Invisible President: Difference between revisions

{{quote|"''Well, who did you ''expect'' to see -- the ''President''?''|'''Droopy Dog''', in the theatrical cartoon ''Droopy's Good Deed''.}}

Most likely the lawyers have it wrong to some extent. As far as the President, he has just as much rights to exclusive use of his name and face as any other famous individual. However, as a political figure--whether a current or former president--there are First Amendment rights to use the name or likeness of the President in a film when it would be appropriate to do so -- such as parody, satire, etc.

** Averted in the case of Austria (Maria Theresa), Prussia (Frederick II), Russia ([[Josef Stalin|Stalin]]) and possibly Sealand (Roy Bates or his son).

** Played with for the US Presidents. While their faces are never fully seen, there are subtle cues that hint to who they actually are, such as with [[Franklin Roosevelt]] in the [[World War 2]] strips.

** But only in the anime. The persident is David Hoope in the manga. {{spoiler|He commits suicide after Mello threatens him with the Death Note in order to prevent nuclear war.}}

* ''[[Heroman]]'' plays this...a bit oddly: the President of the United States appears onscreen and has quite a few speaking lines, but looks a lot like former Japanese Prime Minister Jun'ichiro Koizumi.

* ''[[War Games]]'' features a photograph of the incumbent President on set.

** It's standard practice in US government offices to display pictures of the sitting president and the relevant cabinet secretary (the Defense secretary, in this case, since it's a military base). However, repeatedly zooming in on a picture of [[Ronald Reagan|the Gipper]] in a movie that deals with the threat of nuclear holocaust has been seen as a [[Take That]] by the director.

* ''[[Wag the Dog]]'' almost always has the main characters talking to "the president" on the phone. The one time he's on camera, it's in shadows and from the back only. On the other hand, his opponent is frequently shown in TV ads and on talk shows.

* In the [[Rowan Atkinson]] comedy ''Johnny English'', the queen's hands are shown, and her voice is heard, but everything else is just outside the frame.

** The 2009 sequel doesn't show the President at all, and in all scenes where an actor is talking about him he is referred to only as "the President"...except in one quick blurb that is delivered offscreen from a news bulletin, where he is specifically named as [[Barack Obama|President Obama]]. This makes sense when you realize that the film was being shot during the 2008 election race and they could only add a name in post-production. [[Word of God]] is that Bay added the name as a sort of tribute to him, [[Fridge Logic|which is odd]] considering the main government representative is an [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] who spends the movie trying to kick the Autobots off the planet, and it's implied the administration is considering ''negotiating'' with the Decepticons. Also notable is that every time the Bureaucrat does [[Kick the Dog|something to annoy, obstruct or hinder the heroes]], he does it under the direct orders of the President. The only things he can truly take the blame for are his poor people skills and callous attitude towards the team.

* ''[[Our Man Flint]]'' from 1966 has a scene where the president, addressing the world to announce capitulation to the bad guys, is told to stall -- he hems and haws in a Johnson-esque drawl.

* The second movie of ''[[National Treasure]]'' both plays it straight and subverts it. In the reenactment of [[Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln's]] assassination by John Wilkes Booth, only Lincoln's back and a part of his head was shown ''even though it is very obvious'' that it's him and using his name and likeness is legal under the protection of the First Amendment.

* In ''[[Angels and Demons|Angels & Demons]]'', the deceased [[The Pope|Pope]]'s name and nationality are never stated, although it's pretty obvious that he was a highly-fictionalized John Paul II (Incumbent at the time of its writing).

** The film adaptation names him "Pius XIII", from a brief glimpse of his ring before it's destroyed.

* There's a double-whammy in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Virgin New Adventures|New Adventures]] novel ''The Dying Days''; it's set in 1997, but at the time of publication (1996) both the American and British national elections were being contested, thus meaning that the identities of both the President and the Prime Minister are deliberately kept vague.

* The President was never seen in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' until a new one was elected in the show's seventh season (though there was at least one fake-out involving a [[Body Double]]).

** However, there was an episode with William Devane as President, in which the real Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, General John Jumper, is on set in uniform. Turns out he was a bit of a fan of the show.

* [[wikipedia:Spy Game (TV series)|Spy Game]]: we never see the president. All that is shown is his voice level analysis graph on the communications monitor.

* The President on ''[[The West Wing]]'' was originally intended to be almost entirely unseen -- Martin Sheen was originally only contracted for four episodes of the show's first season. In his one scene in the pilot episode, he was so amazingly impressive that they changed their minds and effectively made him the main character.

* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''The Green Death'' also portrayed the Prime Minister as an outstretched hand and as the unheard half of a telephone conversation with [[The Brigadier]]. In the phone conversation, he was called "Jeremy", a reference to the then leader of the Liberal Party (who was never Prime Minister).

** More recently, ''[[Doctor Who]]'' has used archival footage of the Queen's coronation for an episode set during the event.

** During the 2009 Christmas special, they went to hilarious extremes to ensure that 'President Obama''s face was never shown. This included strategically placed standing people, [[Face Palm|facepalming]] and a [[Makes Sense in Context|vibrating head]].

* ''[[Dharma and Greg]]'' and fake Southern accents and Al Gore. Enough said.

* Similarly, on an episode of ''[[Hustle]]'', the Queen's feet were shown, as was her corgi. Earlier in the episode, in a scene at Buckingham Palace, a bell marked 'HRH' was seen to ring in the butler's pantry, suggesting that the Royal Highness in question was calling for assistance.

* The Pentagon drama ''[[E Ring]]'' had an extreme example where the president was never even mentioned, even though in real life he'd be heavily involved in the military missions each episode featured.

