I was planning on posting Tipsy Bartender recipes for National Sangria Day at my blog last week until I stumbled across an example of reality literally intruding into fantasy this morning, the animatronic Donald Trump being unveiled in The Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World, and decided I’d rather blog about that.
Seth Meyers decided to make lemonade out of lemons by mocking both Trump and his robot double in his monologue last night. Deadline Hollywood gave the set up to the monologue’s running joke.
“I think, as our Christmas gift to ourselves, we’re just going to use that as our Trump picture from now on,” Meyers announced.
And then, he did.
Click on the link to watch Disney World’s Animatronic Trump, Ocean’s 8 Trailer – Monologue- Late Night with Seth Meyers to see him follow through.
I felt much better after watching that than if I had blogged about sangria, a drink I probably shouldn’t have because of my diabetes. Now, let’s see how long Meyers uses that photo for Trump.
On the other hand, The Grio reluctantly and ironically admired the robot, saying “the recorded message that the animatronic Trump plays sounds almost… presidential,” referring to a video from WDWMagic (click to watch video). The excerpt from the opening of his Inaugural Address Disney used actually does sound presidential. As The Grio noted, “the internet noticed the robot’s lack of any resemblance to Trump’s real speech patterns.” Also, robot Trump looks a lot better from a distance than it does close up.
The Grio also quoted two tweets that put Trump’s robot double in context with the presidents around him, as seen in this photo.
Matt Binder wrote “all the other presidents in Disney’s new Hall of Presidents look like they can’t believe Donald Trump is president either.” So it’s not just Abraham Lincoln, as Meyers noted.
Amanda Kerri writing as Last Minute Christmas Profile had even more to say.
OH MY GOD! I just realized that Disney might be trolling Donald Trump with their Hall of Presidents. By surrounding him with some of the worst Presidents in history. Let’s go from left to right.
Ulysses S. Grant. Aggregate historical ranking of 36th of 43. One of the most corrupt and grift filled administrations in history, Led a nation massively divided by Reconstruction.
James Buchannan 42/43. Led a fractured party who’s ineffective leadership oversaw the final fracturing of the United States which led to the Civil War including Bloody Kansas, The Panic of 1857, and the eventual forming of the Confederacy.
Franklin Pierce 40/43. The disastrous Kansas-Nebraska Act helped lead America down the road to Civil War. The start of Bloody Kansas. Increased factionalization to include violence on the floor of Congress.
Andrew Johnson 41/43. First President to be impeached. His failure with Reconstruction helped bring on Jim Crow and the continued race issues in our country.
Millard Fillmore 39/43. Called “the most forgettable President.” Sided with the anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant Know-Nothings. Was largely ineffective except at destroying the Whig Party by siding with pro-Slavery factions.
All that group needed was Warren Harding to make it complete. It would also be appropriate, as I wrote in a comment on Do You, Mr. Jones…? at Kunstler’s blog.
Trump’s performance looks like the worst traits of Warren Harding and Richard Nixon in one person (What about U.S. Grant? Sorry, Grant was a drunk while Trump is a teetotaler). That’s a combination destined for tragicomic disaster.
Oh, man, now I’m bummed again.
Modified from Seth Meyers and The Grio mock animatronic Trump at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.
Of course, I avoid Disneyworld like the plague anyway. One of my daughters saw the news coverage of the Trump animatronic and thought it was creepy as hell. I can’t say that I blame you. Yeah – the choice of dead Presidents around him is interesting. You have the corrupt bastards there who were pretty much among the worst of the worst, and Abraham Lincoln off on the other side posed almost contemptuously of the whole spectacle.
I haven’t been to Disney World since 2003 and had been there only once before in 1994 or 1995. I grew up in southern California and lived in Anaheim during 1988-1989, so I was visited Disneyland a lot. There, the attraction was Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, which I first saw at the World’s Fair in New York as a little boy. Yes, I’m that old. At least at Disneyland, there is no room for Trump.
My spouse and I went to Disneyland a few times when we were first dating. Lived pretty close to that particular theme park, so it was pretty convenient. Haven’t been in a long time – ticket prices got way too high (and that’s not to mention food).
A little OT: thanks to some help, I found a workaround for embedding videos – at least seems to work when I use Firefox as a web browser. So the midweek cafe and lounge appears to be back in action!
So we both used to live in southern California? Small world (and not the ride with the earworm as background music)!
I saw that post. Good thing I’ve had a European Tribune account since 2008. Now I have a reason to use it.
Yep – spent about a decade of my life there (late teens, early adulthood). Got to catch the dying days of the hardcore scene out that way, and to this day still am a bit of a beach bum each time I get to visit. Went to college out that way. Saw some awesome concerts, enjoyed some of the art scene and so on. Good times. Good times.
Frank has been inciting me to get a Eurotrib account for a bit. Finally decided I’d better listen. Once I saw what sort of embed code was being generated by their macro, the rest was not that difficult. So at least a workaround for video embeds has been found for now.