Lil' Chance of Success

Ian points out this impressively bad bit of simplistic anti-Bushism.

Comedy 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.

I actually thought from the premise that it had a shot at being somewhat amusing.   I was envisioning "Clone High" meets "South Park" (two spectacular shows whose superficial (and often extreme) crudeness deliberately belies their sophistication).   Instead, in addition to the production values of "Lil' Bush" being far lower than either (which is saying something when the bar is set by simulated stop-motion construction paper animation), there's not a single half-clever or non-obvious joke to be found.

Posing with naked prisoners!   Renaming food with patriotic words!   Bush using nicknames!  Enslaving Condi!

All the satirical subtlety of a Gallagher show.  (Is he going to smash the watermelon?!  He is!  He's a genius!)

It may be wrong to criticize the comedic timing of a cruddy cartoon, but even the dialog pacing made me feel like I was watching one of the more ancient Peanuts holiday specials.   And it was steeped with roughly the same level of political humor.  Cripes.

While it died a hasty death, "That's My Bush" (from the creators of "South Park") was a far better show than this seems to be.  At least that show intentionally exploited silly comic stereotypes (the fact that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue had a "wacky neighbor" who would pop in at random was gold).

I hope I haven't poisoned the well.  Please enjoy this sneak peak at Comedy Central's next mid-season replacee:

Elsewhere:  Stop the ACLU, The Political Pitbull, Hot Air