Comedy Central’s Bush-Bashing DVD Is Short on Laughs
That’s more than Lil’ Bush delivers. The painfully unfunny show features kiddie versions of Bush and his cabinet. The animation may be smoother than South Park’s but that’s the only advantage Lil’ Bush can boast.
The far-left gags littering the two 15-minute segments don’t lay a glove on the president. The first time Lil’ Cheney bites the head off a chicken and guzzles its blood is mildly amusing, but the gag — and the show — quickly wears thin.
It’s about as deep as Oliver Stone’s W.
The DVD’s oldest segment features a fitfully amusing episode of That’s My Bush. The show, created by South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone, offered a neat twist on presidential politics. Instead of razzing Bush, the series tweaked formulaic ’70s sitcoms.
It’s all there. The contrived stage directions, canned laughter, and overwrought acting.
Timothy Bottoms proved an affable Bush, flustered but well meaning, and the show itself kept the political shtick centered. The show wouldn’t last long — one-joke set-ups have a short shelf life — but the caricature of Bush as an ignoramus continues through today.
Some Comedy Central shows assume the worst of Bush and his administration. Take Lewis Black’s The Root of All Evil, a faux courtroom contest in which comics take turns declaring which cultural force is more insidious.
Naturally, the episode included here pits Paris Hilton versus Vice President Dick Cheney. The Hilton gags are the clear winners, with comic Patton Oswalt lamely comparing Cheney to Darth Vader.
Suddenly, Lil’ Bush doesn’t seem so bad.
The disk wraps with some toothless stand-up from Black, Oswalt, and Greg Giraldo, none of whom can channel their disdain for Bush into anything resembling humor.
And then there’s master impressionist Frank Caliendo. The force behind Frank TV does a killer Bush impression, from his precise vocal mimicry to how he contorts his face just like the two-term president.
Caliendo’s too-brief appearance puts the disk’s failings in context. The impressionist’s shtick isn’t mean-spirited. He merely strings a few wry bits together along with his impeccable impressions.
His Comedy Central colleagues are so full of Bush Derangement Syndrome they can’t be bothered to pen punch lines. They figure the audience already despises the commander-in-chief as much as they do, so all the heavy lifting is done ahead of time.
Rage can fuel some pretty profound, and hilarious, comedy. Just ask the late George Carlin or Chris Rock. But few of the comics here use their disdain for the president in a productive fashion.
Comedy Central Salutes George W. Bush isn’t rip-snorting comedy by any definition. It’s far better as a time capsule of how pop culture greeted the arrival of the Texas governor to the White House.
And we might as well enjoy the presidential humor while we can. Does anyone think we’ll be seeing a Lil’ Obama or That’s My Barack television show in the next four years?
I’ve seen bits and pieces of the show on TV and it’s definitely not funny. It’s classic Dem snobbery and elitism. Like Seth Macfarlane’s two unfunny shows on Fox, it’s just a tired old retread of liberal propaganda that they expect people to laugh at because they think it’s funny “and they’re sooooo smart”. Everything on Comedy Central follows the same basic party line though so it’s understandable that they can’t find anything more original than this tripe.
Perpetual adolescence has taken root in our culture. Disrespect has been sanctioned, institutionalized, and celebrated in a some quarters, effectively poisoning the atmosphere.
It’s pretty clear that America will not be ‘coming together’ any time soon.
Interesting times lie ahead.
I would like to take this opportunity to salute the US and the freedom it grants to its citizens to publicly hate, ridicule and denounce its leader without fear of punishment or reprisal.
What a wonder of the modern age and a far cry from the tyrants and dictators not only from the history books but from around the globe today where such effrontery against the nations leader could result in imprisonment or execution.
Sadly as the media frenzy against Sarah Palin and “Joe the Plumber” have shown recently those freedoms will likely come under threat with Obama in power. Oppose him or his policies and face the wrath of his loyal and mindless subjects!!!
Pity. You had it good for so long and now you are about to vote away some hard won freedoms and all in the name of “progress”.
Given the way the Obamabots have launched in to shut down those speaking against The One$#153; with great relish, coupled with the knee-jerk “racism” parrots, an Obama administration will likely be a defacto no-levity zone. Of course, I am hard pressed to think of any other socialist leader that had a sense of humor about himself, so no surprise there.
Jon Stewart funny? Ever notice how the audience frequently gets the joke and laughs before the punchline? Or the applause that follows the laughter? Stewart is performing to the choir.
