By Robert Scucci
| Published
When Trey Parker and Matt Stone set out to produce 2004’s Team America: World Police, their main goal was to rail on celebrities, including, but not limited to: Michael Moore, George Clooney, Ethan Hawke, and, of course, Matt Damon. While the South Park creators had no qualms about making fun of actors like Sean Penn for their righteous indignation whenever talking about politics with an inflated sense of self, the reason they portrayed Matt Damon as a moron who can only say his own name (Mattttt Dammoonnnnn) when prompted to speak wasn’t out of malice at all. In fact, the only reason Matt Damon was portrayed in such a way in Team America: World Police was because the puppet that was designed with his likeness in mind “looked kind of mentally deficient” according to Matt Stone.
In other words, the puppet they had made looked the part, Parker and Stone didn’t have enough time to get a new one made before going into production, and they just ran with the joke.
Gotta Work With What You’ve Got
Clarifying why Matt Damon was the victim of such a silly joke in Team America: World Police, Matt Stone has gone on record saying “I think Matt Damon’s a really talented actor, and I’ve met him before and he’s a great guy.” Had Matt Damon’s puppet come out of the oven looking differently than the model we’re familiar with, he probably would have had a regular speaking role, but he didn’t so he doesn’t. Compared to Parker and Stone’s beef with Michael Moore, who ripped off South Park’s animation for a sequence in Bowling for Columbine, their jabs against Matt Damon in Team America: World Police were born out of logistic necessity, and all in the name of good fun.
Matt Damon Appreciates The Joke, But Didn’t Understand it
In a 2014 Reddit AMA, Matt Damon was asked about his character’s portrayal in Team America: World Police, and he was surprisingly cool about being a celebrity puppet version of South Park’s Timmy, who is also mentally handicapped and can only say his own name when spoken to.
During the AMA, Matt Damon said that he was bewildered by Team America: World Police because other celebrity impersonations were actual caricatures of their intended subjects that aimed to poke fun at their established public personas. Damon, not knowing that his character was directly inspired by the botched creation of his puppet (and literally nothing else), got existential for a moment because he thought that the public actually thought he was an idiot despite the fact that he had established himself as a competent filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter.
In the same breath, Matt Damon said that he believes that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are geniuses, and it’s clear that he took the joke in stride, not only because he trusts their artistic instinct, but because they’re also friends in real life.
Matt Damon has since heard Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s explanation about the creation of his puppet in Team America: World Police, so at the very least he can sleep easy knowing that the only reason he was the butt of the joke was because of an ill-fated prop design that took on a life of its own.
