Dan Harmon wants viewers to know that his new Rick and Morty spin-off series is not supposed to be “political,” even if it does center on a fictional U.S. president who is essentially a combination of Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
“Hey, listen, man, it’s political now to, like, eat breakfast,” Harmon, who also created the cult hit NBC sitcom Community, said on Obsessed: The Podcast. “I follow National Geographic on Instagram. They can’t show a polar bear that isn’t walking in snow and imply that the polar bear’s snow is melted without 900,000 people commenting.”
President Curtis, which premiered on Adult Swim this past Sunday, follows Commander-In-Chief Andre Curtis as he and his zany administration members handle an onslaught of paranormal and intergalactic crises.
Variety called the series a blend of “high concept science fiction with proudly juvenile—yet consistently sharp—humor." The show’s opening scene consists of the president announcing he killed Paul Bunyan with a resounding, “Timber, b---h!”
The character who would become Curtis first appeared in a 2015 episode of Rick and Morty during the first Obama administration, though while he may look something like Obama, his cavalier attitude often hews closer to Trump.
That idea is “reflected in the world of Rick and Morty— even if this fictional president isn’t meant to be an exact Obama stand-in," said an Inverse review of Rick and Morty‘s Season 3 finale. “So what happened to the fictional president when he returned to the show more than two years later? Trump happened.”
By “today’s” standards, Harmon acknowledges that President Curtis will probably “p--- people off.” But not because of any specific policy positions his president character takes.
“There are three branches of government in it. ‘It’s outrageous!’” Harmon said mockingly. “‘It’s a socialist propaganda! There’s a legislative branch! There’s checks, and then there’s balances!”
Harmon said that people perceive the show as political because politics are “too cartoonish right now,” and because anything that acknowledges science as basic as “gravity” is a victim of the “woke mind virus.”
The President Curtis writers make an effort to leave specific news stories, playing into the absurdity of politics without mirroring real-life political events. Including actual political references would undermine the show’s production timeline, as well as Rick and Morty’s fictional timeline, which could incite furious reactions from an already explosive fanbase.
“The show’s been running for 10 years,” Harmon said. “What happens if Curtis says, ‘That’s from the Trump administration,’ referencing some painting on the wall? Well, now Reddit has to turn into a pretzel.”
This practice also helps the writers maintain the franchise’s sci-fi world, ensuring the show’s ability to draw a politically diverse viewer base. Plus, Harmon doesn’t think Trump supporters would watch the show if it were spoon-feeding viewers an explicit set of political takes.
“I have some sick, misguided, old ’80s notion that it’s still my job to hope that Trump’s biggest fans are gonna also feel at home when they watch TV,” Harmon said. “I don’t know why I’m clinging to that. But as a mental exercise, I don’t believe that Trump’s biggest fans would want to tune in to a show that was like, ‘Let’s talk about what’s going on.’ I don’t think they ever wanted to talk about what’s going on. I think they like to escape, so I don’t think they would like even a flattering Trump cartoon.”
He knows that the state of the world is emotionally draining for audiences. President Curtis tries to keep its narrative stakes a little lighter.
“It goes without saying that the rest of the world associates the word ‘president,’ as of the last 10 years, the same way that they associate the word ‘taxes,’ or ‘divorce.’ Just words that were like, ‘Can we do that later?’” he continued.
Ultimately, the cartoon President Curtis isn’t intended to be a carbon copy of Donald Trump or Obama. But despite the parallel universe with different political focuses, viewers will still speculate.
“If you have a brain the size of a caper, this is a very political show,” Harmon said. “You should arrest it and send it to jail. If you have a dog-sized brain or larger, it’s pretty much just a show about the president that takes place in a parallel universe.”
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