This Fourth of July, before you light the grill or break out those illegal fireworks you are so not going to be setting off, here's a little something to tickle your fancy. You may think a video starring Captain America would be the perfect way to spend Independence Day, but you couldn't be more wrong.
Created by Fox's "Animation Domination" crew, this video takes a cartoon version of Captain America (with cameos by a handful of other Marvel superheroes) and uses him as a stand-in for the United States itself. Instead of highlighting America's strength's, the video rapid-fires its way down a long list of statistics that point out a few areas of improvement for the country, to put it mildly. Quoted stats include the U.S.'s dismal literacy scores, poor employment percentages, its obesity problem, energy and fuel consumption, infant mortality rates and much more. While Captain America is usually seen doing battle with the Red Skull in the comics and movies, here he's shown guzzling gasoline by the gallon and chowing down on fat-filled red meat.
The vid was posted to Fox Television's official YouTube account, so it would be interesting to know what Disney thinks of this. The Mouse House is not exactly known for playing fast and loose with its properties, and since Marvel is wholly owned by Disney, that makes Captain America a card-carrying member of the house that Walt built. Might Disney go litigious over this one? Or does it fall under the "fair use" law for satires and parodies?
Either way, Fox doesn't sound too worried about things. Its YouTube channel also hosts an animated Batman parody called "Future Batmen," which sends up potential successors to Christian Bale and Ben Affleck's cowl with hilariously inspired choices like Kevin Spacey, Owen Wilson and Adam Sandler.
As Kotaku points out, every country around the world has plenty of its own negative statistics and could conceivably have a similar song of their own. So fret not, patriots. America still has plenty of great qualities, too. Just don't expect to find any of them in the video below.
Should you find yourself curious about these statistics and others that compare the United States with other nations worldwide, the website NationMaster is a good place to start.
