Humor is Not Funny

Jeff Taylor | August 2, 2004

I had no idea the Bush White House could be isolated from popular culture, but here is some staffer declaring Team America: World Police to be "unconscionable."

Take a look at the trailer and decide for yourself. The very title and the credits are both pretty funny, as is the very concept of doing Hollywood-style action-'splosions with puppets. The only "un-" word I'd use is unsustainable, as in the gag might be unsustainable over 80 or 90 minutes.

But I plan on finding out.

Comments

|8.2.04 @ 1:26AM|#

Another reason not to vote for the Bush administration; they can't handle satire.

|8.2.04 @ 1:36AM|#

Another reason not to vote for the Bush administration; they can't handle satire.

Riiiiight. We all know what a fun guy Kerry is. I'm sure his administration would be a barrel of laughs....

Britton|8.2.04 @ 1:38AM|#

Bush staffer: Please don't throw me into that briar patch! Noooo!

|8.2.04 @ 1:46AM|#

PapayaSF,

Well, Kerry's in the film (or the trailer mentions his name at least), and we haven't seen any response from his team about the film being "unconscionable."

Rex Stetson|8.2.04 @ 2:13AM|#

The creators actually seem to be fairly supportive of the Bush Administration's foreign policy- they love picking on Hollywood liberals- the guys seem to be slightly hawkish libertarians on South Park. I can't believe that no one at the Bush White House would have percieved this. They're making fun of Michael Moore et al, for crying out loud! How could the Administration be upset?
More likely, they issued the statement to get some free press for the movie- I hope. Curious this announcement showed up on Drudge right as the new trailer for the movie premiered, hm?

Personally, I think it'll be Trey Parker's masterpiece- the musical numbers alone will be amazing I am sure.

|8.2.04 @ 2:19AM|#

Rex Stetson,

I don't see the film as supportive of either Bush or Kerry. Indeed, it would completely out of character for them to be so partisan.

|8.2.04 @ 2:19AM|#

Great touch to use Will Lyman (Frontline and other WGBH and PBS stuff) for the voiceover.

|8.2.04 @ 2:31AM|#

Paul Z,

Yeah, I thought so to. They got the geography of Paris all screwed up though. BTW, is that Dick Cheney that Kim il Jong drops through the floor?

The Lonewacko Blog|8.2.04 @ 2:38AM|#

Great touch to use Will Lyman (Frontline and other WGBH and PBS stuff) for the voiceover.

Yeah, except by doing things like this he's reducing his credibility for serious stuff.

Those wacky Southparkians called into Matt Drudge's radio show and explained that the film was not meant to disparage those who are (trying so they say) to protect us. Something happens to Janeane Garofalo in the film, but they didn't think even she would be upset.

Britton|8.2.04 @ 2:38AM|#

I think that is Hans Blix getting the trapdoor treatment.

|8.2.04 @ 2:49AM|#

Britton,

Yes, that might be the case. Could be FW DeKlerk too. :) We do know that its a white balding fellow who wears glasses. :)

|8.2.04 @ 3:03AM|#

Gary Gunnels - "They got the geography of Paris all screwed up though."

Aha! AAA-HAAAA!!!!!

|8.2.04 @ 3:06AM|#

I'm watching it just to see Kim sing "I'm Ronery."

|8.2.04 @ 3:08AM|#

joe,

?

Britton|8.2.04 @ 3:29AM|#

Gary Gunnels - Blix does meet with Kim at some point in the movie. Before I learned that, I had assumed the bald guy was Cheney.

|8.2.04 @ 3:46AM|#

Britton,

Ok. Thanks.

Phil|8.2.04 @ 3:58AM|#

Ceci n'est pas un Bart, joe.

Ou . . . est-il???????

|8.2.04 @ 4:06AM|#

I have no idea what Phil just said, but I'm most curious to find out how Gary Gunnels knows Parisian geography so well....

J/K, I don't really think you're Jean Bart, but sometimes I wonder...

|8.2.04 @ 4:16AM|#

I think he said 'that is not bart, joe. Or...is it?'

|8.2.04 @ 4:26AM|#

Gary is JB and Phil is Magritte.

|8.2.04 @ 4:30AM|#

Thoreau, why do you not think Gary is JB?

|8.2.04 @ 4:44AM|#

wellfellow,

I am not JB, but I like a BJ from time to time. :)

thoreau,

(a) I am a geography nut; I always have been.

(b) I've been there. This is tied in with (a) BTW, since one of my favorite hobbies is to learn street maps - it drives my wife nuts, though it does make a good tour guide even of cities I've never been to before.

(c) Finally, everyone knows that the Eiffel Tower is across the river from the Arc de Triomph, yet the film has them standing right next to each other.

BTW, this is ramming together of historical or famous buildings not unusual for a film; it happens all the time in animation (video games or otherwise) for example. Anyway, in the future I will never, ever say anything about France or anything remotely related to it, be it Acadians, New Orleans, Madagascar, etc.

|8.2.04 @ 10:56AM|#

To tell you the truth, it doesnt look that funny. Matt Parker and Trey Stone have done some brilliant stuff Park over the years. South Park has become the new edgier Simpsons, and has only gotten better; so there might still be some hope for Team America

|8.2.04 @ 11:38AM|#

"This is just unconscionable. Not funny..."

That's what a lot a people felt following the 2000 selection.

|8.3.04 @ 3:22AM|#

As trailers go, this one isn't funny. Looks like it might be a funny film though.

It seems the Bush team's strategy has been to allow the dems and lefties to build strawmen arguments so that they can be easily knocked down when the time is right.

Maybe they made the negative comment to get Dems to rally around a film that will make them look like idiots when it is released.

|8.3.04 @ 6:49AM|#

I like the deadpan, politiko, a-movie-too-serious-to-be-funny approach. Nooo, we couldn't laugh at world destruction could we?

I'm sure they're two very nice boys, those Southparkians. Really. Cartoons help the world make sense, maybe because most of the world's leaders are cartoons? (Or puppets of SPECTRE?)

|8.6.04 @ 11:54AM|#

No, it's SPECTRUM that has puppets for agents.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/anderson/scarlet/

Hmmm..... Cheney keeps getting revived. Is he part Mysteron?

Kevin