Conservative Humor, Pt. LCXXIV
From the right-wing Political Pit Bull:
Video: Comedy Central Plans Cartoon Mocking Bush Administration
By Greg Tinti on December 04, 2006 at 05:05 PMComedy Central has ordered “Lil’ Bush: Resident of the United States,” a cartoon satire that re-imagines President Bush and key executives in his administration as elementary school misfits.
The title character is surrounded by close pals like Lil’ Cheney, who grumbles unintelligibly, and Lil’ Condi, who pines for Lil’ Bush and does his homework for him.
“Bush” is not without its risque moments. When Lil’ Bush’s school serves falafel instead of hot dogs for lunch in one episode, he and his pals torture the cafeteria employees with methods made famous during the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
Six episodes from writer-producer Donick Cary (“The Simpsons”) have been ordered to air on Comedy Central next year.
“Bush” got its start in September as six five-minute clips offered by Amp’d Mobile, a U.S.-based wireless service that packages video entertainment programming with cell phone service.
Honestly, I don’t have a problem with political satire, even when it mocks the Bush administration or Republicans (SNL’s skit on Rice’s confirmation is one of my favorites), but I do have one requirement: it has to be funny. And if you think ‘Lil’ Bush’ sounds totally lame in the description above, just watch the five minute pilot; not only is it not funny, it’s pretty much an amalgam of every bad Bush joke of the last six years.
Totally lame? Dude, this sounds funny! But let’s be scientific and see if this cartoon is really as bad as…oh, say, for instance, hmm, what’s something bad? Um, well, just to pick one at random…uh, let’s say, for example, Julia Gorin’s America Show.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Well, it’s not as bad as The America Show; I’ll give it that.
But here comes Ace, donning his critic’s tweeds and setting himself in his Alistair Cooke chair:
He’s right, it’s uninspired and just mostly a rehash of a thousand Bush jokes you’ve heard before. Plus, the premise is lifted from “Conan Babies,” a parody of “Muppet Babies” featuring Conan O’Brien, Andy Richter, and Max as babies. They also play cute little instruments in bouncy, sing-a-long pop songs. It’s here at the end of this brief compilation of Conan O’Brien music parodies.
And the hot dog thing? Just a rehash of the Onion’s hilarious “Christopher Walken on hot dogs” column. (I’d read that first, so you don’t get the good hot dog humor spoiled by the inferior Bush cartoon.)
If that’s the way he’s going to be about it, it’s worth pointing out that Ace of Spades HQ’s premise is lifted from a Motorhead song. Also, the ‘HQ’ is just a rehash of a Monkees album. Plus, his skull and crossbones logo is ripped off from pirates, which he is obviously trying to be one of but failing.
Definitely check out Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest first, so you don’t get that good pirate stuff spoiled by the inferior Ace version, which uninspiredly asserts that pirates are supposed to be like The Monkees playing a Motorhead song.
Yeah, so, Lil’ Bush isn’t funny. Stopped clocks ‘n’at.
Wasn’t there “That’s My Bush!” already?
I’ma gunna have to agree with Flight Officer of Spades; not funny.
That’s My Bush was also really just… bad. They take the same play, “Bush is stupid” and run it over and over and over.
Is CC really launching the series, or is this just the pilot for consideration?
Yeah, that sucked. For classy animation check out Altmouse.
Comedy Central is pretty good about ditching stuff that doesn’t work, and I think this might join Battle Bots as one of the post-pilot cut shows.
That fact is, America is just trying to come together after an incredibly divisive election in which the ruling party was scolded for the actions of one rouge pedr-homo-ass. This show will fail because, much like an extremely attractive but hopelessly neurotic girlfriend, Americans only love those who beat them, and the ComCentocrats are just too nice.
The America Show makes me feel small and afraid.
The only Bush show premise I can think of that might prove funny would be one based on his old drinkin n snortin days. But I doubt anyone would have the balls to pick up something like that.
Lil Bush isn’t funny, tho not in a scratch your eyeballs out oh god it’s julia gorin way. I don’t know whether it’s sadder that comedy central is picking up something that originated on amp’d mobile or that SNL has fallen so low conservatives are pointing to it as funny, but both make me sad.
Ohmigod…
I fear to watch: Ann Althouse is namechecked in Day By Day about Neanderthals and she is gleeful.
