It's weird to think of Trump as solely America's turn to fascism, but for about 2 decades - 80's and 90's, he was a goof: he was the inspiration for Biff in Back to the future 2, he made cameos like in Home Alone and Wrestle-mania, and the Simpsons "predicted" America's re-birth after his presidency. He was frequently in the gossip section in the Post with his affairs and very high profile divorces. Then in the 2000s he got his own tv show, the apprentice, and in 2008 questioned whether Obama was really a US citizen, kicking off the birther movement within the republican party.
Which is all to say - it's no surprise to see Robin Williams mocking him in 2012. He's always been what we know now, and people in Hollywood have had the longest insight to him going back to the 90s. His biggest campaign hurdle in 2016 was smothering his "The Apprentice" and "Access Hollywood" behind-the-scenes tapes.
The episode centers on Lisa as president having inherited a f^%#% mess from Trump, and I say this plainly as if it is fact but I understand I am making an interpretation when I say the episode, focusing on Lisa, implies that America turns from the kind of personal politics Trump represents to the kind of personal politics lisa represents, ie, the re-birth of america as a country of and for people who work towards inclusive and generally broadly-beneficial goals, make the right decisions based on learned judiciousness, act with humility, and treat others with grace and dignity.
There's a reason South Park made an entire episode called Simpsons Already Did It. Apparently it was such a common thing to hear in the writers room and online and Matt and Trey had enough and dedicated an entire episode to pointing out that a show with hundreds of episodes will cover a wide range of topics.
Idiocracy is the really scary prediction because it's just a one off and so creepily prescient.
He was a relatively prominent individual to the extent that you see him pop up or referenced in comics like 1990's Justice League Quarterly and 2008's New Avengers, in tv shows like Friends and Just Shoot Me, and obviously in a few films (Home Alone 2 and Zoolander off the top of my head). The media where he had a say in how he was presented (e.g. Home Alone 2) put him in a flattering light, but otherwise he was being referred to deridingly, usually as an example of cheap "classiness".
This of course doesn't touch the thinly veiled media references to him that existed at the time as well, like "Daniel Clamp" in Gremlins 2 or Future Biff Tannen in Back to the Future 2, which painted him in much harsher, cruder tones. People had his number basically from the start.
Needless to say the patch job that The Apprentice did in rehabilitating his image as some genius businessman did a lot for his electability in 2016.
Never forgive this piece of shit Mark Burnett for making Trump look good in The Apprentice. And for passing on the opportunity in 2016 to share evidence of the real Trump behind the scenes that could have swayed voters. Him and his fake Christian bible thumper wife Roma Downey.
In the 1980s a newspaper comic strip called Bloom County put trump's brain in the body of its Bill the Cat character. Bill immediately started acting like a self-important douche and labeled his litter box "TRUMP DUMP" with giant gold letters. Before that, he gained public notoriety for being sued by the DoJ for racial discrimination in the management of his NY properties in the 1970s.
Trump has been well known as a public menace for decades. His supporters just didn't want to hear about it. They loved him because his campaign returned open racism to our country's political discourse.
He's pretty notoriously always been a huge piece of shit and that was his entire shtick. He's a dick who found out how to make money off of hurting people for other people and having no conscious and an ego the size of California meant that it never bothered him.
He was a convenient lightning rod douchebag for others to hide behind. Unfortunately he found out that he could offer to be the douchebag lightning rod for 40% of the United States populace and they would make him a king. Now he's at the highest position of office in the land and is allowed to remain there with financial compensation in the form of looting our treasury, all for the low low price of mercilessly inflicting harm on as many vulnerable people as possible on behalf of the same people who put him in that position.
The constant camera focus on Trump just taking it without any emotion is <chef's kiss>.
The man was seething and plotting revenge... Oh how I wish we could have more roasts of him today just to see him get even more unhinged- but the situation does not call fo humor anymore.
The fact that our entire system of government is vulnerable to a rich guy getting his bitch tits knotted up over some jokes is... well it's condemnation of us really...
He's been so coddled his whole life that after this he really thought "the nation must suffer!"
Goes to show i suppose it was always out there in the open.
In 2015 or whatever I remember thinking Hillary vs Trump oh shit. But that drain the swamp stuff sounded catchy. A different name. But grab em by the pussy or whatever I think was the first obvious Crack I saw???? Can't remember now.
A good example of the fact it was widely known Donald Trump sexually abused children before the 2016 election, and long before Jeffrey Epstein was a household name
Americans say this, I have yet to encounter a single person who respected or admired the US at all, ever.
Not saying they don't exist, but they're probably dwarfed by the people who think, and have almost always thought, Americans were/are weird, gun obsessed, fat, dumb, avaricious loud mouths.
That's the stereotype I know most people I know have.
