# Team America - Oh my God that was awful. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 9, 2006, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008 "2006-05-09T02:46:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fromage\_A\_Trois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fromage\_A\_Trois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fromage_A_Trois)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/21 "2006-05-09T11:01:14Z")
I absolutely loved this movie the first time I saw it, as did my sister - we’re both big fans of South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. The songs are great, especially the AIDS song - it was the songs in SP:BLU that really sold that film to me, and I was chuffed to find Team America had similar ones. HOWEVER, we waited for it to come out on DVD, bought it, and watched it again. I was a bit disappointed. I’ve watched SP:BLU a ridiculous number of times, and it’s never bored me - but Team America just didn’t have the staying power, I didn’t think. I still like it, and I might give it another chance in the near future, but I don’t think it’s as good as SP:BLU. “That was down to bad intelligence. Bad I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E, BAD!” “It would be 911 times a hundred” etc On the other hand, I don’t think there’s a song on any album, or in any film, anywhere, anywhen that I enjoy as much as the medley of “Tomorrow Night”, “Up There”, “La Resistance” and “Blame Canada” in SP:BLU. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/22 "2006-05-09T11:02:22Z")
I thought it was gut-bustingly funny. ---
**Author:** ![BabaBooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dfb087/32.png) [@BabaBooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BabaBooey)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/23 "2006-05-09T11:18:39Z")
I thought it was very up and down, but overall pretty good. My favorite unmentioned part is when the boss tells Gary “and if you were to get caught, you know what to do”, and he starts to hand him something that you’d figure would be a cyanide pill, but it’s just a hammer. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/24 "2006-05-09T11:21:18Z")
Perhaps I can’t really be relied on to be a proper critic, I laugh at everything from Blackadder and Eddie Izzard to the Scary Movie, um, movies. I laughed more at TA:WP than SP:TM though, noteworthy being the songs and Kim Jong-il ---
**Author:** ![Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f19dbf/32.png) [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/25 "2006-05-09T11:49:01Z")
[QUOTE=Hamlet] But I just got done watching Team America: World Police **on television** , and it was horrible. [/QUOTE] So you watched a movie that was meant to be offensive as edited for TV? Aside from the occasional redub humor (_The Big Lebowski_ “This is what happens when you fight a stranger in the Alps!” comes to mind), this is always murder to “edgy” or “offensive” comedy. That being said, Team America does not have the sticking power of SP:BLU. It’s just not as strong a story. But it still has great one-liners. Such as anything said by Kim Jong-Il. Or the “Dicks fuck Assholes” speech. Or singing most of the songs. One exchange that’s bantered around our home with alarming frequency: “It’s inevitevitable. _Come again?_ It’s inevitable! _Sorry?_ INEVITABLE!” ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/26 "2006-05-09T12:20:17Z")
It wasn’t the height of genius that BLU was, and had plenty of flat spots, but how can you not love the world tour of monument destruction, the cliche bingo throughout, the disguise and the undercover ‘signal’. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/27 "2006-05-09T12:21:54Z")
[QUOTE=Only Mostly Dead] So you watched a movie that was meant to be offensive as edited for TV? Aside from the occasional redub humor (_The Big Lebowski_ “This is what happens when you fight a stranger in the Alps!” comes to mind), this is always murder to “edgy” or “offensive” comedy. [/quote] It was on Showtime, so I doubt it was edited much, if at all. > [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > I pretty much felt the same way. Even the jokes that were vaguely funny the first time around were replayed, stretched, squeezed, beaten, lit afire, doused with acid, kicked, buried, dug up, run through the sewer system, and dried under a high school cafeteria heat lamp until they were about as amusing as a tax form. I didn’t even find it particularly offensive or outrageous, save