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Team America
As A Whole
- A Lighter Shade of Gray: While they are responsible for large amounts of collateral damage in their fights with terrorists, during the climax, they're the only ones who fight against Kim Jong Il, unlike the F.A.G., which serves as pawns in his plan to wreak havoc on the world.
- Destructive Savior: To put things into perspective, the Eiffel Tower, Arch de Triomph, the Louvre, and Paris in general was collateral damage in the process of stopping three Islamic terrorists.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Because of the above Destructive Savior tendencies, pretty much most of the world despises them.
Spottswoode
- Played by: Daran Norris
- Big Good: While Team America isn't entirely "heroic," he's head of the main protagonist organization.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Although competent at his job, Spottswoode's thinking can be more than a little odd, as evidenced by his response to Gary saying "now I have seen everything" and by his insistence that Gary perform fellatio on him to earn back his trust.Gary: A limousine that can fly. Okay, now I have seen everything.
Spottswoode: Really? Have you ever seen a man eat his own head?
Gary: ...No.
Spottswoode: Then you haven't seen everything! And neither have we. - Cool Old Guy: Is an old man in charge of a paramilitary group.
- Didn't Think This Through: Spottswoode dramatically offers Gary the chance to leave, clearly expecting Gary to take it as a Dare to Be Badass moment. He's surprised that Gary actually does leave.Spottswoode: ...Huh.
- Disney Death: Has one halfway through the movie when Team America HQ gets blown up but survives and comes back to lead Team America in the finale.
- Good Is Not Soft: He's willing to blow up Team America's vehicles in a last resort to take out Kim Jong Il, even if it means killing the rest of the team in the process.
- Not Quite Dead: Michael Moore's Suicide Attack seems to kill Spottswoode, but when Gary returns to the wrecked Team America base, he finds Spottswoode partially singed, but quite alive.
- Oh, Crap!: When he sees Michael Moore preparing to suicide bomb the base.Spottswoode: Jesus tittyfucking... [BOOM] CHRIST!
- Old Master: After Gary earns back his trust, he helps him prepare to free the rest of Team America in North Korea by giving him training to make him an action hero like them.
- What the Hell, Hero?: He lays into Gary for his 10-Minute Retirement, blaming him for the team getting captured and saying he can no longer trust Gary. It takes Gary performing oral sex on him to get Spottswoode to forgive him and offer him a second chance.
Chris
- Played by: Matt Stone
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Threatens to do something like this twice to Gary:Chris: Let's get one thing straight, actor. I don't trust you. And if you betray us, I'll rip your fucking balls off and stuff them up your ass so that the next time you shit, you'll shit all over your balls, got it?Chris: I'll drill two holes through your dick so that when you pee it shoots out in all different directions.
- Dislikes the New Guy: He makes no secret of his contempt for Gary when they first meet."Is that supposed to be Carson's replacement? A fuckin' actor?"
- Freudian Excuse: He hates actors because he was molested and raped as a teenager by the cast of Cats.
- If We Get Through This…: He promises to buy Gary a beer if they manage to thwart Kim Jong Il's plan.
- Jerkass to One: He's only hostile to Gary, since he hates actors.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Although he's initially distrustful towards Gary, he later apologizes towards him for his bad behavior and when the latter gets nervous having to upstage Alec Baldwin, he is the one who persuades him to do it by telling that Gary's the finest actor he's ever seen.
- Never My Fault: When Team America's jeep is chasing the terrorists' jeep, the latter of which Gary is riding, Gary tries signaling for the others, as he'd been instructed, but Joe and Chris misinterpret this and open fire. Gary only survives because Lisa saves him, and after the mission, Chris threatens to "drill two holes through (Gary's) dick" if he does it again.
- Overly Narrow Superlative: He's the best martial artist that Detroit has to offer.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner:
- "Suprise, cockfags!"
- He says "I'm a smoker," to Tim Robbins before he uses his cigarette to kill him.
- Rape as Backstory: Chris' Freudian Excuse for hating actors is that he was gang-raped by the drunken cast of Cats. It's played for laughs.
- Token Evil Teammate: Downplayed. While not outright evil, he's hostile to Gary from the get go, unlike the rest of the team, and is generally altogether ruder.
Joe
- Played by: Trey Parker
- The All-American Boy: Joe fits the mold of
- Failed a Spot Check: During the Cairo chase, Joe manages not to notice that Gary is one of the "terrorists" he and Chris are shooting at, even when he looks through a pair of binoculars and sees Gary doing a distress signal (one that Joe had double-checked to make sure Gary knew before the mission started).
- Lovable Jock: He's a quarterback and he's a Nice Guy.
- Nice Guy: He's courteous and friendly to Gary from the start, unlike Chris.
- Supporting Leader: Joe is the leader of Team America, but it's Gary who's the hero of the story.
