Pint-Size Politicians Rule on 'Lil' Bush'

June 13, 2007 — -- A former Simpson's writer is once again developing sarcastic humor with a look at pop culture, but this time he is squarely taking shots at politics through a cartoon featuring a band of meddling kids known as Lil' Bushes.

"The Lil' gang is kind of like the 'Little Rascals' or the 'South Park' gang -- a classic cartoon group of kids who go out and get into their own little misadventures, except these guys have access to nuclear weapons, Air Force One and all the power of Washington," said Donick Cary, a former writer for "The Simpson's" and the creator of "Lil' Bush."

The Comedy Central cartoon features elementary school versions of current U.S. leaders, who have been satirized in appearance, their mannerisms, their speech patterns, and, most of all, their politics.

"'Lil' Bush' follows the adventures of Lil' Bush, Lil' Cheney, Lil' Condi, and Lil' Rummy as they get into all sorts of hijinks," said Cary. "Lil' Bush lives at the White House with his mom and pop, who are the president and first lady. He goes to Beltway Elementary and gets into constant conflict with the Lil' Dems, Lil' Kim Jong Il and all his little rivals."

Cell Phone Fans First Cheered the Series

While the series is new to cable TV, it's already a hit. It debuted as a series of "mobi-sodes" or cell phone shorts through Amp'd Mobile and the "Lil' Bush" series garnered so much mobile and Internet attention that Comedy Central approached Cary about expanding his spoof to a full half hour.

"I started these originally about a year and a half ago," said Cary. "We made six, five-minute episodes to air on cell phones … as soon as we put these on Amp'd Mobile, it was immediately the most downloaded thing they'd ever had. We got over 1 million hits on Break.com in the first week and out on Youtube it's still getting hits."

Cary said airing these shorts on cell phones was a great way to test the cartoon's material and its sustainability as a half hour show, without any network pressure.

"It's so freeing, you can literally try anything -- high budget, low budget, something you make in your living room, something you make in a studio. It takes all the rules away, and you can do anything you want, which is great," he said.

Even with that freedom, Cary admits "Lil' Bush" is "tame" in comparison to other cartoons, like "South Park," which airs before his series Wednesday nights.

He describes Lil' Bush as the show's "ringleader" who is "incredibly confident at times, incredibly stupid at times, incredibly arrogant or ambitious at times, and all of this can take place in the course of one line."

Lil' Condi, while very eager to please, is the group's "voice of reason." Lil' Rummy is the "muscle" of the group, the schoolyard bully, if you will. Lil' Cheney, perhaps the most lampooned Bush administration member, never says more than one word at time. Instead he simply mumbles. Cary describes Lil' Cheney's character as "a combination of all animal urges," a caricature that has the vice president running around biting the heads off little birds.

Although they are the main focus, the members of the Bush administration are joined by a cast of other well-known Washington politicians. From Lil' Bill and a pair of Lewinsky lookalike twins to Lil' Al Gore and his global warming campaign, "Lil' Bush," while primarily parodying the current Republican administration, takes aim at any and all politicians.

"They go to Beltway Elementary and some of their classmates are Lil' Nancy Pelosi, Lil' Barak Obama, Lil' John Kerry, Lil' Al Gore, Lil' Hillary and Lil' Bill, Lil' John McCain. I think everybody is represented," said Cary. "The Bush team is the center of this thing. He is the guy in charge right now, so it makes sense that most of it focuses on him. I think in the next election we could certainly follow right along with Lil' Barak or Lil' John McCain or whoever happens to win. It's not limited to the Bushes."

And despite "Lil' Bush's" overt criticism and mockery of the Bush administration, Cary insists that there are some topics that are simply off-limits. "We are careful about certain things," Cary said. "Even the most liberal side of the Democratic Party does not want to talk bad about the troops."