A 'Black Mirror' Episode Predicted The 2016 Election & The Similarities Are Eerie by Sabienna Bowman
Charlie
Brooker's nightmarish Black Mirror is often an all too prescient examination of
the role technology plays in modern life, but one Season 2 Black Mirror
episode, "The Waldo Moment," may have predicted the rise of Donald
Trump. In the episode, a cartoon bear named Waldo runs for a local office to
gain publicity for an upcoming TV show, but things take a dark turn when Waldo
begins to resonate with voters who are tired of politicians. The man behind
Waldo, a failed comedian named Jamie, realizes things have gone too far when
Waldo begins winning a national race — but, by then, he has lost control of his
own creation.
If this
all sounds eerily familiar, it's because Donald Trump is essentially Waldo.
He's a cartoonish man who avoids debates in favor of lewd language and insults.
Even more disturbing, he's gained traction with voters who feel disenchanted
with politicians and would prefer a "real" (but unqualified)
candidate instead. As Trump gains more and more electoral votes on Election
Night, it seems Waldo's real-life moment has arrived, and anyone who has seen
the apocalyptic end of the episode — which finds Waldo controlling people on an
international level — are rightfully terrified right now.
Twitter
users have been quick to identify the similarities between the 2016 election
and the satirical Black Mirror episode. When the episode premiered in 2013, it
was considered too over the top to be plausible. In his review, AV Club writer
David Sims suggested, "There’s just not enough there to suggest that
Waldo’s moment would last much longer than 15 minutes, and the show doesn’t
help by having all of its characters agree." At the time, Sims' take
seemed correct. Surely a belligerent man with no political experience who did
nothing but lob insults at the more experienced candidates running against him
could never actually win an election. Then Trump happened, and 15 minutes
turned into a nightmare the United States cannot escape. Waldo's moment has
arrived.
Understanding
how the United States failed voters to an extent that a glorified cartoon bear
feels like their only hope is a web of despair for the history books to
untangle. For now, queue up "The Waldo Moment" if you dare. The
episode that was once thought to paint too outlandish of a picture of the
future is now the most relevant episode of Black Mirror of them all.
The
scariest part is by far the ending of "The Waldo Moment," when the
country turns on Jamie, Waldo's creator. Waldo looms over him, appearing on a
massive screen while Jamie is assaulted by two police officers for hurling a
bottle at the image of the monster he created. Once Waldo was unleashed on the
world, even his creator could not undo the damage and send Waldo back from
whence he came. If reality continues to mirror fiction, then the United States
will all be Jamie on Wednesday morning, wondering just what it is they have
wrought.
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