Gay Today: Entertainment

That's My Bush?
—That's a Bust!

Situation Comedy Review by BuckcuB

Humor comes in many guises. The brittle wit of Noel Coward was like a gilded, hair-thin rapier which fatally skewered its victim before he realized he'd been run through. The acerbic sardonicism of Dorothy Parker resembled a chic, glittering martini glass which turns out to be full of sulfuric acid.

The Comedy Central show That's My Bush! should be much funnier than it is, especially coming from the creators of South Park

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the two savagely iconoclastic humorists who created the Comedy Central Network's wildly-popular cult series South Park, have so far relied on a brand of humor possessing all the finesse of a broad-axe -- with wild success. South Park 's crude animation, its band of foul-mouthed preadolescents, and its hysterically-vicious gleeful slaughter of one sacred cow of American culture after another has engendered a gigantic following of dedicated fans, and an ubiquitous cottage industry of T-shirts, neckties, and dolls depicting Kenny, Cartman, The Chef, and the rest of the South Parkgang.

BuckcuB was therefore prepared to adore Parker and Stone's foray into a live-action situation comedy ostensibly ridiculing George W. Bush. That's My Bush! premiered on April 4 on the Comedy Central Network, and was heavily hyped in the network's promotional advertisements for months in advance.

Unfortunately, it stinks.

What was widely expected to be a sitcom battering Bush Jr. with the same sledgehammer of brutal sarcasm Parker and Stone employ on "South Park," turned out in its premiere episode to merely give Bush the Second a few figurative whacks with a limp rubber chicken on the end of a brittle stick.

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That's My Bush: Official Site
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Comedy, by definition, needs to be FUNNY. The premiere of That's My Bush! was anything but. Aside from a few tame jabs at Dubya's reliance on the TelePrompTer to avoid verbal gaffes, this purportedly cutting-edge satire looked more like the unholy offspring of a Mack Sennett silent comedy and an episode of "The Honeymooners."

The premier's premise revolved around George Bush (portrayed by actor Timothy Bottoms) trying to juggle his matrimonial obligations to wife Laura with his political duties -- in this case, he has scheduled a romantic tete-a-tete dinner with Laura on the same night as a "unifying" dinner between leaders of the pro-life and pro-choice camps on abortion. A great deal of lame slapstick ensues, with George running from one dinner to the other and back again to prevent his wife from discovering the deception.

The pro-life leader, an unsuccessful aborted fetus, oddly resembles Gary Bauer

A few funny lines did help to alleviate the overall disappointment -- Laura cheerfully referring to George Dubya as "a clueless bastard" and "You may be a bad president, but you're an okay husband;" Bush castigating himself by muttering "I am such a pussy!", and a maid who, when ordered by Bush to stop interfering and do the laundry, responds with "I'll do like your father did -- separate the whites from the coloreds."

But two minutes of amusement in a half-hour sitcom from the likes of Parker and Stone was an enormous let-down. A variety of surreal elements appeared to have been included simply to fill gaps in the tissue-thin plot -- the leader of the pro-life movement was portrayed by a bizarre animatronic mutant midget fetus, supposedly the survivor of an unsuccessful abortion. Dinner entertainment for George and Laura was provided by an execrable mariachi band playing the themes from Sanford and Son and Jeopardy.

In all fairness, That's My Bush! may suffer in part from interference by Comedy Central executives. As widely reported earlier this year in entertainment-industry news, horrified network execs quickly nixed the writing duo's plans for a continuing plot element which would have depicted the Bush's two daughters in various titillating circumstances in every episode -- showering together; engaging in a pillow-fight wearing skimpy nighties, and the like. After viewing the premiere of the new show, BuckcuB can't help but wonder how much more of That's My Bush! was toned-down by network officials to avoid offending the present occupant of the White House.

Show creator Matt Stone advises Bush actor Timothy Bottoms on the That's My Bush! set

In any case, the result is awful, and not even awful enough to be funny. Anyone who tuned in expecting to see Bush treated with the same comically-barbarous sarcasm with which Parker and Stone richly imbue South Park was bound to be disappointed.

That's My Bush! is a bust, unless this pair of genius comic writers take off the kid gloves; discard the silent-film-era slapstick; and go after their subject with the same ruthless and startling comedic savagery which made their South Park such an enormous success.