If Hillary Clinton is elected, she probably won't want to emulate the women presidents depicted on TV and in films; The Second City comedy troupe and Slate magazine teamed up for a “completely unbiased political revue”; which late night shows have benefitted most from the wild presidential campaign?
Second City's 'Unelectable You' brings audiences together through laughter
This weekend at the Fox Theater in Riverside was the final stop on a 25-city tour for a show called “Unelectable You.” The Second City comedy troupe from Chicago teamed up with the online magazine Slate to create what they called a “completely unbiased political revue.”
Second City is known to many fans as a training ground for famous faces including Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert. And while the troupe’s comedy has a liberal bent, the jokes from this show were strictly non-partisan. No one was spared in the two-hour satirical roast of Democrats, Republicans, and everyone in between.
If the great turnout for the show was any indication, it appeared Southern Californians crave a way to find the funny in this election. That’s exactly what the cast aimed to deliver.
Backstage before the show, cast members Cody Dove and Ian Owens talked about their experiences on tour. Owens, who plays President Obama and other prominent black politicians, said the previous night they had played the conservative town of Mesa, Arizona, where folded arms and dirty looks were plentiful. To combat the serious vibe, the actors made sure to research the towns where the show is performed to tailor-make the comedy for each city.
“We have the advantage as improvisers where the audience gives us a suggestion,” Dove said. “So we have that advantage to be like, ‘Okay, this is what is appealing to you or a catalyst to you—so we’ll take that and run with it.’ Then they feel ownership in the show. They feel like it’s their night and experience. And as the emcee, I’ll do political research of the state as a whole, how people are leaning. I’ll find moments to work that in as well so people don’t feel like [in robotic voice], We are here. Tonight. Now. We. Leave.
"We’re like, Hey, Arizona is the state of Goldwater, this is the State of Sheriff Joe and Jan Brewer and all this insanity so we’re going to call you on that so you might as well come with us! And a lot of times they come with us.”
Most every time, the actors said everyone laughed at all Hillary Clinton jokes for some reason, no matter where the show played. It turns out the both sides of the aisle can chortle at any Clinton joke. Yet Trump jabs tended to receive a more lukewarm response.
Perhaps it comes down to how people view and select their candidate of choice. To illustrate that very personal process, the ensemble did a fun routine in which a random audience member is chosen to run for President running against Trump and Clinton.
Here’s how it works. The actors pull someone up on stage and give the person a quick style make-over, a social media presence, and they quickly create some negative attack ads starring the oft-befuddled audience candidate. Once that's done, the audience votes with live polls taken right in the theatre to gauge voter support over the current Democratic and Republican tickets.
"What I’ve been surprised by audience members is when sometimes when we go to the polls and we are celebrating this person," Dove said. "We don’t say they are Republican or Democrat. We bring them up there and [have] a small interview process at the top where they might say, I’m a truck driver, [as was the] guy last night in Arizona. Then we’ll go to a [different] audience member and say ‘How much do you support this person?’ And I’m blown away! Sometimes a fellow audience member will say, ‘Nah, not very much.’ They don’t even know this person!”
“Based on nothing!” Owens added. “Nothing! And we’ve pulled up some octogenarian retired teachers. And to hear the vitriol!”
“It’s maybe someone making assumptions like, Ah, unions!" Dove said. “They just make weird assumptions and they run with it.”
Riverside, however, was totally different. The audience candidate quickly became a fan favorite, signing autographs and taken selfies after the show.
He was a shy, soft-spoken small business owner named Jim Davidson. He and his husband run a shop called Riverside Rubber Stamp & Engraving Co. The men had no idea what they were getting into. It turns out they're season subscribers at the the Fox Theater, so they attend every show.
To put it mildly, Davidson did not want to get on stage. It took some coaxing from the actors. While he did seem a bit tongue-tied once he was in the spotlight, something funny happened: the less he said, the more people liked him. His platform was a mere two-word slogan — "More wine.”
But that was enough to do the trick and then some. With 100 percent support, the Riverside audience elected Jim Davidson as President during the faux-election. Joking aside, Davidson said he voted early because he has a clear political opinion.
“It’s more personal for me because I’m gay,” Davidson said. “So I’m going to go for Hillary, because Trump wants to put people into the Supreme Court that will overturn same-sex marriage. But we should respect each other. Everyone has a right to vote for who they want to vote for.”
Political issues also took a ribbing in the show. The actors pointed out that making political and social change can be tough in our democratic process. So several invitations were extended to make instant change inside the theater. For example, folks sitting in the cheap seats got to switch chairs with the top dollar front row folks, while two gents literally sitting across the aisle from each other were encouraged to embrace one another, offer compliments and even make-out if they wished. They declined, much to the disappointment of the audience.
And the audience got to demand change from Congressman Mark Takano, who represents Riverside. Led by cast member Cody Dove, the audience called Takano's office and left a voicemail.
Despite the healthy supply of laughs, a serious side to political issues surfaced as well. A wonderfully smart group of students from Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Eastvale, a town just west of Riverside, demanded that the audience pay attention to a particular sensitive issue.
“I think racial profiling is a really big deal that needs to be solved in America, especially because it’s ridiculous," said Kaelyn Gordon, a 16-year-old African-American student, “Stop-and-frisk — that’s ridiculous. That’s just making an excuse to be racist. And it’s giving people and adolescents the wrong message that it’s okay, and it’s not. We look to people like Donald Trump because they’re older and they’re supposed to be giving us advice, and that’s the kind of message that he is sending and it’s not okay. I don’t think that’s something that’s talked about enough.”
