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4[[quoteright:249:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/that_s_my_bush.png]]
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6->''"One of these days, Laura, I'm gonna punch you in the face!"''
7-->-- '''George W. Bush''' in the style of [[Series/TheHoneymooners Ralph Kramden]]
8
9Short-lived Comedy Central SitCom parody spoofing the antics of President UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush, from Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone.
10
11The series portrayed the President as a likable buffoon who fell into one FawltyTowersPlot after another, supported by his equally wacky staff and family.
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13Despite expectations for satire on political events, which had become the hallmark of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', the show focused more on being a parody of 1980's sitcoms humorously transplanted into the unlikely location of the White House. For example, the "wacky neighbor" stock character was transplanted unchanged, despite the illogical nature of the White House having a next door neighbor who could occasionally drop by unannounced. Parker and Stone planned the show before the 2000 election under the name ''Family First'', planning to use whoever got elected as the main character (for those who are interested, had a few thousand votes in Florida gone the other way this article would probably be titled ''Everybody Loves Al'', the working title in the case of a Gore victory). Once Bush was elected, they took advantage of his suggestive name and changed the title to a sexual pun.
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15Much of the show's humor came from raunchy or shocking humor contrasting or parodying the show's old-fashioned format. The President's CatchPhrase, above, spoofs the classic CatchPhrase from ''Series/TheHoneymooners'', drawing attention to the blase disregard many old sitcoms had for domestic violence (it was played as if he had said something endearing, and was always followed by a cheering and laughing mock-StudioAudience). One episode employs a ''double'' ThreeIsCompany plot: George's canker sore prevents him from performing certain husbandly duties, prompting Laura to conclude that age is starting to show on her anatomy, and when George overhears the ZanyScheme she contrives to address this problem, he mistakenly concludes that she wants him to euthanize their cat. There's even AnAesop at the end: Use your mouth, instead of beating around the Bush. As well as the sitcom plots, each episode did touch on a topical issue that was of particular relevance at the time (episodes revolved around the abortion debate, the War on Drugs, the Strategic Defence Initiative and oil drilling in Alaska), but these were usually used to add to the absurdity of the tropes of sitcoms rather than as the focus of satire. Most episodes had AnAesop that compromised on both liberal and conservative ideals, [[AuthorTract arguing]] that both sides have valid points and that neither is completely correct.
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17The show achieved solid ratings, but failed to match the success of ''South Park''. Few conservatives gave the show a chance, and liberals were disappointed by the lack of satire or simply didn't get it[[note]]To be fair, Bush had only been in office for about three months at that point, so it was probably far too early for a full-blown spoof of his presidency anyway[[/note]]. Ultimately, the network decided that the ratings didn't justify the show's high production costs, and cancelled it after an eight week run. Parker and Stone admit that the idea didn't have long-term potential, and they were already starting to run out of ideas when the show was cancelled. Contrary to common belief, the show was not cancelled in the wake of 9/11, but a good two months prior. (However, the events of September 2001 pretty much ruined any hope of the show being UnCancelled.) For a while there were rumors of an ActionAdventure movie called ''George W. Bush And The Secret Of The Glass Tiger'', but it never came to be. Series star [[Series/LandOfTheLost1991 Timothy]] [[Literature/JohnnyGotHisGun Bottoms]] would go on to play Bush in two movies.
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19At the time, a show featuring a sitting president seemed like a novel concept, but it would only be the first of several large productions to feature George W. Bush as the main character. The animated series ''WesternAnimation/LilBush'' re-imagined Bush and his political allies as children similar to ''Film/TheLittleRascals''. Oliver Stone went on to make a feature film biopic of Bush before he had even left office. [[Series/DeadRingers Jon Culshaw]] took the idea for his short-lived ITV sketch show, which featured a series of sketches titled "My Two Presidents" that parodied sitcom tropes from the 1970's and 1980's.
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21Compare ''Series/HeilHoneyImHome'', a similarly short-lived sitcom spoof starring [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler an unpopular leader]].
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23----
24!!"That's My Trope!":
25
26* AffectionateParody: Really, Bush is presented in a lovable -- if rather dim-witted -- light.
27* AnAesop: Every episode ended with one of these. However, in keeping with the 80's sitcom spoofing, they were usually little more than over-simplified cop-outs.
28* BadBoss: Bizarrely, Dick Cheney (the ''Vice President'') is given this role in "Fare Thee Welfare."
29* BearsAreBadNews: In one episode, as George grows increasingly paranoid that someone's going to kill him, he buys a guard bear. [[spoiler:Things [[GoneHorriblyWrong Go Horribly Wrong]] when his attempts to root out the would-be murderer in the White House end with the bear acquiring a rifle.]]
30* BreastExpansion: Princess tries to increase her intelligence with mammary enhancers to a spectacular effect.
31* BrokeEpisode: One episode has Dick Cheney take over the White House, leaving Bush destitute and living off macaroni lamp.
32* CatchPhrase
33* CloserToEarth: Laura
34* TheComicallySerious: Karl Rove
35* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Karl encounters George and Larry trying to use a feminine hygiene kit to euthanize the Bushes' cat. (ItMakesSenseInContext.)
