Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

No one could have predicted…

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

You are here: Home / TEA PARTY: The Documentary

Reader Interactions

123Comments

  1. 1.

    El Cid

    If this was the 2nd American Revolution, I think the 1st American Revolution is going to really be pissed.

  2. 2.

    margaret

    I notice how they show the same black guy over and over, presumably to make them look less pasty white.

  4. 4.

    R-Jud

    I can’t bring myself to watch the clip (there will be a Tea Partier at Thanksgiving dinner, I’ve just learned), but two of those dudes in the freeze-frame look like Goddamn redcoats to me.

  5. 5.

    YellowJournalism

    Are you sure this wasn’t a Daily Show parody? Maybe it was from Colbert?

    Like the Left Behind series and The Passion of Mel Gibson, do you think this will be screened in churches across the nation?

  8. 8.

    BARRASSO

    I have an idea that modern conservatism has become a conspiracy theory. Therefore modern conservatives are conspiracy theorists by definition. Is there any great difference between the thought processes of conservatives and moon landing denyers? Everyone is out to get them, and the whole media is in on it.

    Someone do all the work and connect all the dots, then give me the credit and I will share half of your book sales with you.

  10. 10.

    Guster

    I’m trying to convince my wife to help me make a video response to this. Inspired by this blog, as a matter of fact: “BJ Party: The March in My Pants.”

  15. 15.

    Annie

    These people really are delusional — except of course when they are asking for money as in pre-order the DVD.

    Next thing you know they will demand that we teach the “2nd American Revolution” in schools along side intelligent design, fiscal conservatism, and the religious roots of our founding fathers.

  17. 17.

    JMC in the ATL

    In a world… without civics education…
    In a world… where Glen Beck and Lou Dobbs are true patriots…
    In a world… where it’s okay if you’re a Republican…
    In a world… where civil rights are subject to mob rule…
    In a world… where only Democrats threaten to destroy the very fabric of society…
    One man stands up for justice…
    One man stands up for truthiness…
    One man stands up for white privilege…
    Against the forces of the liberal media…
    Against the forces of ACORN…
    Against the forces of lax monetary policy…

    Until he realizes that it takes two to teabag!

    Coming soon to an Elks Lodge near you … The Teabaggers!

  18. 18.

    Zifnab

    @BARRASSO:

    Is there any great difference between the thought processes of conservatives and moon landing denyers? Everyone is out to get them, and the whole media is in on it.

    Remember back in ’03 and ’04, when a handful of guys were saying things about secret prisons and torture and government spy programs. And everyone in the media laughed and rolled their eyes and called them crazy conspiracy nuts.

    What happened to those days?

  20. 20.

    lamh31

    OT, but watch the wingnuts head explode. A poll said that almost 70% of the country likes Obama personally, even about 1/2 of those who “doesnt’ agree with his policies”

    It’s stuff like this that makes the wingnuts heads explode. I guy just looks too cool at everything, and it really pisses them off.

    Obama, NFL Players Star In Thanksgiving Day PSA
    http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/obama-nfl-players-star-in-thanksgiving-day-psa.php?ref=fpb

    ”
    President Obama and NFL players Troy Polamalu, Drew Brees and DeMarcus Ware are starring in a public service announcement to air during three Thanksgiving Day football games.

    The PSA, which promotes Play 60 and United We Serve, encourages kids to exercise and adults to volunteer in their community.

    Watch Obama make a slow-motion catch (and try not to cry):”

  22. 22.

    eastriver

    Trust me, Baggers. Obama is listening to you much more than Dubya ever listened to the fringe left. But listening doesn’t mean he has to do what you want. He doesn’t do what the left wants, for cripe’s sake.

  23. 23.

    EnderWiggin

    @margaret:

    I notice how they show the same black guy over and over, presumably to make them look less pasty white.

    A good portion of the target audience won’t pick up on that, since all those people look the same anyway :)

  26. 26.

