Kim Jong-il in popular culture
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Due to his diminutive stature, eccentric personality, apparent paranoia, erratic behavior, and neo-Stalinist policies, Kim Jong-il is often parodied in popular culture outside North Korea.
- Kim Jong-il was satirized in the U.S. movie Team America: World Police, in which Kim himself masterminds a global terrorist plot and sings I'm So Ronery.
- Two South Koreans, an Incheon resident named Bae Eun-sik and a Seoul businessman named Kim Young-sik, do light-hearted acts of Kim Jong-il, copying his dress, speech, and mannerisms for movies, television shows, commercials, and at parties.
- The Stephanie Miller Show, distributed on the Jones Radio Network, repeatedly lampoons the North Korean leader. Vocal impressionist Jim Ward's characterization uses hip hop slang to mock him (e.g., "K to the J to the I.L. in the hizzouse!").
- Kim has been parodied by MADtv's Bobby Lee, and by Saturday Night Live's Horatio Sanz until he left SNL, and was replaced by Amy Poehler.
- On The Late Show with David Letterman, Letterman frequently mentions Kim Jong-il's "brother", Menta Lee-il (mentally ill). In July 2006, announcing that Jong-il had just been married (to his longtime secretary, Kim Ok, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency; no confirmation was forthcoming as of early August), Letterman said Kim "tried to consummate his marriage, and his wife became Physic Lee-il." Two nights earlier, he noted that Kim's "honeymoon's going well; last night, he successfully test-fired a short-range missile." Letterman has also identified Kim's wife as "Marcy Schneidermann-il".
- In 2003, Bill Maher refers to Kim Jong-il as "Lil Kim" during his live comedy performance Bill Maher: Victory Begins At Home.
- Kim has been parodied on the cancelled Comedy Central show Kid Notorious, where he is portrayed as film-crazy and extremely short, owing much of his height to massive platform shoes.
- Kim is referred to as 'Kim Jong Mentally Ill' on talk radio shows including the Bill Handel show in Los Angeles and the Schnitt Show (hosted by Todd Schnitt) on XM Radio.
- Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has commonly referred to Kim Jong-il as a "pot-bellied little dictator" for years.
- Pittsburg's WDVE radio station often does comedy acts where Kim Jong-il "calls" the radio station and is interviewed. Kim Jong-il often tries to sell a dirty bomb to the DJ.