- Vocal Dissonance: Is portrayed as an all-American manly man, but has a dainty and feminine voice.
Lisa
- Played by: Kristen Miller
- Action Girl: She also saves Gary's life at one point.
- Badass Bookworm: She's a psychological expert who is just at skilled at killing terrorists as she is at psychoanalyzing them.
- Biker Babe: During the Cairo chase, Lisa rides a motorcycle, and drives it well enough to snatch Gary out of a moving vehicle mid-jump.
- Nice Girl
- The Bro Code: Gender Flipped; Sarah mentions she's attracted to Gary, and when Lisa sleeps with him, feels betrayed.
- The Shrink: She's a psychology expert who specializes in how terrorists think.
- Second Love: She falls for Gary some time after Carson's death.
Sarah
- Played by: Masasa Moyo
- Ambiguously Brown: It's ambiguous from her puppet design, but since her last name is Wong, she's apparently Asian.
- The Bro Code: Gender Flipped; Sarah mentions she's attracted to Gary, and when Lisa sleeps with him, feels betrayed.
- Captain Obvious: Sarah's "psychic" observations are mostly blatantly obvious, to the point that Joe admits in the climax that the team has mostly been humoring her. Ironically, he says this right before her psychic powers actually work.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: While mowing down terrorists in the Cairo bar with a minigun, Sarah somehow manages not to hit the totally innocent bartender, band, or belly dancer.
- Nice Girl
- Not-So-Phony Psychic: She successfully sics a panther on two FAG members using her abilities, after a lot of hints that she was faking it.
- Oblivious to Love: She appears to be entirely unaware of Joe's feelings for her, saying he's "like a brother" to her.
Carson
- Played by: Trey Parker
- Dies Wide Open: His eyes are still open when he dies
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: He dies while being held by Lisa.
- If We Get Through This…: Proposes to Lisa just before he dies.
- In the Back: Gets shot in the back multiple times by a terrorist the team missed.
- The Lost Lenore: For Lisa. His death affects her to the point where she tells Gary that she'll only go out with him if he promises never to die.
- I'm Cold... So Cold...: The first thing Carson says after being fatally shot is that he feels "so... cold..."
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Carson dies in the very first scene of the film.
I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E
- Played by: Phil Hendrie
- Fun with Acronyms: "I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E." is an acronym, though what it stands for isn't mentioned in the movie.
- Machine Monotone: In a variaton on the trope, it speaks with a voice that has been likened to a teenage stoner.
Gary Johnston
- Played by: Trey Parker
- Charm Person: At one point his acting skills are played as a parody of the Jedi Mind Trick.
- Drowning My Sorrows: After leaving the team, Gary falls into drinking so much that he ends up vomiting for a good solid minute.
- Master Actor: With the help of a "flawless" disguise, Gary successfully passes himself off as an Arab terrorist, and later, he easily convinces Kim Jong-il's palace guards to let him in.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After the bombing of Panama Canal, Gary blames himself and leaves the team.
- My Greatest Failure: Causing his older brother's death. He uses the tragic memory of the incident as a way of helping him act out sad scenes in stage musicals.
- Naïve Newcomer: By his own admission, Gary joins the team knowing nothing about weaponry or spycraft. His first mission is undertaken anyway, but after a Training Montage, he's as skilled and deadly as any of Team America.
- Nice Guy: He's one of the kindest and most compassionate members of the cast.
- Non-Action Guy: He's an actor with no special combat training who gets recruited into a special ops unit. Later on he gets a Training Montage which upgrades his skills.
- Omniglot: According to Spottswoode, Gary majored in world languages in college. The only proof of this in the movie is his ability speak fluent "Arabic" (actually total gibberish that sounds vaguely Arabic) to pass himself off as a terrorist
- Only Sane Man: Eventually, he managed to be this as he actually bothers to control the excessive nature of Team America's conduct while realizing Film Actors Guild's misguided pacifism.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: In order to infiltrate a terrorist cell, he's made up to look Islamic by spraying fake tan in his face, gluing bits of hair on, and wrapping a towel around his head.
- Survivor Guilt: Blames himself for the death of his brother, Tommy, who died trying to save him from gorillas.
- 10-Minute Retirement: After the bombing of Panama Canal, Gary leaves the team in grief and spends much of the film's second act blind, stinking drunk.
- There Are Two Kinds of People in the World: Inspired by a similar speech he heard from a drunk hobo, Gary uses this during his speech to help the world leaders realize that Kim Jong Il is a terrorist:Gary Johnston: We're dicks! We're reckless, arrogant, stupid dicks. And the Film Actors Guild are pussies. And Kim Jong Il is an asshole. Pussies don't like dicks, because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes. Assholes who just want to shit on everything. Pussies may think they can deal with assholes their way. But the only thing that can fuck an asshole is a dick with some balls. The problem with dicks is that sometimes they fuck too much or fuck when it isn't appropriate. And it takes a pussy to show them that. But sometimes, pussies get so full of shit that they become assholes themselves. Because pussies are only an inch and a half away from assholes. I don't know much in this crazy, crazy world, but I do know that if you don't let us fuck this asshole, we're going to have our dicks and pussies all covered in shit!