    PeakVT

    Shouldn’t the Teabaggers achieve something before making a documentary? I guess mass hallucination dispenses with that problem.

  27. 27.

    licensed to kill time

    I have a hard time believing this is not a parody. It sure sounds like one. And the voice-over guy sounds just like the “In a world gone mad….” dude, who’s dead now, right?

  29. 29.

    goblue72

    Far be it from me to say this, but a bunch of bearded middle-aged guys dressed up in froofy tri-corn hat, knee breeches and lace is kinda….gay. Then, again that hasn’t stopped the TEA BAGGERS before.

  30. 30.

    El Cid

    @beltane: Ben Franklin might have said something like “…a more cordial and thorough Contempt for [them] than I ever before felt for any [men] living — a Contempt that I cannot express in words… [Such types would, in the likely course of history, be] gibbeted up to rot and stink in the Nostrils of Posterity.”

  32. 32.

    Comrade Dread

    Can you imagine the words Ben Franklin would have for these people?

    Well, some of the Founders would probably be against the Federal government as it stands, but I’d like to think if they let these Tea Baggers into their Revolutionary Army, it would be as a special battalion to march ahead of the Founders as part of Operation Meat Shield.

  36. 36.

    Pangloss

    Just don’t let the government get control of the military or the interstate highways.

    Now if you’ll excuse me, the postman is five minutes late with my Social Security Check, and I have to harass him.

  37. 37.

    El Cid

    I’ve been involved with some left groups that took themselves way, way too seriously — speaking about “The Revolution” and whatnot.

    But none of them, not one, ever dressed up in period clothes and filmed themselves acting out their proto-revolution and then used footage of their costumed acting out as commemoration of their revolution. Or they did and I just forgot.

    How is this different from Civil War re-enactments and Star Trek conventions?

  39. 39.

    Josh

    Oy. I decided, against my better judgment, to read some of the YouTube comments for this movie. Most were from people who were laughing hysterically, but there was some semi-cogent debate (which is amazing for YouTube).

    It’s apparent that people that claim to be conservatives don’t really know the history of their body politic. More than that, they don’t understand political theory.

    One of them defined conservatism and–it would be enough to make Sully weep and wipe away his tears with pages from Burke.

    I tend to think these people are indicative of the Tea Party movement as a whole. They have definitions for their beliefs that don’t actually match up with reality; which is why, I think, they are easily duped. They seem to run off of raw emotion more than logic or reason, which is why they can come to some of the most outrageous conclusions possible and just stare at people unblinking when a sensible person hears what they think.

    They toss around words like “tyranny” and “socialist” and “dictator” and “patriot” without understanding the true definitions of those words. This frightens me more than their raw emotional power. When words lose meaning, they lose matter. They become a blunt tool, as we’ve seen, to destroy, rather than enlighten or illuminate.

    What will “tyranny” mean ten years from now? What will be the prevailing definition of “socialism” in these groups five years from now? They will continue to be watered down until anything that the federal government tries to do (even if it’s Constitutionally mandated) will be seen as totalitarian, evil, and “socialist.”

  40. 40.

    SpotWeld

    @El Cid:

    How is this different from Civil War re-enactments and Star Trek conventions?

    Well for starters, the people wearing the Gray uniforms during a Civil War re-enactments are in fact aware the South lost.

  41. 41.

    Mike in NC

    What is with the guy who hates the government visiting the WWII memorial and wearing an Army T-shirt?

    Meh. Just a typical teabagger lost in DC and trying to get his bearings. The t-shirt was supposed to say “Armey” but you know how spelling-challenged those folks are…

  42. 42.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    How is this different from Civil War re-enactments and Star Trek conventions?

    Knowing people heavily involved in both, I can take a stab at this:

    Civil War Re-enactments: Not much different since politically, most re-enactors I knew if not wingnuts, definitely tilted that way. Oh, and they used rifles, not smoothbore muskets.

