Cartoon characters meeting the President?

M

missfabb

New member
In honor of this Election Day approaching in the US (if you're over 18, please go out and vote!), I thought this'd make for a fun thread:

What characters have met the President of the United States? And (to avoid this turning into a list thread), what cliches are associated with the President in cartoons?

To start:
- The Simpsons have met George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton; don't recall if the latter was while he was still in office. They also met Barbara Bush, while she was still the first lady. All with the temporal oddity of Maggie being around for all the meetings... ;-)
- Superman met what apparently is Clinton in one episode of S:TAS.
- The first episode of "Peabody's Improbable History" apparently had Peabody meeting and knowing Dwight D. Eisenhower (as an "old friend" to get "a reference" from).

Cliches:
- Sometimes, the president is shown only either from the back-of-the-head view (a la the S:TAS episode) or obscured by a chair/shadows, if they don't want to show who the president is exactly, for whatever reason?

- Related to the above, there's the use of a fake president, to avoid dating the program or dealing with any issues related to a real president showing up. Which made for an amusing joke on an episode of "Earthworm Jim" ("hey, you're not the president!" "I know, I'm used to keep the show from becoming dated!").

-B.
 
- Richard Nixon was a recurring character on Futurama, and even became President of Earth after gaining a robotic body. He remains President throughout the series and the DTVs.

- Beavis & Butthead met Bill Clinton in Beavis & Butthead Do America, when he made them official membors of the ATF. He even seemed to enjoy their company.

- Clinton and Bush also appeared on Family Guy. Bill even wound up sleeping with both Lois AND Peter, while Chris and Meg hung out with Bush.

- An episode of Jem had her revealing her secret identity to the president who was made up for the show after rescuing him from a kidnapper.

The cliche of obscuring the president's face is due to the fact that some shows don't want to become dated by placing a specific president in the scene. By not showing Clinton or Bush or whoever, the show can be viewed years later without having to have a specific date as to when the show took place.
 
The first season of Iron Man has Tony talking with Clinton on a few occasions. He also made an appearance of sort on the first season of Fantastic Four (though it was a Skrull taking his form).
 
The Justice League met President Kennedy in New Frontier. My favorite president moment must have been at the end of the Simpsons Bush Sr. episode when Homer went to share a beer with "Jerry" Ford. Another great one was the dream when George Washington was urging Lisa to expose Jedidiah Springfield. I also remember an episode of Tarzan that had Teddy Roosevelt meet them. I think he was on a safari.

On Justice League Unlimited, I remember the president talking over the phone but I assume it probably wasn't a representation of a non-fictional prez, although his face wasn't shown.
 
So, wait. Are we talking about meeting a President that is currently in office when the cartoon was released or just meeting former Presidents?
 
I believe there was an episode of Johnny Test where they met the president or something. If I'm remembering right, he was based on the current president in office.
 
Beavis and Butt-head met Clinton twice. There was another episode where Clinton made an appearance at their school. The principal tried to keep them away by sending them home early, but they wound up seeing him anyway.
 
There was an episode of Arthur where his family went to Washington D.C. and, thanking to DW, end up meeting the president. Haven't seen that episode in forever though. :sweat:
 
Hehe. Up until now, it was a fairly safe bet to show just enough of a president to imply that he's a white guy with gray hair.:anime:

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the classic Tiny Toons where Buster and Babs meet Bush Sr. and Dan Quayle (the latter of which is a huge fan of Tiny Toons and thinks Camp David is a sleepaway camp).

South Park has included presidents Clinton and Bush more than once.

Batman Beyond made a very sloppy attempt at an early generic reference to the 2000 election by having Terry reviewing his presidential history with Max. The show aired early in the election season but was supposed to take place about 50 years in the future. Terry couldn't remember who came after Clinton and Max said, "Clinton was the fun one, then came the boring one." Ah, if only that were true. It's a bizzarre reminder of how campaigns and the media can shape one's perceptions: there really was a time when common wisdom saw Bush and Gore as similar politicians with generic, moderate views.
 
I can recall in an episode of CN's Time Squad, Otto, Larry and Tuddrussell (sp?) meet G. W. Bush.

There are two theories I have that some animation studios try to avoid showing the presidents' faces:

1. Caricaturing a president may run the risk of getting slapped with a lawsuit.

2. The production team is aware that the cartoon MAY have a shelf life beyond the next one or two elections, and thinking that the president caricature would date, avoid showing the prez's face.
 
Depending on which version or dub you watch, it's a different president.

Japanese version (1978): Fictitious president, though he sounds vaguely like Carter (in Japanese)
Toho English dub (1978): Jimmy Carter
Streamline dub (1995): George Bush Sr. (although the dub implies he fools around with women like Clinton did)
British dub (1996): haven't seen it and don't know
Pioneer/Geneon dub (2003): George W. Bush
 
The Earthworm Jim animated series made fun of the practice of using a "generic President" character who explains the cliche whenever someone comments that he doesn't look like the President. Funny thing is, the series hasn't been shown in the US since the '90s.
 
Time Squad as a whole has had the cast meet multiple presidents, George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Taft, and Franklin Roosevelt to name most of them.

Also Bill Clinton was a recurring character on Freakazoid, seeing is that Dexter Douglas lived in the D.C. area.
 
Yeah though the boys only actually meet the presidents one or two times. For example despite Clinton's appearences, the boys only met him in "The Gay Badge Of Courage" when he pointed out to the boys that slavery was illegal at the end so Cartman couldn't be Stan and Kyle's slave. Stan and Kyle met Bush in "Mystery Of The Urinal Duece" when he poitned out that the 9/11 Conspiracy is a Consiparcy to fool the 1/4 (and probably more) percent of the population who are "retarded" enough to believe that. And talked to Cartman over the phone in "The Snuke".

Bush actually made a couple of appearences in Fairly Oddparents. He wasn't called out by name but the look and voice of the President seen in "That Old Black Magic" and "Vicky Loses Her Icky" defintley was Bush. That remidns me of another Cliche shown in shows involving presidents espically kids shows: Making the presidents either look like or mention George Washington and Abrham Lincoln, the two most famous presidents. Washington made an appernce in FOP's "Twistory" (and a few other eps) and Lincon was actually the president in Evil Con Carne and Billy and Mandy (except for Underfist where Mandy was the president for uh some reason).
 
In The Adventures of Super Mario. 3, George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush make an appearance. They are in the episode, "Reptiles in the Rose Garden."
 
Back
Top