Exclusive Interview: R.J. Fried Talks “Our Cartoon President” Season Three & “Tooning Out The News”

The Trump parody bubble is just about deflated as we head into the 2020 election year. The President Show is long canceled, Alec Baldwin says he’s down to once a month for SNL, and the likes of Family Guy, The Simpsons, and Robot Chicken have all had their fun at the expense of the leader of the free world. The mission statement from Our Cartoon President’s R.J. Fried going into production of the series was to not just focus on all of the physical shortcomings that bestow the one-time reality TV star, and instead push the envelope of what’s to come.

So, what now? Well, for Showtime’s Our Cartoon President, we very well may get a preview of what this popular franchise will become in the future. As clearly seen in seasons past, Our Cartoon President is definitely more than a “Trump Parody”, and is instead an absolute mockery of life in and around the White House. Which of course, if you watch the news, has certainly been devoid of any substance, and couldn’t possibly lend itself to any juicy storylines this go around, right? Says of Our Cartoon President’s season three premiere “Impeachment”, R.J. Fried notes that the concept of the episode actually broke three months ago, “It’s really perfect, now we get to premiere it alongside the impeachment trial”. In the premiere episode, after the House impeaches Cartoon Trump, he teams up with Cartoon Sean Hannity to convince the nation he’s been wrongly accused.

That’s right. Donald J. Trump is being impeached, with the articles having been drawn up and delivered to a Senate who has yet to vote on the matter for a litany of comedic reasons, I even joke to R.J. during our call that “the news is like the WGA-affiliated writer you don’t even have to pay” and while there seems to be some agreement, the longtime cartoon producer notes that there’s more to Our Cartoon President then just lampooning the news, “the news provides for excellent clay in which to form a foundation on, but it’s up to us to make these ideas funnier and edgier”.

And it’s not just the Republicans that are getting a kick in the pants on Our Cartoon President. The Democrats are often just as susceptible to commentary to which R.J. promises will be made evident sooner, rather than later. In the premiere episode, “Impeachment”, Cartoon Elizabeth Warren dumbs down her campaign. And yes, the 2020 Election cycle will be a big part of this season’s run, with the first ten episodes of Our Cartoon President Season Three airing between now and March 29th and an additional eight episodes coming fall 2020 to coincide with the Presidential Election. This season it appears that the producers will be building out our relationships with the Democratic candidates, “we are super lucky to have had the opportunity to build out about 100 characters on all sides of the political aisle, this season we are excited to explore the Democrats and their families”.

And the lampooning of political humor won’t stop when Our Cartoon President wraps in March. We were the first to announce the news that CBS All-Access has ordered a new animated series coming sometime before Spring 2020 called Tooning Out The News, a parody of news networks that will also feature more of a late-night talk show vibe complete with guest interviews. Says R.J. about the series,” the only thing Our Cartoon President and Tooning Out The News has in common is the technology. And I have to give a special shout out to producer Tim Luecke who is just killing it in producing these shows with cutting-edge technology as for the first-time, animated episodes will be produced within hours to coincide with current events and special guests”.  R.J. teases that in Our Cartoon President, imagine a Cartoon Jim Acosta voiced by Matthew Piazzi, in Tooning Out The News, cartoon anchors would potentially interview a real-life Jim Acosta.

In the meantime, Our Cartoon President Season Three promises a slew of new and returning characters for the upcoming season. Billionaires are obviously going to be in the crosshairs with examples teased such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Presidential Candidate Michael Bloomberg. Jon Glaser (Delocated) and Jim Downey have joined an already impressive cast as “Larry Kudlow” and “Adam Schiff” respectively with additional voices coming by the way of Kate Berlant as “Lara Trump”, Matt Lucas as “Boris Johnson”, Joe Mande as “Mark Zuckerberg”, Tim Robinson returns as Judge Kavanaugh, and of course, what who might be Our Cartoon President’s MVP, James Adomian, returns as “Bernie Sanders”, the ghoulish “Rudy Guiliani”, and about thirty other voices. R.J. also promises the returns of Trump adversaries “The Squad” to help stir up trouble for Trump.

All this and more as Our Cartoon President Season Three kicks off on January 26th @ 830 pm ET/PT, check your local listings.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.