for the extent of particularly unfunny bodily fluids humor; it was just dumb. South Park can be kind of dumb, too, but at least it manages enough humor and outrage to justify its running time. I think this is a good point. There were parts of the movie that were slightly funny, like the Star Trek homage with the panthers and America: Fuck Yeah, but they the constant focus on the stupid and the repetitiveness of the humor just ruined the movie. It might have made a good 20 minute short, but Kim Jong’s inability to say R, the pussy/dick/asshole idiocy, and a computer named intelligence weren’t funny the first time, let alone the third, sixth, or tenth. > [@jackelope](#): > > Did you see the director’s cut? With that scene in all its glory? And did you not howl at Kim Jong-Il singing, “I’m So Ronery”? (The DVD extras have some fascinating information about the set design, btw.) Did you sit stonefaced during the vomiting-in-the-alley scene? I didn’t see the director’s cut, and I probably never will. The examples you gave as funny were, to me, simply stupid. I understand that humor is nearly impossible to explain, justify, or rate, but that’s what confused me. I’m usually right on board with South Parks humor, but this movie wasn’t funny. Seeing puppets do outrageous things, like have hardcore sex in numerous positions, or vomiting for 5 minutes straight just aren’t funny. And the Asian dictator who can’t pronounce "R"s and is just misunderstood was stupid and uncreative. I expect more from the makers of SP:BLU. > [@KGS](#): > > The “unrated” sex scene, was the first time ever I’ve been watching a movie and suddenly shouted, “Oh dear God, they did NOT go there!” Yes, it was outrageous, but completely unfunny, which is kinda my point about the movie. Another example would be the “Bloody Mary” episode of South Park, where the scene of the statute bleeding on the Cardinal, then other people, and then the Pope for an extended period of time. That was clearly outrageous, and, not very funny. But the Bloody Mary had the advantage of being damned funny taking on AA , the blamelessness of alcoholics, and the misogyny of the Catholic Church. Team America had the outrageous behavior, but completely lacked the humor part. And it was insanely over-long. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/28 "2006-05-09T12:22:55Z")
I really didn’t enjoy it. The humor didn’t appeal to me. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/29 "2006-05-09T12:27:15Z")
It had some funny moments, but it was about an hour too long. And that was the first time I saw it. Did like the puppet sex scene, though. That’s something you don’t see every day. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/30 "2006-05-09T12:38:49Z")
The “sex” scene was boring. Kim Il Jung and Hans Blix were ok funny. The monologue on dicks and pussies was pretty funny. FAG was good for a few giggles. All in all an ok movie for television. Not worth paying a cinema ticket for. But better than South Park and their South Park movie. ---
**Author:** ![ChuckForbin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@ChuckForbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChuckForbin)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/31 "2006-05-09T12:53:30Z")
I saw it, thought it was funny. Gross, stupid, and funny. But can someone remind me what the “panther” scene was ? It’s keeps getting mentioned but I can’t recall it. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/32 "2006-05-09T13:14:03Z")
Dicks, assholes and pussies speech has more insights into The Human Condition than any other movie featuring marionettes in film history. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/33 "2006-05-09T13:47:41Z")
What a timely thread, as I just bought the DVD of this movie. (My family has a policy: except for movies the kids have gotten attached to, always wait on a movie to hit the bargain racks. It took forever for TA:WP to finally get there, but we knew it would eventually. Everything does.) I loved the movie. I wasn’t as good as SP:BLU, but that one’s hard to top. The action-movie cliche parody was spot on, the songs were great (can’t say the word “lonely” in our house without breaking into “I’m So Ronery”), the political points - both the naivete of the dovish left and the gung-ho tunnel-vision of the hawkish right - rang true, with the hilarious dick-pussy-asshole thing tying it all together. Gary’s acting and emoting skills were used brilliantly. hqadjThe melodramatic love triangle (or was it a quadrangle?) amongst