… a comic-book villain who is mere seconds away from getting the beat-down of his life…
So you're arguing that Trump is Thanos ("The Mad Titan") who wants to kill half of all living things, but in the end winds up defeated and dying, taking all of his sycophantic followers down with him?
Great work, everyone. https://t.co/gFLPVch2An
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) December 10, 2019
Nicely (in the original sense of the word) encapsulating the modern Republican Party: Parasitizing a smarter group’s work, failing to pay attention long enough to spot the problems with the stolen ideas, and not caring how much they get kicked around afterwards so long as the check clears. Per the Guardian:
… Shortly after the House brought two articles of impeachment against the president for his efforts seeking foreign interference to bolster his own political interests, the official Trump War Room re-election campaign Twitter account posted a video to social media that superimposed his face over that of the villainous Marvel comic book character Thanos.
In the scene from the movie Avengers: Endgame, Thanos snaps his fingers, attempting to destroy the diverse array of heroes from throughout the universe who’ve teamed up to defeat him. I am inevitable Trump/Thanos says…
The video then cuts to footage of Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, and Jerry Nadler who magically vanish much like in the movie. Not the movie in question, mind you, the previous one, but these low-effort trolling operations from Trump’s social media team tend not to be heavy on consistency or logic.
Marvel Universe timeline discrepancies aside, the choice of this moment from the film was a strange one, as it’s seconds before Thanos realizes he’s about to be defeated.
Among the chorus of critics to point out the many other flaws at work in the analogy here was Jim Starlin, the artist who created the character of Thanos in the 1970s…
The creator of Thanos responds to that Trump ad: "Seeing that pompous fool using my creation to stroke his infantile ego, it finally struck me that the leader of my country and the free world actually enjoys comparing himself to a mass murderer." https://t.co/hsQgvTmB8F
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) December 11, 2019
In the far future when historians look at this time period I’m convinced that they’ll call it the Era of Stupid. https://t.co/4ii8kWI9G5
— Gay and Bad ???????? (@SJGrunewald) December 10, 2019
Can't wait until the Trump campaign superimposes his head onto Hitler's body in the "Downfall" video.
— Daily Trix (@DailyTrix) December 11, 2019
Major Major Major Major
Truly a genre that peaked just a liiiitle early.
Jeffro
His people love his nihilistic schtick, so all this does is reinforce that he’s totes awesome. And they don’t care what we gab about on Twitter. They just like seeing him rendered as powerful and omnipotent and above all else, the subject of everything.
trumptrumptrumptrumptrumptrumptrump
I sure hope the eventual Dem candidate doesn’t get sucked into responding to every stupid video, every misspelled tweet, every dumb thing Parscale or Don Jr throws out there.
The Dangerman
Damn, I need a cigarette. And I don’t smoke.
Cheryl Rofer
Tonight I learned that the markup hearings for the Articles of Impeachment are where the speeches we’ve been waiting to hear are being made. They’ve recessed for tonight, but be sure to tune in tomorrow. Also (in the short time I watched) no Republican jackassery.
mrmoshpotato
FYI – House Judiciary Committee resumes articles of impeachment debate at 9AM ET tomorrow.
mrmoshpotato
Kevin M. Kruse, Alexandra Petri and Daniel Dale are national treasures.
Adam L Silverman
@mrmoshpotato: The secret lies with Charlotte…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Jay
Ike Pearmutter and Marvel won’t do anything about the use of Thanos by Dolt45.
Redshift
I remember back during the Bush Adminstration we used to complain that they shouldn’t use Orwell as an instruction manual.
Then these bozos insist on using Idiocracy as an instruction manual…
hells littlest angel
Trump: Giuliani’s assault will bring it under control.
Mulvaney: My fuhrer, Giuliani…
Pence: Giuliani couldn’t mobilize enough men. He was unable to carry out the assault.
Trump: These men will stay here: Miller, Mulvaney, Barr and Pence.
dr. luba
I think it’s all about the hands. Look at the size of those hands on Thanos!!!