    Star Trek Conventions: Different in that Trekkers/ies/whatever trend left. And don’t mind wearing form fitting fabrics despite having body types that don’t wear form fitting fabrics well.

  43. 43.

    pharniel

    this showed up on LGF awhile ago.

    It got panned, and mocked for about a thousand posts.

    I don’t think it’s paradoy, but I think it’s pretty much designed to take money from stupid people.

    Which is pretty much the GOP MO right now.

  44. 44.

    licensed to kill time

    This comment from the MY link is good:

    # Bill O’Baggins Says:
    November 20th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
    __
    This is the true story… of seven wingnuts, picked to live in a double-wide … and to expose themselves to riducule….see what happens when they stop taking their medications, and start getting real…. THE REAL WORLD: TEABAG STYLE.

  45. 45.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    Well for starters, the people wearing the Gray uniforms during a Civil War re-enactments are in fact aware the South lost.

    Many that I know remain convinced that that Was A Bad Thing. These are the same people who wargame and always play the Germans in WWII games. Hmmmmm…..

  46. 46.

    El Cid

    @SpotWeld:

    the people wearing the Gray uniforms during a Civil War re-enactments are in fact aware the South lost

    For most of the 1994 – 2006 Republican control of Congress with leadership primarily in the South, and the Bush Jr. triumvirate, and Ronald Reagan launching his campaign in Mississippi talking about “States’ Rights!”, you might forgive them for getting a bit mixed up about that.

  47. 47.

    Pigs & Spiders

    I’m not sure which is my favorite part, the far off stare with the Tiki Torch in the foreground or the fact that the token black guy could not be bothered to take his earbuds out of his ears for any of this.

    This made my day.

  48. 48.

    Citizen_X

    Strangely enough, this makes no sense.

    Because I thought it all began with a coordinated publicity push from a major news channel.

    And what’s the “new threat on freedom?” Any time I try to figure it out, all I can come with is “a n***** in the White House.”

    And look at that giant trillion-dollar check the white guy in the Obama mask is holding at 1:20: it’s from China (to the “United SOSHULIST!!! States of America,” and dated “The End of the Capitalism”), and stamped “REJECTED,” but by who? Did China reject their own check? Or is Obama writing Hu Jintao’s checks?

  51. 51.

    Joshua Norton

    the people wearing the Gray uniforms during a Civil War re-enactments are in fact aware the South lost

    I’m pretty sure that a lot of them think the CSA army is just re-grouping.

  52. 52.

    Bubblegum Tate

    @R-Jud:

    I can’t bring myself to watch the clip

    You should–it is really fuckin’ funny.

    @lamh31:

    You know what was all about exercise and volunteerism? HITLER YOUTH!

  54. 54.

    ppcli

    Ohboy Ohboy, I know what I want for Christmas this year. An hour or more of unadulterated laughter distilled onto a DVD.

    (I mean – that’s what I would want for Christmas if I weren’t making war on it.)

  55. 55.

    Mark S.

    I’m trying to figure out why there weren’t any of these protests during the debate on Medicare Part D. I’m currently trying to isolate all the variables and see why this time it’s different. I’ll let you guys know what I come up with.

  57. 57.

    JM

    Still waiting for BOB to come buy and tell us how this video proves that Obama hasn’t read his Sun Tzu.

  59. 59.

    Liberty60

    @margaret:

    they show the same black guy over and over

    Well, when there is only one black guy out of 70,000, you kinda have to stretch and fill, y’know?

    Yglesias made some observations that the Tea Party uses stirring patriot, populist, libertarian phrases and imagery- brave independents, standing up for freedom and liberty, agains the forces of corruption and tyranny…

    yet they embrace so much of that very same corruption-

    Warrantless wiretapping? Yes, please!
    Suspension of habeas corpus? Absolutely!
    Indefinite imprisonment! Of course!
    Torture? Affirmative!
    Public health care option? GOD NO!!
    Smoking restrictions? FASCISM!!!

