Small Wonder

New episodes of 'Lil' Bush' continue to surprise with surreal but sharp satire.

You would think it would be a tremendously challenging task to send up the Bush Administration as it nears its end, and still keep it fresh, but “Lil’ Bush,” about to begin its second season on Thursday, March 13 at 10:30 p.m. on Comedy Central, is doing exactly that.

That doesn’t come from the subjects that the episodes take on, like gay rights or the pharmaceutical industry, but rather from the characterizations of the child versions of George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice. The second season, in fact, has a casting change, with Kari Wahlgren taking over the role of Rice, as well as Lil’ Hillary Clinton. For Rice, she puts on an exasperated Jennifer Tilly-like voice, to especially great effect in the second episode, “Big Pharma,” where Rice is driven mad after running out of a prescription she’s gotten hooked on.

Other moments in the new season do show inspired lunacy -- such as “Cheney-oke,” in which the show’s incessant “rar-rar-rar-rar” lines for the character are used to render a karaoke rendition of “Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay” almost incomprehensible. Plus a subplot in “Big Pharma,” where Bush Sr. takes too much Viagra and faces a crisis when he’s supposed to appear to give a speech in that condition.

So in summary and in conclusion, “Lil’ Bush” continues to exceed expectations as it did when it began (see Jester’s Blog, June 29, 2007). And with other major political figures also added into the series in inventive fashion (somehow Al Gore’s bathroom habits figure into the plot of a new episode), “Lil’ Bush” could easily segue into parody of the next administration.