Amir Khalid
@Major Major Major Major:
You’ll love the bit where der
FührerTrump slumps defeated in his chair and mutters, “Der Krieg ist verloren. Es ist unmöglich in diesen Umständen zu führen.”Keith P
@Redshift: What I wouldn’t give for some random person to run up to Trump at one of his rallies and kick him in the balls.
Jay
More comic book villians,
mrmoshpotato
@Adam L Silverman: “When we were shooting a movie that had eyeball-squeezing in it, everybody else, for some reason, refused to squeeze eyeballs.”
Obdurodon
@Keith P: His what now?
chopper
look ma, a metaphor!
Adam L Silverman
@Jay: Ike Perlmutter has no control over Marvel’s movie division. And he’s also had his power over the TV side curtailed with Fiege put in charge of the new shows for Disney+. If Marvel or Disney decides they want to protect their IP on this, Perlmutter isn’t going to have any say.
mrmoshpotato
@Keith P: What’re the prize categories for proximity, because no one’s getting that close? Secret Service will tackle your ass if they’re nice.
Adam L Silverman
@mrmoshpotato: It’s all fun and games until I have to put someone’s eye out.
mrmoshpotato
@Adam L Silverman: Or I’m quoting from The Godfather of Gore. No fun and games there.
Geoboy
Let’s hope it’s a case of life imitating art.
Adam L Silverman
@mrmoshpotato: I’m quoting myself.
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
That in the middle of your comment looks like the sound of a car being driven with a blown out tire, at about 20 mph, because the driver is either too drunk or too stupid to notice.
mrmoshpotato
@Adam L Silverman: Modest. :)
Ruckus
trump and his pals live in a very strange world, one where reality is something they want nothing to do with. They are 5 yr olds in adult bodies playing with legos while the help watches and wonders what might happen if they do the world a favor.
mrmoshpotato
@Ruckus: He was driving a kangaroo.
smintheus
@Keith P: What I wouldn’t give for Trump to run from a persistent reporter and hide in a fridge.
Adam L Silverman
@mrmoshpotato: Not really. I find that when I deploy that sentence at appropriate moments it allows me to forego having to take more aggressive and physical forms of conflict resolution.
Amir Khalid
@smintheus:
I wonder if Trump’s parents managed to have him taught (I presume that chez Trump teaching kids such things was a job for the help) why you shouldn’t hide in the fridge.
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: How does one get 239 pounds of a 6’1″ frame into a fridge? Oh sorry, meant to say 610 pounds of a 2’3.9″ frame. Oopsy!
smintheus
@mrmoshpotato: In the vegetable drawer.
Amir Khalid
@mrmoshpotato:
I suppose you would need a restaurant-size fridge. I believe Trump does own a few of those.
Amir Khalid
Trumpistas: “He’s like Thanos, the mass murderer!”
Trump base: “A really powerful guy? Cool!”
laura
Juvenile Moran Headcase. And his fan base.
SFAW
@Obdurodon:
I think Keith was literally speaking figuratively.
SFAW
@mrmoshpotato:
Give or take 75 pounds
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So, yes, when the Trump campaign release their own Trump downfall video?
Yutsano
@Adam L Silverman:
Let the lawsuit flying monkeys loose!!!
NotMax
But- but- but Thanos is an undocumented ALIEN!
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
… Who got into America on the Melania visa plan.
NotMax
With apologies to Percy.
mrmoshpotato
@smintheus: Crisper drawer! And a very bottom-heavy fridge.
NotMax
@NotMax
Grrr. Extra blank line inserted by FYWP. Was not there as typed.
Mnemosyne
It’s all just more “owning the libs” shit. It doesn’t have to make sense as long as they can rub their … hands together and chortle about how this will TOTALLY piss off the libs.
I still think that Obama should have issued stern warnings about how drinking bleach would really make him mad, and Hillary might have won those swing states since the very dumbest voters wouldn’t have made it to the polls.
Kayla Rudbek
@Adam L Silverman: And Disney’s IP lawyers are nicknamed “the Nazgul” by other IP attorneys…I’m going to need all the popcorn as I watch this play out.