    It is this incoherence and dissonance that makes it impossible to take them seriously- it is what causes me to see an underlying agenda since their cover story is so absurd.

  60. 60.

    Comrade Dread

    Well, it’s rather obvious, they want freedom and liberty for their tribe.

    Waterboarding for everyone else.

  61. 61.

    r€nato

    Actually, production-wise the trailer is very high-quality.

    But what it’s trying to sell… it really comes off as satire. I keep expecting to see Harry Shearer pop up in some ridiculous teabagger getup toting a poorly-spelled protest sign.

  62. 62.

    GregB

    Ah, love the conservative affirmative action trick of using the same black man over and over and over.

    I was convinced that the tea bag rallies had 50% attendence by African-Americans.

    -G

  63. 63.

    El Cid

    Republicans decry the Democraps’ master baiting techniques:

    “It makes no sense at all and affronts common sense,” said Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, one of several Republicans to criticize the measure. He added that a plan to expand Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor, was a “bait and switch” with states as the victims.
    …
    GOP governors, meeting in Texas, agreed. “We all know a sucker play when we see one,” said Mitch Daniels of Indiana. The bill would expand the Medicaid program, which provides health care for the poor, and leave the states with part of the additional cost beginning after three years.

  64. 64.

    jibeaux

    they “were” mocked? Are they under the impression this trailer is going to put a stop to that sort of thing?

  65. 65.

    Martin

    @BARRASSO:

    Become?

    General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk… ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children’s ice cream.
    Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Lord, Jack.
    General Jack D. Ripper: You know when fluoridation first began?
    Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: I… no, no. I don’t, Jack.
    General Jack D. Ripper: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. Nineteen forty-six, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It’s incredibly obvious, isn’t it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That’s the way your hard-core Commie works.
    Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Uh, Jack, Jack, listen, tell me, tell me, Jack. When did you first… become… well, develop this theory?
    General Jack D. Ripper: Well, I, uh… I… I… first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love.
    Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Hmm.
    General Jack D. Ripper: Yes, a uh, a profound sense of fatigue… a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I… I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence.
    Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Hmm.
    General Jack D. Ripper: I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women uh… women sense my power and they seek the life essence. I, uh… I do not avoid women, Mandrake.
    Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: No.
    General Jack D. Ripper: But I… I do deny them my essence.

    Aside from sounding way too much like BoB/Glenn Beck, it was apparent enough back in the ’60s to commit to film.

    General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake, have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water?
    Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Well, no, I can’t say I have.

    Exactly

  70. 70.

    Janet Strange

    @BARRASSO:

    I have an idea that modern conservatism has become a conspiracy theory.

    Absolutely.

    I’ve been going with cult for years, but lately I’ve been leaning toward conspiracy theorists.

    I have a friend who is a truther and an anti-vaxer. I simply cannot talk to him about these issues – every attempt at bringing facts to the discussion is, in his opinion, just more proof of how powerful the interests are (Bu$hCo for the first, Big Pharma for the second) who have orchestrated all of this.

    It struck me lately that trying to talk to him is just like trying to talk to my wingnut relatives.

  72. 72.

    gwangung

    Should go to the Denialism blog over at Scienceblogs. They connected the dots between the birthers, the anti-vaxers and the creationists. And we KNOW two of those groups have heavy overlap with wingnuts.

  74. 74.

    jibeaux

    I would just like to say, geektacularly, that I have purchased tickets to see, in a movie theater, for a price exceeding that of a traditional movie ticket, the guys from RiffTrax plus special guest Weird Al — live but not in person, sort of a teleconferencing type deal — showing and mocking Christmas short films. And yet, somehow*, the Second American Revolution is straight to DVD.

    (Also, too, damn, the profit margins on the RiffTrax cinematic endeavors. Why couldn’t I have thought of these things?)

