Fictionalized portrayals of George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, have become common since his inauguration on January 20, 2001. Many popular TV shows, magazines, books, and comics have portrayed or satirized him.
Several comedians and comic actors were known for impressions of Bush during his presidency, including Will Ferrell and Will Forte (both originally on Saturday Night Live), Jon Culshaw, Frank Caliendo, James Adomian and Jon Stewart. Impressionist Steve Bridges had a notably involved impression that included facial prosthetics to achieve similarity to Bush; he impersonated Bush in a variety of settings, including once alongside the real President Bush at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Actor Timothy Bottoms portrayed Bush fictionally multiple times during the Bush presidency: in the Comedy Central sitcom That's My Bush!, as a cameo in the family film The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, and in a serious role in the telefilm DC 9/11 (2003).
Bush was the target of satire for most of his presidency. Most fictional depictions of the President in popular media tend to emphasize his drawl and tendency to use incorrect grammar and malapropisms in speeches, as well as his sometimes awkward hand and facial gestures. Bush is often depicted in caricatures with a large nose and ears, and small eyes, giving him a somewhat chimpanzee-like appearance. This is exemplified in a Fruit of the Loom shirt design in which he is compared to the children's book character Curious George. He is also sometimes drawn in political cartoons as being short in stature.
Film
W. Bush was portrayed by Josh Brolin in W., a biographical film by Oliver Stone. The film is similar in format to Nixon, another film by Stone, covering Bush's life from his early childhood and college years, to his early political career and struggles with alcoholism, to his 2003 invasion of Iraq. W. was released on October 17, 2008, and is the first time a major motion picture has been made about a U.S. President while he was still in office.
Dasavathaaram Dasavathaaram (2008) is an Indian film that stars popular Indian actor and filmmaker Kamal Haasan. He dons ten different roles in this film and one of those is the portrayal of George W. Bush.
My Name Is Khan In the 2010 Indian film My Name Is Khan, Bush is a seen character who refuses to meet with Khan and accept that the protagonist is not a terrorist.
Death of a President Bush is the target of assassination in Chicago, Illinois in this fictional tale during his presidency. Death of a President mirrors similar details surrounding the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan during the early 1980s. Facing broad unpopular support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he becomes the target of an assassin with a political agenda.
Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay In Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, the 2008 sequel to Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Bush is portrayed by James Adomian in a scene where he smokes cocaine-laced marijuana with the title characters. He pardons the duo.
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course The 2002 action-comedy film The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course featured a cameo by Timothy Bottoms as President Bush.
DC 9/11: Time of Crisis In 2004, Showtime broadcast a made-for-television movie titled DC 9/11: Time of Crisis re-enacting the September 11, 2001 attacks from the point of view of President Bush. The movie was a drama, and reviewers stated that its portrayal of George W. Bush, again by Bottoms, was generally in a positive light.
The Master of Disguise In the film The Master of Disguise, the main character (played by Dana Carvey) dresses up as Bush and comments "Folks around here call me W."
Scary Movie 4 In Scary Movie 4, the President of the United States is reading a children's book in a classroom, similar to George W. Bush's reading of The Pet Goat. When he is told the nation is under the attack (similar to Bush during the September 11 attacks) of alien "triPods" he replies: "Right now I want to hear what happened to the duckling" (in a spoof of Bush's reaction to the attacks).
Transformers In the 2007 Transformers film, the president is not stated to be Bush but heavily implied to be him. However, in the direct sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the reference to the actual President, Barack Obama, as well as brief glimpses of Bush in a news broadcast suggests that the president shown in the original is in fact, President Bush. He is shown lying in bed (with his face obscured by his feet from the camera's point of view) saying to one of the flight attendants (with a Bush-like voice, a heavy southern accent and Bush-style laughter), "Hey, could you wrangle me up some Ding Dongs darling?” The Secretary of Defense, played by Jon Voight, has him guarded in a bunker for his protection during the rest of the film.
Postal In the comedy movie Postal, Bush is portrayed by Brent Mendenhall.
Lange Flate Ballær II In the 2008 Norwegian comedy sequel Lange Flate Ballær 2, after the main characters (Petter, Øyvind, Edgar, Karsten, Kai and Freddy) have prevented an American nuclear submarine from exploding and thus save the world, Bush (played by Steve Bridges) pays them a visit at their garage in Fredrikstad, Norway.
Megumi George W. Bush appears briefly in a still animated frame of the anime version of Megumi.
American Made Connor Trinneer plays a young George Bush in the 2017 film American Made.
Vice Sam Rockwell plays George W. Bush in the 2018 film Vice, for which he received Best Supporting Actor nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, SAG Award and Golden Globe.
