After much hype from the
Comedy Central marketing department, the newest production from the minds of
South Park's Matt Stone and
Trey Parker premiered last night. The show? That's My Bush.
That's My Bush stars Timothy Bottoms as President
George W. Bush and Carrie Quinn
Dolin as the
First Lady. Rounding out the cast are Marcia Wallace as Maggie the
White House
Maid, Kristen Miller as "
Princess", a White House
Secretary, John D'Aquino as Larry, the "Next door Neighbor" and Kurt Fuller as the president's Top
Advisor.
Timothy Bottom's has our newly elected
president down pat. As the bumbling head of state we can't help but sympathize slightly with Bottom's
dubya. He's a caring, bumbling, moronic
husband and
inept leader, trying desperately to balance his
marriage and the most
important job in the country. In this first episode we watch desperately as Stone and Parker
lampoon Bush's "Uniter not a Divider" stance as he holds an "
Abortion Summit" sitting down the leaders of Pro-Life and Pro-Choice stances for a
formal dinner. The object being, of course, to have a
photo-op of dubya standing behind the two leaders as they shake hands.
Carrie Quinn Dolin portrays Laura Bush as an all too typical housewife trying to
handle herself in the topsy-turvy realm of the White House. She's trying desperately to keep the attention of her
husband as he deals with important issues of state. Guiding her is Wallace's no-nonsense character of Maggie, the Maid in the White House who has been through several presidential administrations. She knows it
all, and isn't afraid to tell it like it is. Wallace brilliantly lampoons her previous work on
The Bob Newheart Show, and is easily the source of some of the most
humorous lines in the first
episode.
Bush's staff is made up of the Sensible Kurt Fuller, who plays the
straight man beautifully. He flabbergasted by Bush's antics and overwhelmed by some of the moronic suggestions of the president. Bush's secretary "Princess" is the typical Stone and Partner
bimbo character, 36-24-36 any of which would outdo the character's
IQ
by several
orders of magnitude.
That's My Bush in not only a lampoon of the president, but also of the American
Sitcom, complete with
canned laughter, and the requisite "Awwww" during moments of
tenderness between dubya and the First Lady. Each character is a parody in it's
own right, complete with the aforementioned "
Wacky Neighbor" who pops in with an
out of place smile to deliver a few lines and have a beer (indeed the thought of
the White House having a neighbor is the source of a little amusement). The
plot
of the first episode is also one of standard Sitcom fare, where George W. has to
juggle a
romantic dinner with his wife with the Abortion Summit dinner, we watch
as he races between the two, changing jacket and tie each time (although both outfits are
identical). Indeed the Bumbling Husband, the somewhat clueless but optimistic
wife, the maid full of sass and the wisdom of experience, the straight laced advisor and the blonde bimbo secretary all have roots in sitcoms of the past.
But where's the
offense? No
venture of Stone & Parker would be complete without the trademark offensive humor. The Comedy Central
veterans have perfected the art of attacking sensitive issues in a way that makes us laugh so hard we forget to be offended. In the premiere of That's My Bush we are assaulted with a leader of the pro-life movement being represented by a puppet of a 30 year old undeveloped
fetus that survived an abortion attempt, and a leader of the pro-choice movement represented by a masculine female sporting a
mullet. Somehow Stone and Parker pull it off.
All in all I enjoyed the show, although I admit it was not entirely what I expected, this is not a witty
satire on the presidency, but an
assault on the American Sitcom. It uses the president as a source for storylines, and as a
vessel to take on American sensibilities (which has been a hallmark of South Park's
popularity), in that it is a
success.