I fear the Perfect Storm of Snark is upon us, as was long prophesied. Shudder.
Thing One: I didn’t get the Day By Day. Also, there was no curly-haired woman walking around in her underwear.
Thing Two: I just watched the America Show. Did you know that Michael Moore is fat?
The SNL skit on Rice’s confirmation was indeed classic, although not to Bruce Dickinson levels or anything. Barbara Boxer had to admit that the depiction of her was spot-on.
I would so totally buy a Monkees album that had them doing a Motorhead song. That’d be awesome, especially if it were something like “On Parole” or “Rock & Roll”. Something like “Ace of Spades” or “Bomber” wouldn’t work, though. And don’t try to sing like Lemmy, you just can’t.
On another Altmouse related issue, the General weighs in.
That post was in re Thers’s above. Not sure what happened to the text I copied and pasted…
Crap. Sorry.
I feel emboldened. Soon, you will all feel emboldened.
They are both unfunny, but the cartoon is only painfully unfunny, while The America Show is agonisingly unfunny. As such, I managed about two minutes of Lil’ Bush and about thirty seconds of The America Show.
Thanks for that.
Both are unfunny, however one is just lame, the other is an MK ULTRA experiment to see how many mass suicides it can cause.
Then again, the Gorin show mixed in a Clinton rape joke, a Kennedy drowning joke, and a Michael Moore is fat joke in the first minute. Got to give them credit for bringing out the big guns. Clinton rape jokes are teh funny.
Excuse me while I get out my big baseball bat of funnyness and whap that cartoon a couple of times in the back of the head.
WHAP WHAP WHAP
There, now it’s funny.
Just run Youtube videos of guys sticking Mentos in 2-liter bottles of Coke and you’ll keep the average authoritarian amused for hours.
And, by the way, I beat you to the “Bainimarama” “Cruel Summer” joke yesterday. That’s not in itself impressive, but I did it in a golf travel blog. So there.
😉
–WKW
Gavin.
Could dyslexic Romans do math?
Jeez, that’s some crappy animation. And when did Barbara Bush change her name to Laura?
Chubby nerds, eh?
Well, Bush and I agree on one thing I guess.
This is a song about a superhero named Georgie
It’s called Georgie’s Theme
He’s got oil on his brain, a shot or a snort its all the same
No baloney
Ride around on my bicycle, don’t like ponies
I’m flipping you off, off, off, off, off
Gu-gu-gu-Gimme a scream
Give me, give me the theme
Of Georgie
Geor-gie, Geor-gie, Geor-gie, Geor-gie, Geor-gie
When I try to imagine the Monkees covering Motorhead, all I can come up with is the theme from “Friends.”
Is that wrong?
Wrong “incorrect”? or wrong “don’t ever do that again’?
RobW,
God, yes. Although, the Monkees playing the Friends theme song in a Motorhead-esque style…
Nope, still wrong.
If it’s as unfunny as the Daily Show, I’ll be sure to tune in.
These are the same people that take the Colbert Report seriously.
“These are the same people that take the Colbert Report seriously.”
It’s not that that take it seriously. Fully half of them are unable to detect parody.
i’ve finally come up with a truly apt description of The America Show
“what it would look like if comedy had an abortion”
But think of it this way:
While there are probably a dozen people who frequent this website alone who could pull together a cartoon roughly as funny as “L’il Bush”, there are probably only a dozen people in the entire world who could replicate the awkward, cringe-worthy craptastitude of “The America Show”.
What Julia Gorin et. al. have produced is rarer even than the best sort of unintentional comedy. I would go so far as to call them geniuses. Consider – they manage to take an embarrassing pause and stretch it to bursting, testing the very limits of the human capacity to endure a direct confrontation with our most ancient race memories of social discomfort. Because what, if not a kind of rare brilliance, can you call the ability of these three women to drag the sick from the pits of our stomach to the backs of our throats and then hold it there, hovering within tickling distance of the gag reflex, with remarkable tantric discipline, for minute after relentless minute, from awful joke to woeful attempt at urban slang and back again, never once pushing that final, stomach-clenching button, so that when it all finally, mercifully ends … we are spent without a hint of the climactic satisfaction that ought to at least accompany the awful destination we have reached?
Five stars. Put ’em on Thursdays opposite Lost.