In just its first five-minute episode, Decker makes right-wing rhetoric on the war on terror sound totally absurd: “Our DRX Patriot cruise missiles could take out one of their villages where the rats hide in 10 seconds, but our pussy-ass politicians are too scared to pull the trigger,” Special Agent Jack Decker complains. “So I have to go in and kick ass one man at a time, mano y mano.”
Meanwhile, he’s traipsing around some hills that are supposed to pass for Afghanistan, firing a very fake gun into the air, and waiting for Abdul, his local contact played by a blue-eyed man who speaks an absurd version of ‘Arabic’. After the meeting, Decker is lifted into a helicopter with the help of some really awful green-screening. Decker looks like a low-budget action movie ripoff by a delusional man, and that’s what it is, sort of.
Decker is the creation of Tim Heidecker, a right-wing bully and blowhard with a Donald Trump vibe. Confusingly, Tim Heidecker is a fictional character, created by the real Tim Heidecker, the actor, writer, director, and comedian behind things like Tim And Eric Awesome Show and Tim And Eric’s Bedtime Stories on Adult Swim, and the film The Comedy. Heidecker pretty much always plays characters who have the same name as him. Decker came out of On Cinema At The Cinema, the similarly absurd movie review show starring Heidecker and Gregg Turkington. Turkington, best known for playing comedian Neil Hamburger, also writes for and appears in Decker as CIA codebreaker Kington.
The opening sums up much of what Decker, currently in the middle of its second season on Adult Swim, is about. Jack Decker is a ridiculous character, the supreme badass as imagined by someone who’s never been near a war, and who has no idea how terrorism works. Decker spouts stilted action movie cliches, and his approach to fighting terrorism is yelling, shooting, fighting, or driving something cool like a motorcycle or jet-ski. Episodes are typically around five minutes long, a large portion of which is taken up by a recap of the previous episode and the intro, featuring many more shots of Decker posing and riding his motorcycle to a cheesy faux-classic rock soundtrack.
One of the few other characters in the show is President Davidson, played by Joe Estevez, who’s an embodiment of the right-wing idea of Obama. Decker insults him at every opportunity, typically without any sense. “The only reason you like football,” Decker tells him, “is the gridlock. You’re obsessed with bureaucracy at the highest level.” When Decker discovers the terrorist plot to blow up Central Park, President Davidson suggests surrender. Decker is predictably outraged. After an extended sequence of Decker riding his motorcycle to New York, he manages to foil the plot pretty much just by showing up.
This idea that fighting terrorism works through tough talk and sheer force of will is not too far off from the Republican position. The list of Republicans blaming anything foreign policy-related on Obama being “timid” or soft or “weak” is seemingly endless.
Making the Republican connection even clearer, Decker’s also conflicted that he risks his life “just so they can tax and spend on entitlements that people don’t even deserve. Maybe this country needs a swift kick in the ass,” he says, “to get itself back on track.”
The new season, Decker: Port Of Call: Hawaii is currently airing a new episode every weekday, with 13 out so far. It begins with Decker trying to take a vacation in Hawaii. Viewers are treated to a performance of the original song “Our Values Are Under Attack” featuring the line “You wave a flag on CHRISTmas Day/They’ll put you in jail.” But when President Davidson visits Hawaii on an all-expenses-paid trip with the National Association of Special Interests, things go awry, and Decker is forced back into action.
It’s hard to predict exactly how Decker will save the U.S.A. from terrorism this time, but you can be sure he’ll do it.