Comedians making fun of the president is no new thing. We love the right to free speech and being able to make fun of any leader goes along with that territory. In some countries, it’s illegal and even punishable by death. It’s almost even a tradition. You can look at any season of SNL and you are guaranteed to find jokes at the expense of every president.
The same is true for Seth Meyers. He recently put on a show for Netflix called “Lobby Baby.” As many other comedians have, Meyers admits to a part of the show devoted to making fun of President Trump. In fact, Trump is quite often a punchline during his NBC show “Late Night.” This time around, Meyers has a different idea.
He has asked Netflix to allow users to skip the Trump jokes. It’s not that he cares much about Trump, but rather the current climate. In his mind, he feels as if we’re so burned out on politics. No comic can seem to resist the urge to bash the president for one reason or another. Many feel it’s their constitutional duty.
While that’s well within their rights, there is certainly a lot of burnout. Trump is in the news every single day. That’s all the pundits talk about. Trump this, impeachment that. He’s everywhere and people are just plum exhausted talking about him and politics in general. Many people want to be able to relax without it being brought up.
Netflix Allowing Users to Skip the Trump Jokes
If you enjoy a good punchline about the president, then you can certainly watch without interruption. But if you’re sick of the jokes, Meyers asked Netflix to do something about it. It will work a lot like the “skip intro” button that often appears. If you don’t want to watch the same, repetitive introduction to a show, you have the option to skip it. Same would be true here.
“It dawned on me that because it was on Netflix, there would be this opportunity to put in technology that would allow people to skip it,” he said. “It was a way to build in the response to anyone who would say, ‘Oh, let me guess there’s going to be jokes about the President.'”
Netflix’s direction of comedy programming, Robbie Pray, said he’s happy Meyers was able to think of this idea. It’s all about providing an experience for every fan, whether they like political jokes or not. “We’re thrilled he was able to take advantage of the Netflix experience in such a funny and innovative way,” said Pray.
In the end, Meyers says the “skip” idea is another joke in the show. He doesn’t think anyone who watches it will actually skip the jokes.
