Lil' Bush: Resident of the United States

Lil Bush is a 30 minute cartoon show comprised of 2 15 minutes episodes shown on Comedy Central. It takes place in a fictional, cartoonish Washington D.C., and centers around the satirical, childish representations of George W. Bush, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheyney. Other politicians are also satirized in the same manner, and act as minor characters.

The pilot of little Bush, much to this commentator's expectations, proved to be a rather shallow and esoteric production, which barely delivers on its featured promise: a satirical look at the current presidential administration. While one must admit that premise of the show does have SOME merit, even though it would be hard to imagine a show based almost completely of the denigration of a single political persona would survive to continue to produce episodes after his term of office expired, execution that can only be described as sloppy at best, and downright awful at worst, has marred what little potential the show had.

Lil Bush, which may be technically classified as "satire", tends to disregard its actual use of the particular tool of comedy in order to lambaste its targets in exceptionally vulgar (but not particularly original, entertaining, or funny) ways. The show's consistently weak writing often consists of little more than recording Bush/Cheney jokes heard elsewhere ad nauseam and placing them all in a single 30 minute block of television. As such, most of the jokes that presented by the writers were shameless clichés, some of which that been in public circulation for more than 6 years already. Comparing the Vice President to Darth Vader, for example, may have been funny in the first 300 times one has heard it on the Daily Show/Colbert Report/Letterman/Conan O'Brien/Leno monologue/any late-night-talk-show-ever, but it is not funny here. As if that were not enough, the show's plots seem to exist simply as a means to advance the same old, tiresome Bush jokes that the writers have made the center of the program.

In the show's defense, when the writers dare to write in a truly original joke (which seems to be a rarity) it is often somewhat humorous. If the show were to expand its depth somewhat, and place its characters into new situations, exotic situations, rather than the same old mistakes and "quagmires" perpetuated by the Bush administration, therefore not having to rely on the same old Bush jokes over and over again, the show might be considered somewhat tolerable, and possibly even innovative.

Ultimately, it is difficult to ascertain which shortcoming causes the Lil Bush series the most damage; its clear lack of originality and weak writing quality, or its painfully narrow minded ambitions. It is reasonable to expect that Lil Bush will be able to maintain a small base of left wing fans, that is, if they are able to endure the exceptionally poor writing; so long as the program continues to lampoon the Bush administration thoroughly. Even so, the majority of viewers will soon recognize the program for what it really is, a weak and pointlessly vulgar attempt at satire, and tune out in search of something more intellectually stimulation; The Price is Right, perhaps.

It's summer time and I guess Comedy Central didn't have much else to put out. But this just sucks.

It's like someone wrote down a list of anti-bush talking points and then shamelessly added them directly into the script without a clue for satire. We'll make them kids! So funny and clever! Yeah real subtle. I certainly don't mind having a laugh at Bush and co. That's not what offends me. Actually, the only thing that really offends me....is when I'm not laughing. Thus, this show is offensive.

I'd rather watch re-runs of "That's My Bush" this this piece of garbage.

When anti-bush jokes get really easy to do, a show like this had better make sure it has something extra. When that something extra is kid versions of political figures making jokes about the future they don't have yet, it's just plain nonsense. Dick Cheney and George Bush are done well but Dick Cheney mutters mostly. There's also Condoleeza Rice who has a crush on Bush for some reason and Donald Rumsfeld who isn't really that similar to Donald Rumsfeld at all. The democratic characters rarely give their names so it's a mystery as to who could be who aside from Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton.

The episodes have coherent stories but that's not nearly enough to keep this from sinking.

Lil Bush uses old, overused and cliché Bush jokes and rehashes them into a thirty minute cartoon. There's probably about 2 1/2 minutes of humor in this show.

Also, I have NO idea when this is supposed to be happening. Disregard the suspension of disbelief that viewers should have on, I have no clue what the time frame is. The characters make references to Britney Spears and other modern pop culture, but Bush Sr., is in office and Desert Storm is in full force. Furthermore, the characters are supposed to be children, which of course they wouldn't be during Desert Storm. Pick a timeframe! Just change the channel, this isn't worth it.

I've never been a fan of the shrub, but this might be a bit much.

Bush haters will love this though. It shreds Dubya's administration like cole slaw. Rumsfeld's a psychotic, Cheney's a growling demon, and Condi is made out to be a love struck 'Darla' clone.

While a lot of the propaganda is based on some truth, don't buy into this hype. This is nothing more than a bunch of Bush Blasters having a field day.

The Haliburton-land episode was my personal fave. That said, most of the humor was hit or miss. A flash in the pan is all this will ever be. But I hope there is a DVD release in the future. This will make a great pop culture artifact at some point.

And the Cheney affair with Barbara (with Dick vanishing into her womb) stretched the taste meter.