Life imitates art in the most uncanny ways! From political scandals to viral moments, we're examining the eeriest instances where HBO's satirical series predicted real-world events. From email controversies to government shutdowns, these storylines went from fiction to reality faster than you can say "robust"!
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00:00I'm not leaving. POTUS is leaving. He's not going to run for a second term.
00:07I'm going to run.
00:10Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most bizarre instances
00:15in which the fictional work of political satire Veep seemed to accurately foreshadow occurrences
00:20in real life.
00:21This is a simple and straightforward case. Although in many ways, that's what makes it
00:26so complicated.
00:27You see...
00:28That's good. Do that.
00:29Number 10. Use of the buzzword robust.
00:33I'm guessing you have one of those word-a-day calendars, and I know what the word for today
00:37is. It's robust. Would you like to give me a definition as well?
00:42Listen to enough political speeches, and you'll notice a few favorite words that appear over
00:46and over again. In the season 2 episode Hostages, the show poked fun at this trend when deputy
00:51communications director Dan Egan slipped one such buzzword into Selina Meyer's speech,
00:56robust.
00:56How's my speech coming?
00:57Oh, one minor change, just one word really. Considered response is now going to be robust
01:02response.
01:03Robust? Dan, that's good!
01:05Dan predicts that the word will become the next political darling, and it doesn't even
01:09take long for that prediction to come true. That same year, robust was used so many times
01:13by politicians and other public figures that the BBC named it one of the most overused words
01:18of the year. That the economic ties between our two countries are robust and growing.
01:23Fast forward to the 2016 U.S. presidential campaigns, and there it was again, featured in
01:28several manifestos, including that of Republican candidate Rand Paul.
01:32Number 9. Selina Meyer's fireworks speech. The season 4 episode Data begins with a PR nightmare in
01:39President Meyer's office.
01:40The little girl down in Pine Hill, Alabama. She's HIV positive via breast milk, but who still dreams of
01:48becoming a ballerina.
01:50After Selina mentions a girl living with HIV during an interview, internet sleuths piece
01:55together her identity and dox her, leaving her and her family ostracized. Later, as Selina
02:00leaves a campaign rally, she tries to do some damage control with an off-the-cuff statement
02:04to the press. Unfortunately, her words are completely upstaged by a poorly-timed fireworks display.
02:10Five years after this episode aired, Real Life caught up with the show when President Donald Trump
02:26learned of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death while leaving a campaign rally. He scrambled to
02:30offer a solemn tribute, only to be drowned out by Elton John's tiny dancer blasting in the background.
02:35She led an amazing life. What else can you say? She was an amazing woman. Whether you agreed or not,
02:43she was an amazing woman.
02:44Number 8. Conspiracy Theorists in Congress.
02:47Actually, he did 33% better than me.
02:50Don't math me, Lloyd. Math is a plot invented by the Chinese to make smart Americans feel dumb.
02:56Conspiracy theorists have been around forever, but thanks to the internet, their isolated ramblings
03:01have now gone global. Once relegated to fringe corners like 4chan and QAnon threads,
03:05they got a boost during the Trump era, leading to figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz,
03:10and Lauren Boebert becoming elected officials.
03:1219 Republicans running for office have expressed some sort of support for the Q theory,
03:17according to the media watchdog group Media Matters.
03:20These individuals seem to have taken notes from Veep's Jonah Ryan. Although he started as a
03:25bumbling White House liaison, Jonah somehow rose to become a representative from New Hampshire.
03:30But his evolution wasn't just in job title alone. It was a full-blown dive into radical,
03:35right-wing politics, complete with bizarre conspiracy theories. Just like his real-life
03:39counterparts, the more unhinged Jonah got, the more it seemed to work in his favor.
03:44Her whole presidency has been one disgrace after another, and I don't know if you're sick of it,
03:50but I'm definitely sick of it, and I'm not just gonna sit here and take it anymore.
03:54Number 7. A Government Shutdown
03:56Okay, guys, I'm not gonna drag this out. We're in shutdown mode. I gotta have a skeleton staff.