    * probably ACORN

  75. 75.

    cleek

    it’s odd how they seem to be terrified of things like “tyranny” and “socializum” and “communism” and “dictatorship”, but give no evidence of knowing what any of those words mean.

    and it’s also odd how they all look exactly like every loudmouth douchebag i’ve ever been stuck with at a family gathering.

  76. 76.

    Pigs & Spiders

    In particular, I can’t wit to find a good place to splice in this line:

    General “Buck” Turgidson: Mr. President, we must not allow a mineshaft gap!

    I’m sure there will be many excellent candidates for its inclusion!

  78. 78.

    replicnt6

    Like a lot of people, as soon as I had watched the first 30 seconds of this trailer, I immediately thought of the German literary critic Hans Robert Jauss.

  79. 79.

    Brachiator

    The voice over guy certainly had to be laughing his butt off as he cashed the check for his work on this one. Best thing about the whole wank-fest.

  81. 81.

    BFR

    @El Cid:

    How is this different from Civil War re-enactments and Star Trek conventions?

    Civil War re-enactments is exactly what popped in my mind. I’m guessing a venn diagram of the people in this film and re-enactment participants would mostly overlap.

  84. 84.

    Dream On

    @JMC in the ATL

    I was going to do a parody, but you lifted it from me through pure ESP. Now I don’t have to do a thing. Now I can get straight to drinking.

  85. 85.

    Interrobang

    I’m so tired that when I looked at that headline, I saw “PEA TARTY: THE DOCUMENTARY.” Kinky!

    The difference between these guys and people at Star Trek conventions is that people at Star Trek conventions generally don’t believe that Star Trek is real the way that these guys think whatever horseshit they get beamed into their brains by Planet Wingnuttia is real — at least the ones who need meds and are on them don’t, anyway.

    Scary thought, though — these guys are the hardcore lifestyle geeks of far right-wing politics. Eek. Who’d’a thunk geekdom could coexist with anti-intellectualism?

  87. 87.

    janet

    My boyfriend is into Michelle Malking and these guys. He drives me nuts and I think I’m going to bonk him over the head.

  88. 88.

    Randy P

    @Josh:

    What will “tyranny” mean ten years from now? What will be the prevailing definition of “socialism” in these groups five years from now?

    Well, if your insurance company won’t pay for your cancer meds but there’s a government program that will… obviously that’s tyranny. And socialism. And Hitler. And probably ACORN.

  89. 89.

    Legalize

    How is this different from Civil War re-enactments and Star Trek conventions?

    Civil War re-enactors and Star Trek conventioneers get out of the house more often?

  92. 92.

    El Cid

    You know, I think we should have been doing a 2nd New Deal about now, but it didn’t make me want to dress up like FDR and limp around giving old radio sounding speeches about economic royalists.

    Okay, I lied, I wanted to, but I didn’t. Yet.

  93. 93.

    calling all toasters

    @El Cid: If you were really ambitious you’d go for the second “Whip Inflation Now” movement, compete with bumping your head on all sorts of stuff.

  97. 97.

    Randy P

    I have a comment awaiting moderation. Are there certain key words that trigger that? My comment mentioned a certain moustachioed Austrian fellow who achieved notoriety in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s and a certain nut, the fruit of the oak tree.

  99. 99.

    licensed to kill time

    @Randy P: You musn’t mention s h o e s or pen!s or soc i alism – oh, fugeddaboudit, the list is too long.

    But if you do want to spell sociaIism w/o tripping the WP filter, replace the L with a capital I and you will have SUCCESS!

  100. 100.

    Joel

    @lamh31: Looking at that video it looks like Brees is throwing one deep to the kids and Obama is sneaking in for the interception, Darren Sharper-style.

