America teeming with comedy fodder

JOHN DEPKO

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are the wild and crazy guys behind the

cutting-edge “South Park” animated TV series. They are also the

artistic cattle prods in charge of the satirical buffoonery in “Team

America.”

This film manages to offend every political sensibility imaginable

without taking a stand in favor of any particular point of view.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and ultra-liberal Michael Moore are

both skewered without mercy in this parody of our times.

Full of relentless guilty laughter, it pokes fun at everyone who

takes seriously any aspect of the current world situation. Terrorism,

corporate greed, Third World cultures and arrogant American power are

comedy cannon fodder in this rowdy parody. Parker and Stone do it all

with “actors” who are just puppets on strings, but they are endowed

with biogenic faces that seem to express real human emotions and

flaws. Amazing low-tech set designs by Jim Dultz add to the campy

flavor. The rocking music has lyrics not suitable for a family

newspaper.

This flick is a howling hoot for the Generation-X mind and funny

bone. The humor is squarely aimed at the young, male, video-game

crowd with a high tolerance for foul language. The mostly young-adult

audience at my screening howled throughout the movie. However, you

should be aware that there are sexual references that will offend

most normal, middle-aged people. “Team America” is a raucous

production that will assault your sense of humor with a rubber mallet

if you dare to see it.