The Most Pop Culture Election in History
The 2024 election cycle has proven that pop culture and politics are inextricable.
A lot of superlatives can be accurately applied to this U.S. presidential election cycle: most important ever, closest ever, tensest ever, most dramatic ever. While we here at Ministry of Pop Culture are not political pundits, we can make one observation about this election with great authority.
This, friends, is the Most Pop Culture Election Ever.
We have a reality TV star and a memoirist whose life was made into a movie by Ron Howard running on the Republican ticket. Some of the biggest names in Hollywood, most notably George Clooney and Damon Lindelof (more on that below), were instrumental in the Democrats’ swap from incumbent Joe Biden to vice president Kamala Harris as their candidate. Pop stars have proven instrumental in both buoying Harris’ early candidacy—political operatives will no doubt study Charli XCX’s “Brat summer” and its implications for Harris for years to come—and in endorsements throughout. In fact, we’ve somehow reached a point where pop stars are all but required to endorse, as the backlash to Chappell Roan’s non-endorsement showed, while major newspapers pass on picking a favorite.
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Here, some of the many pop culture-related highlights of the 2024 election:
Hollywood Helps Engineer a Historic Candidate Swap
Did you have “deeply respected Hollywood figures and Democratic donors reluctantly call for the president of the United States to exit the race” on your bingo card for 2024? If you did, can you tell me whether I should go all-in on crypto or buy gold bars or what?
The night of the first, and ultimately only, debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump felt less like a political event, and more like an unexpected family emergency. Many of us have experienced the moment when someone we love has notably, drastically declined without our having fully realized. Watching Biden stumble and falter his way through the debate was unbearably sad and painful, and I know I was not the only one who simply did not know what could possibly come next.
For that, I am immensely grateful to George Clooney and Damon Lindelof for being two Democratic donors willing to step forward and say publicly, with the utmost reluctance, that it was time for Biden to halt his campaign: Clooney in The New York Times, and Lindelof in The Hollywood Reporter. The three weeks between the debate and Biden’s announcement that he would depart the race were like a living vision of purgatory, and while no one thing was enough to prod the president to acknowledge reality, Clooney and Lindelof each using their celebrity to keep us from slipping into a morass not of our making was truly worthy work.
I interviewed Lindelof some time later for a New York Times story on the 10th anniversary of The Leftovers, and asked him about what pushed him to speak up. He told me,
“I just kept thinking about what it would feel like to wake up on November 6, with newly elected President Trump having soundly defeated Joe Biden, and I knew exactly how I would feel, which is, did I do everything that I could have done to prevent it? And the answer would be no.”
The film and television industry have been passionate supporters of Democratic candidates since the era of FDR and JFK, whose brother-in-law Peter Lawford was a movie star and Rat Pack member, and who had his naval career turned into a biopic starring Cliff Robertson while he was occupying the White House. 2024 was not a turn away from the party for Hollywood so much as a belated realization that their voices could be used, publicly, to help steer the party away from the iceberg.
“I still think that there is certainly a possibility that Trump will be reelected,” Lindelof told me. “But I also feel like it’s no longer an inevitability.” —Saul Austerlitz
Lil Jon's Electrifying “Turn Down for What” During the DNC Roll Call
When I think back to the early weeks of Kamala Harris' campaign, this moment best captures the optimism and joy that greeted her candidacy. The Democratic National Convention roll call already had a surprisingly festive atmosphere, thanks to the deejay's customized song choice for each state and territory. But when Georgia was called to announce their delegate vote and the spotlight hit Lil Jon as he launched into "Turn Down for What," the event hit a fever pitch. Not only did the rapper earn the Peach State bragging rights for the hands-down most exciting moment of the night, but he also embodied Democratic voters' excitement for a candidate who has made "We're Not Going Back" the centerpiece of her campaign. —Kirthana Ramisetti
VP Night Goes Friday Night Lights
Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz, a Minnesota teacher and coach before he entered politics, got a DNC coming-out party worthy of Friday Night Lights. His former students and football players he coached came out to cheer him on and tell stories about how he had, for instance, helped a kid get his car out of a snowbank and took on extra work to pay for needy kids’ lunches. Then he delivered a pep talk of a speech, which included the indelible reaction shot of his son, Gus, crying and declaring, “That’s my dad!” —Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
The Surprise Guest That Wasn’t
Then we all stayed tuned to the very last second of the DNC when the rumor spread that there would be a surprise special guest. Even on-air anchors were constantly speculating over who it might be, and the fact that one backstage curtain was drawn took on great significance. Online, people were tracking Beyoncé’s whereabouts and Taylor Swift’s private plane movements. In the end, though, wasn’t Harris the real surprise guest? Or was it the friends we made along the way? —Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
Taylor Swift Becomes a Major Political Force
Swift may not have shown up at the DNC, but she was everywhere throughout this election. At the peak of her powers as she continues her Ticketmaster-breaking Eras Tour, she was on Donald Trump’s mind even before Harris entered the race. Once Harris became the nominee and Brat Summer was in full force, speculation about a Swift endorsement heightened. Trump posted fake, AI-generated images of Swift endorsing him, and, remarkably, a major movement called Swifties for Kamala coalesced even before Swift officially indicated her loyalties. The organic, grassroots idea took hold online and became well-organized and serious. I did many hours of text-banking with them, and it was a terrific experience. We would text online for various swing-state organizations while gathered together on Zoom to listen to Taylor music or watch live streams of the Eras Tour, which was the perfect distraction when receiving … less-than-friendly replies to the messaging at times.
