A New Russian Sitcom About Joe Biden
You can't make this stuff up!
If you’re relatively new to the issues related to Kremlin propaganda and how it’s affecting other countries (including the United States), I recommend reading some background posts I wrote that explains things in more detail along with links to other sites where you can read more to educate yourself.
Back in 2015 a political sitcom began airing on Ukrainian television called Servant of the People. That series starred Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a divorced high school teacher named Vasily Goloborodko who lives in a Soviet-era apartment in Kyiv with his mother, father, sister, and niece. One day he is unexpectedly catapulted to fame after one of his students secretly films Goloborodko making a passionate profanity-laden rant to his colleague at the school where he works about the state of corruption in Ukraine. The student then uploads the video online, where it soon goes viral. Goloborodko becomes the latest Internet sensation and he becomes such a star that he ends up running in the Ukrainian election despite being a late entrant. He wins the election by overwhelming numbers so he becomes president. Then he has to deal with new challenges as he tries to get rid of the corruption that is plaguing the government while encountering resistance from the oligarchs and their corrupt allies in the government who had personally benefitted from the corruption.
The series became a such a hit that it led to three seasons and a theatrical movie. It also led to Zelenskyy's decision to run for president of Ukraine in real life and he actually won.
Next year a new sitcom will air on Russian television called Goodbye where the whole premise is the reverse of Servant of the People. US President Joe Biden decides to travel to Russia undercover to find out why the sanctions against that country aren't working. But he encounters trouble when he loses his passport. Apparently Biden didn't bring much money with him and his credit and debit cards don't work since Russia has been removed from the SWIFT financial system due to its invasion of Ukraine. This leaves Biden being stuck in Russia as a result. So he ends up doing the reverse of Vasily Goloborodko where he goes from being the president of a nation to living in a Soviet-era apartment and working as a school teacher providing English lessons in order to raise enough money so he can purchase a new passport and return to the US.
If all that weren’t enough, there are two CIA agents who try to whisk Biden away from Russia only to instead grab a Russian pensioner named Ivanovich who happens to look just like Biden. Man, that's some serious The Prince and The Pauper shit!
Dmitry Dyuzhev will portray Joe Biden and here's a photo of him in full makeup.
On the surface it sounds pretty off-beat and, with a team of talented writers and actors, it's possible they could actually pull it off and come up with something that's just as witty and full of absurd comedy as Servant of the People. But there are a few challenges that faces Goodbye. First of all, Joe Biden will be leaving the White House in January and he'll be an ex-president since he decided drop out of the presidential race. So that series premise will already be dated by the time it airs.
Then there's the script. The independent Russian outlet Mediazona has posted the entire script of the pilot episode and it doesn't look very promising at all.
It looks like the writers have taken Donald Trump's frequent “Sleepy Joe” insults to heart since Biden is depicted as falling asleep during meetings. He is referred to as “Grandpa” throughout the episode.
There's also an offensive throwaway transgender joke along with a homophobic slur, which isn't surprising given the Russian government's current hostility towards the LGBTQ community.
And if you've ever wondered what if Beavis and Butt-head had joined the CIA, this show answers that question with the two dim-witted CIA agents who swiped the Russian pensioner who looks like Biden but takes him back to the US without doing any kind of a thorough check to make sure that they really got Biden.
There are a few funny jokes here and there but I've seen better comedy shows to be honest. The cast would have to be full of unusually talented actors in order to overcome the mediocre script and make Goodbye into a memorable comedy series. I'm not going to hold my breath hoping that this happens.
You'd be better off with watching old episodes of Servant of the People.
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