Gordon was there with her history class. Their teacher, Amanda Sandoval, said the students have been blogging about the election, following it closely and on Tuesday they’ll stage a mock election. So they're looking very seriously at the process. Yet Gordon insisted that a comic lens is equally useful.
“It’s important to laugh about it,” Gordon said. “It’s good to be serious, but it is also good to make light of it because it is easier to understand when it’s not such a serious topic. It’s harder to talk about something like that, especially when you are black or when you are a minority. And then when you laugh about it, it makes it easier and it makes it more comfortable and it makes it more natural to talk about it. And then it’s this big scary topic or elephant in the room.”
While the Riverside show marked the end of the tour, the Second City members said each city offered new insight — whether the audience members left as comedy fans or not. Ensemble member Claire Linic recounted how several audience members walked out of the show in Columbus, Georgia— even before they got to intermission. So the cast was left playing to a rather empty house.
On the flip-side, there were moments of coming together and an awareness of how people are more often alike than not. One show that stood out for Dove happened in Schenectady, New York, where two audience members fainted during the performance and everyone pitched in to help.
“I was glad when we came back from the intermission,” Dove said. “I said [to the audience], ‘It’s interesting. We’ve played all these markets from all around country — from smaller towns, rust belt cities, liberal vibrant cities — and when it comes down to it, in that moment when that person really needed help, everyone literally reached across the aisle to help this person.’
"So at the end of the night, if people can look at each other and laugh and [say], Yeah, our beliefs are a little silly. They are kind of insane sometimes.’ Remember, it’s the good of the country, of the people that live here. And maybe comedy is that bridge at the end of the night to be like, We are not really all that different. Let’s find way to bring civility back to what we’re doing.”
A complete, kind of depressing history of fictional female presidents
On HBO’s "Veep," the lovably misanthropic Vice President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States after the sitting president resigned to care for his mentally ill wife.
In real life, as you may have noticed, American history has produced exactly zero female presidents to date, but the "Veep" universe has already racked up two: both Meyer and her successor, Laura Montez (Andrea Savage). And these women are far from the first fictional lady presidents to be depicted on film and television.
But I’ve got bad, if not totally surprising, news: pop culture has not been kind to female commanders-in-chief. I took a careful look at all the fictional woman presidents I could find and discovered that these make-believe heads of state could be divided into four broad, largely unflattering categories:
THE INCUMBENT DIES
Only eight American presidents have died in office, but their fatality rate on TV and film is much more alarming. As a result, only a small number of women have been actually elected to the nation’s highest office on their own merit.
This was the case on the TV series "Commander in Chief," in which Geena Davis became the first female president after the incumbent suffered a cerebral aneurysm. On "Scandal," the archconservative vice president, played by Kate Burton, briefly took office when the president was hospitalized following an assassination attempt.
"Madam Secretary," too, had its, ahem, titular stateswoman, played by Téa Leoni, temporarily assume executive powers when Air Force One was believed lost with the president aboard, and both the vice president and the Senate leader were incapacitated.
And in "Mars Attacks!," the president’s teenage daughter, played by Natalie Portman, ascended to his post after the entire government was wiped out by aliens.
WOMEN BECOME PRESIDENT THROUGH CORRUPTION AND INCOMPETENCE
Now, as much as I adore Selina Meyer on "Veep," there’s no denying that she’s as much a train wreck as any of our real-life presidents have ever been. And she’s not alone. On "Prison Break," Patricia Wettig’s vice president engineered the assassination of the sitting president. In "Mafia!," Christina Applegate — newly elected to the presidency — nearly achieves world peace before being distracted by her mob boss boyfriend.
LEGITIMATELY GOOD PRESIDENTS
There have been some legit characterizations on screen, though few and far between. The two most notable mainstream examples were Cherry Jones’ character on "24," a strong, idealistic cross between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton; and Alfre Woodard’s character on "State of Affairs." This Air Force veteran — the first black woman to be elected president — was smart and effective, if a little too fixated on avenging her son’s death.
This summer’s "Independence Day: Resurgence" saw Sela Ward presiding in the White House, which was fortunately rebuilt since the original film. Depending on your interpretation of the series finale of "Parks & Recreation," you might want to hear Leslie Knope’s name mentioned here, too. And while she was technically the president of the Twelve Colonies and not the United States, Mary McDonnell’s character on "Battlestar Galactica" would certainly fit into this category as well.
Could we have more of that, please?
SOMETIMES WOMEN GET TO THE HIGHEST OFFICE IN THE LAND THROUGH SEXIST B.S.
Personally, I’m not too bothered by the many incompetent and/or corrupt fictional female presidents. What’s more troubling is when these characters serve only to make a retrograde comment on the girlish silliness of the fairer sex, delicate simpletons that we are.
The short-lived 1985 sitcom, "Hail to the Chief," starred Patty Duke as the first woman president — though it’s unclear how she was able to accomplish anything, considering how busy she was with wrangling her unfaithful husband and rebellious teens. Y'know, lady stuff. In 1964’s "Kisses for My President," the first female president, played by Polly Bergen, saw the error of her selfish, career-having ways. So she got pregnant, and resigned to care full-time for her terribly neglected family.
But my personal favorite is a character that was never adapted for film or TV: President Rose Ambrose appeared in a 1980s "National Lampoon" story. She was named vice president because she was having an affair with the president, then became president herself after he succumbed to a heart attack — during sex! Eventually, she was brutally gunned down by multiple shooters, including the former First Lady.
Now that’s the stuff of history books!
Molly Fitzpatrick is senior culture editor for Fusion. Her story about how women presidents have been depicted in TV and film was originally published on the website, Nerve.