8 Movie Villains Created Out Of Spite

6. Michael Moore (Team America: World Police)

Harvey Weinstein Gothmog orc Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King
Paramount Pictures

Though pretty much every celebrity who appears in 2004's Team America: World Police is depicted in an unflattering way, the movie's takedown of documentary filmmaker Michael Moore feels much more mean-spirited and personal.

And, well... that's because it was.

Moore is portrayed as an overweight moron who always has hot dogs or pizza in his hands. He also calls Team America "fascists", blows up their base in a suicide bomb attack, and is later referred to as "a giant socialist weasel."

It's scathing stuff, and this harsh portrayal was created purely because Team America writers Matt Stone and Trey Parker had a "very specific beef" with the real-life Moore, stemming from his Oscar-winning documentary Bowling For Columbine:

“We have a very specific beef with Michael Moore... I did an interview [with him], and he didn’t mischaracterise me or anything I said in Bowling for Columbine. But what he did do was put this cartoon right after me that made it look like we did that cartoon.”

Basically, Stone disliked the use of a cartoon segment in Bowling For Columbine - titled A Brief History Of The United States Of America - because it felt like something he and Parker would've made.

Presumably, Stone disagreed with the views expressed in the cartoon, and because it does have a certain South Park flavour to it, you can sort of understand his annoyance.

Still, it does seem a bit disproportionate to then turn Moore into a gluttonous suicide bomber.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.