Trump Fans Have Gone Full Kent Brockman from ‘The Simpsons’ Leading Up to the Election
On the day of what could be one of the most tightly contested presidential elections in American history, all that one half of the media wants to talk about is an assassinated squirrel — and they’ll stay with the story all night if they have to!
Right now, the country is locked in a dead heat as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris compete in the conclusion of the most dread-filled election cycle since Kang v. Kodos in 1996. Naturally, many of the narratives that currently dominate discussion on both sides of the political spectrum are the some of the most satire-worthy storylines of this exhausting electoral journey, but one side of the aisle has seemingly decided to cut out the middleman and copy their closing remarks straight from The Simpsons and its most irresponsible reporter Kent Brockman.
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As the polls open and America chooses their commander-in-chief for the next four pivotal years of our democracy, Trump supporters on Twitter are rallying around a dead squirrel and social media sensation named P’Nut after the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation seized the animal from his professional porn-star owners who didn’t bother to acquire the special permit required to keep wildlife in their home. After P’Nut bit a DEC officer, the agency was forced to euthanize the squirrel to check for rabies — and, just like that, conservative media made one of the dumbest Simpsons predictions of all time come true.
In the world of The Simpsons, local TV news anchor Kent Brockman serves as a satirical warning for what happens when reporters cut corners and abandon journalistic integrity for the sake of sensationalism. Brockman’s lack of backbone and dubious relationship with the truth is a running theme throughout the series — “I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords!” is obviously an all-time top Simpsons moment — and his representation for the media’s worst habits was front-and-center in the 1992 episode “Radio Bart.” When “Timmy O’Toole” supposedly falls down a well, Brockman leads round-the-clock coverage of what turns out to be Bart’s most ill-fated hoax before quickly moving on to overblowing other non-news as soon as the jig is up.
Generally, media-literate people in 1993 understood Brockman’s breaking bulletin about the assassination of a squirrel that looks like Abraham Lincoln to be a dig at how lazy, hackish media members will turn the most inane of non-stories into hysterical headlines on a slow news day. Though the day America chooses its president is anything but a boring 24-hours for media coverage, Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance have successfully whipped up their less-than-half of America into a P’Nut frenzy as the squirrel euthanasia continues to be the top story of The New York Post, Fox News and the entirety of Conservative Twitter while America lines up to vote.
If Trump loses today, prepare for “Old Man Yells at Cloud” to hit the front page.
