Born in the USA

For the first half of Team America: World Police, I had mixed feelings about what I was seeing. There was definitely some funny stuff--the satire about the recklessness of Team America kicked in nicely and the soap opera interactions between the male and female puppets was smirk-inducing. But as the thing wore on, and I continued to soak up vibes from the audience, it seemed to me that I'm not sure how many Amerikkkans will be clever enough to pick up on the irony. In fact, this is so precisely because of how far the cultural zeitgeist is removed from the "French" sensibility that is skewered in the opening scene.

It was definitely weird to see Alec Baldwin cast as the head honcho of liberal hypocrisy. Sure he's a famous Democrat but not as nearly a poster boy as others who were crucified, such as Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Jeanene Garafolo, and Sean Penn. (I was also confused about seeing Samuel Jackson, star of SWAT, one of the most proto-fascist movies since Starship Troopers. ) What can I say, the whole Kim Il Jong thing was strained and not very smart. It had an obvious resonance with that character from South Park, and allowed them to engage in another cheap joke, the Asian "r" and "l" juxtaposition.

By far the creepiest thing about the movie is sitting in the audience and hearing people singing along with the "America...Fuck Yeah!" song. I acutally chuckled softly about the twisted humor. But it reminded me of that Springsteen song, "Born in the U.S.A." which was actually about a disillusioned Vietnam Vet but wound up being the fight song for the 1984 Reagan olympics and beyond.

Eh, you're thinking, I have no sense of humor. Maybe so. But I do laugh when my man
Jon Stewart

tells it like it is.

It's just that I grew up with this naive thing about the puppet shows




And this World Police thing seems so tired and heavy-handed that it doesn't even laugh at its own jokes.