The Simpsons has openly satirized conservative media, especially in the wake of the 2016 election and amidst the recent political developments surrounding President Trump’s administration. Saturday at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con, creator Matt Groening was not any less vocal on his impression of President Trump.
The panel kicked off with clips of Trump from the past season of The Simpsons. From there, just over a thousand attendees, encouraged by Groening, started chants of “Lock him up! Lock him up!” The anti-Trump chant obviously mirroring the anti-Clinton “Lock her up” chants commonly heard on the campaign trail and at Trump rallies across the country in 2016.
Groening explained to the rowdy audience that 21st Century Fox had requested the Fox sitcom “take it easy” on Fox News. He revealed that this was in light of how the comedy series ridiculed the conservative media channel, especially by minting the motto “not racist, but no. 1 with racists.”
Groening went on to further attack former Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly.
“Then Bill O’Reilly called us pinheads and look what happened,” Groening said, evidently deriding O’ Reilly’s recent fall from grace due to sexual harassment allegations.
The Simpsons executives also seemingly admitted to ignoring President Trump’s request to be on the show, at some time preceding his inauguration. A fan questioned executive producer AI Jean if they had ever rejected a cameo request from a celebrity.
“Let’s just say he is the president of the United States,” responded Jean. Former writer for the show Bill Oakley added insult to injury when he tweeted the following after the panel.
I continue to thank God that Donald Trump was never invited to do a voice on The Simpsons even during the brief period when he was popular
— ??Bill Oakley?? (@thatbilloakley) July 23, 2017
The Simpsons panel was not the only Comi-Con crew to take shots at President Trump. One day prior, Adam Wingard, director of the upcoming Netflix thriller Death Note, was asked who he felt was the most intimidating supervillain. Death Note revolves around a vindictive “Death God” manipulating a teenager to use a book to kill people en masse with just the stroke of a pen. Many assumed that eerie deity would be his answer.
“The President of the United States,” confessed Wingard.
Earlier on Saturday, Representative John Lewis, an iconic Civil Rights proponent, held a panel discussion for his New York Times best-selling graphic novel trilogy March, along with co-authors Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell. In January, Lewis was embroiled in a highly publicized Twitter spat with then President-elect Trump. Lewis had criticized Trump as an “illegitimate president” only for the President to fire back by asserting that Lewis was “all talk.”
When pressed by fans about topics such as fake news, the Georgia Democrat stayed mostly objective but proceeded to lead a march in the San Diego Convention Center. Some people chanted “no justice, no peace” as they strolled around the center.
It is largely unprecedented for Comic-Con panels to be so pervaded by political opinion. The politically charged jibes in San Diego brought a sense of gravity and discord to an event renowned for its jocund celebration of comics aimed to unite us all in laughs and smiles.
