You might not expect the cable network that broadcasts
Stripperella, featuring a crime-fighting peeler voiced by
Pamela Anderson, and Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, a
program for those who “enjoy broken bones, splattering spleens,
high impact hematomas, and watching people get them,” to be a place
where old-school conservatives might feel at home. But This
Just In, which debuted Sunday night on Spike TV, is a
surprisingly fun cartoon about an unabashedly conservative
syndicated columnist from San Diego.
“If it’s in his head, it’s out of his mouth,” reads Spike’s
description of lead character Brian Newport. From that, you might
expect more conservative bashing from the Left Coast. But you’d be
disappointed. “Most of the time you see a conservative on a TV
show, he’s played as a zealot or a boob,” comedian and This
Just In co-creator Steve Marmel told the Houston
Chronicle. “I wanted to do a show where the conservative
wasn’t the idiot.”
The show is made using the digital Flash animation system. This
bare-bones technique, widely used on the Internet to create
everything from punk rock kittens to fake political ads, allows
the creators to write and produce each episode the very week it
airs, thus giving the show a just-torn-from-yesterday’s-headlines
feel.
I realized this isn’t your typical political satire just a few
minutes into the premiere episode when Brian’s best friend Jimmy
Townhouse, a black schoolteacher and moderate Democrat, laughs,
along with everyone else in the bar, at the current crop of black
leaders. “Al Sharpton doesn’t scare just white people,” Jimmy says.
“He scares everybody.”
THIS JUST IN LEVERAGES the greater political freedom
permitted to animated shows by our censorious culture. Because
people tend to feel sheepish, or look stupid, when they protest
cartoon characters, the medium is loaded with often savage
political satire. Shows ranging from The Critic to The
Family Guy to, yes, The Simpsons (Lisa to Grandpa
Simpson: “Didn’t you wonder why you were getting checks for not
doing anything?” Grandpa: “I thought it was because the Democrats
were back in power”) are able to ridicule and mock with little fear
that the PC cops will lower the boom.
The cartoon also allows for wonderful “guest stars.” The first
episode of This Just In features Ted Kennedy. It
re-creates the scandal that sank Ted’s presidential aspirations —
with a happy ending this time. Kennedy helps Brian escape from a
sunken car using the bottle-opener he carries with him everywhere.
Imagine making fun of Chappaquiddick! Sacrilege!
But there’s more to This Just In than satire. It has
something like a core, and deals with real issues, albeit in a
slightly off-kilter fashion. The column Brian writes in the first
episode is on voter apathy and ignorance. “Everybody’s vote
shouldn’t be equal,” Brian argues. “Idiots making decisions for the
rest of us is why Bruce Almighty won a People’s Choice
Award, why there are 100 episodes of Becker, and why guys
keep marrying Liza Minnelli.”
That’s quite an anti-liberal rant. It is therefore surprising
that Spike describes Brian as the “kind of guy who says what
everybody’s thinking.” And the creators have so far have resisted
most of the easy right-wing sink holes. “I don’t care how hot she
is,” Brian says of Sami, the attractive, left-wing Latina waitress
at his favorite watering hole. “She’s a Nader supporter. I’d rather
sleep with a six I agree with than a ten I don’t.” It comes off as
a sweet and unexpected thought.
Of course, the curvaceous Sami is a crucial part of the show.
Spike (“the first network for men”) wouldn’t be Spike without
heaving breasts and certain stereotypes. According to Spike’s
website, Brian’s other pal Craig Tindle “isn’t just a married guy
— he’s a cautionary tale for every man who fears the worst in
marriage.” His Korean ball-busting wife, incidentally, is a
neoconservative. No subtext there.
LIKE ALL GOOD SATIRE, This Just In doesn’t raise sacred
cows, on the Left or the Right. A newscast from CNN ends with the
anchor deadpanning, “We’re just like Fox News, but without the hot
female anchors.” The channel is then switched to Fox, where an
anchor identified as “Amber” cavorts around a pole, wearing only
pasties and a thong. (No reality here, however. Amber is a redhead
and everyone knows all the hot female anchors on Fox are
blonde.)
This Just In isn’t perfect. A subplot in the first
episode, in which Jimmy and Craig get the black former talk show
host Wayne Brady to run for president, is far too inside baseball,
and inside the Beltway. However, a wickedly funny show about
politics that doesn’t hate the Red States of America? Spike TV just
won itself this female viewer.
Kelly
Jane Torrance is arts and culture editor of Brainwash.