Lenny Bruce was a great comedian (having borrowed his routine from the virtually unknown Joe Anson) but his influence on comedy has been disastrous. In a category with the influence of Bernstein and Woodward on journalism. Clever, shallow and not very talented Bruce-imitators like Stewart are passing off tired, pop-left political opinion and social criticism as satirical insight. Their jokes are mainly jolly hugs and kisses to like minded audiences eager for communal affirmation. Hence the too-ready laughter and applause. Funny doesn’t enter into it.
Comedy today is entirely scripted. Television has degraded comedy as it has degraded journalism and drama. Leeched all creativity from the endeavor. Without writers, laugh signs and a sympathetic audience, Jon Stewart’s “humor” would fall flat.
Bush based comedy is beneath contempt. Hitting a guy when he’s down is no trick. And Bush’s famous stupidity is a leftist fantasy. I’d wager Bush is a lot smarter—and a lot funnier—than a bitterly determined lefty like Oliver Stone. Certainly Bush has a great deal less control of a democratic government and world events than a cheap-shot propagandist like Stone has over his production. And life-and-death responsibilities to boot.
I’m hardly the first to note that the leftist elites in this country talk mainly to each other. The real joke—black as can be–is their blind presumption of social awareness and intellectual superiority. If they succeed in putting Obama into the White House, we will all share in their tragic folly.
George W. Bush is probably the happiest man in Washington, or even the country. For eight years he has been subjected to what Christopher Marshall described as “The maligant air of calumny has taken possession of almost all ranks and societies of people in this place”.
He probably will be relieved of most of it, and for the residue, “…he can wait patiently until the spring of the imagination of the wicked is dried up, and until truth dissipates the mists of mendacity.” (Philippe Bunau-Varilla)
I won’t live to see it, but I believe that when historians write the real history of GWB in 40 or 50 years, he will be recognized as one of America’s great presidents.
This is the funniest parody on the cowboy President that has ever hit the airwaves.
John Stewart is the best news and the sad thing is it is fake news!
It shows the Hypocrisity of the Republican and ocational Democrat. Got to love it. Thanks God for the Daily Show and Colbert.
If you are not an progressive intellectual or not from the Pro-America parts of the country (Palin) you wont like nor get the show.
That’s my bush was funny, I remember watching it back before 9/11 happened. Lil bush was absolutely horrible, I sat through an episode expecting some laughs (because the commercial for it showed the one funny bit) and I was sorely disappointed.
As for Lewis Black, who the hell pays attention to him anymore? I give his show another season, max
I have to agree: Lil’ Bush is a waste of time. I have to wonder how it could fail. Did they just not have enough material?!
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My comedic gland has shrunken and severely requires some new material.
I am dying for some really good Obama material! I can’t wait for Comedy Central to give us little Hussein! Oh, wait, they have already featured him, just not this particular Hussein.
Lets hope he can “take it on the chin” as well as W.
Jon Stewart. Another jew in camoflage with a death wish.
Not funny. Pathetic.
He makes Dennis Kucinich seem like a well founded, morally relevant, mainstreamer.
It’s incredible to me that NYC jews pander to the very movement that hates them and is far more likely to go homicidal on them than any other political movement in the US. That includes the KKK, who’s proclivities will never be turned into National Policy.
Louis Farrakhan, meet Jon Stewart.
B Dubya:
Your comments are disgusting. Where’s the moderator?
You said about the South Park episode: “President Bush eventually shows up to claim credit for the 9/11 attacks”. As far as I remember he doesn’t. He “claims cridit” for the whole truthers movement, but blames 9/11 on “a bunch of pissed off muslims”.
Btw, I agree with David: Stewart’s “humor” is totally staged. I have a theory of my own. The laughter in the audience is recorded and then played. No way this tiny crowd can produce such a loud laughter. They play this laughter too loud and Stewart tries to shout even louder, to create an impression of “look how funny I am, I even have to shout my lines because the audience loves me so much”. There was an article on the newsbusters.com, where someone had put questions about politics to the audience of several media shows. Stewart’s audience is extremely stupid, uneducated and uninformed. (CNN’s one btw too). Now imagine that he cannot make even THOSE people laugh, so he has to use the recorded laughter. What a jerk.
@william
“I won’t live to see it, but I believe that when historians write the real history of GWB in 40 or 50 years, he will be recognized as one of America’s great presidents”
Now that did make me laugh! Who says Republicans have no sense of humour?