This Adult Swim Show Perfectly Predicted the ‘DOGE Dividend’

What if the government just gave all of its citizens a bunch of money? Would that make us smile?

Right now, the internet is ablaze with discussion over Elon Musk and the “Department of Government Efficiency’s” lofty promise to send every taxpaying American household a $5,000 check using 20 percent of the “proceeds” from their sweeping cuts to the federal workforce, including their mass-firings of nuclear safety employees and reduction of the already struggling FAA amidst an unusual string of tragic aviation accidents. Unfortunately, taxpayers with calculators and critical thinking skills have pointed out that, even at DOGE’s wildly inaccurate self-assessment of their “progress,” they are nowhere near the $2 trillion in “savings” required to pay for such a stimulus, and Musk’s plan to cut every critical government program while ignoring the expensive subsidies paid out to billionaires like him would likely result in economic catastrophe and social unrest long before the checks cleared.

But, hey, you can’t fault President Musk for trying to purchase public approval regardless of the economic impact. In fact, as fans of Adult Swim’s surrealist comedy series Smiling Friends pointed out, Musk isn’t even the first unelected Commander in Chief to try it:

Smiling Fans, which YouTube animation veterans Zach “psychicpebbles” Hadel and Michael Cusack co-created in 2022, tells the story of the Smiling Friends charitable company and its employees who work tirelessly to bring joy to those in desperate need of a good smile. Each episode features the protagonists helping a new client with whatever personal problem or PR nightmare caused them trouble that week.

In the Season Two episode “Mr. President,” Smiling Friends employees Pim and Charlie try to help the wildly unpopular President Jimbles win public approval ahead of a general election that he’s projected to lose. Jimbles, himself a former Vice President who only reached the Oval Office when his predecessor and running mate passed away, proves to be wildly incompetent and incontinent as he shits his way from political disaster to PR embarrassment. At the end of the episode Jimbles loses the election, but he finally cracks a smile when he retires to a beach to watch the sunset with a cocktail in his hand.

Of course, “everyone gets a million dollars” is still a better campaign promise than some of what Musk claims to have in store for the Judicial and Legislative Branches that dare to check or balance him, so maybe President Jimbles deserves a bit more respect from the voting populace — at least when he allies himself with genocidal dictators, he’s doing it by accident.