  101. 101.

    gizmo

    There is enormous frustration with Washington, it’s not confined to either the Left or the Right. What we need is a political genius who can make everyone see that they have a lot in common– we’re all getting screwed by the same entrenched economic interests. The problem at the moment is that Teabag types are clueless and are doing the bidding of the very people that they ought to be challenging.

  102. 102.

    R-Jud

    @El Cid:

    Okay, I lied, I wanted to, but I didn’t. Yet.

    Yo, if you need an Eleanor to ugly up the background, let me know. I’m tall and come with my own grey wig.

  103. 103.

    Shawn in ShowMe

    There is no doubt in my mind that this is parody that won’t admit to being parody. Andy Kaufman would be proud.

  104. 104.

    Joel

    This voiceover is the guy who does most of the movie trailers, IIRC. He’ll do anything for the money. There used to be a canadian troupe that made mock movie trailers. He lent his voice to those. Some were pretty funny.

    Trailervision, they were called.

  105. 105.

    cleek

    What we need is a political genius who can make everyone see that they have a lot in common

    this cannot be done in a system with political parties. the party that’s out of power has every incentive to do all it can to make the party that’s in power look as bad as it can.

    any party that isn’t fighting to get on top of the pile is a dead party.

  106. 106.

    Mike G

    You know you’re a peasant when you worship the very people who are right now, this minute, conning you and taking your shit. Whatever the master does, you’re on board. When you get frisky, he sticks a big cross in the middle of your village, and you spend the rest of your life praying to it with big googly eyes. Or he puts out newspapers full of innuendo about this or that faraway group and you immediately salute and rush off to join the hate squad. A good peasant is loyal, simpleminded, and full of misdirected anger. — Matt Taibbi

  107. 107.

    Violet

    OMG, that is awesome. The token black guy just cracks me right up. If you stop the video at the crowd shots it’s a sea of lily whiteness. Did the hire the black guy for the film?

  110. 110.

    Scott

    Tagline: “Liberty’s march has a new generation of patriots.”

    And the new generation will die of old age in 20-30 years…

  111. 111.

    parksideq

    @ChrisZ: This is like the converse of Poe’s Law: wingnuts’ reality is so fanciful that unknowing observers will mistake it for satire.

    Is The Onion out of business yet? Because I’m not sure how much acid their writers would have to drop in order to come up with this vid. Sheer, unintentional hilarity.

  112. 112.

    parksideq

    Now that I’ve picked myself up from ROFLMAO, I wonder how soon it will be before spoof remixes of this trailer hit YouTube. You just know someone is going to dub Yakety Sax over the original background music.

  113. 113.

    Kevin

    So, I’m guessing “Nate” was the only black guy they found? I mean, they didn’t show anyone else more then once, but they used shots of him a half dozen times. I guess they all look alike, so no one will notice that they have only one…

  114. 114.

    Kevin

    So, the first American Revolution was a war against Britain for autonomy.

    The second American Revolution was a bunch of old white guys (and Nate) protesting…something…and the end result was…uh…getting “death panels” removed from health care?

    The third American Revolution will be an angry tweet by Redstate.

  115. 115.

    serge

    Oh. My. God. I just pissed myself laughing. I just pray it’s not a clever fake. Parody this pure should be intended first as the real deal.

  116. 116.

    Trollhattan

    @ SpotWeld

    Well for starters, the people wearing the Gray uniforms during a Civil War Wah of Nahthen Ah-gression re-enactments are in fact aware the South lost. Fxt.

    An acquaintance who was raised in Memphis told me this is how he was taught about the war. There were intimations that the South didn’t really lose so much as lose interest. Or something.

    It was a bit similar to how Japanese schoolkids are taught about WWII. Pretty much Roosevelt’s fault.

  117. 117.

    Trollhattan

    Teh kerning is all wrong on that film title! I smell a rat. Rather! ! !

    And yeah, seconded on the John Facenda knockoff being an inadvertently humorous touch. Not a good fit with the pastey old white dudes.

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