Has Hollywood Jumped The Shark Over Fears Of Trump’s Re-Election?

Some members of the cast of Parks and Recreation will reunite for a fundraiser for Wisconsin Democrats. If this sounds familiar, it should. The cast of Princess Bride is also reuniting for the same purpose – helping guarantee that Wisconsin turns out the vote for Joe Biden.

Several of the show’s stars, including Amy Poehler, Adam Scott and Nick Offerman, will hold a virtual event raising money for the Wisconsin Democratic Party.
Aubrey Plaza, Retta, Jim O’Heir and series co-creator Michael Schur will also join in on the fundraiser, in addition to some surprise guests. The event is titled “A Parks and Rec Town Hall” and will feature a Q&A with the cast members.

It’s not clear from the announcement if the town hall questions are to be about politics and the presidential election or just a chance for fans to interact with their favorites from the show. Are any of the actors known for astute political observations or clever opinionated discussions? Not that I’m aware of. I know Amy Poehler was a huge Hillary Clinton fangirl in 2016. This event sounds kind of sad, though, as participants are asked to make a donation to the virtual event, even if it is just $1.00. The event’s website says any donation at all will “ be used to ensure that Trump loses Wisconsin, and thereby the White House.” The pitch for just one dollar was also used in the announcement about the Princess Bride cast reunion.

The town hall will be live-streamed on Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. CT followed by the exclusive Q&A at 8:30 p.m. CT.

The cast of The West Wing was first to announce a reunion for fundraising purposes in support of Black Lives Matter, teaming up with Michelle Obama. Wisconsin Democrats took that idea and are using it to fundraise because of the importance of the state as a swing state in the presidential election. The entire cast of Parks and Recreation came together in April with a virtual scripted special. It raised more than $2.8 million and drew over 3.6 million viewers for COVID-19 relief. Not all cast members are doing this fundraiser for the Wisconsin Democrats.

This brings me to a question – Is the entertainment industry entering overkill territory in their desperation to oust President Trump from the White House? Sure, it’s normal for Hollywood to support whichever Democrat is running for president. They fundraise and make guest appearances at campaign rallies, bringing star power to draw a crowd to political events. But this cycle it’s different. There is a certain desperate viciousness to it all. There are the usual tell-all books from Trump’s opponents, including the hit jobs from James Comey, Bob Woodward, and Michael Cohen. But not everyone reads books. More people watch television or stream entertainment. So, there have been offerings to the Trump deranged Democrats to keep them riled up against him.

There was a reading of the Mueller Report by Hollywood celebrities. There is a movie coming out before the election based on Comey’s book. There is a behind the scenes style show of the presidential campaigns on Showtime, The Circus but it largely focuses on Biden and the hosts are all Biden voters. Last night’s show, for example, concentrated in promoting the Democrat talking points that Trump is working with the USPS to rig the election in his favor. But the one Hollywood production that made me think that the market is saturated and likely not providing the outcome hoped for was a new release on HBO that began airing Saturday night.

Coastal Elites is a one-time event that features five actors who deliver individual monologues. All are anti-Trump rants, some more dramatic than others. A colleague at NewsBusters covered it and wrote a good review of it. The most obnoxious was the monologue delivered by Bette Midler, as you can imagine. It was a full-on overwrought emotional breakdown over the bad Orange Man. She is so Trump deranged, she explains, that she was arrested for snatching a MAGA hat from a Trump supporter who had the nerve to wear it in New York City. The others were dramatic in varying degrees. The fifth actor – an actress who portrays a nurse working in NYC during the coronavirus – starts out just describing working in a hospital during the plague and one patient she becomes attached to. She calls herself an Independent but by the end of her monologue, she obviously has become a Biden voter.

The problem is that there has been a solid four years of liberal meltdowns over Trump. Hollywood actors are useful idiots for the Democrat Party. None of these productions will change a vote if you ask me. People are fatigued by the political divisions that demonize the president while offering no real alternative. None of these actors in the HBO production, for example, are enthusiastic Joe Biden voters – they are anyone-but-Trump voters. Exaggerated dramatic productions won’t move the needle with voters at this point.

Let the Wisconsin Democrats try to deliver that state for Biden, one dollar at a time. Are swing state voters and voters in flyover states paying attention to Hollywood’s antics? When regular people, not political junkies but regular voters look for entertainment to distract them from the plague and the economy and the stresses on life in general, I don’t think they are turning to pampered liberal actors who dwell in coastal bubbles for voting advice. I may be wrong, but it sure looks like Hollywood is jumping the shark during this election cycle.

