"Shoot the Dog" is a song by British singer-songwriter George Michael, released as the second single from his fifth and final studio album, Patience, though released a year and a half prior to the album. It was his last release for Polydor Records, after which he departed from that label and returned to Sony Music, on which the album Patience, including the song "Shoot the Dog", was released. The song is a protest song referring to (and critical of) British Prime Minister Tony Blair and American President George W. Bush. Released on 29 July 2002, it peaked at number one in Denmark and number 12 in the United Kingdom. The music video for the song is completely animated. The single marked 20 years since the release of Wham!'s first single, "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)", another politically charged song written by Michael. "Shoot the Dog" samples the Human League song "Love Action (I Believe in Love)". It also samples the "That's right!" vocal from Silver Convention's "Get Up and Boogie", as well as the "Gotta get up" vocal from Michael's own song, "Fastlove" (1996). Music video The music video featured animation provided by the satirical British cartoon series 2DTV. It originally premiered on ITV after the episode "Series 2, Episode 6" on 2 July 2002, and was the number-one music video on rotation on MTV between July and August 2002. Following the death of George Michael on 25 December 2016, the music video was broadcast by MTV Classic in the United States, and ITV in the United Kingdom on 26 December 2016 — ahead of a rerun of the movie Bee Movie — and featured a title card paying tribute to Michael. Synopsis The video starts off 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) has not 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 the men's toilet (in reference to the scandal of April 1998 where 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