Review: Our Cartoon President: Election Special 2018

 

Elect this.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

After the riveting Michael Shannon intro, we’re introduced to a Washington D.C. in the midst of turmoil. The Republicans and Democrats are making sure that they can cling to their fanbases and sweep the mid-terms and will go into any means necessary in which to do so. For the Republicans, this means possibly working with the Russians while the Democrats make sure it’s known that they are a cheap “get”. And while we don’t actually get to see any predictions as to who wins, both sides have a ball of a time trying to save face with us, the adoring American public.

On the Republican side, Don Jr. is trying to figure out how to keep his Russian meetings secret while his brother Eric decides to make a pseudo 2nd career out of whistling. Meanwhile, The Don is threatening to nuke us if we don’t vote Republican.

Don’t think the Democrats are innocent, Ocasio-Cortez is here to make sure her delicate millennial fanbase is very much heard in the hallowed halls of Congress. That said, Chuck and Nancy wanna make a buck and go to several notable names to try and get said buck, but it’s Hillary in for the save at Don’s rally that puts a stop to his silly pandering. But, when the Hillary bot breaks down, we learn that someone else may have been puppet-ing the strings all along.

Our Take

The strength of Our Cartoon President is a by-product of its mainly Late Show-laden writer’s staff. Generally, the series daisy chains as many gags as possible featuring our government usually in the crosshairs with coherent plots usually in the foreground in terms of importance. As a result, when we do a slightly longer version of this, all we’re doing is elongating and showcasing some of the show’s inherent flaws. While it’s hilarious to see Trump Senior being sent to hell or a giant-sized Hill-bot, nobody’s plot is original enough to provide any sort of substance to the subject matter. As a result, it’s a lot of cheap setups to common jokes, on both sides, that doesn’t always hit out of the park in terms the funny and sometimes wear out their welcome e.g. I stopped caring about Eric’s whistling arc in about six seconds.

Fortunately, the gags, when funny, work. Stephen Miller’s giant head balloon was the highlight of the evening, and Trump threatening to blow us up seems like the logical direction we’re going to anyway, but we end up having to account for such an in-depth cast of characters that the value of some of these gags are lost in the transition. I would’ve liked to have seen some takes on some of the current candidates running on both sides, or maybe touch on some of the hot issues that this election is about ala earlier episodes of this season of South Park. Instead, everything feels like piles of Family Guy-rejected cutaways in a mountain stacked high similar to that of a stack of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches that constantly fall flat.