04:01Government shutdowns have been depicted in several political-themed shows from House of Cards to Parks
04:06and Recreation, but it was Veep that seemed to foreshadow one just months before it actually
04:11happened. In the seventh episode of season two, the government grinds to a halt, triggering a series
04:16of ridiculous events, including a man getting killed by a bear due to park rangers being furloughed.
04:21And a black bear, that's the weird part. They rarely attack people. That's weird.
04:25That's what I was, exactly, because then he must have goaded him, and he must have, I mean,
04:29hit him with a stick or done something stupid.
04:31While government shutdowns aren't exactly unheard of in real life, there hadn't been one in almost
04:3620 years when this episode aired in June 2013. However, just four months later, the U.S. federal
04:42government went into a shutdown, leaving hundreds of thousands of workers stuck in limbo.
04:47Fortunately, there were no real-life bear-inflicted deaths as a result.
04:50I think it's very disappointing to me because it's kind of sending a message that the government
04:56cares more about their parties and their bipartisanship than they do us, the American
05:01people.
05:05Jonah Ryan's political climb doesn't just stop at Congress. In season seven, he sets his sights on
05:11the presidency and goes head-to-head with Selena for the ticket. During his campaign, Jonah takes
05:16an anti-vaccination stance, peddling misinformation at his rallies. Ironically, he soon contracts
05:22chicken pox from his stepson and causes a massive outbreak by infecting attendees at one such
05:26rally.
05:37Just days after this episode aired, news broke that a Kentucky teenager who was banned from
05:42school for refusing vaccinations had contracted chicken pox.
05:45Another kid came down with the chicken pox, and then it went on for longer. Then finally,
05:50towards the end of the ban, I actually got the chicken pox, which should have extended the ban,
05:54but for some reason they didn't.
05:56The parallels don't end there. Falling vaccination rates in the U.S. have paved the way for the
06:00comeback of diseases like measles, most notably in 2019 in New York and Washington, and again in
06:072025 in Texas.
06:08Now report more than 400 cases, growing by 22 new cases since Thursday. Children and teenagers make
06:15up the majority of those infected, and almost all of those cases are in those who are unvaccinated.
06:20Number five, calls for violence against immigrants. Since he descended that escalator in 2015,
06:26Donald Trump has waged a relentless war against immigrants. While Veep didn't exactly predict his
06:32general hostility toward illegal immigration, it did eerily foreshadow a specific moment from his
06:37presidency. At a campaign rally in 2019, Trump revisited the topic, and when one of his attendees
06:43suggested violence as a permanent solution, he merely laughed it off.
06:46But how do you stop these people? You can't. There's no...
06:53That's only in the panhandle you can get away with that statement.
06:57That moment mirrored a scene from Veep's seventh season, where a supporter of Jonah
07:01Ryan made the same suggestion in response to his tirade on immigration.
07:05And how do these diseases get into America?
07:08How?
07:09Immigrants.
07:10Kill them!
07:11Yeah, well, I mean, we don't have to kill all of them. I mean, there are some good immigrants.
07:15Beyonce?
07:16The parallel was so uncanny that it inspired a segment on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,
07:20where Colbert teleports into the Veep universe and warns them to be more careful with their storylines.
07:26My name is Stephen Colbert, and I come from another dimension.
07:28The things that you're doing on this earth then happen in my world over and over again.
07:35Okay, this is insane.
07:38Number 4. Selina Meyer's pre-campaign memoir.
07:41In Season 3, Selina Meyer releases her memoir, Some New Beginnings,
07:45just before announcing her candidacy for president.
07:48The book's press tour quickly evolves into a makeshift campaign,
07:51as Selina travels to Iowa under the guise of promoting the memoir to court potential caucus voters.
07:56If she could have been here, which she could have, she would have,
08:00but she is in Iowa for the book tour of fluffing caucus goers for the presidential run.
08:04If this strategy feels familiar, it's because a real-life parallel unfolded shortly after.
08:09In June 2014, Hillary Clinton published her memoir, Hard Choices,
08:13which chronicled her 2008 presidential run and tenure as secretary of state.
08:17Clinton says she refused the job of secretary of state several times before she eventually accepted.
08:24And she writes, quote,
08:25But Clinton's book tour functioned more like a political campaign.
08:34It was handled by seasoned campaign operatives rather than traditional publicists,
08:38and each stop featured a ready-for-Hillary super PAC bus.