- Took a Level in Badass: Via a Training Montage, Gary turns from humble actor to Guns Akimbo wielding Action Hero.
Villains
As a whole
- Bourgeois Bohemian: The Film Actor's Guild are all rich, successful celebrities who believe they're political experts, but are so blinded by their bias against Team America and the right-wing that they'd team up with Kim Jong Il.
- Hypocrite: Despite being anti-war/anti-violence, the members of FAG are eager to take up arms and attack Team America on sight.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: They're convinced that they are experts on global politics, but are really just Stupid Good actors with giant egos.
- My Country Tis of Thee That I Sting: Deconstructed. The group is so outraged at the collateral damage Team America causes that they are willing to team up with an Obviously Evil terrorist like Kim Jong Il.
- Straw Character: A bunch of real life celebrities with left-wing ideas turned into dimwitted villains.
Kim Jong Il
- Played by: Trey Parker
- Bad Boss: He kills his translator in the beginning of the movie and at the climax, guns down Alec Baldwin and blows his head to pieces.
- Berserk Button: He has a song about being so "ronery," and later, Lisa says that his cynical outlook must make him a very "lonely" person. He goes into a Tranquil Fury and orders her brought to the ceremony.
- Big Bad: He was the one who was financing the various terror organizations around the world in order to launch a simultaneous attack that would reduce every nation of the world to third-world status.
- Breakout Villain: Considered to be the most iconic character of the film.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Drops one of these after dropping Hans Blix into a shark tank.Kim Jong-Il: There you go, Hans Blix! How do you like that, you fucking cocksucker?! Do you have any idea how fucking busy I am, Hans Blix?! Well fuck you! You want an inspection?! Well inspect that, you butt-fucking piece of shit!
- Completely Unnecessary Translator: In his first scene, Kim uses a translator when dealing with a Chechen terrorist, who is speaking English. After executing his translator for supposedly failing to get his point across, Kim starts speaking fluent (if very accented) English.
- Disproportionate Retribution:
- When one of his terrorist associates asks to take Kim Jong Il's weapons at a later time (for a practical reason; they're still in the training and recruiting phase), Kim gives him a Death Glare, executes his translator for supposedly failing to explain the plan properly, the browbeats the terrorist into following Kim's schedule.
- Hans Blix demands to see the entirety of his palace "or else". When Kim asks the obvious, Blix's threat turns out to be... a Strongly Worded Letter. For this, Kim drops Blix into a shark tank and screams profanity at him while he's being eaten alive.
- Dystopia Justifies the Means: His endgame is to carry out a terrorist attack so massive that society crumbles and the world devolves into a dog-eat-dog chaotic hellhole where everyone attacks everyone and only looks out for themselves.
- Far East Asian Terrorists: The North Korean leader, and the mastermind behind a string of terrorist attacks around the world.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He's a bespectacled homicidal maniac.
- Hobbes Was Right: His plan is to create a terrorist attack so big that it destroys all societal structures and makes the whole world as bad as North Korea. He’s proven wrong at the end.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: He's killed by getting impaled on the German Kaiser's Picklehaube.
- Japanese Ranguage: While Kim is Korean, his "I'm So Ronery" song follows this trope note .
- Jerkass: A foul-mouthed, short-tempered, Card-Carrying Villain whose first scene has him execute his translator, much to the shock of the Chechen terrorist he's working with (and who Kim immediately curses angrily at).
- Laughably Evil: While not entirely without menace, his constant yelling, cursing, and undignified Japanese Ranguage (which makes Lisa need to ask him to repeat himself as Kim monologues) makes him a very humorous character despite being the Big Bad.
- The Man Behind the Man: The Chechen terrorist meeting Gary breaks up early in the movie only ends up being a small piece of what's really at stake, which hits home when an attack against the Panama Canal in retaliation for the Cairo incident happens. However Kim, despite being the one who provided them the weapons to use, is actually displeased because their use in Panama wasn't part of his plan.
- Manipulative Bastard: Expressing his distaste for Team America allows him to play the Film Actors Guild like a fiddle.
- Obviously Evil: He's the tyrannical leader of a military dictatorship, and routinely executes those he has no use for or dislikes.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "You are worthless, Alec Baldwin!"
- Small Name, Big Ego: He considers himself "the smartest, most clever, most physically fit" and the world's greatest terrorist, but Team America don't even think of him as a possible suspect at first, and even after he's outed as the villain, he doesn't get much recognition or respect.
