Review: Our Cartoon President “The Endorsement”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Fresh off winning the South Carolina primary, Joe Biden’s looking for a key endorsement to help ensure his campaign can go the distance on Super Tuesday…that of Barack Obama. Problem is, Barack seems to be thoroughly enjoying post-Presidency life so he’s a little more difficult to nail down at the moment. After helping Barack score at one of his fundraisers, Joe Biden secures the former President’s full endorsement…but not his friendship. This causes ire with the former Vice President who continually stalks Barack until the duo can rekindle their bromance once-and-for-all.

Meanwhile Kellyanne Conway needs to convince Trump that the silly poll numbers he’s constantly touting on Twitter are actually horseshit. It doesn’t take long, but Kellyanne actually has Donald drawing correlations of internal polls with that of Christmas so now we get to treat Donald like the toddler that he is. It doesn’t take long before Donald finds out the truth leading Kellyanne to come clean and causing the President to go through a goth-like depression. Fortunately, the Prez comes back around to lead in a different poll just as Joe Biden and Barack run a press conference ahead of Super Tuesday.

Our Take

It’s interesting that Our Cartoon President stays hyper-focused on the debates for the cold-opens. Granted, it makes for quick set ups for production purposes that help Our Cartoon President meet the technical challenges the show faces on a weekly basis (in fact, I couldn’t help but notice that Biden’s mouth movements were not on par with the directed expressions), but what we lose is the ability to discuss other topics that the candidates could take part in like coronavirus. As a result, the premise of the arc could very well be tiring for most, but with the next debate not happening for a couple of weeks, I’ll be curious to see how the producers respond.

This week’s episode was definitely put on the back of Jeff Bergman’s vocal double duties as both Biden and Trump and this comes to a head during the excellent musical number. I also very much enjoyed the cutaway during the holiday nursery rhyme which continues to showcase the producers’ expanding tool set for our enjoyment when given time. But where is George Conway during this ENTIRE Kellyanne Conway plot? I would’ve like to have seen some sort of a rivalry brewing or a left turn cliffhanger that would’ve put the creative icing on this one and I think George would’ve been great here.

I’d like to see some increased creative flex over the next few weeks whilst waiting for the next debate. I get it, it’s important, and that’s the job of this series. But, we need some juiciness in the show to keep us engaged.