Remember That Time North Korea ‘Nuked’ America and No One Cared?

As the world learned yesterday, Sony Pictures has decided to pull The Interview from theaters after receiving terror threats from the group that previously committed a cyber-attack on the studio, releasing troves of private emails and personal information. The comedy film, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, includes a scene in which North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un’s head literally explodes.

The idea that Americans — or God forbid, North Koreans — would have to witness such an atrocity was just too much for the dictator to bear. The situation has left a lot of people wondering how Americans would feel if, say, North Korea, put out a film in which President Barack Obama was assassinated.

While that hasn’t happened, as far as we know, there was that time last year when the North Koreans put out an animated propaganda video in which a young man can be seen dreaming about a hypothetical nuclear attack on major U.S. cities set to the peace anthem “We Are the World.”

In case you missed this somehow, you can watch the video below:

How did Americans react? Sure, the imagery, which could be seen as invoking 9/11, was disturbing. But then again, the video was set to “We Are the World!” And as the many American gamers who watched the video quickly noticed, the destruction footage was lifted directly from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. In other words, we saw it for the joke that it was.

And as with many things that have happened over the past nine years, the best response came from Stephen Colbert. A few weeks after the video hit the web, Colbert decided to air his own video in response. “We are not only in an arms race,” he said, “we are in a dreams race.”

Colbert’s version included footage lifted from The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, When Harry Met Sally and more, all in an effort to prove just how ridiculous North Korea’s propaganda efforts are.

Watch Colbert’s response below, via Comedy Central:

And if the U.S. had taken the propaganda video seriously and threatened real-life retaliation against North Korea, do you really think Kim Jong-un would have backed down and insisted all copies of the video be removed from the internet? Somehow, I doubt it.

Of course, the difference is that The Interview is not a propaganda film — despite the apparent approval from the State Department. It’s a satire that highlights what makes America’s freedom of expression so vitally important. And one that, thanks to North Korea, Americans may never get to see.

[Photo via screengrab]

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>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

[Photo via screengrab]

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>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.