Veep’s Julia-Louis Dreyfus released a video today as President Selina Meyer urging millennials to not be fuckwits, and to please vote. “When you don’t vote, you give up your vote to someone else, someone probably less informed and more motivated,” she says, with perhaps some uncharacteristic altruism. Right-hand doormat and walking panic attack Gary Walsh (Tony Hale) stands at her side, at once sycophantically affirming her every word and discretely whispering dissenting information into her ear.
This isn’t the first time Veep has been forced to reckon with an increasingly unfunny real-world political climate. Shortly after the Access Hollywood tapes were made public, Timothy Simons (who plays Jonah) tweeted this:
.@VeepHBO should we… should we shut down production? what the fuck do we even do?
— Timothy Simons (@timothycsimons) October 8, 2016
Veep took some dark turns in its excellent fifth season, concluding on an almost dour, contemplative note as Selina watched the election slip away from her. However, that’s not nearly as dour as the conclusion to this election cycle will be if a repulsive, xenophobic strongman were to be elected president just because his voter suppression strategies succeeded. Make sure you’re set up to vote here.