducing Smallpox in the season finale was
a misstep…
