Team America: World Police

Trey Parker and Matt Stone got the idea watching Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s puppet series Thunderbirds. Asking about the rights, they learned Universal already had a Thunderbirds film going, shot with actors not puppets. The Chiodo Brothers built 270 puppets, costumes passed 1,000, and one marionette sometimes took 4 operators. A simple shot of a character drinking took half a day, a tiny Uzi cost 1,000 dollars, and Kim Jong Il’s glasses got hand ground prescription lenses. After the first scene the pair saw the written jokes were not landing and that the comedy came from puppets playing melodrama, so they kept rewriting during the shoot. The MPAA gave the first cut an NC-17. The Gary and Lisa scene came down from 90 seconds to 50, and the board saw at least 9 edits before granting an R. Parker noted it said nothing about puppets being blown apart in blood. Late in 2014, when The Interview was pulled, cinemas booked this film instead and Paramount cancelled those screenings. A good fit if half a day spent on one shot of a puppet drinking is what you look for on screen. Not for anyone expecting the film to pick a side; Stone put their leaving Bush alone down to that criticism being everywhere in America already.