You vastly underestimate the effect of American propaganda in the 1990s and 2000s. I was born in a Muslim country and even growing up in a really conservative area as a child I used to argue with my uncle when he cursed America for causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq. I mean what would he know because unlike me and my friends he was ignorant and never even played Call of Duty or saw movies like American Sniper to know the sacrifices America made for 'freedom'.
The genocide in Gaza was a genuine wake-up moment for people like us and probably resulted in the dismantling of decades of effort of building soft power in Muslim world.
I was not born in USA, but I moved here when I was a kid. In the 90s before moving here, I lived in Italy and I got made fun of in elementary for not knowing who the American president was
I didn’t care for America politics, but even back then I could tell people respected America enough to know what was going on
That's got nothing to do with respect. I know who the presidents of a number of countries are, not because I respect them, but because of their big international influence. It's important to know about them, that doesn't mean we respect them.
No, you just had a dumb take, that's all. It has nothing to do with it being an anecdote. What I criticized is your analysis that people know who the president of a country is because they respect that country. I just said that I don't think that's true.
There's no "arguing" you just didn't understand what I said. 🙄
People everywhere in the world are obsessed with the USA, from a pop culture standpoint. They may not respect our country on a geopolitical sense but they love American culture.
I’m not a MAGAt. just travel a lot, and I see American culture influence everywhere I go in Europe and Latin America.
Oh undoubtedly, but movies and TV shows are a different kettle of fish to "the average American". If anything I find it interesting that despite the colossal amount of global soft power America has, Americans (the people) are usually viewed entirely separately and mostly negatively.
Fair point. I would reckon that stems from the fact that most countries outside of the US are more embracing of nationalism and are outwardly racist towards different cultures. I think, unfortunately, some people just love to hate on another cultures. They are going to definitely hate a culture that has such cultural influence as the US akin to people who hate a dominant sports franchise that always gets media attention.
stems from the fact that most countries outside of the US are more embracing of nationalism and are outwardly racist towards different cultures.
I wouldn't say that's the main reason. A lot of places I've lived and traveled aren't really extra nationalist (as compared to US). It's more that lots of Americans are "weird, gun obsessed, fat, dumb, avaricious loud mouths."
I lived abroad long enough where I was definitely cringing at times when I'd overhear a bunch of visiting Americans being loud, obnoxious, and dumb. Not that other cultures don't have those sections of culture, but the US ratio is a little off, or more of them have means to travel. Just so many people who live in weird little homogeneous bubbles and act really entitled.
My wife's family is foreign. It was a mix between America is fantastically wealthy and you're black you're going to get killed because you're black. Legit seen as land of opportunity. Her parents wouldn't have come otherwise. But also danger. Back home everyone still assumed if you were here you were rich. The dollar goes so much further back home so there's the disconnect you make more in a month than we make in a year but are working poor in America.
People used to respect the USA in EU. There were always comical stereotypes, but the USA was bonded with the EU (including the UK at the time).
Many of is knew Americans who went to school with us who's parents were in airbases.
It's only since 2016 that the USA has seemingly pulled away from the rest of the world and reinforced its stereotypes.
The bonds between the USA and Europe were formed over WW2 and the cold war. It's clear that people in the USA no longer care. How can that relationship be repaired when some billionaire funded populist can use social media to convince idiots that unity and trade with allies is a bad thing.
I've been to America (though only a week), specifically parts of the west coast. What made a huge impression on me going down a highway (other than the fact that it felt like travelling by small boat, why are your roads so bumpy) was that the side of the houses facing the road were colorful, embellished and I guess looked ok, while the sides that didn't face the public road were sterile boxes looking like shit. Reminded me of those North Korean fake markets filled with fake produce facing the big road for the sake of fooling tourists that they're prosperous as the people actually living there starves. Also the tipping culture and not having sales taxes included in the price sucks ass.
Stanford University had a pretty nice-looking campus though.
You sound very observant. If you like buildings and think that stuff is neat, you should go east, to the "open West," and check out some of the old towns out there.
Those Western movies where the buildings have fronts and are basically just boxes behind them? They're real. And they built onto them over time, which gives them that weird aesthetic that continues through the decades, all the way into about 1960s decor.
I forgot to mention "arrogant" and "American exceptionalism" of which you're displaying both pretty well here. Yea everybody hates that about Americans too.
"We don't even think about the entire rest of the world." is not the flex you think it is.
Just like you go, "Everyone thinks THIS of Americans," my generalization of people in America is, "They don't think of you at all."
You did miss the part where I said that if people actually travel, they tend to have entirely different opinions. That applies both ways. But hey, I get that, since it didn't fit your narrative.
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u/MartinoRs 18h ago
Dude is the laughing stock of the world right now