Entertainment

Obamas To Produce A Netflix Comedy About The 2016 Trump Transition

by Erica Gerald Mason
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Get the popcorn and ready the remote, your new obsession is coming to Netflix

After a year of pandemic denials, election turmoil, and skyrocketing unemployment, America’s mom and dad Barack and Michelle Obama have announced a new Netflix comedy series that’s set to highlight the transition that took place when Donald Trump became the president in 2016. The informational show will start filming in 2021 and is set to be part sketch comedy, part docu-series, but anything that gives us a glimpse into how the Obamas really feel about the Trump adminstration is already extremely interesting.

The comedy series, called The G Word, is based on Michael Lewis’ book The Fifth Risk, which examines the early days of the Trump transition. Per the book’s publisher, the non-fiction narrative follows the “Trump administration’s botched presidential transition.” The Obamas’ production company Higher Ground bought the rights to the book in 2018. “The G Word is set to be part-documentary, part sketch comedy, testing the old saying ‘comedy equals tragedy plus time.’ It will pull back the curtain on government, examining whether it is a dirty word or a trusted institution,” according to Deadline.

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The series will look behind the headlines and give viewers a peek inside the workings of government. While some might have hoped the series would feature Michelle Obama stress-eating Oreos like the rest of America during that tumultuous time, comedian Adam Conover, host of the recently completed comedy-docu series Adam Ruins Everything, will act as host of the new show.

“Very happy to finally be able to share this news: I’m creating a new comedy series for Netflix about the federal government. It’s called The G Word, and I can’t wait to share it with you,” Conover tweeted on November 19, 2020.

The Obamas and their company Higher Ground Productions signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Netflix back in 2018. Earlier this year, one of the first of their projects, American Factory, won the Oscar for best documentary feature.

Despite the fact that this is set to be a funny show, the Obamas do not take the current transition lightly, as Michelle has made that much clear in a recent Instagram post highlighting how she and Barack handled the 2016 election when Trump came into office.

“…My husband and I instructed our staffs to do what George and Laura Bush had done for us: run a respectful, seamless transition of power — one of the hallmarks of American democracy,” Michelle said of the 2016 transition. “We invited the folks from the president-elect’s team into our offices and prepared detailed memos for them, offering what we’d learned over the past eight years.”

A comedy show about how much Trump sucks co-signed by Barack and Michelle? Yes. Just, yes.