An d an animatronic fetus! "That's my Bush", TV review

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Comedy Central's 'Bush' is shocking, funny

By Dianne Holloway Cox News Service 04-02-01

AUSTIN, Texas -- "That's My Bush!" is out of the bag, and the result will make people howl one minute, cringe the next. It's a schizophrenic experience, to be sure.

Actually, the surprising thing is how gently the president is spoofed and how perfect the casting of George W. and Laura Bush is. The two actors, Timothy Bottoms, with constantly fretting eyebrows, and Carrie Quinn Dolin, with tailored suits and helmet hair, simply nail their characters.

Last summer, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the out-there guys who spawned the potty-mouthed kids on "South Park," promised a comedy about the president and first lady that would spoof the sitcom genre and satirize the hypocrisy of politics. The approach was nonpartisan, they said. They didn't care if Bush or Al Gore won.

True to their word, "That's My Bush!" is a sitcom spoof that has Bush, in typical Tim Allen style, as the doofus dad of our country. Only slight alterations would have been made had Gore won last fall's razor-thin election and become the goofy sitcom prez.

Bush is portrayed as a bit dense but basically lovable. Laura is his randy anchor in the White House storm. Rounding out the intentionally stereotypical sitcom cast is Maggie, the smart-alecky maid (played by Marcia Wallace, a sitcom vet from the old "Bob Newhart Show"); the obnoxious neighbor Larry (John D'Aquino), who inexplicably pops in past the Secret Service whenever the mood strikes; and Princess (Kristen Miller), Bush's ditzy blond scheduling assistant.

Karl Rove (Kurt Fuller), Bush's real-life right-hand man, is the only politically savvy character in Comedy Central's White House. Which is not to imply he's normal, because in the second episode he reveals some, uh, bizarre tendencies.

Stone and Parker put their trademark "yikes-I-can't-believe-they-did-that" mark on this series, as you'd expect. Anyone who has not experienced the duo's often shocking sensibilities should be forewarned.

How shocking can it be? We have cable; we've even seen MTV's "Jackass." What could be worse?

Well, in the debut episode there's an animatronic fetus named Mr. Harris, the leader of an anti-abortion group. Seems his mother aborted him, but he survived. He talks in the same grumpy, scratchy voice of Cartman, the rotund tyke on "South Park," and he looks like a baby doll with closed eyes and a bad comb-over.

In the story line, Bush "the uniter" decides he's going to bring the two sides of the abortion debate together at a White House summit. But he's forgotten that he promised Laura -- feeling abandoned now that her husband is the busy president -- a romantic dinner. Nosy Larry suggests Bush keep both dates, setting up a classic "Frasier"-like farce, with the harried chief executive bouncing from one room to the other. Laura oozes love and lust in one room; Mr. Harris and a manly woman representing the abortion-rights folks duke it out in another room.

The sitcom parodies are clever and very funny, with the possible exception of the overused "What choo talkin' 'bout" line from "Diff'rent Strokes" that pops up not once but twice in the first episode.

The theme song is cute and bouncy, reminiscent of the theme from "The Jeffersons." Extra-loud "wooos" (when pretty Princess bounces in) and "awwwww" (whenever something sweet happens) boom out in the canned audience responses. The show even has a catch phrase -- "One of these days, Laura, I'm gonna punch you in the face!" -- echoing Ralph Kramden's "To the moon, Alice!" from "The Honeymooners."

And the Bush spoofing is right on target. This president is sweetly silly and goofy, not mean or truly dumb. You can imagine Dick Van Dyke, tumbling over an ottoman, playing him in a different era.

The question is whether the shocking stuff helps or hurts the show. This isn't, by any stretch of the imagination, a drawn-out, meek-willed "Saturday Night Live" skit. Stone and Parker go for the gasp, not just the guffaw.

The animatronic fetus will be too much for many people. So will the scene in the second episode in which Bush accidentally performs an execution thinking it's a fake one set up to amuse his visiting frat pals. As the real inmate is dying, the president dances around the room singing "another one bites the dust."

"That's My Bush!" almost surely would be funny enough just parodying sitcoms and lampooning the first couple. But the wildly tasteless detours may be too much for most viewers to stomach.

You may contact Diane Holloway at dholloway@statesman.com

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-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), April 03, 2001

Answers

Nothing is sacred anymore. I'm not sure if that is good or bad. But I expect to be watching this and LOLing too.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), April 03, 2001.

Stone and Parker are totally irreverent. I can't help but laugh at the sometimes crass stuff on South Park.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), April 04, 2001.

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