“Palacio Presidencial!” takes the “That’s My Bush!” approach and presents a 10-minute sitcom involving dictator Federico Olive (“Oh-lee-vay”) (Alfredo Diaz), who runs things on the island of Platnoe Cocaina. Federico’s got a wife that’s much hotter than Laura Bush, Josefa (Laura Reichenbach), whom he suspects is up to something but he can’t figure it out. General Estampo (Chris Golio), is the obvious star of this piece, made so by the applause and laughter on the laugh track and is not above killing anyone that threatens “democracy” on the island. He’s a wild pistol and just like Bush on the other show, he’s got a catchphrase: “Just shoot them in the face!” That’s the answer Federico gets when he expresses frustration over his wife, and it’s milked a few more times before the end.
Not surprisingly, Josefa is up to something. She is cheating on her husband with her lover (Shaun Ireland), though she makes the mistake of using the prison as the place for lovemaking because Federico and Estampo are in there, preparing to kill some political detainees. However, this presents a problem, a strange one at that. Josefa is eager to get into the prison to do what she obviously doesn’t feel like doing with her husband. She goes in there with her lover and handcuffs his hands above his head, but when she hears her husband and Estampo walking around, she tells him that she has to hide and leaves him there. In that scene, she seemed to get into the prison pretty easily, but once out of there, she tells Maurice (Sean Glazebrook), Federico’s faithful butler, that she needs to find a way to get back in. Maurice produces a map that he claims to have created only moments earlier and goes over the best places for her to get back in. It didn’t quite seem that her husband was that close and while it is one of the weak spots of this sitcom, there is a great moment with Maurice when he has to give Josefa the keys that Estampo has in his back pocket. Estampo is lounging on the couch and Maurice tells him that he has to dust where he’s sitting and Estampo stands up. Swiftly enough, Maurice manages to snag the keys and throws them Josefa’s way. It’s amusing because Estampo doesn’t even bother to notice, but Estampo’s mind is probably on other matters, like killing more detainees and other people. As he says when Federico begs him to keep a secret, “I kill all my friends.”
“Palacio Presidencial!” has got the look of a sitcom down flat with its one-room setting and establishing shots that were created courtesy of a picture of a palace that was probably found on the Internet. All the actors are clearly into this and Estampo manages to make his catchphrase funny every time he says it, or tries to say it. Writer/director Kent Sanderson should film another because a sitcom involving the life of a dictator isn’t seen very often.
