‘Lil’ Bush’ Begins A Second Term On Comedy Central
MARCH 10, 2008
LOS ANGELES (TNA) – What would happen if members of a punk rock band took over the White House, replacing the George W. Bush administration?
Would the world even notice a change in the way our government is run?
Comedy Central 'Lil Bush,' a Comedy Central series depicting George W. Bush returns for its second season on March 13. A DVD of the first season surges into stores on March 11.
Donick Cary, creator and executive producer of Comedy Central’s “Lil’ Bush,” the cartoon that depicts Dubya and his cronies as children, isn’t so sure.
Consider the way that the Bush brigade has symbolically trashed the Oval Office ever since they swaggered in seven years ago. To Cary’s way of thinking, they’re not unlike rockers on tour who relish ripping apart their hotel suites.
“Think about what this administration is,” Cary says. “They like to break stuff up. They dive head first into things. They refuse to follow anybody’s rules. The vice president tells people to go fuck yourself.
“They are the first punk rock administration!”
Sounds like Cary -- an Emmy winner who used to be David Letterman’s head writer and then served as co-executive producer of “The Simpsons” -- has just crafted the premise for a new political parody: Let’s call it “Punk Rock Prez.”
Maybe Cary will have time to do something with that one day.
But for now, he’s busy with “Lil’ Bush,” an exercise in political incorrectness that begins its second season at 10:30 p.m. ET Thursday, March 13. (The season-one DVD surges its way into stores on Tuesday, March 11.)
Like our president, the premise of “Lil’ Bush” couldn’t be much simpler.
Imagine Lil’ George Bush and his childhood playmates -– Lil’ Condi Rice, Lil’ Donald Rumsfeld and Lil’ Dick Cheney -– running amok in Daddy Bush’s White House like the spoiled brats that many believe they are now as adults. Now imagine the chaos that these tiny tots could create.
During season one, for example, Lil’ George launched an ill-conceived panty raid against an al Qaeda training camp; Lil’ Rummy and Lil’ Cheney tortured Beltway Elementary cafeteria workers, Abu Ghraib-style, because they weren’t serving all-American hot dogs; and Lil’ Cheney, after having sex with matronly Barbara Bush, got stuck in her uterus and stayed inside her for days.
Comedy Central 'Lil Bush' creator Donick Cary says the Bush administration deserves praise as 'the first punk rock administration.'
In season two, the rude humor, like one of Bush’s military campaigns, continues to escalate. There’s a talking Lil’ Al Gore turd, for example, and there’s an embarrassing moment for Daddy Bush, who has an erection while trying to deliver his State of the Union address.
It wasn’t so long ago, of course, that this brand of Bush-bashing was considered taboo. But in recent years, support for the prez has melted away, just like FEMA ice en route to Katrina victims.
“There was 9/11 and it just didn’t seem like the time for us to be judging the president exactly,” Cary says. “But now we’ve had a few more years with him and the tide has turned. He’s got low approval ratings and we’re like, ‘Hey, wait a minute. This guy may not be the smartest apple in the fruit basket!’”
It makes one wonder why we once treated the decider so reverently?
“This guy’s hilarious,” Cary says. “And by the way, this administration keeps getting in scandals, so there’s an endless source of material for satire.”
“Lil’ Bush” originated as a series of animated shorts for Amp’d Mobile, where the “mobisodes” quickly developed a cult following before making the jump to Comedy Central. It’s said to be the first show to make the transition from mobile phone shorts to full-on TV series.
During the mobisode-to-TV transition, Cary recalls, “Lil’ Bush” was pretty much left intact by Comedy Central execs, except for one major casting change.
“I did the voice of Lil’ Rummy on the cell phones,” Cary says. “We were kind of making those as quickly and cheaply as possible, so I did a bunch of voices. But the first note I got from Comedy Central was like, ‘We loved everything about this, but the voice of Rumsfeld is not so great.’
Comedy Central Punk pioneer Iggy Pop does the voice of Lil Rummy, who has been accused of torturing cafeteria workers.
“I said, ‘You guys know that’s me, right?’ And they were like, ‘Um, yeah.’ So I had to do some recasting. I thought, ‘God, who has the right gravity for this guy?’ I happened to be listening to an Iggy Pop album when I was thinking about it. So I was like, ‘Let’s just call Iggy. See if it’s something he wants to do.’”
Which is how Iggy Pop, the godfather of punk, wound up becoming the unlikely voice of Lil’ Rummy.
“It’s a gig,” the Rock Iguana says matter-of-factly. “I’m a musical vocalist, but I do voiceover stuff as a sideline, like plumbing or something. And what I liked about this show was there was something really human about reducing all these powerful figures to little people.”
Now Cary finds it hard to imagine anybody else voicing Lil’ Rummy -- although he admits he might entertain the idea of recasting any of the “Lil’ Bush” parts if the real-life counterparts suddenly become available.
“They’re going to be out of work,” Cary notes. “Maybe we can use them!”
Alas, it’s probably not going to happen.
“You do a cartoon with the voices that you have,” Cary says, “not the voices you wish you had.”
Comments (0 posted)(Warning: adult content)
