History Trivia / TeamAmericaWorldPolice

* DearNegativeReader: Creator/SeanPenn, already upset with Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone's public statements that they weren't going to vote in the 2004 election, was one of the few celebrities unamused by the movie's mockery and supposedly wrote [[ArtImitatesLife a very angry letter to Trey and Matt, telling them how angry he was]]. The two themselves ended up being more amused than intimidated since the letter's contents were [[IResembleThatRemark the exact things they were making fun of him for]].

* MidDevelopmentGenreShift: There seem to be a lot of conflicting stories going around as to what exactly the film's concept began as- some sources say Trey and Matt originally wanted to make an R-rated ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' movie, or wanted to remake either ''Film/Armageddon1998'' or ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'' with puppets, while leaving the script entirely unchanged. Another story says it was originally written as a sequel to the cult film ''Megaforce''.

* ThrowItIn: According to Stone and Parker, they hadn't originally planned to make Creator/MattDamon any smarter or dumber than the rest of the actors guild. However, when his borderline-caveman looking puppet came in, they decided on the spot to make him a drooling idiot [[PokemonSpeak who could only say his own name]], [[ActuallyPrettyFunny which Matt Damon himself thought was hilarious]].

* CreatorPreferredAdaptation: Kind of. While he didn't enjoy the movie personally and is generally not a fan of BlackComedy to begin with, ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' creator Gerry Anderson said that this movie is a better adaptation of his series than [[Film/{{Thunderbirds}} the live-action one]] which came out the same year.

* BringingInTheExpert: Parker and Stone partly made the film because of their frustration with CGI, so they hired a lot of special effects artists from the movies that they were parodying. The pyrotechnics and modeling teams had worked on Film/IndependenceDay, and the cinematographer had worked on Film/SpiderMan2 and Film/TheMatrix. The latter jumped at the chance to work with puppets because he was sick of all the green-screening and composite shots he'd had to do for the last few years. Kim Jong-Il's glasses are real prescription glasses because they hired a real optometrist to make the lenses (Parker apparently kept requesting they be bigger).

* DoingItForTheArt: Sort of. Trey and Matt forfeited their salaries in exchange for complete creative control from Paramount, feeling that they didn't really need the money. The drawback was that they had nothing to look forward to on days when they were particularly burned out.

* TalkingToHimself: This happened a lot. There were only 10 voice actors in the entire movie, and Trey Parker alone did the voices of Gary, Joe, Kim Jong Il, Hans Blix, Carson, Tim Robbins, and the drunk in the bar.

* MidDevelopmentGenreShift: There seem to be a lot of conflicting stories going around as to what exactly the film's concept began as- some sources say Trey and Matt originally wanted to make an R-rated ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' movie, or wanted to remake either ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' or ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'' with puppets, while leaving the script entirely unchanged. Another story says it was originally written as a sequel to the cult film ''Megaforce''.

* BringingInTheExpert: Parker and Stone partly made the film because of their frustration with CGI, so they hired a lot of special effects artists from the movies that they were parodying. The pyrotechnics team had worked on Film/IndependenceDay, and the cinematographer had worked on Film/SpiderMan2. The latter jumped at the chance to work with puppets because he was sick of all the green-screening and composite shots from that film. Kim Jong-Il's glasses are real because they hired a real glass-maker to make the lenses.

* BringingInTheExpert: Parker and Stone partly made the film because of their frustration with CGI, so they hired a lot of special effects artists from the movies that they were parodying. The pyrotechnics team had worked on Film/IndependenceDay, and the cinematographer had worked on Film/SpiderMan2. The latter jumped at the change to work with puppets because he was sick of all the green-screening from that film. Kim Jong-Il's glasses are real because they hired a real glass-maker to make the lenses.

* HireTheExpert: Parker and Stone partly made the film because of their frustration with CGI, so they hired a lot of special effects artists from the movies they were parodying. The pyrotechnics team had worked on Film/IndependenceDay, and the cinematographer had worked on Film/SpiderMan2. The latter jumped at the change to work with puppets because he was sick of all the green-screening from that film. Kim Jong-Il's glasses are real because they hired a real glass-maker to make the lenses.

* AllStarCast: The Japanese dub cast is notable for including several high-profile seiyū: Creator/ToshiyukiMorikawa (Gary), Creator/KenyuHoriuchi (Joe), Creator/RikiyaKoyama (Chris) and Creator/UraraTakano (Sarah).

* DearNegativeReader: Creator/SeanPenn, already upset with Trey and Matt's public statements that they weren't going to vote in the 2004 election, was one of the few celebrities unamused by the movie's mockery and supposedly wrote [[ArtImitatesLife a very angry letter to Trey and Matt, telling them how angry he was]]. The two themselves ended up being more amused than intimidated since the letter's contents were [[IResembleThatRemark the exact things they were making fun of him for]].

** Creator/MattDamon was originally supposed to be portrayed as intelligent and articulate, closer to his real-life counterpart, but when Trey and Matt saw that his puppet looked "retarded" they decided to portray him as such, giving with the resulting RunningGag giving him much more screentime.
** At one point, Creator/BenAffleck was going to be shown as a member of F.A.G., [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPK-MSILvWQ being portrayed as a literal hand puppet]].

** Creator/MattDamon was actually supposed to be portrayed as intelligent and articulate, but when Trey and Matt saw that his puppet looked "retarded" they decided to portray him as such.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Much of the humor is directed against targets like Creator/MichaelMoore, [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Kim Jong-il]], the films of Creator/MichaelBay, anti-war celebrity activists like Creator/GeorgeClooney and Creator/SeanPenn, and America's gung-ho behavior in UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror, all of which were political and cultural touchstones of the year (2004) when the film came out. Now that America's (mostly) left Iraq and terrorism has faded from the agenda (until ISIS came along), it can feel rather dated, especially with Kim Jong-il's death in December 2011.

