Beyond parody

I saw the movie "Team America World Police" a while ago.

I appreciate its biting humor, though the movie is a little on the offensive side and it is deifinitely not one for the kiddies.

The songs are great. I like the lines from "Freedom Isn't Free:"

Would you think about all them people
Who gave up everything they had.
Would you think about all them War Vets
And would you start to feel bad

Freedom isn't free
It costs folks like you and me
And if we don't all chip in
We'll never pay that bill
Freedom isn't free
No, there's a hefty fuckin' fee.
And if you don't throw in your buck 'o five
Who will?

Yes, sentimental rednecks take thier licks.

But the film is particularly biting when it focuses on the media, as in the star-studded pity party that cries on cue about the tragedy of AIDS.

Now I agree AIDS is terrible. Preventing it, though, is fairly strightforward. A man who contracts AIDS in the US in 2005 will get as much sympathy from me as the drunk driver who kills himself in a car crash.

They both knew they were taking a serious risk, and well - that's the breaks.

I have far more concern for what AIDS is doing to the children of the world, particularly in Africa. They ARE innocent, and AIDS has become one of their biggest killers.

But so is diarrhea, and I'm not kidding. Diarrhea is still - by far- the world's leading killer of children. One performance of Hollywood's brightest could save thousands of children. Hydration kits and information are cheap.

But do celebrities pack Manhattan theatres to raise money to buy hydration kits?

No, there is nothing glamorous about the real business of saving lives in the Third World. It's much more fun to tweak homophobic conservatives and pester heartless pharmaceutical companies.

Parker and Stone mock these people and their gala "awareness raising" events mercilessly in song:

Well I'm gonna march on Washington
Lead the fight and charge the brigades
There's a hero inside of all of us
I'll make them see everyone has AIDS

My father (AIDS!)
My sister (AIDS!)
My uncle and my cousin and her best friend (AIDS AIDS AIDS!)
The gays and the straights
And the white and the spades

Everyone has AIDS!
My grandma and my dog 'ol blue (AIDS AIDS AIDS)
The pope has got it and so do you (AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS)
C'mon everybody we got quilting to do (AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS)
We gotta break down these baricades, everyone has
AIDS! x 20

But Hollywood-types are irony proof, and many of these people clearly didn't see the movie.

This is a real campaign:




Hat tip: my brother-in-law.
- posted by total @ 12/13/2005 04:39:00 AM .