With a real-life administration that seems to be one-upping the fictional politicos of Veep when it comes to absurd levels of incompetence, it would seem that the HBO series might have trouble competing. But in a new essay for The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner David Mandel says that’s not really the case, thanks to the plot mechanisms that have kept Selina Meyer out of the Oval Office. That said, the writers did encounter one situation where a joke was just too similar to a topic in the news, and it had to do with a “golden shower.”
Indeed, they had planned to lob something pee-related toward (who else?) punching bag Jonah Ryan, but then came the unconfirmed dossier that alleged Donald Trump hired prostitutes to pee on a bed in a Moscow hotel room. “We hadn’t filmed it yet, and we realized, ‘Oh, we need to change that‘ [because of the Trump-Russia dossier],” Mandel said. “Who knew we would literally have to change a Veep golden showers joke because of the real president of the United States of America? It doesn’t get any weirder than that.”
For what it’s worth, in our review of the new episodes, The A.V. Club wrote: “Veep remains untethered to any need to address recent events, but it certainly helps take the edge off.”