Bushwhacked MP3

The "Bushwhacked" MP3 files are satirical speeches created from parts of United States president George W. Bush's orations. The recordings were created by UK comedian Chris Morris, who has used similar techniques in the past, most notably in his edited version of the eulogy at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales.

The first "Bushwhacked" MP3 was created in late 2001 after the September 11, 2001 attacks. It begins: "Good afternoon. On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against our staunch friend, Great Britain, Australia, Germany and France, Canada, more than 40 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and across Asia. These carefully targeted actions are designed to attack the Islamic faith. This military action is a part of our campaign against diplomacy, intelligence, freedom, clock, tyre, the freezing of food, and a lot of dance."

The fictional speech mixes political satire ("the White House, a place where American Presidents have become outlaws and murderers themselves") with absurdity ("to all the men and women in our military .. I gave a 4th grade girl with more than forty cunts") and highly explicit, vulgar language. The file is about two minutes long.

The MP3 was originally posted at the Warp Records website, which also posted "Bushwhacked 2" (the sequel), and released a 12" single of the recording with remixes.

A sequel was released in February 2003 after George W. Bush's State of the Union address. It is less vulgar but otherwise similar in style and content, and exclusively uses elements of the State of the Union speech. The speech begins: "Mr. Speaker, members of Congress and fellow citizens. Every year, by law and by custom, we meet here to threaten the world. The American flag stands for corporate scandals, recession, stock market declines, blackmail, burning with hot irons, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, terror, mass murder, and rape. Our first goal is to show utter contempt for the environment." Bush's words are frequently interrupted by strong applause.

Again, elements of absurdity ("We must offer every child in America three nuclear missiles") are combined with the accusation of US complicity with terrorists ("One by one the terrorists are learning: We are building a culture to encourage international terrorism"). Unlike the first "speech", this one also addresses the 2003 invasion of Iraq ("And tonight I have a message for the people of Iraq: Go home and die"). It ends on a dark note: "In all these efforts, however, America's purpose is more than to follow a process. It is to achieve a result: the end of the civilized world."

There is also a slightly different movie version of the speech, based on the State of the Union video footage. Cuts to the faces of the audience are used to conceal the cropping of the different elements of the speech. This appears as an Easter egg on a compilation DVD of material from "The Day Today".

Similar edits of speeches by George H. W. Bush, entitled "Bush Speech (corrected), Parts 1 and 2", were released by the Evolution Control Committee on the "Gunderphonics" tape in 1994.

A version of the 2003 sequel, with instrumental background accompaniment added, was included on the 2005 Stan Ridgway/Drywall album "Barbeque Babylon."

External links

* [http://downloads.warprecords.com/morris/bushwhacked.mp3 The first "Bushwhacked" MP3 file]
* [http://www.warprecords.com/news/?offset=0&ti_id=573 The second "Bushwhacked" MP3 file and movie]
* [http://audio.jthz.com/finals/hz/bush_37hz.ogg Death Of Democracy - Bush versus 37Hz]