History YMMV / WagTheDog

** The film's actual main theme, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o83DQJiK6BM&list=PLnFicu7xrfaYhUw2iTZ0HBsjcd_eHfbFy "Wag The Dog"]], is also pretty catchy.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enH2igVo55U The American Dream]]" is both a merciless parody of {{Award Bait Song}}s and an excellent example of one.

* OneSceneWonder: Creator/WilliamHMacy appears in approximately three minutes of this film. He steals every second of it and keeps up with Creator/RobertDeNiro.

* ParanoiaFuel: Everything you may think you know about the rest of the world, about the news, about history, could have easily been made up.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: This movie was frequently cited after UsefulNotes/BillClinton launched cruise missiles in an attempt to destroy an Al-Qaeda meeting during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. After all, it's not as if a bunch of rag-tag terrorists in Afghanistan were a major threat to the United States...
** To say nothing of the Kosovo War (which, arguably, was more necessary).
** Protesters still reference it in comparison to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. And health-care reform for some unknown reason.
* HarsherInHindsight: The film concerns a sleazy President of the US who starts an entirely fake war in the Balkans to divert attention from a sex scandal. Shortly after it was released, President Clinton was impeached for lying under oath about his sexual escapades, and then went to war in the Balkans. The coincidence was much talked about at the time, although the Kosovo war was all too real... and had been planned for almost a year in advance, with frequent mention on NPR.

* PropagandaPiece: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enH2igVo55U The American Dream]]" is a song that about protecting US borders from immigrants.

** It was even referenced when President Creator/DonaldTrump ordered a drone strike on Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, accusing him of doing so to distract people concerning his approaching impeachment trial.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: This movie was frequently cited after Bill Clinton launched cruise missiles in an attempt to destroy an Al-Qaeda meeting during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. After all, it's not as if a bunch of rag-tag terrorists in Afghanistan were a major threat to the United States...

** It was even referenced when President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike on Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, accusing him of doing so to distract people concerning his approaching impeachment trial.

** Dustin Hoffman was later accused of basically the same thing the president was accused of in this film.

* OneSceneWonder: William H. Macy appears in approximately three minutes of this film. He steals every second of it and keeps up with Robert De Niro.

* PropagandaPiece: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enH2igVo55U The American Dream]]" is a song that about protecting US borders from immigrants.

** It was even referenced when President Donald Trump ordered a drone strike on Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani. accusing him of doing so to distract people concerning his approaching impeachment trial.

* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: "Somebody get me a KITTEN!"

* EarWorm: "God bless the men of the 303!"

*** Dustin Hoffman was later accused of basically the same thing the president was accused of in this film.

* AwesomeMusic: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enH2igVo55U The American Dream]]" is both a merciless parody of {{Award Bait Song}}s and an excellent example of one.
* CrowningMomentOfFunny: "Somebody get me a KITTEN!"

*** Not only that, but a crucial scene features Willie Nelson's character conducting a song, "The American Dream", that comes across as eerily similar to other pro-patriotic songs released to cash in on 9/11, especially Music/AlanJackson's "Where Were You".

** Except that Clinton had been dealing with sex scandals since before he was elected President (Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones), and America had been expected to intervene in the war in the Balkans for years. There's nothing at all prescient about the movie: it was based on Clinton.

* PropagandaPiece: "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enH2igVo55U The American Dream]]" is a song that about protecting US borders from immigrants.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: This movie was frequently cited after Bill Clinton launched cruise missiles in an attempt to destroy an Al-Quaeda meeting during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. After all, it's not as if a bunch of rag-tag terrorists in Afghanistan were a major threat to the United States...

* MemeticMutation: The title has entered general use to refer to media manipulation and political campaign showmanship, albeit in countries like in Mexico, that word is very well know ''before'' the movie existed: There's a Mexican phrase that says ''Con dinero baila el perro'' (You can make a dog dance[[note]]Or in context, wag[[/note]] with money), albeit it's normally related how anyone can be bought with money, rather than be related with media manipulation, but it can ovelap with it sometimes.

** A lot of what people popularly remember from history ''was'' made up. Very often public accounts of history are tainted by bias of those writing during or after the period, painting things how they thought they were or how just how they wanted people to perceive them. See [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions#History List of Common Misconceptions - History]].

* MemeticMutation: The title has entered general use to refer to media manipulation and political campaign showmanship, albeit in countries like in Mexico, that word existed ''before'' the movie existed: There's a Mexican phrase that says ''Con dinero baila el perro'' (You can make a dog dance[[note]]Or in context, wag[[/note]] with money), albeit it's normally related how anyone can be bought with money, rather than be related with media manipulation, but it can ovelap with it sometimes.

* MemeticMutation: The title has entered general use to refer to media manipulation and political campaign showmanship.

** Except that Clinton had been dealing with sex scandals since before he was elected President (Gennifer Flowers, anyone?), and America had been expected to intervene in the war in the Balkans for years. There's nothing at all prescient about the movie: it was based on Clinton.

* MemeticMutation: The title has entered general use to refer to media manipulation and political campaign showmanship.