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Invisible President: Difference between revisions
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** 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.
** Then the [[Transformers: Dark of the Moon|2011 sequel]] averts this, showing the president in name and face.
* The 1967 film comedy ''[[The President's Analyst|The Presidents Analyst]]'' shows the title character entering and leaving the Oval Office, but never shows the president or mentions his name. Even the country's intelligence agencies are aliased to the FBR and the CEA (possibly under pressure to do so), but it's clearly [[Lyndon B. Johnson|LBJ]]; one character describes himself as liberal in the same tradition as the president ("you know...we're for civil rights!") In an exterior location shot, we see his beagles being walked on [[The White House]] lawn.
* Another obvious Invisible LBJ "appears" in the 1966 film ''[[Batman: The Movie]]''. A close-up from the "President's" perspective (thus faceless) shows him reclining in his seat, stroking his dog, and congratulating the Dynamic Duo on the phone, in a cartoonishly stereotypical Texan accent (he even says "Howdy!") provided by Fort Worth-born Van Williams of the ''[[Green Hornet]]''.
* ''[[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.
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== Literature ==
* The opening chapter of ''[[Harry Potter
** Apparently some of the PM's mannerisms were based on those of [[Tony Blair]], who was PM at the time the book was written (but not at the time in which the book is supposedly set).
* [[Stephen King]]'s novel ''Dreamcatcher'' was finished in mid-November 2000, at which time the outcome of the US presidential election was still in doubt; as such, when the President gives a national address regarding the events of the novel, the book strains to avoid mentioning whether the president was meant to be [[George W. Bush]] or Al Gore.
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* While Hacker was Minster for Administrative Affairs in ''[[Yes Minister]]'', many characters mentioned the Prime Minister, but the PM never actually showed up on-screen despite occasionally determining the outcome of an episode. Averted once Hacker got the top job himself.
** 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.
* Another old example. The original ''[[Get Smart]]'' show. CONTROL had a direct phone line to the president. When Chief makes contact, the voice of the president is coming from a stuffed steer head mounted to the wall. The voice was an impersonation of [[Lyndon B. Johnson|LBJ]]. "Let us reason together".
** 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".
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== Newspaper Comics ==
* ''[[Doonesbury]]'' carries this to its logical extreme by literally showing the president as invisible. This began with [[George
** Prior to this, strips featuring the President simply showed [[Establishing Shot|establishing shots]] of [[The White House]]. Then there was the time [[Ronald Reagan]] appeared as "[[Max Headroom|Ron Headrest]]".
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