Mnemosyne
@Kayla Rudbek:
I happen to know that the majority of the Giant Evil Corporation’s lawyers really, REALLY hate Trump. In a visceral way.
So, yeah, it would be fun to watch.
Roger Moore
I think the core of this kind of thing is that Trump cares far more about being the center of attention than he does about whether the attention he’s getting is positive or negative. Sure, he prefers to be adored rather than reviled, but both are preferable to being ignored. So he’s perfectly happy to do something like this that gets the liberals frothing at the mouth about how stupid he is and doesn’t he understand that this is the scene where Thanos is about to get his ass handed to him and is too dumb to realize it. He just doesn’t care. He only cares that the liberals are talking about him instead of something else.
Shalimar
@Mnemosyne: I think Wonkette was where I saw a story last week about Alan Keyes. His current grift is a snake-oil operation where they push drinking their special bleach as a cure-all.
You don’t even need a Dem like Obama to say it. They push their own supporters to do stupid things if there is a buck in it.
janesays
@Jay: Kevin Feige is higher up the food chain than Perlmutter now at least as far as MCU properties are concerned, and he can’t stand the man’s politics. Perlmutter famously wanted to kill off the Black Panther and Captain Marvel movies before they were even made because the idea of diversity offended him, but then they wound up becoming two of the highest-grossing Marvel movies of all time and Feige no longer had to report to him. He now reports to Alan Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, and since Feige’s movies have raked in $23 billion over the past decade, he pretty much gets to call the shots.
But it’s all probably a moot point, as the cheesy Twitter ad almost certainly falls under fair use doctrine.
https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/kevin-feige-ike-perlmutter-marvel-disney-1203377802/
JaySinWA
@Mnemosyne:
Alan Keyes has that market now selling it as a miracle cure. Obama should do a PSA, think of the possibilities: https://www.wonkette.com/alan-keyes-wants-you-to-drink-bleach-do-not-do-that-you-will-die
JaySinWA
@Shalimar:
An Obama PSA would amplify the Keyes sales pitch in just the right quarters.
@JaySinWA:
eddie blake
@NotMax: “i am ORANGEMANDIAS, foul THING of THINGS. look upon my DERP, ye mighty, and DESPAIR!”
Baud
Thanos killed his daughter to increase his power, so maybe Ivanka should be worried.
tomtofa
@Roger Moore: Trump has said that if you keep saying the same thing over and over people will believe you. What he’s been saying for a long time is that he should serve more than 2 terms – even that terms should be eliminated and he should just stay in power/control as long as he wants. He (so far) has usually added that he’s just joking, but he keeps saying it.
Things like this Thanos, the Rocky/Stallone pic, the mass murder of his enemies video, etc, are entertainment for his base. If they’re sufficiently entertained, they won’t allow him to leave. It’s tough to renew your show season after season, but that, as he sees it, is his main job. Do we want a return to the boring status quo, or preachy moralistic do-gooders, or a never ending series of outrageous cliffhanger episodes? His wallet, and maybe his freedom, depends on the third option.
different-church-lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Epistemic closure is a hell of a drug.
Cacti
I think the real reason Trump likes the Thanos video is because it finally makes his hands look big.
low-tech cyclist
Reminds me of another bit of movie dialogue:
Black Knight: “I’m invincible!”
Arthur: “You’re a loony.”
jimmiraybob
As the prophets foretold in the Book of Idiocracy. All hail the incarnation of President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho.
bollywood Lyrica
They just like seeing him rendered as powerful and omnipotent and above all else, the subject of everything.
Song Lyrics
Feckless
It’s simple he’s the Antichrist and he’s just not hiding it anymore
Uncle Cosmo
@Amir Khalid: “Das war ein Befehl!” Emphasis on fehl.
Mary Ellen Sandahl
Let’s not forget the snapping of the fingers and the atomizing annihilation of Pelosi and the impeachment chairpersons.
Uncle Cosmo
Obligatory long joke:
/rimshot