Saddam Hussein in U.S. popular culture
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Saddam Hussein appears in many U.S. television shows and other media, and became an especially popular icon in US popular culture after the Persian Gulf War of 1991. Sometimes he is parodied in comedy shows, portrayed usually as a bufoonish dictator or a servant of the Devil.
In the beginning of one episode of Animaniacs, he is shown speaking to an audience in Iraq. He states, "People of Iraq.." before he falls off of the podium and goes to hell.
On Saturday Night Live, he was portrayed on several occasions by Will Ferrell. The comedy in these sketches was that Ferrell played Saddam not as a powerful dictator, but as a chummy, happy-go-lucky guy who happened to commit atrocities. He was also portrayed earlier by Phil Hartman but Hartman use the more stereotypical cold dictator approach.
In the action movie spoof Hot Shots! Part Deux, Saddam is the bra wearing main antagonist, having a duel with fictional President "Tug" Benson (played by the late Lloyd Bridges). Jerry Haleva, the actor who played Saddam Hussein in the movie, also played Saddam in The Big Lebowski and Live From Baghdad
Saddam appears as a regular antagonist on the television series South Park and is central to the plot of the film South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut). In the film, Saddam said to be killed by wild boars, though in an earlier South Park episode "Not without my Anus", he was killed by a stadium full of farting Canadians. As a result, he goes to Hell, starting a gay love affair with Satan. The affair ends when Satan (who already felt Saddam was a "sandy little butthole") refuses to defend Saddam from Eric Cartman, instead throwing him into a chasm declaring, "I have had enough of you!" (referencing Star Trek III: The Search for Spock). Later in the series, Saddam reappears in Hell, attempting to steal Satan away from his new gay lover, Chris, eventually violently killing Chris multiple times, only for Chris to reappear in Hell after his deaths. Later, he is sent to Heaven (which is filled with Mormons) for punishment and at one point is shown making Weapons of Mass Desruction in a facility deguised as a Chocolate Chip Factory. Eventually, he somehow returns to life and briefly becomes the new prime minister of Canada, before being discovered and captured. This depiction of Saddam is intended as comedy, and not as any attempt at seriously rendering him as a fictional character.
In the television series Arrested Development, patriarch and President of the Bluth Development Company George Bluth, Sr. is charged with building palaces in Iraq for Saddam and his regime. According to the show, these charges amount to "light treason." George maintains his innocence. When an incriminating photo of George and Sadaam comes to light, George's excuse was that he "thought it was the guy who played the soup Nazi. After George escapes from prison, his grandson George Michael discovers him in an underground spider hole. His discovery, his long beard and the subsequent dental exam mirror details of Saddam's capture in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.