South Park’s Creators Made A Forgotten Live-Action Political Sitcom

From April 4 to May 23, 2001, Comedy Central ran eight episodes of a 30-minute sitcom called “That’s My Bush!,” a sendup of the then-active George W. Bush administration. The premise of the show was as broad as possible. George W. Bush (Timothy Bottoms) was in the White House, but his life was more akin to that of an old-fashioned, 1980s-era workplace sitcom than that of a sitting president. There was a noisy, obnoxious laugh track paired with bright, even TV lighting, making the show look deliberately old-fashioned and artificial. Kurt Fuller played the buttoned-down killjoy Karl Rove, while Carrie Quinn Dolin played Laura Bush.

More than being a spoof of the Bush administration, however (and there was plenty to spoof), “That’s My Bush!” was a satire of all-American sitcoms. Show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker (of “South Park” fame) merely used the White House as a backdrop to mock dated sitcom tropes that Gen-Xers had deeply internalized. The stories involved modern politics (there were episodes devoted to the death penalty, abortion, etc.), but it was the stylized, satirical artificiality that was the real star.

To that end, “That’s My Bush!” made extensive use of “zany” stock sitcom characters. There was a slovenly neighbor named Larry (John D’Aquino), a ditzy secretary named Princess (Kristen Miller), and a put-upon maid named Maggie (Marcia Wallace of “The Simpsons”). W was also given the catchphrase, “One of these days, Laura, I’m gonna punch you in the face!” When Bottoms read the line, he delivered it with theatrical aplomb, and the “live studio audience” usually chanted along in unison before erupting in applause. This was, of course, a parody of Jackie Gleason’s domestic abuse joke from “The Honeymooners” which had the Great One chanting “One of these days, Pow! Right in the kisser!” Or “Pow! Straight to the moon!”

It’s worth remembering that, politically speaking, Matt Stone and Trey Parker are notoriously nihilists. Their work tends to punch right and left, aiming to mock anyone who believes in anything. They may have felt that George W. Bush was a clown and incompetent, but they also didn’t have any warm feelings reserved for Al Gore, Bush’s Democratic opponent in the hotly contested 2000 presidential election. Indeed, according to the DVD commentary track for “That’s My Bush!,” Parker revealed that he and Stone developed two sitcoms simultaneously — one for Bush and one for Gore — and agreed they would start production on one of them once the winner of the 2000 election was declared.

At the time, Parker thought that Gore would win (he said he was 95% certain of it), and that Al Gore’s show would have been called “Everybody Loves Al!” The stock characters, it seems, would have remained the same. For those who remember the extensive recount process of the 2000 election won’t be shocked to learn that production on either “That’s My Bush!” or “Everybody Loves Al!” was pushed back by a month. Bush lost the popular vote, but won the Electoral College. It was a point of national scandal at the time. Republicans have only won the popular vote twice since then, in 2004 and in 2024.

On their contract with Comedy Central, Stone and Parker were said to be working on a sitcom called “Family First,” although it’s unclear if that title was going to be used. Another DVD commentary track had Parker describing his and Stone’s writing process. They had a two-sided dray-erase board, with one side boasting hot-button political issues, and the other side featuring plots cribbed from “Three’s Company” episodes. They would then mix-and-match the two sides, extrapolating silly stories from sensitive topics.

It was largely successful.

Bottoms gave a first-rate performance as George W. Bush, replicating his clueless expressions and down-home drawl perfectly. Bottoms, Stone, and Parker also gave the W character a distinct personality … even granting him some liberal values. The satire was equally dead-on, making an open mockery of the “wholesome” shows a generation grew up watching. Of course, deconstructing American sitcoms was nothing new by 2001; “Married… with Children,” “The Simpsons,” and “Seinfeld” had pretty much kicked that door open over a decade earlier.

As one might predict, “That’s My Bush!” was delightfully tasteless. In the episode dealing with abortion, audiences were introduced to a puppet character named Felix the Fetus. Felix, having survived being aborted, came to appose abortion legislation. The strange fetus puppet was created by the Chiodo Brothers, the masterminds behind the monsters in “Killer Klowns from Outer Space,” “Critters,” and “Ernest Scared Stupid.” It was hardly the most subtle thing.

“That’s My Bush!” received fairly positive reviews and a lot of publicity for its novel premise. Ultimately, however, “That’s My Bush!” was canceled because, according to Parker, it was just too expensive. He and Stone got very ambitious, and the price tag ended up being a whopping $1 million an episode.

This might have been a good thing; only four months after “That’s My Bush!” went off the air, the World Trade Center buildings were toppled. It would have been hard to continue to depict Bush as a “lovable oaf” in such an environment of national tragedy. Stone and Parker would later mock the post-9/11 jingoism of the George W. Bush administration with the 2004 feature film “Team America: World Police,” a film about ultra-nationalistic military defenders … played by puppets.