08:41Like Selina, Clinton released her memoir just ahead of launching her 2016 presidential bid.
08:46So I'm hitting the road to earn your vote, because it's your time.
08:52And I hope you'll join me on this journey.
08:54Number 3. The private email scandal.
08:57Yeah, publish everything. All of our emails and all of our phone records.
09:01Right, right, because they won't have time to read everything.
09:02I mean, you can't read everything. I don't read half the stuff I'm supposed to.
09:05There are more similarities between Selina Meyer and Hillary Clinton than just a pre-campaign memoir.
09:10Anyone who followed the 2016 U.S. presidential election remembers the controversy surrounding Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
09:19Clinton said she relied on her aides to, quote,
09:22use their judgment when emailing her and could not recall anyone raising concerns about information sent to her private account.
09:29Some even contend that the FBI's decision to reopen their investigation into the issue mere days before the election played a decisive role in her defeat.
09:38But years before this real-life controversy, Selina also endured her own email scandal in the first season of Veep.
09:45After she fires a Secret Service agent for smiling on duty, she's compelled to release all official correspondence, including some of her embarrassing private emails.
09:54Some of the bloggers are linking Ted's overnighters to the pregnancy rumors.
09:58What? Oh, come on! Mike, can't you make me not have been pregnant? God!
10:05Number 2. Count the votes. Stop the count.
10:08Hey, hey! Ho, ho! This endless recounts got to go!
10:12Oh, God, that's a great chant. Just catchy.
10:14The 2020 U.S. presidential election was undeniably one of the most chaotic in modern American history.
10:20Vote counting dragged on for days, with Trump and his supporters chanting count the votes in states where he trailed Joe Biden,
10:26while simultaneously demanding a halt to counting in states where he was ahead.
10:31Count the votes. Count the votes. Count the votes. Count the votes. Count the votes. Count the votes. Count the votes.
10:39This was yet another case of life-imitating Veep.
10:42In the show, Selina Meyer and her opponent Bill O'Brien tie in the Electoral College.
10:46But after 10,000 absentee ballots are found hidden by an anti-Selena postal worker in Nevada,
10:52she demands a state recount.
10:54Initially, O'Brien's supporters rally to stop the count.
10:57But when the ballots turn out to be military votes favoring their candidate,
11:00they switch sides and change their tune.
11:03Count every vote!
11:04Doesn't he work for O'Brien?
11:05Count every vote!
11:06Count every vote!
11:07No, Jesus, come on, Rachel.
11:08Count every vote!
11:09Count every vote!
11:10Come on, let him do it!
11:11Count every vote!
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11:28Number 1. President steps down for first female vice president.
11:32POTUS is gonna resign.
11:36And I'm about to become president.
11:40America!
11:40Although we've highlighted certain similarities between her and Hillary Clinton,
11:45the real-life politician Selina Meyer most closely mirrors is Kamala Harris.
11:49Both women rose from the Senate to become the first female vice president,
11:53and their awkward speech patterns have frequently drawn parallels.
11:56For us at every moment in time, and certainly this one,
12:00to see the moment in time in which we exist and are present.
12:05However, their most striking similarity lies in how they both got a shot at the top office
12:10after the sitting president chose not to seek re-election.
12:13For Selina, that opportunity came in season 3 when President Hughes resigned to care for his wife,
12:18making her the new president.
12:19A full decade later, Harris found herself in a similar position after Joe Biden dropped out
12:24of the 2024 race and endorsed her as the Democratic Party's candidate.
12:28Rachel, the president, in a tweet just announcing that he is offering his full support and endorsement
12:33for Kamala Harris to be the nominee of the party.
12:36What plot lines from Veep do you think might come true in the near future?
12:39Make your predictions in the comments below.
12:41That's not movable.
12:43That's im-movable.
12:46Surely nothing is im-movable.
12:48Amy, this is like explaining gravity to a chicken.
12:51Okay?
12:51We'll see you next time.
12:52Bye.
12:52Bye.
12:53Bye.
12:53Bye.
13:13Bye.
13:15Bye.
13:16Bye.
13:17Bye.
13:17Bye.
13:18Bye.
13:18Bye.
13:18Bye.
13:18Bye.
13:19Bye.