Shoot the Dog

"Shoot the Dog" is a single by the singer-songwriter George Michael, released as the second single from his album, Patience, though released a year and a half prior to the album. The song is an anti-George W. Bush song. Released on 29 July 2002, it peaked at number one in Denmark and number twelve in the United Kingdom. The music video for the song is completely animated.

Music video
The music video featured animation provided by the satirical British cartoon series 2DTV.

The video starts in the White House where president George W. Bush is given an explanation about the current state of affairs in the world. Bush (depicted behaving like a naïve child) hasn't understood a word of it, so a general re-explains everything with the use of a hand puppet. Then the song starts and George Michael enters the White House leaving a men's toilet (in reference to the 1998 scandal when Michael was caught during a lewd act in a toilet). He, Bush and the general start dancing to the music before Michael leaves the scenery.

In the next scene Michael leaves his house (dressed like Homer Simpson) and is bullied by his neighbour and his dog. Back home that night the neighbour goes on tormenting him by playing loud music which irritates George Michael and his family members (who are all clones of himself and are dressed like The Simpsons). Then Michael-Homer chases the dog with a gun, only to be shot himself. Three travesty versions of Michael (of which one of them looks like Marge Simpson ) start dancing to the music, only to be bothered by Geri Halliwell.

Then George Michael (as himself) walks to the White House lawn where President Bush throws a ball so his dog can fetch it. British Prime Minister Tony Blair chases and returns the ball instead, cuddled by Bush in reward. Michael continues his walk and enters Iraq where he accidentally steps on a missile, launched to England, while Saddam Hussein praises the act. Michael rides the missile (possibly in homage to Major Kong's final scene in Dr Strangelove), until it crashes in Blair's bedroom where Cherie Blair tries to get his attention, but Blair is only interested in Bush, who suddenly crawls into their bed.

In the next scene three versions of George Michael dance next to each other (all are references to other musical periods of his professional career). Back on the White House lawn Blair tries to catch another ball thrown by Bush, but it changes into a missile which crashes into the Michaels/Simpsons' house. There Blair watches TV with the family. Trevor McDonald announces a world war, but shrugs his shoulders not knowing what to do. Blair changes the channel to Elizabeth II and Prince Charles greeting people from the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Now with a hairstyle similar to Phil Oakey, Michael jumps on the balcony and starts dancing with the Queen and one of her dogs. Prince Charles tries to do the same but moves completely out of rhythm. Then the Queen's crown falls of her head and lands on Charles' head. He is excited, but then bitten in his behind by the dog.

Meanwhile Michael jumps to two large groups of soldiers. He sticks flowers into their guns (a reference to the famous picture of hippie protesters by Bernie Boston) and then strips to his underwear before jumping on Cherie Blair's bed. She quickly changes the channel of the television set she's watching and the scene changes to David Beckham and Paul Scholes playing soccer. Tony Blair appears in American football attire and changes the football into an American football before leaving the stadium. Pierluigi Collina gives him a red card, while David Seaman starts crying. While Michael seduces Cherie, Tony Blair uses Great Britain as a speedboat to annex his country to the United States. In the final scene Michael dances in a cowboy outfit, joined by Bush and Blair, before the two politicians leave the scene together. Then other clones of Michael jump in to join him, until they all resemble the Village People. Bush and Blair re-enter the scene dancing the tango together and the song ends. Back in the White House President Bush liked the song so much that he asks his general to repeat everything. The general is not pleased.