the team, Gary’s gorilla guilt and Chris’s actor-phobia…all movie cliches wonderfully twisted into absurdity. The puppet medium was used to great comedic effect, from the martial arts dance at the very beginning, to the sex scene, to the already-mentioned panther scene. Re-imagining the real Kim Jong Il as a supervillain was funny…exactly as Saddam Hussein was used in South Park. The exaggerated ethnic cliches in the French, Egyptian and Panama settings…all good for laughs. Anything I _didn’t_ care for? Well, that vomiting thing was way too long. And I’m disappointed with the Uncensored version…I was hoping that was cut out would have been something funny, not just a slightly more outrageous version of the sex scene. But on the whole, I thought the movie was very, very good. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/34 "2006-05-09T13:52:20Z")
Dude, they’re puppets…WITH STRINGS! How can that _not_ be funny? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/35 "2006-05-09T14:28:58Z")
[QUOTE=Jodi] _:: Shaking JOHNNY L.A. by the shoulders ::_ **There’s a Thunderbirds boxed set available???** This is the best thing I’ve heard all day! Wahoo! I know what I’m getting for my birthday on the 20th – to Jodi from Jodi. [/QUOTE] $161.99 at [amazon](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000068M9Q/qid=1147184381/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/102-8377801-7211312?s=dvd&v=glance&n=130) (Under $100 new from Amazon Marketplace), several on [eBay](http://search.ebay.com/thunderbirds-dvd-mega_W0QQfromZR40QQsatitleZthunderbirdsQ20dvdQ20megaQ2a) Buy-It-Now for $79. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/36 "2006-05-09T14:29:19Z")
[QUOTE=cmkeller] Well, that vomiting thing was way too long. [/QUOTE] That’s exactly _why_ it was funny! ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/37 "2006-05-09T14:42:13Z")
FlyingDragonFan: > [@](#): > > That’s exactly why it was funny! To a certain point, yes. After a while, I found myself saying, “All right, already, get on with the movie, willya?” Matt & Trey have great comic timing, but it was a bit off on that scene. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/38 "2006-05-09T14:46:48Z")
I rather liked it. You really had to bring your mind down several notches to enjoy it, it’s gutter humour, but it’s funny. I hated the vomiting scene but I’m pretty sure it’s a parody of every main-stream film nowadays that has to show the actor vomiting. They never used to do that, they’d show him start, then cut to another scene, maybe someone watching, and you’d hear the noise. I hate watching people vomit. Other than that the scenes were incredibly well-done…Panama Canal blowing up, the Eiffel Tower, etc. The making of was pretty cool. I do own the movie, and the vignettes about al lthe stuff they made are interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/39 "2006-05-09T14:49:53Z")
[QUOTE=RandMcnally] Dude, they’re puppets…WITH STRINGS! How can that _not_ be funny? [/QUOTE] That’s part of the problem. After about 5 minutes, seeing the puppets walk funny isn’t funny anymore. I watched some of the extras and Parker and Stone said something that shed a lot of light on the movie, for me. They said that while watching some Jerry Bruckheimer movie, they realized, “wait a minute. This is comedy. No one can really say these things straight.” Well, then they concluded, “let’s just do a straight Bruckheimer movie, but with puppets.” Instead of making a comedy, they made an action movie with several over-the-top scenes. There are long action sequences in that movie that aren’t played for laughs at all. Supposedly it’s funny because puppets are doing it, but I think it just gets boring. It doesn’t hold up as an action movie, and they take too much time away from the comedy. However, I too, loved the songs, and the puppet sex, but that’s about it. If you’re laughing at how the puppets walk, I suppose it’s funny end to end, but if you’re looking for jokes and gags, and actual creative humorous writing, it’s just not there enough in this movie. It really lowered my opinion of Parker & Stone. ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008/40 "2006-05-09T15:03:12Z")
[QUOTE=ChuckForbin] I saw it, thought it was funny. Gross, stupid, and funny. But can someone remind me what the “panther” scene was ? It’s keeps getting mentioned but I can’t recall it. [/QUOTE] The “panther” was a black housecat. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/team-america-oh-my-god-that-was-awful/356008.md?page=3)