36 -->'''Karl''': What are you doing?\
37'''George''': What's it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to put the cat to sleep!\
38'''Karl''': Why are you doing it with that douche?\
39'''George''': Larry's the only one that would help me!
40* CrossOver: A scene in the White House in the mid-2001 ''South Park'' episode "Super Best Friends" confirms that this show takes place in the same universe.
41* DeadpanSnarker: The maid, Maggie
42** Karl Rove also has his moments.
43* TheDitz: Princess, Bush's secretary.
44* DropInCharacter: Possibly the most obvious clue of the show's intentions, the White House has a next-door neighbor who's always dropping by. John D'Aquino, who played the DropInCharacter, later went on to play the President of the United States in the Creator/DisneyChannel series ''Series/CoryInTheHouse''.
45* DrugsAreBad: [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]] in "Mom E. DEA Arrest". After the episode's drug-fueled shenanigans have concluded, the drug dealer concludes that drug addiction is bad, and that drugs are something that should only be enjoyed every so often.
46* {{Feghoot}}: An episode parodying gun control issues turned out to be the set up to a joke about the right to bear arms [[spoiler: but not the right to arm bears!]]
47* GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity: Spoofed (among other things) in the episode "Fare Thee Welfare."
48* GoldenMeanFallacy: Invoked on a regular basis, despite having the most prominent partisan in America as a subject. Once again, in keeping with the whole sitcom parody.
49* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: And in the last episode, when Dick Cheney takes over, we get a title sequence that substitutes his name for Bush's to similar effect. One title card near the end calls the show "What a Dick."
50* IntoxicationEnsues: In "Mom E. DEA Arrest", George accidentally takes ecstasy shortly before the War on Drugs ceremony in the White House. He spends most of the rest of the episode high off his gourd.
51* LockedInARoom: Very thoroughly {{deconstructed|Trope}} in "Trapped in a Small Environment".
52* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: "Cameos" include Dr Jack Kevorkian and Charlton Heston.
53* NoMatterHowMuchIBeg: After George realizes he has taken ecstasy, he tries to avoid disrupting the War on Drugs ceremony by telling Princess to barricade him in his bedroom and not to let him out no matter what he says. Princess tries to follow his instructions, but as soon as the drugs kick in, George tricks her into letting him out by [[TheDitz making her think]] he's a unicorn.
54* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: The lead actor makes no attempt to sound W.
55** Also, Creator/KurtFuller makes no attempt at either looking or sounding like Karl Rove.
56* OopsIDidItAgain
57* PoorCommunicationKills: Laura starts to worry that her sex life is going down the drain when she overhears George rant about how revolting "her pussy" is. He was of course, talking about her old and decrepit cat, Pun'kin.
58* RecycledSoundtrack: Long after the show's cancellation, some of its music cues were resurrected for WesternAnimation/SouthPark.
59* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: When two cops come to the White House to investigate [[ItMakesSenseInContext whether Jack Kavorkian is hiding there]], George frantically proclaims "if I was going to hide a killer, I certainly wouldn't hide him over there!" while pointing to the very spot Kavorkian is hiding in.
60* ThreeIsCompany
61* TwoTimerDate: The sitcom plot of the first episode. George tries to keep a dinner date with Laura while at the same time hosting a peace summit for pro-life and pro-choice activists.
62* WackyFratboyHijinx: Parodied to the extreme with ''A Poorly Executed Plan''. In the episode, George's fraternity brothers from Yale come over for a visit. Predictably, chaos ensues. Ending with [[spoiler: AnAesop about [[MaturityIsSeriousBusiness George having "grown up" while his fraternity brothers haven't.]]]]
63%%* WackyGuy: Larry the neighbor
64* WhatsAHenway: Larry always greeted George with one of these.
65-->'''Larry''': Hey, George, there's some snoo on your lawn.\
66'''George''': What's snoo, Larry?\
67'''Larry''': Nothing, what's snoo with you?
68** And in the last episode, when George has to leave the white house:
69---> '''Larry''': (in tears) Say George, Can I borrow a kweerdoo?\
70'''George''': What's a kweerdoo?\
71'''Larry''': This! (kisses George)
72** Larry's clearly deeply attached to these; he reacts with violent rage when a drug addict who's being arrested at the White House for to a War on Drugs ceremony ([[ItMakesSenseInContext yeah...]]) spoils the joke in one case, and has to be held back from beating the guy up.
73** Ironically, when he tries to use the actual "henway" joke, George cuts him off because he's in the middle of something and we never hear it.
74** Subverted in "S.D.I-Aye-Aye!" when some Austrians infiltrate the White House by tunneling directly to George's front doorstep. Larry tells George that there's a hole dug in his front lawn; George asks what a holedug is.
75* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: Maggie and Laura are stunned to learn that "Princess" isn't a cute nickname- it's her actual name.
76* WomenAreWiser: Played predictably straight, given that this is a spoof of 1980's sitcoms.
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