Funny / OverSimplified - The Pig War

• The thumbnail◊ looks like something out of Star Wars.
• What the British lost in North American territory post-American Revolution, they made up for in blistering burns directed at Benjamin Franklin:
  Benjamin Franklin: [practically fondling a map of Canada] Oh, Canada! So voluptuous. You think maybe we could acquire some of that?
  British Official: [bats at him with a piece of paper] Quit ogling our territory!
  Franklin: But look at those curves!
  British Official: I'd worry less about Canada's curves and more about your own curves, Benjamin.
  [The entire room — including the American delegation — hollers in an "Oh DAYUM!" fashion]
• Under manifest destiny, the American settlers intend to spread across the Northern continent... like rats, or disease. Consequently, they are portrayed as a loud and obnoxious bunch, constantly firing guns at every direction and blowing up wildlife, while building McDonald's all over Native settlements.
• During the "enhance" segment, James Douglas is seen jerking off to British flags. Upon noticing that he's being watched, he lets out a girly screech.
  • Lyman also Screams Like a Little Girl when he discovers Griffin's Berkshire pig eating his potatoes.
  • As does General Harney, when he takes the opportunity afforded by General Scott leaving the room to promptly start trying to escalate the situation again... only for Scott, who had been listening behind the door, to burst in (bowling over Captain Pickett and throwing a chair at Harney so hard it shatters into bits in the process), gleeful for the excuse needed to finally lay into the nutcase with his belt.
    General Scott: Alright you psychopath, I've been waiting years for this! (starts belting the living Christ out of Harney) I hate you! I've always hated you!
• In previous videos, whenever the NordVPN representative would reveal himself, he would usually receive stunned silence; in this video, when he sheds his disguise as a British settler, the American settler can actually get out the words "What the f-".
• American expansion into the joint British-American territory is conveyed by OverSimplified doing a brief "All Star" pastiche.
  OverSimplified: The problem for men like Douglas was that many Americans had already begun streaming up the Oregon Trail [...] and eventually, the very bitter Douglas and the other Hudson's Bay traders at Fort Vancouver were ordered to relocate north to a new base of operations [in Fort Victoria]. But the Americans keep coming and they don't stop coming, hopped in their wagons and hit the ground running. It didn't make sense to keep sharing Oregon when they outnumbered the Brits more than six to one.
• The Parliament scene:
  • The Speaker of the House angrily tries to call the raucous Parliament to order before throwing his scepter at a member and sending him straight through a wall.
  • The "Seventh Earl of Jizzingham" claims he encountered a terrible monster, which turns out to just be a poor person. "Lord Piddlingham" says he has a new mole on his backside. Both these matters are considered a higher priority than some tiny islands in the middle of nowhere.
• The customs collector:
  • He orders his companion to row ashore so that they can negotiate with sheep. When his companion questions his sanity, the customs collector leaps on him, pulls out a giant knife, and shouts, "I'M PERFECTLY STABLE YOU RATBAG! CALL ME CRAZY AGAIN AND I'LL EAT YOUR EYES!!!"
  • He is somehow being able to converse with the sheep on the San Juan islands. When Charles Griffin comes out to argue with him, the collector devolves into Angrish before angrily baaing like a sheep, and Griffin baas back. The collector again threatens to eat the sheep's eyes.
  • When Griffin and his men go to confront the customs official, he emerges from his tent with four pistols and a giant knife.
• The newly appointed magistrate Charles Griffin pins a sheriff's badge onto one of his Hawaiian farmhands. The farmhand, who isn't wearing a shirt, understandably screams in pain and horror.
• The Good-Times Montage between Charles Griffin and his pig after Cutlar reveals he shot it.
• The introduction to General Harney. One of the scenes depicts the general running on all four to chase a dog that had dug in his garden to give it a beating.
• As tensions reach a fever pitch, the map zooms out to show all of the US and Canada and we're shown the two different borders that would be set depending on which side got their way... and because the San Juan Islands are so small, the two maps look exactly the same.
• When the British complain about the situation to James Buchanan he tells them he has nothing to do with it and they remind him that he is the President of the USA... something which he does not seem to know given he has to ask his own Vice-President for confirmation. And when he is also being explained that the southern states could be planning to secede and it's his job to fix it, he tries to hide behind a curtain.
  Breckenridge: Sir? Oh, no...
  Buchanan: Go away.
  Breckenridge: Not the curtain again, Mr President.
  Buchanan: I'm not here!
  British: BUCHANAN!
  (Buchanan shrieks)
• William S. Harney, the one-man reason for a near-war with Britain; whether he actually planned it that way to begin with is debated by historians, but what isn't debated is the fact that he was a total idiot who survived largely through nepotism regardless of the motives.
• As the British navy begins to surround the American camp, it soon becomes clear that Harney and Pickett Didn't Think This Through.
  Pickett: See, Jeff, look at that! We're about to get blown to bits! All according to plan…
  (beat)
  Pickett: Hang on… Oh, Crap!, Jeff, we're about to get blown to bits! Run!
• As tensions rise, large bands of tourists arrive and begin trampling all over the island.
  OverSimplified: Because a major war breaking out on their doorstep was the single most exciting to happen in any of their miserable frontier lives.
• Then, after the Royal Navy starts to realize how stupid this whole situation is,
  Captain Hornsby: Hold on… This IS stupid! To heck with it. I'm not landing those troops. I'm not going to be the one who starts a war!
  (Pan out to an entire boat of tourists sitting nearby)
  Tourists: (looking down in disappointment) Awww.
• When General Winfield Scott finally arrives and asks exactly what's going on, Griffin feeds him an account of how Cutlar shot his pig despite it offering three wishes, and Cutlar offering how said pig was an Obviously Evil man-eating gangster. Scott comes to the obvious conclusion: everyone on the island is an imbecile, with the exception of the Royal Navy, who realized how stupid this was midway through and told Douglas to take a hike with his escalation. And that still doesn't dissuade Harney. but by this point everyone was so tired of it that Scott was able to force him somewhere else before he caused any more international incidents.
  • Made more hilarious in that the scene of Scott chewing out everyone except the Royal Navy looks pretty similar to the "Fuck you" scene from Half Baked (with the Royal Navy standing in for the "you're cool" part).
• The boundary dispute over San Juan islands gets postponed while the rest of the USA is plunged into the Civil War. To highlight how irrelevant San Juan have become in the midst of the larger US conflict, it gets put as #5 on Lincoln's to-do list, after: 1) Restore the Union, 2) Kick McClellan in the shin, 3) Drop off hat at laundry, and 4) Grow a moustache?
• When the British finally have to leave San Juan, they wage one final insult against the Americans. When they arrive to hoist their flag, it turns out the British had removed the flagpole.
• The entire ending where OverSimplified goes on an Author Filibuster about how they need to invade and subjugate Canada under Manifest Destiny, seemingly for no other reason then to get people to stop complaining that he doesn't mention them enough in videos.
  • When he says Banff will be the greatest American national park, an obligatory US flag appears, but the eagle on top of the flagpole is the Pan-Arab Eagle of Saladin, and not the American bald eagle. It is unknown whether it was a blunder or a deliberate Freeze-Frame Bonus.
  • Hilariously, the video became the #1 trending video... in Canada.
    OverSimplified: The Pig War is number 1 trending in Canada. I take that as an endorsement[,] Canadians. The invasion starts at dawn. Welcome to the empire.

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