TVSquad

More than five years after Comedy Central cancelled That's My Bush!, the network is planning to air another series that mocks the president. This time it's a cartoon called Lil' Bush: Resident of the United States. It portrays Mr. Bush and key members of his administration as "elementary school misfits". Characters include Lil' Cheney, who mumbles, and Lil' Condi, who does Lil' Bush's homework for him because she has a crush on him. Capers include torturing the lunch ladies Abu Ghraib-style when they serve falafels instead of hot dogs for lunch. The shorts are pretty funny, though they go for the easy laughs about the president's vocabulary and his cowboy attitude. It's a little more low-brow than edgier Comedy Central shows, The Colbert Report and The Daily Show.

The network has ordered six episodes of Lil' Bush, which got its start in September as animated clips through Amp'd Mobile. It's also up on YouTube, where it has been viewed more than 230,000 times. This news isn't going to sit well with the creator of Lil' Bill and Lil' Hill cartoons, who accuses the Lil' Bush creators of ripping him off.

YouTube video of the falafel episode is after the jump.

(S01E05) I'd be lying if I said I haven't been enjoying The State Within. With a little bit of tweaking in the script and acting department, it could have easily made for a reasonably good ongoing series, if only the complex premise didn't warrant so much preamble before the main event kicked in.

However, with the most recent -- and penultimate - episode, I feel it's changed tack from a complex political conspiracy theory thriller, to a relatively straightforward and middle-of-the-road potboiler, replete with a hand-in-hand male/female pursuit sequence and the suspected bad guy turning out to be a good guy after all, just as I predicted in last week's review.

(S01E02) Well folks, if I was confused last week, I'm positively perplexed this week -- but I still can't say I'm not enjoying this political conspiracy drama from the BBC.

It simply wouldn't be entertaining enough to have a basic hit-and-run plot where X marks the spot and some Tricky Dicky figure is behind the cryptic series of messages being delivered by a guy in an underground car park.

Complex is good, especially when it's well-executed and ticked down at a rapid pace like this is.

The Emmy-award winning Nick News will take a look at the good and bad sides of public discourse with a special airing November 5 at 8:30 pm on Nickelodeon titled Nick News with Linda Ellerbee: Cheap Shots and Low Blows: How Debate Turns To Hate. The special, which will also feature Chris Matthews, Al Franken and Ann Coulter will include children from around the country talking about what they feel is appropriate in public debate and what isn't, what's fair game in political debates and what is nothing more than a personal attack. While grown ups can easily sift through a lot of the nonsense that makes up public debate, we tend to forget the effect it can have on children without some kind of frame of reference. Given the extremes of Franken and Coulter alone, this could be an interesting special.

In the past the kid-centric news program has covered issues such as intelligent design, Hurricane Katrina, and health issues.