The third and probably the final installment of my political satire, Barack Begins, is finally finished. Whilst it doesn't hurt to watch Part 1: The President and Part 2: War all you really need to know going into part 3 is that George Bush still refuses to accept that he is no longer the President.
Just as an interesting footnote, I originally released the first episode of Barack Begins on January 1, 2009 (not in February as stated in a previous blog post). Seems quite fitting to have released this episode (on GoAnimate - not in this blog) on the last day of 2009.
Part three focuses on Michelle Obama because she played a huge part (and continues to play a huge part) in Barack's election victory and his time, so far, in office. Hence I wanted to reflect that in the series by giving her a bigger role. Unfortunately, as is often the case with a beautiful women, the media tends to focus on Michelle's fashion and style.
Pt 3: Barack Begins by etourist
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As evidenced in this blog I don't just make this stuff up - there's always some background inspiration. Back in April, 2009, I wrote in my main blog a post titled, Is Michelle Obama the New Princess Dianna?, which was a commentary on the media's obsession with what the new first lady was wearing.
In turn that post was inspired by an article by Mark Malkin from E! Online who noted that Michelle's fashion choices were affordable and were actually causing a boost in sales for the various clothing labels that Michelle wears.
That was pretty much when the idea hit me to parody the media and the public's obsession with what Michelle wears. Not only that but to try and take it to the extreme with Wal-Mart making Michelle's clothes so affordable everyone's wearing her latest outfit within hours.
However, with Michelle being anything but simply a fashion clothes horse, I could imagine her noticing this trend and secretly wanting to mess with it (I think deep down there's a little 'evil genius' in everyone!).
Thus she ponders with the idea of wearing the very affordable 'Snuggie' out in public (something of a fashion tragedy when the Snuggie was first released - you're just not supposed to wear them in public - or admit to owning one for that matter!).
My original idea - which I've mostly forgotten since I started work on this episode so long ago - was much darker. Whilst the media would still be obsessed about Michelle's clothes, George Bush would also become obsessed with what she was wearing.
I thought Michelle would probably be getting a lot of media calls asking her what she was wearing to various events but in between that, George would be making these some what creepier "What are you wearing now?" type calls. In the end that sounded a bit too creepy and I didn't really know where to go with it so that it would come across as funny?
After I came up with the idea of 'everyone wanting to wear Michelle's clothes' I was really going to take that to the extreme with some of the President's male contemporaries adopting Michelle's styles. In the scene with Hilary Clinton I was originally going to have Joe Biden walk in wearing the same outfit Hilary now wears.
I thought that would be hilarious however I realised that it would take some power away from the final scene (as by this time I'd already decided George would wear Michelle's clothes too). Plus, having Hilary send Bill to talk to George (one ex-president to another) seemed a good way to lead into those last two scenes at the Whitehouse.
It also made for a better ending as George, who has clearly already lost the plot with his insistence on him still being president, would be most likely to think wearing women's clothing is a rational idea. As opposed to Joe Biden, who would have no real reason to think wearing women's clothing is going to improve his popularity in the polls.
Finally, although this leaves the situation with George unresolved, I don't see myself writing another episode any time soon. I really don't follow American Politics enough to keep me motivated with ideas and making the connections necessary to find humor in it all.
There's still at least one idea I want to address and that is Barack Obama's ability to make any speech sound important. I swear he could read out your grocery list and you'd be saying "yeah man, I totally support you on our need for more toilet paper. You deserve a second term in office!"
That's for another time. I won't say 'never' but I will say it could be quite a while before I dabble in American Politics again.
Great episode, and I hope it's not your last, as it was really hilarious! It was really inspiring to read how you developed your idea, and I think the final result was in truth the best decision!
ReplyDeleteThanks Gipsy. This episode took so long to bring to release (as you read I had the initial idea way back in April 2009) that I feel I'm not likely to be inspired to do another episode any time soon.
ReplyDeleteThe dust has settled around Barack's election and he's pretty much just getting on with the job. There's less media focus internationally so I really don't see as much of what he's actually doing. (and I'm not interested enough to be pro-active in keeping track).
I don't want to say 'never' because I like political satire so I've left it at a shakey 'maybe'. ;-)