JUMP THE SHARK:

Jumping the shark is an idiom used to describe a moment when something that was once widely popular, but has since grown less popular, makes a misguided attempt at generating publicity that instead only serves to highlight its irrelevance. This is especially applicable to television series or other entertainment outlets. The phrase derives from an episode of sitcom Happy Days (1974–1984), in which the character Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water-skis. This gimmick strayed absurdly outside the original storyline of the sitcom.

The idiom "jumping the shark" is pejorative, most commonly used in reference to unsuccessful gimmicks for promoting something. It is similar to "past its peak", but it more specifically suggests an unwillingness to acknowledge the fact. Originally, the phrase was used to describe an episode of a television comedy with a gimmick or unlikely occurrence desperately attempting to keep viewers' interest. Moments labeled as "jumping the shark" are considered indications that writers have exhausted their focus, that the show has strayed irretrievably from an older and better formula, or that the series as a whole is declining in quality.

The usage of "jump the shark" has subsequently broadened beyond television, indicating the moment when a brand, design, franchise, or creative effort's evolution declines, or when it changes notably in style into something unwelcome.

Hollywood Censorship, Culture & Chinese Appeasement: It All Comes Down to Greed
Townhall.com ^ | August 23, 2020 | Erin Elmore ESQ
Posted on 8/23/2020, 7:30:32 AM by Kaslin

COVID restrictions are slowly beginning to lift, so AMC movie theatres just announced that it will be reopening with 15 cent movies. Great price, however, when it comes to Hollywood blockbusters, we’re not in Kansas anymore. We’re in Beijing. Not in some transformative ethereal cinematic way, but in the way that Communist China plays a significant role in what Americans see on the screen. From product placement to content censorship, stateside cinephiles can say “Hasta la vista” to movies without a motive.

The moviemaker’s motive is clearly one of financial gain. But for COVID, China would have surpassed North America as the biggest movie consumers worldwide. Couple that massive revenue source with the fact that China’s Communist regime severely restricts the number of foreign movies shown into China, approximately 34 films a year, and you have a studio who knows the audience and is eager to please.

This audience is technically the Chinese consumer, but China’s pockets are so deep and reach so broad that Hollywood makes the movies that everyone sees worldwide to please the Chinese government. The result: propaganda as product placement and content that is aligned with China’s viewpoints, which are frequently pro-China, bigoted, and authoritarian in nature.

The product placements may go totally unnoticed or seem innocuous, but the plot thickens. Take for example tech wiz Tony Stark of “Avengers End Game” fame. In the movie, he uses a cheap Chinese Vivo flip phone, which is not available in the United States. A geek such as Stark would never use such a low-quality phone; although, it’s worth noting that he also wouldn’t have much of a choice given that the U.S. government would never let Ironman use a device with such poor security features, especially when serious technology spying allegations have been credibly made against other Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE. Hollywood often requires us to suspend reality, but here they are promoting an alternate reality that could result in our military secrets being exposed or our private data targeted. This subliminal Chinese promotion, and others like it, aren’t done as an act of altruism. They are done as an act of massive financial gain for the movie studio. As long as it lines their pockets, they don’t seem to care what message they are sending to the viewer.

They also don’t care about censorship. Communist China not only guarantees that the population doesn’t see what they deem as unfavorable ideals, but it also works to make sure that China is only shown favorably.

The Communist Chinese Party does not support gay rights or allow gay marriage. In fact, according to “Newsweek”, China is the worst place in the world to be gay. That’s why China’s version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” did not address Freddie Mercury’s sexuality. They deleted scenes where he dressed as a woman and his proclamation that he had AIDS was muted and not subtitled. Twentieth Century Fox, who made the film, had no comment.

A film will also receive no comment from China if it features Pandas… well sort of. Winnie the Pooh seems harmless enough but Pooh memes have been used to criticize Chinese dictator Xi Jinping. So, “Christopher Robin” got banned in China and those cuddly bears are seen as a symbol of anti-government Chinese activism. Wait, what about “Kung Fu Panda”? Well, that’s obviously different: the film was made as a collaboration with a Chinese media company, China Film Group. Government sensors literally dropped in to monitor the movie’s production… no activism from that animated panda was guaranteed.

Perhaps the most relevant censorship example of all comes from the book “World War Z”, where an earth-shattering plague originates in China. American filmmakers purposefully changed this portion of the plotline and moved the plague to Korea.

Whether it’s an actual plague from China or a movie plague, the point is clear, the dangling carrot in Hollywood is money and they will conceal the truth, suspend reality or shift the plot all for financial gain. As Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia) said in “Scarface”, “Lesson number one: Don’t underestimate the other guy’s greed.”

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