- Villain Song: "I'm So Ronery," a wistful song about how no one seems to recognize his obvious superiority.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The basic reason why the Film Actors' Guild work for him; he's convinced them (somehow) that he's a perfectly sane and rational world leader, sympathetic to their issues with Team America.
- Villainous Breakdown: He flies into a rage and kills Alec Baldwin after Gary's "dicks, pussies and assholes" speech turns the world leaders against him.
- You Have Failed Me: He does this to Alec Baldwin when the latter fails to keep the world leaders distracted.
Derka-Derkastan
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Parodied; everyone's speech is vaguely Arabic-sounding gibberish. "Derka Derka, Muhammed Jihad."
- Qurac: They never visit there (just the airspace around it) but this is very obviously what it's supposed to be.
Alec Baldwin
- Played by: Maurice Lamarche
- Boom, Headshot!: Kim Jong Il does this to him for being out-acted by Gary.
- Broken Pedestal: He was Gary's hero before he turned out to be the head of F.A.G. and blamed Team America for Panama's destruction.
- Smug Snake: He's rather full of himself when putting down Team America. When Gary out-acts him, he's reduced to a gibbering mess.
- You Have Failed Me: After Baldwin is out-acted by Gary and can't recover, Kim Jong-Il writes him off as "worthress", riddles him with bullets, and blows his head off.
Samuel L. Jackson
- Played by: Fred Tatasciore
- Tempting Fate: His last words are "Stop trying to hit me, and hit me!" (a line spoken by Laurence Fishburne)
- Your Head Asplode: Chris karate kicks him in the face, taking his entire upper jaw off.
Matt Damon
- Played by: Trey Parker
- Neck Snap: He is killed this way.
- Pokémon Speak: Says only "MATT DAMON!"
Ethan Hawke
- Played by: Matt Stone
Sean Penn
- Played by: Trey Parker
Helen Hunt
- Played by: Trey Parker
- Designated Girl Fight: The climax involves her and Sarah in a sword-fight.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Sarah cuts her in half.
Danny Glover
- Played by: Matt Stone
Martin Sheen
Susan Sarandon
- Played by: Trey Parker
- Berserk Button: Saying she's not as good an actor as she was.Gary: Your skills are fading with age, Miss Surandon.Susan Surandon: (glares at Gary) YOU SHALL DIE A PEASANT'S DEATH! (pulls out a pair of Uzis)
- Defector from Decadence: Subverted. She pretends to have been tied up for having had a Heel–Face Turn, but Gary sees through it.
- Destination Defenestration: She falls off a ledge to her death.
- Faux Action Girl: Unlike the other members of the Film Actors Guild, she goes down without being able to lay a finger on Gary and Chris.
- False Innocence Trick: She manages to fool Chris, but Gary can tell she's acting.
- Ludicrous Gibs: What's left of her after falling from a ledge.
Tim Robbins
- Played by: Trey Parker
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He wears glasses and he's one of the bad guys.
- Man on Fire: He's burned to death.
- Shaped Like Itself:"Let me explain to you how this works. You see, the corporations finance Team America. And then Team America goes out, and the corporations sit there in their... In their corporation buildings, and, and, and see that, they're all corporationy, and they make money. Mhm."
Janeane Garofolo
- Boom, Headshot!: Sarah shoots her in the face during the final shootout.
- Why Won't You Die?: Screams words to this effect while shooting it out with Team America.Janeane Garofolo: Fucking die!
George Clooney
- Played by: Matt Stone
- Ludicrous Gibs: Gets reduced to this along with Liv Tyler by a grenade thrown by Chris.
Unaffiliated
Michael Moore
- Played by: Trey Parker
- Expy: To the South Park version of Rob Reiner, being a Fat Bastard who demands entire organisations be shut down or destroyed while binge eating. A deleted scene even has him tell a random passer-by to slander Team America.
- Fat Bastard: Easily the largest character in the film, and
Word of God said it was hard creating an obese puppet.
Hans Blix
- Played by: Trey Parker
- Fed to the Beast: Kim Jong-il drops him in a shark tank.
- Good Is Impotent: He wants North Korea to be a responsible member of the international community...but because the only thing he can hold over Kim's head is a Strongly Worded Letter, he ends up being dropped into a shark tank.
- Name Order Confusion: He refers to Kim Jong-il as "Mr. Il", not realizing that the "Il" is part of his first name and not his surname.
- Strongly Worded Letter: He threatens Kim with one of these if he's not allowed to inspect North Korea for weapons of mass destruction.Hans: I'm sorry, but I must be firm with you. Let me see your whole palace or else!
Kim Jong-il: Or erse, what?
Hans: Or else, we will be very, very angry with you... And we will write you a letter, telling you how angry we are! - Too Dumb to Live: Allows himself to be directed to stand over an obvious trapdoor by Kim.
