Heads Up: "That's My Bush" (Entire TV Series) Airing Today!

Comedy Central ^ | 11/2/2002 | self

[SunStar]

Heads Up: The entire eight-show series of "That's My Bush" is airing TODAY (11/2) on Comedy Central, from 7:30pm to 11:30pm Pacific Time.

Set your VCRs, people! This was a very funny TV show, written and directed by Matt Stone and Trey Parker (the creators of South Park).

"That's My Bush" website : http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/thatsmybush/

[petuniasevan]

Nope. Won't be watching. Didn't think it was funny. Though poorman did.

Nope. They foisted this low-class satire on us as fast as they could. Don't recall X42 getting this treatment. And they mistook the present First Couple for the previous tenants. It's a cheap tactic to imply that George and Laura are not "getting along". George is not Ralph Kramden. And Laura is not Alice.

[Timesink]

"One of these days, Laura, I'm gonna [everybody now]PUNCH YOU IN THE FAAACE!"

[dwilli]

I imagine roughly the same number or less people will be watching this time, very few. I love satire but this offering was godawful.

[Timesink]

Nope. They foisted this low-class satire on us as fast as they could.

The deal to make the show was put together before the election. If Gore had won, it would have been "That's My Gore."

Don't recall X42 getting this treatment.

The duo responsible for creating this show didn't hit it big until the late '90s. Besides, the 'Toons were too much of a self-parody to be parodied by somebody else.

[Timesink]

I imagine roughly the same number or less people will be watching this time, very few. I love satire but this offering was godawful.

Yeah, I agree. The problem was that they wanted to parody bad '70s-'80s sitcoms, but took it so far that it ended up BECOMING a bad '70s-'80s sitcom.

[petuniasevan]

Maybe so. But it still stank.

Even South Park is better.

[CyberAnt]

This show would never have been called "That's my Gore".

It was done to try to brainwash the unwashed that Bush was not a good guy (or that Bush was just like everybody else [but they really meant just like Clinton].

Once people found out what the President was really like, this sitcom was no longer funny. In order to be funny, there has to be an element of truth. This sitcom was missing a great deal of truth.

I never watched this show - only saw a few out takes when they were advertising it.

[longtermmemmory]

A show called "oval office kneepads" would have been really funny. The story of a philandering president and his lesbian wife first lady. The problem is hollywood does not know how to laugh at themselves.

[Timesink]

It was done to try to brainwash the unwashed that Bush was not a good guy (or that Bush was just like everybody else [but they really meant just like Clinton].

You are aware, aren't you, that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are Republicans? And most South Park episodes push very conservative beliefs and portray most liberals as complete imbeciles?

I never watched this show - only saw a few out takes when they were advertising it.

Then how do you know what it was about? It was NOT political humor. One of the episodes revolved around Bush's attempt to steal cable TV with the help of the "next door neighbor," for crying out loud.

[discostu]

The whole idea for the show was to take your basic 70s/ early 80s family sitcom structure and make the family in question the first family. Probably the most important ingredient in the classic family sitcom is the idiot father. They were cycling through all the standard plots: crossed promises forcing the main character to be in two places at once, immature old friends come to visit, moving, wife intimidated by mother-in-law. The even had the smarmy neighbor that just wanders in without even knocking (such a generic element that even the "revolutionary" Seinfeld kept it)... in the White House, past security, classic 70s style. Had Gore won it would have been almost the same show only with different character names. The show was too smart for its own good. If you want to know what they thought of the two presidential candidates check the SouthPark recount episode.

[Karsus]

BACKGROUND
excerpts from an ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT interview from April 2001

TREY PARKER: We had the idea for this show about a year ago. This show is not a political show; rather, it is a show that satirizes the American sitcom. We knew that whoever the president was, it was going to work. It was either of the two most boring people on the face of the earth who were going to make a great sitcom.

So, we actually had hired writers and producers, we'd gotten studio space and we all got together at my house to watch election night, to see who we were making a show about. And we sat there and watched it, and it really seemed like in the middle of the day we were doing a show about Al Gore. So, we were talking about how that affected the show and how it changed things. Then we realized we were doing a show about George W. Bush, and then we found out that we probably wouldn't know until the next day who the president was, and we were like, "Wow, we're really, really screwed."

