DHS doesn’t seem to know what the Pokémon series, or its English theme song, are about.

We just saw anime show up in a question on long-running American quiz show Jeopardy, and now comes an even more unexpected appearance, as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has posted a video of interspersing clips from the Pokémon anime and footage of the department’s agents making arrests, all set to the English-language Pokémon theme song, which can be seen here.

And much like how there are many facets to the Pokémon media franchise, there are multiple aspects to the stupidity here. Let’s take a look at them one by one.

1. To start with, the Department of Homeland Security is a governmental organization tasked with anti-terrorism, civil defense, and border control activities. The forcefulness with which it carries out those duties is, to put it mildly, a topic of some debate within the U.S. Setting aside the question of which side of the discourse has the more valid opinion, those in favor of the DHS acting with greater assertiveness argue that such tactics are necessary to keep the American people safe from dangerous, even deadly criminals. Likening them to cute creatures from a children’s cartoon series is both juvenile and counterproductive if the aim is to establish that there are imminent and significant threats that the DHS needs broad authority to deal with.

2. “Gotta catch ‘em all” may be the Pokémon franchise’s English-language tagline, but Pokémon Trainers aren’t catching their targets with the same intent that the DHS is. As a law-enforcement agency, after the DHS “catches” alleged criminals they face some sort of punishment, generally imprisonment or deportation (since United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement/ICE is a part of the DHS).

That’s not what happens when Pokémon Trainers catch Pokémon, though. Yes, Pokémon that have been caught do get placed inside Poke Balls (Pikachu excepted), but it’s not a prison environment. Throughout the course of the anime, it’s shown that, unless the trainer is an abusive scumbag, the norm is for Trainers and the Pokémon they’ve caught to form an emotional bond, caring for one another and sticking together through both good times and bad. No one, once they finally catch a Shiny after hours of trying, claps their hands in joy and shouts “Yes! Now I can ship this out of my country!”

Further driving home that the relationships between Pokémon Trainers and what they catch are predominantly friendly and mutually beneficial, in singing about Pokémon the song’s lyrics include “you’re my best friend,” and “you teach me and I’ll teach you,” both of which can be heard in the DHS video but in no way gel with what the agents are shown doing.

3. Now, one could make the counterargument that both of the above points are overthinking things. It’s just a silly joke based on the fact that Pokémon Trainers and the DHS both “catch” things or people, right?

Except, even if you were to think it’s fine to use a cartoon reference with only a tangential vocabulary relationship to the point you’re trying to make, Pokémon is a poor choice of cartoon to co-opt to try to promote your message, especially in the way the DHS has. The Pokémon Company is infamous for the proactive stance it takes in defending the IP against unauthorized use, and the DHS video isn’t a thinly veiled, independently produced spoof. Not only does it use clips lifted directly from the Pokémon anime, it uses the exact audio of the theme song’s recording too, with the word “Pokémon” said four different times within the video.

That said, the Pokémon Company might decide that bringing legal complaints against the U.S. government is beyond what even it’s prepared to do, and as of this writing the company hasn’t put out any official statement regarding the DHS video.

Source: Twitter/@DHSgov
Top image: Pakutaso
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