--- title: Matt Damon Addresses Trey Parker Matt Stone Team America Parody description: The action star is still 'bewildered' by his depiction in the 2004 animated political comedy, but believes that history is on his side. canonical: https://time.com/4414751/matt-damon-never-quite-understood-that-team-america-parody/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-20T15:38:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:34.590Z og:title: Matt Damon 'Bewildered' By That Team America Parody og:description: The action star still doesn't quite understand what the joke was all about og:url: https://time.com/4414751/matt-damon-never-quite-understood-that-team-america-parody/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcee052020537af01/69889cb5cf40a8c108c44115/matt-damon-las-vegas-e1469127512929.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Premiere Of Universal Pictures' "Jason Bourne" In Las Vegas og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Matt Damon 'Bewildered' By That Team America Parody twitter:description: The action star still doesn't quite understand what the joke was all about twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcee052020537af01/69889cb5cf40a8c108c44115/matt-damon-las-vegas-e1469127512929.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Matt Damon 'Never Quite Understood' That _Team America_ Parody  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 20, 2016 3:38 PM UTC  LAS VEGAS, NV - JULY 18: Actor Matt Damon attends the premiere of Universal Pictures' "Jason Bourne" at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on July 18, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/FilmMagic) LAS VEGAS, NV - JULY 18: Actor Matt Damon attends the premiere of Universal Pictures' "Jason Bourne" at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on July 18, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/FilmMagic)Gabe Ginsberg—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 20, 2016 3:38 PM UTC In 2004’s raunchy, ridiculous, and ultimately iconic [_Team America: World Police_](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,725138,00.html?iid=sr-link4), the depiction of Matt Damon is pretty one-dimensional: the character (in marionette form) only says one line, repeatedly, and [that’s his own name](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnPWJOJYVKc). It may not have been a flattering portrayal, but it did give Damon a pop culture boost. And it seems to have stuck; Damon, [everyone’s favorite celebrity](http://time.com/4410678/matt-damon-jason-bourne-ben-affleck/?iid=sr-link6), says the puppet headshot is the one he’s most [commonly asked to autograph](http://www.gq.com/story/encyclopedia-of-matt-damon) for fans. So in a Reddit [Ask Me Anything forum](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4tnhf2/i%5Fam%5Fmatt%5Fdamon%5Fask%5Fme%5Fanything/) on Tuesday night, Damon addressed a question about his ongoing _Team America_ legacy. “I was always kind of bewildered by _Team America_, I think because it’s hard for us to understand what our images are in public, I think we’re not good judges of that, and when I saw myself on screen just only able to say my own name and not really that well, I kind of wondered ‘Wow, is that how people perceive me?'” Damon wrote on the digital forum. “At that point I just kind of was like, I’m a screenwriter and an actor, and like really? I can barely say my own name?” Damon adds that he sees Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the creators of both _Team America_ and _South Park_) as “absolute geniuses,” and that he’s a fan of theirs. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4414751/matt-damon-never-quite-understood-that-team-america-parody/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4414751/matt-damon-never-quite-understood-that-team-america-parody/"},"headline":"Matt Damon 'Never Quite Understood' That Team America Parody","datePublished":"2016-07-20T15:38:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:34.590Z","description":"\"Bewildered\"","url":"https://time.com/4414751/matt-damon-never-quite-understood-that-team-america-parody/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","movies","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcee052020537af01/69889cb5cf40a8c108c44115/matt-damon-las-vegas-e1469127512929.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcee052020537af01/69889cb5cf40a8c108c44115/matt-damon-las-vegas-e1469127512929.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Premiere Of Universal Pictures' \"Jason Bourne\" In Las Vegas","caption":"Premiere Of Universal Pictures' \"Jason Bourne\" In Las Vegas","creditText":"Gabe Ginsberg—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4414751/matt-damon-never-quite-understood-that-team-america-parody/","name":"Matt Damon 'Never Quite Understood' That Team America Parody"}}]}] ```