MATT STONE: Yeah, we thought, "We gotta start casting tomorrow. Man, we got no time."

TREY: We were really backed up against the strikes and all that and, it was too bad we're going to lose 24 hours, but it's the way it goes. As you know, it turned into...

MATT: Five weeks.

TREY: It just really became suicidal because we were watching it die -- the money was going. But, finally we got a president. But, we're just as excited about the show as ever...

TREY: I think that most people on the surface think, "OK, they're going to skewer George Bush." That's something they're going to be doing on "Saturday Night Live" and Jay Leno. That's really not at all what this show is.

We had been wanting, actually, for several years, to do a sitcom that sort of ripped on sitcoms because we hate them so much. And it came to be that we just said, "Let's just make it the First Family." The whole point of a sitcom is taking a character and forcing you to love that character. So, what we are going to do is make everyone love George Bush.

And you know, everyone thinks we're just going to make him look like an idiot, make him look like a boob, but he's going to do that fine on his own. It's not what we wanted to do, and that's why it didn't matter whether it was Bush or it was Gore, because we're not out to skewer a president, we're out to do something very, very subversive and actually make you really love this guy.

[perfect stranger]

Thanks for the heads up. It actually is possible to be a Conservative Republican supporting President Bush, and like this show at the same time.

It it also possible to separate this show from the idea that it would be considered political commemtary, as opposed to the idealistic crap known as "West Wing".

[CyberAnt]

If you believe them?? ... I have this lovely ocean front property for sale in Arizona!!

[CyberAnt]

Well ... for crying out loud - what on earth is funny about such a man of integrity and honor doing anything so stupid as to "steal" - give me a break.

These guys may be "republicans", but for my money - they have a very warped sense of humor.

Like I said - for humor to be "funny" - it has to have an element of truth. Bush "stealing" anything is absurd - NOT FUNNY!

[SunStar]

Thanks for the heads up. It actually is possible to be a Conservative Republican supporting President Bush, and like this show at the same time.

Yep.

One of the better episodes features a decent Charlton Heston impersonator, and a good line: "In this country, you have the right to bear arms, but not the right to arm bears."

I recall when the show was on, about half of the FReepers at the time absolutely loved the show, and the other half completely hated it.

[bigjoesaddle]

Matt Stone and Trey Parker are Republicans, and my favorite show was the abortion show (which was the first one)when the anti-abortion leader was an actual aborted fetus. FUNNY STUFF! (ok,ok, I'm sick, but they really ARE Republicans)

[Cicero]

I was driving the back roads of Maine the other day and got behind a pickup truck with the bumper sticker: I SUPPORT THE RIGHT TO ARM BEARS.

I have a relation who works for Comedy Central. Things are not all that great in the entertainment business, and if they are running "That's My Bush" it's probably because they managed to convince someone that it would sell ads at this season. Someone else may have an agenda, but Comedy Central probably just wants to get a little money back on a failed series.

[JulieRNR21]

We had been wanting, actually, for several years, to do a sitcom that sort of ripped on sitcoms because we hate them so much. And it came to be that we just said, "Let's just make it the First Family." The whole point of a sitcom is taking a character and forcing you to love that character. So, what we are going to do is make everyone love George Bush.

This is Barbara Streisand.....I found the show demeaning & degrading....it reinforced the RATs' contention (at the time) that Dubya was Dumb!

The way GWB handled 9-11 and his leadership skills did more to 'make everyone love George Bush' than this so called comedy.

[WriteOn]

who watches that crap? get a life.

[Sonny M]

They're not conservatives, but they are republicans, they're pretty much libertarians. Alot of liberals were ticked off when they watched the show, because they felt that they made the characters all likable, to likable instead of stupid and evil. Even Rove was generally portrayed well, the only really bad evil guy on the show was dick cheney, and only beacuse he want's to take over the presidents office.

[sauropod]

OK, Who's the blonde? ;-)