The Simpsons get dark with Trump’s first 100 days

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This article was published 28/04/2017 (3404 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the next episode of The Simpsons, an ominous thunderstorm is brewing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Inside the White House, the situation is even more turbulent.

“A hundred days in office, so many accomplishments,” U.S. President Donald Trump says while looking at his cellphone in bed, a book written by Bill O’Reilly beside him. Among these accomplishments, Trump declares, are lowering his golf handicap and increasing his Twitter following by 700.

“And finally we can shoot hibernating bears. My boys will love that,” the Trump character says. His wig reveals itself to be a small dog.

With a sign pinned to his chest stating, “I quit,” the character for press secretary Sean Spicer is seen hanging himself from a noose in the press briefing room, a bit of a dark image, even for a cartoon known for its biting satire.

Kellyanne Conway walks in and declares, “I am not replacing him.”

Stephen K. Bannon and a character who appears to be Jared Kushner are strangling one another. And all the while, Trump is scrolling through his phone, watching the news as he reviews his first 100 days in office.

And in other news, Ivanka Trump appears to have replaced Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. (You can buy her robe with gavel earrings for only 1,000 rubles.)

A brief video posted on The Simpsons Twitter account Wednesday night teases the upcoming episode of the show, scheduled to air Sunday night on Fox, “paid for by Anybody Else 2020.”

Trump’s presidency appears to have wreaked havoc in the Simpson household as well. Marge has run out of prescription pills, complaining “this was supposed to last me the whole four years!” Grampa Simpson is taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, declaring he is being taken back to where he came from, though he doesn’t quite remember where that is.

The Simpsons, of course, famously predicted a Trump presidency in an episode aired in 2000. The real estate mogul seemed to be the right comedic fit at the time, episode writer Dan Greaney told the Washington Post’s Michael Cavna. They needed a celebrity name that would sound slyly absurdist.

“He seems like a Simpsons-esque figure — he fits right in there, in an over-the-top way,” Greaney said.

“But now that he’s running for president, I see that in a much darker way,” the Emmy-winning writer-producer added. “He seemed kind of lovable in the old days, in a blowhard way.”

And in the first show to air after Trump’s victory, The Simpsons writers expressed their regret.

In the opening credits, which change every episode, Bart Simpson grimaced as he wrote on the blackboard: “BEING RIGHT SUCKS.”

— Washington Post