--- 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Matt Damon 'Never Quite Understood' That _Team America_ Parody > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=42f9d915-ccc6-4bd3-81c4-3a7ad9d764cc&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  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"}}]}] ```