* ThrowItIn: According to Stone and Parker, they hadn't originally planned to make Matt Damon any smarter or dumber than the rest of the actors guild. However, when his borderline-caveman looking puppet came in, they decided on the spot to make him a drooling idiot [[PokemonSpeak who could only say his own name]], which Matt Damon himself thought was hilarious.

* CreatorBacklash: The unanticipated workload of an all-marionette feature, attempting to make a studio blockbuster as spontaneously as a ''South Park'' episode and the compromises they had to make in order to have total creative control convinced Trey and Matt to stay out of feature films for a while. It wouldn't be until 2019, when ''South Park'' would [[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/as-south-park-gets-renewed-2022-matt-stone-trey-parker-have-new-movie-ideas-1238778 announce it's renewal until season 26]], that the two began teasing the possibility of new features.

* ActorAllusion: Spottswoode's voice actor, Creator/DaranNorris, previously did voice work for another marionette tv show called Super Adventure Team, which also features dirty adult humor.

* RealitySubtext: Michael Moore's [[TakeThat treatment]] in this film came out of revenge from Matt Stone. He wasn't happy when ''Film/BowlingForColumbine'' deceived moviegoers into thinking he favored Moore's causes.

** There seem to be a lot of conflicting stories going around as to what exactly the film's concept began as- some sources say Trey and Matt originally wanted to make an R-rated ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' movie, or wanted to remake either ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' or ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow'' with puppets, while leaving the script entirely unchanged. Another story says it was originally written as a sequel to the cult film ''Megaforce''.
** Matt Damon was actually supposed to be portrayed as intelligent and articulate, but when Trey and Matt saw that his puppet looked "retarded" they decided to portray him as such.

* DearNegativeReader: Creator/SeanPenn was one of the few celebrities unamused by the movie's mockery and supposedly wrote [[ArtImitatesLife a very angry letter to Trey and Matt, telling them how angry he was]]. The two themselves ended up being more amused than intimidated since the letter's contents were [[IResembleThatRemark the exact things they were making fun of him for]].

* TroubledProduction: Trey and Matt legitimately had no idea how difficult an all-marionette action film would be (judging by [[Series/{{Thunderbirds}} the source material]]) and clashed with the puppet-makers when they were told that even the puppetry that was meant to [[StylisticSuck look bad on purpose]] took a considerable amount of puppeteering expertise, rehearsal and money that would not allow for the same kind of [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants spontaneous script-changes]] that would come with making an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', and even then, they were making last-minute changes a mere ''four days'' before its red carpet premier. As mentioned above, they also forfeited their salaries in favor of complete creative control when Creator/{{Paramount}} started coming down on them about censorship, making them more apathetic to their already disillusioned vision. The result was Parker and Stone swearing off feature films for several years so they could remain in their comfort zone on ''South Park''.

* TroubledProduction: Trey and Matt legitimately had no idea how difficult an all-marionette action film would be (judging by [[Series/{{Thunderbirds}} the source material]]) and clashed with the puppet-makers when they were told that even the puppetry that was meant to [[StylisticSuck look bad on purpose]] took a considerable amount of puppeteering expertise, rehearsal and money that would not allow for the same kind of [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants spontaneous script-changes]] that would come with making an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', and even then, they were making last-minute changes a mere ''four days'' before it's red carpet premier. As mentioned above, they also forfeited their salaries in favor of complete creative control when Creator/{{Paramount}} started coming down on them about censorship, making them more apathetic to their already disillusioned vision. The result was Parker and Stone swearing off feature films for several years so they could remain in their comfort zone on ''South Park''.

* TroubledProduction: Trey and Matt legitimately had no idea how difficult an all-marionette action film would be (judging by [[Series/{{Thunderbirds}} the source material]]) and clashed with the puppet-makers when they were told that even the puppetry that was meant to [[StylisticSuck look bad on purpose]] took a considerable amount of puppeteering expertise, rehearsal and money that would not allow for the same kind of [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants spontaneous script-changes]] that would come with making an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. As mentioned above, they also forfeited their salaries in favor of complete creative control when Creator/{{Paramount}} started coming down on them about censorship, making them more apathetic to their already disillusioned vision. The result was Parker and Stone swearing off feature films for several years so they could remain in their comfort zone on ''South Park''.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Much of the humor is directed against targets like Creator/MichaelMoore, [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Kim Jong-il]], the films of Creator/MichaelBay, anti-war celebrity activists like Creator/GeorgeClooney and Creator/SeanPenn, and America's gung-ho behavior in TheWarOnTerror, all of which were political and cultural touchstones of the year (2004) when the film came out. Now that America's (mostly) left Iraq and terrorism has faded from the agenda (until ISIS came along), it can feel rather dated, especially with Kim Jong-il's death in December 2011.

* TroubledProduction: Trey and Matt legitimately had no idea how difficult an all-marionette action film would be (judging by [[Series/{{Thunderbirds}} the source material]]) and clashed with the puppet-makers when they were told that even the puppetry that was meant to [[StylisticSuck look bad on purpose]] took a considerable amount of puppeteering expertise and rehearsal that would not allow for the same kind of [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants spontaneous script-changes]] that would come with making an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. As mentioned above, they also forfeited their salaries in favor of complete creative control when Creator/{{Paramount}} started coming down on them about censorship, making them more apathetic to their already disillusioned vision. The result was Parker and Stone swearing off feature films for several years so they could remain in their comfort zone on ''South Park''.

* BigNameFan: Creator/QuentinTarantino has gone on record of saying this is one of his favorite movies since he started making movies.