The Most Self-Sabotaging Political Ad Ever?

[Valin]

Racket News

Jimmy Kimmel writer and Substacker Jacob Reed may have just elected Donald Trump by clowning men in the new Mount Everest of unintentional comedy
Matt Taibbi
Oct 14, 2024

 

There are so many fakes and parodies on the Internet that I had to approach “Man Enough,” an ad ostensibly targeting male voters for the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz campaign, on mental tiptoe. I heard the premise before watching and was certain it had to be a meta prank of the Andy Kaufman school. Nobody could be that stupid.

It’s no prank. Written and directed by Jimmy Kimmel writer and Jacob All Trades Substack contributor Jacob Reed, “Man Enough” is a sincere attempt to win votes for Kamala Harris. It was made for Creatives for Harris and reposted by Vote Save America. Unless Reed’s entire career is performance art, which I can’t rule out, it’s both the most self-sabotaging political messaging campaign ever and a devastating satire of the progressive Un-Man archetype that could have been titled, “Sorry I Have One.” It will win the election for Donald Trump if enough men (or women for that matter) see it. Recapping:

The ad starts with three caricatured “masculine” images: Dude in cowboy hat feeding chickens, shaven-headed black man getting sets in on a bench press, bearded biker tinkering with ride in garage. Cowboy: “I’m a man.” Weightlifter: “I’m a man.” Biker: “I’m a man, man.” Motorcycle guy is wearing a shirt whose sleeves have been chopped off either with a fork or by an ex-Project Runway contestant inspired by The Flintstones:

The ad spins through more caricatures: guy with hay in pickup truck bed, guy standing in sun wearing Katherine Hepburn On Golden Pond gardening hat while propping elbow on rural porch, guy in blue gingham shirt standing in front of horse. They give their bona fides: they like their steak rare, they drink barrel-proof bourbon, and weightlifter guy is “man man enough to deadlift 500 and braid the [bleep] out of my daughter’s hair.” The turn comes when Gingham Horseman barks, “I tell you another thing I sure as s^#@ am not afraid of. Women.”

I wondered what the horse’s SAG rate was. They are all actors. Weightlifter Lanre Idewu’s non-X work includes “sexy pool guy” from the Anne Heche/Ashton Kutcher vehicle Spread, while heavyset chicken-feeding dude who eats “carburetors for breakfast” is Winston Carter, front-seated in a Spaghettiman tub scene:

(Snip)

[SDwaters]

Made me think of the old "Mangled Baby Ducks" parody jam commercial on SNL (circa 1976).

[Valin]