Several humorous parallels from columnist Bilge Ibiri within that don’t so much  successfully argue for  Joe being a rip-off of World Police, but do get to the heart of why Parker and Stone helped make a straight-faced telling near-impossible at this stage.

Full Future of Classic post, excerpts below:

“The Fall of Paris
G.I. Joe: Attempting to keep supervillains The Baroness (Sienna Miller) and Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee) from detonating a nanotech-fueled warhead, G.I. Joe’s Team Alpha levels half of Paris — culminating in the Eiffel Tower collapsing into the Seine.
Team America: Attempting to keep terrorists from detonating a WMD in the City of Light, Team America levels half of Paris — culminating in the Eiffel Tower collapsing into the Arc de Triomphe. Sound familiar? ”

“Our Team’s Secret Lair, Destroyed
G.I. Joe: The Joes’ secret HQ, hidden deep under the Sahara Desert in the shadow of the Pyramids, is trashed by The Baroness and Storm Shadow after its location is leaked.
Team America: Team America’s secret HQ, hidden deep in the recesses of Mt. Rushmore, is blown up in a burst of anti-American rage by documentary filmmaker Michael Moore. “