Meanwhile, Swift did endorse, with mastermind-level timing, precision, and humor, posting this immediately following Harris’ evisceration of Trump in their only debate: “I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.” She signed it, “With love and hope, Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.” — Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
Obama Loses Himself
Pardon me, but when did Barack Obama become … hot?
I never thought of him that way, even when the 47-year-old senator from Illinois dazzled the nation—nay, the world—during his triumphant run for president in 2008. Did I think he was a handsome man? Absolutely. But more importantly, he was a symbol of hope and change, a voice of maturity and sanity, and a devoted girl dad.
And whenever I see him now, I’m bowled over by his hotness. (Just writing that makes me blush with embarrassment.) Obama, now 63, has become a key surrogate for Kamala Harris on the 2024 campaign trail, and he oozes a charisma that cannot be contained. It was on full display while he lent his star power to an October 22 rally in Detroit, where he rapped Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.”
Yes, you read that correctly.
Before Obama took the stage, Eminem—Michigan’s finest rapper—had urged the crowd to vote for Harris: “I think Vice President Harris supports a future for this country where [our freedoms] will be protected and upheld.”
Obama, sporting a simple white button-down and a joyful smile, followed that solemn and vital speech with a welcome dose of fun. “I have done a lot of rallies,” he said. “So I don’t usually get nervous. But I was feeling some kind of way following Eminem.”
He then sampled the “Lose Yourself” lyrics, rhyming: “My palms are sweaty / knees weak / arms are heavy/ Vomit on my sweater already / mom’s spaghetti/ I’m nervous but on the surface I look calm and ready.”
Go off, Mr. President! It’s so nice to see you back where you belong. —Erin Carlson
So-Called Comedian Takes Trump Campaign to New Lows
Stand-up comedy is a form of heightened speech. We enter a shared space—a cramped club, a basketball arena, the distance between our couch and our television—and agree that the comedian holding the microphone has the leeway to speak in ways we might not in other places. In the best circumstances, the comedian takes this time and speaks out loud some of our fears, our secret beliefs, or the thoughts we deem to be too crass or weird to share at, say, a dinner party or on a date.
Stand-up comedy is a heightened space of reality, where everything is simultaneously true and not true. Henny Youngman did not actually want us to take his wife. Tig Notaro, though, did actually have cancer.
It is possible that Tony Hinchcliffe’s rancid material on Puerto Rico, on Palestinians, and on Jews that he shared at Donald Trump’s pre-election Madison Square Garden rally might have played differently in a club, or as a Netflix special. I am not opposed on principle to laughing at a Jewish joke, even a mean-spirited one. But context is everything. When you tell a joke at a Madison Square Garden rally filled with bigots and misogynists, the box is wrenched open, and Schrodinger’s cat is dead. You are not a comedian; you are just a bigot with better timing.
Allow an exhausted man to dream for one second: wouldn’t it be the most delicious possible irony if Tony Hinchcliffe and his appalling jokes ended up being the thing that cost Donald Trump the election? —Saul Austerlitz
Kamala Harris Meets Maya Rudolph
It's hard to choose what part of Kamala Harris finally meeting Maya Rudolph on Saturday Night Live was my favorite. Was it the crowd's uproarious, warm reaction when they saw her appear on the screen — so deafening that she couldn't even get out her first line? Was it Maya looking genuinely emotional as she sat across from the VP? Was it that moment when Kamala tells us she wants to end all of the "drama-la"?
This was a gem of a cameo and I beamed like a maniac all the way through. Maya has been playing Kamala since 2019, during her first run for president, and nails the politician (THE HANDS, I mean c'mon, the hands!!) I really loved her take on capturing the presidential nominee when she spoke to Variety in September, breaking down how she created the SNL version of Kamala.
“When I see her, I see her having fun,’” she explained. “And so the fictional Kamala that we created tapped into her fun. And then [‘SNL’ producer] Steve Higgins said to me that his wife called her a ‘fun aunt,’ and we were laughing at how that sounds like ‘funt.’ We just went from there. That was the moment where you realize, ‘Oh, now I know how to do this.’”
Long may Kamala and Maya grace our lives, right where we need them the most: 30 Rockefeller and the White House. —Thea Glassman
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great round-up! Incisive and on point!