In 2016, Robert Smigel took Triumph The Insult Comic Dog on the election trail, offering a unique satirical perspective on the world of politics in the lead up to (and immediate aftermath of) the miserable fucking shitshow that was the last presidential election. This year, Smigel is doing it again, but in a move that reflects the increased absurdity of our reality, he’s moving from one wacky dog puppet to multiple wacky human puppets. This new special, called Let’s Be Real, will air on Fox and—according to a press release—will “cover politics, pop culture, and the 2020 election through topical sketches featuring puppets, celebrity cameos, and remote pieces.”
Fox has also released a teaser that seems to be entirely based on the joke of calling a political figure a “puppet” and then revealing that Joe Biden and Donald Trump really are puppets. It’s not necessarily a bad joke, but… there have been better jokes. There’s also an appearance from a puppet that is probably supposed to be Mike Pence and a puppet version of Kanye West (whose puppet hands are gesturing toward his phone, which is probably a worse joke than the last one). The real stars, though, are the puppets of Trump and Biden, with the former saying hilarious stuff like “huge” and the latter being an old man who says “get off my lawn.” Ha ha ha, those two are both a couple of characters, huh?
The real Biden sure does have a tendency to sound like the old man that he is, and Trump definitely says words like “huge” all the time. Funny stuff. Hey, you know what else Trump does? He oversees a country where his secret police round up immigrants, put them in camps, and allegedly subject them to medical experiments and unnecessary hysterectomies. But we’re not talking about that, we’re talking about toothless non-partisan voting initiatives and wacky election specials that poke fun at people all over the political spectrum—even though some of the people on that political spectrum might be actively participating in genocide—because this country doesn’t want to accept the fact that politics isn’t a football game where you pick your favorite team and it doesn’t really matter who wins. The past six months should be proof enough of that.
Let’s Be Real will air on Fox on October 1.