Its Ronery at the Top

I think Team America does a good job satirizing the ethnocentric tendencies of Americans and of United States policies as a whole. As a general rule throughout the movie, each time a new country is discussed its location is based on the amount of miles from the United States. Additionally, the movie pokes fun at other languages by oversimplifying them to the point of condescension. In ‘Derka Derk’, Arabic words such as Derka, jihad, Mohammed, and Allah are repeated in a cyclical and unrelenting manner. Kim Jong-Il sings about being “ronery", an obvious joke about the stereotype that Asians pronounce English “Ls” as “Rs”.

Overall, Matt Stone and Trey Parker portray a moral about the dangers of unilateral policies in foreign affairs and use actors, who, over the years have become the ultimate symbol of power and prestige in our country, to save the world from disaster. The producers never actually use the name of any US politician in the movie but you can understand why Stone said that Bush would get mad. Essentially, they mock the very existence of George Bush as the President of our country.

On the cover of the movie, Stone and Parker satirize the motto that represents the attitude of the American government: Putting the “F” Back in Freedom. This slogan symbolizes the false beliefs of our government that democracy should operate in every other country, an idea that is also reinforced by the inclusion of ‘World Police’ in the title. Unfortunately though, the leaders of our country actually believe that they should regulate the activities of other countries because it will be in everyone’s best interest if they do. But sometimes, you have to sit a play or two out because you can’t solve all the world problems. The moral here is that America cannot cure the ills of the world alone because it is an impossible feat even for the biggest superpower in the world.