Episode 170 - TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE

Marionette might makes right in the raunchy puppet satire Team America: World Police, which takes aim at big-budget action clichés, Hollywood pomposity, and post-9/11 geopolitics. It's an indiscriminately edgy film that packs all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, yet also stands as a showcase of painstaking production design and visual effects. For this movie, commitment is clearly not a problem.

Andrew McNally has the I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E. to guide us through some complex feelings about America, South Park, and cinematic provocations in this special 4th of July blowout. Fuck Yeah!

Team America: World Police (2004)
Directed by Trey Parker
Produced by Scott Rudin, Trey Parker and Matt Stone
Written by Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Pam Brady
Starring the voices of Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Kristen Miller, Masasa Moyo, Daran Norris, Phil Hendrie, and Maurice LaMarche

Episode 65 - BASEKETBALL

For a film with modest ambitions, BASEketball proved to be quite prescient in two ways. First, it brutally mocked the greed, hypocrisy, and sanctimony of professional sports years before the blogosphere assumed that responsibility 24/7. And second, it boosted the signal (perhaps unintentionally) of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's humor, long before their controversial little cartoon evolved from a heavily-merchandised youth culture fad into a comedic institution.

South Park and sports aficionado Kevin Taylor joins us in this episode to talk about the populist message of BASEketball and how the subtly different wavelengths of its stars and its writer/director, David Zucker, contributed to the appeal of this oddball cult comedy.

BASEketball (1998)
Directed by David Zucker
Produced by Robert LoCash, Gil Netter, and David Zucker
Written by David Zucker, Robert LoCash, Lewis Friedman, and Jeff Wright
Starring Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Dian Bachar, Yasmine Bleeth, Jenny McCarthy, Robert Vaughn, Bob Costas, Al Michaels, and Ernest Borgnine