** Notably, the PM was referred to as 'him' despite [[Margaret Thatcher]] being in office at the time. This aided the goal of obfuscating Hacker's party membership: referring to the PM as "her" would have led many the erroneous conclusion that the show was specifically a satire of the current government and/or that Hacker was a Tory.

* Old and very funny example. There was a ''The Lucy Show'' episode where Lucy and a Girl Scout troop went to visit President [[John F Kennedy]] at [[The White House]]. Lucy (Lucille Ball) feels faint and sits down on a historical piece of furniture, [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s boyhood rocking chair. The chair is too small, and gets stuck to Lucy's big ass. As she is stumbling around trying to get this thing off, a voice off camera in the oval office says "It's nice to meet you. I see I am not the only one around with a personal attachment to rocking chairs." This, of course, was an impersonation of JFK. Lucy wattles into the oval office as dignified as she can, patriotic music playing in the background.

** One episode had Max needing to convince his pal (Don Rickles) he was a spy; he puts Rickles on the hot line and he says "Uh-huh. Right. And I'm Sidney Bird." After he's convinced, he tells Max "Hey, I never met the guy, but I use his baby powder all the time!"

* In ''[[The Thick of It]]'', Prime Minister Tom Davis is never seen. His predecessor was known only as "the Prime Minister".

* Partially subverted in ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'': In the two episodes where the president appears, he either is only seen as an arm poking out the window of his car (in "Baby Face") or dressed as [[George Washington]], and later [[Abraham Lincoln]] (in "Vicky loses her Icky".) However, you can tell from the voice that it's intended to be George Bush.

** The president also appears in "That Ol' Black Magic", and once again is unnamed but obviously George W. Bush.

* The [[Droopy]] cartoon ''Droopy's Good Deed'' used this at the end, after Droopy's character, a Boy Scout, had won a visit with the President. Droopy lampshaded this after [[The Un-Reveal]] with the page quote above. This also subverted MGM cartoons' tendency towards surprise live-action cameos at the time.

** Also, at the beginning of the same cartoon, when Spike first learns that the winning scout would meet the president, a thought bubble appears over his head as he imagines himself at Washington DC shaking hands with the president, whose body is all but shown entirely, [[The Faceless|his head out of the thought bubble's frame]]. So even if the president did appear in the ending, he would probably be given the same treatment that Spike's fantasy gave him.

* An episode of the 1981 ''[[Spider-Man]]'' cartoon has a faceless President refusing to give in to Doctor Doom's demands, and promptly ordering an air strike on his nefarious device (this puts Spider-man's life at risk, since he's there trying to thwart the plan himself, but he doesn't know that). Later, however, at the climax of the show's world-conquering [[Story Arc]], {{spoiler|the President -- now in complete silhouette -- is forced to give up his seat to one of Doctor Doom's robotic proxies}}.

== Anime}} & Manga ==

* Because they have to sign off on the hiring, whenever the US government hires ''[[Golgo 13]]'', the president in office at the time of the story's writing will make an appearance.

== [[Fanfic]] ==

== Film ==

* In a highly controversial exception, the film ''The Death of a President'' digitally superimposes the face of [[George W. Bush]] onto an actor as he is killed by a sniper.

* ''[[National Lampoons Senior Trip]]'', which ostensibly takes place in the mid-1990s, depicts a fictional President who looks less like Bill Clinton and more like Franklin Roosevelt (minus the wheelchair).

* Similarly, the part of the second ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movie that explicitly takes place in 1969 shows Dr. Evil communicating with a nonexistent American President (played by [[Tim Robbins]]) who looks considerably younger and better-looking than [[Richard Nixon]].

* While the actual president never appeared in ''[[The X-Files]]'', a large photo of [[Bill Clinton]] was clearly visible in Skinner's office throughout several seasons. However, no pictures of [[George W. Bush]] ever appeared after his election.

** However, in the recent movie, both Mulder and Scully notice a picture of Bush in the hallway, walk over to it, and stare at it, as the theme music plays.

* A first season episode of ''[[JAG]]'' used stock footage of [[Bill Clinton]] jogging through a park, edited to look like Harm, who was jogging the other way, passed him.

** The second season opener starts with [[Bill Clinton]] presenting Harm with the Distinguished Flying Cross. Again stock footage was edited into the show.

** In one episode, Bud Roberts carried the so-called "football" for [[George W. Bush]], and archived footage of the President was used in the episode.

* [[Margaret Thatcher]] famously appeared as herself in a sketch she wrote for ''[[Yes Minister]]''.

* In ''[[The Jeffersons]]'' (season 4, George and Jimmy) President [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] was invited by George Jefferson to stay at his house.

* When the Prime Minister is the main character, you can't very well keep him invisible, and hence ''[[Yes Minister|Yes, Prime Minister]]'' averts this trope.

* Tony Blair appeared as himself in a Comic Relief sketch of ''[[The Catherine Tate Show]]''.

* A fictional president bearing a passing resemblance to George Bush appears in ''[[Justice League]]'', albeit in a parallel universe.

** Played straighter in ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', where in the aftermath of {{spoiler|the Watchtower being overridden and firing on Earth}}, J'onn receives a call from the President, who is not clearly shown.

** [[Bill Clinton]] is in the opening credits of ''Animaniacs'', with the line "[[Bill Clinton]] plays the sax."

** Of course, an exception for ''Tiny Toons'' was the [[Very Special Episode]] about [[Media Watchdogs]], where the cast went to the capitol to pick on the Bush administration in person (the highlight was, of course, Quayle).

* On ''[[The Cleveland Show]]'', Cleveland initially [[Too Dumb to Live|does not realize]] that the [[Barack Obama|Barry Obama]] he beat at basketball as a child grew up to be President.