Malesh Ehna Benetbahdel Bush was portrayed by Brent Mendenhall in Malesh Ehna Benetbahdel, a 2005 Egyptian film. Bush appliers as the president of the United States, who wants Karmouti (Ahmad Adam) to falsely admit of doing terrorist attacks and dealing with weapons of mass destruction for Russia.
Animated television
2DTV 2DTV (a UK satire cartoon) regularly portrayed George W. Bush as a childish simpleton who would often make hazardous decisions while in the Oval Office. The character would not listen to advice from his advisor, the General unless he put a sock on his hand and humoured Bush like a child. These segments were extremely popular in the United Kingdom and highlighted Bush's unpopularity in the country.
In early 2003, an advertisement for the video compilation The Best of 2DTV was prevented from airing in the UK. The advertisement involved Bush taking the compilation cassette out of its case and putting it in a toaster. It was banned because the British advertising watchdog stated that advertisements for products cannot appear to be endorsed by someone without their permission – in this case George W. Bush. This decision was later overturned (due to it being legitimate satire) and the commercial was shown unedited. The makers later said that this generated more publicity than the actual advertisement could ever have produced.
The makers of 2DTV also made another short Bush sketch, in which he writes a letter, resenting his portrayal in the media as a moron. He then places the letter in a toaster.
Family Guy and American Dad! On Family Guy, Bush has been shown in multiple episodes, performing a variety of comically childish and often inept antics, such as showing up late for duty in the Vietnam War in the episode "PTV" and hiding in his Texas treehouse to avoid news of Hurricane Katrina in "The Fat Guy Strangler". In "Don't Make Me Over", Peter Griffin is chosen to perform for as a clown for Bush at the White House, causing the latter to laugh childishly until he knocks over a snow globe, causing him to cry equally childishly. In "Saving Private Brian", Stewie Griffin enlists himself and Brian Griffin to the US Army, and both are sent to fight in Iraq. They are trying to be discharged when all of a sudden, "democracy kicks in" exactly as Bush predicted, allowing them to go home. Stewie expresses his interest in knowing who is the genius behind that war plan as the episode cuts to a scene of Bush pushing a Slinky down a set of stairs in the White House. After failing his first attempt to push the toy, Bush's second attempt is successful as he exclaim "Laura... Laura!".
In the episode "Back to the Pilot", Brian Griffin tells his past self about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in an effort to become memorialized as a national hero, though this backfires: leading to a Civil War in which Bush takes control of the south. In a press conference announcing the conflict, Bush asks for somebody to procure a "clown suitcase" for him, claiming that he is intrigued by its potential contents.
The most recent appearance of Bush on Family Guy was on the episode "Excellence in Broadcasting", in which Bush runs into the room childishly and jumps into Rush Limbaugh's arms while saying many childish things. Limbaugh then proceeds to give him a lollipop and he runs off.
Bush has been cited as the inspiration for the adult animated series American Dad! When asked what first sparked the idea for American Dad! Seth MacFarlane answered, "It was right after the election, and me and co-creator Matt Weitzman was so frustrated with the Bush administration that we would just spend days bitching and complaining, and we figured we should channel this into something creative and hopefully profitable". The series has even had an episode titled "Bush Comes to Dinner" in which then-President Bush appears, presented as a buffoon.
King of the Hill In the King of the Hill episode "The Perils of Polling", which aired shortly before the 2000 election, Hank Hill meets then-Governor Bush of Texas, only to be deeply disappointed by his limp handshake. As a result, Hank plans to boycott the polls, but in the end, changes his mind and decides to vote, considering voting to be his duty as an American.
Lil' Bush Lil' Bush is an animated political satire/sitcom from creator Donick Cary. It debuted on Comedy Central on June 13, 2007. Instead of portraying George W. Bush as the current president, Lil' Bush is shown as the son of President George H. W. Bush, portrayed as the current president. Lil' Bush and his friends (Lil' Cheney, Lil' Condi, etc.) all attend an elementary school with other current political figures.
Robot Chicken George W. Bush was portrayed on the Star Wars special of the stop-motion animation show Robot Chicken aired on Adult Swim. In the short sketch, an action figure version of the president was shown as dreaming that he had Jedi powers, as well as fighting former U.S. president Abraham Lincoln with a lightsaber and chopping off his daughter Jenna's finger in a parody of famous scenes from Star Wars. He uses Jedi mind tricks to get a parking place and get his wife Laura to have a menage a trois with him and Condoleezza Rice.
In another episode, "Tapping a Hero", Bush comes into possession of a mogwai and proceeds to do everything he was instructed not to do with it (i.e. get it wet, feed it past midnight, etc.). Eventually, one of the clones gets a hold of the nuclear launch codes and destroys the world.
Bush is voiced by Seth Green.
The Simpsons