Where culture trumps politics.

• Author: Gillespie, Nick
• Position: Editorial

AS THE 2008 presidential race gets cranked up in earnest, releasing more toxic gas into the atmosphere than 1,000 coal-fired electricity plants, it's worth keeping in mind that the most interesting and creative aspects of American life have little to do with partisan politics.

For an example, look no further than the Cartoon Network show The Venture Brothers, which is precisely the sort of quality fare the Federal Communications Commission is seeking to shut down (see "The Fee's Not Our Mommy or Daddy," page 24). Now in its third season of production, The Venture Brothers is a knowing and kind pastiche of old 1960s kid-adventure cartoons such as Jonny Quest, 1970s didactic do-gooder series such as Super Friends, and a heavy dose of absurdist fantasy (rock star David Bowie heads up a super-villain union called the Guild of Calamitous Intent).

The result is a hilarious program that perfectly parodies the pop conventions that Americans have been raised on for the last 40 years while expressing ambivalence about a future that, however bright and wonderful, still somehow seems to disappoint. As The Venture Brothers' 30-something co-creator Jackson Publick puts it in an interview with Associate Editor David Weigel (see "The Horrible Truth About Super-Science," page 54), "I'm voicing my displeasure at having been born in a time when some of [the] magic ... is gone, and some of those promises that were made in all of our pop culture were never met. My laptop is the coolest thing that's come out of that. I'm still waiting on my jet pack."

The show's central figure, Dr. Venture, is a boy genius who failed to deliver on his promise and instead lives a...