HBO may soon need a political spin doctor as they have found themselves in another bit of controversy this time with the use of Obama masks in last Sunday’s episode of ‘True Blood.’
In a dramatic scene, a truck full of men wearing Obama masks pulled up and fired at Sam Merlotte, Luna Garza, and her daughter Emma. Of all the choices of masks, perhaps Obama wasn’t a right choice. After all, HBO just finished putting out the firestorm of outrage when the head of George Bush was shown on a stick in the ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 1 DVD. In fact, no one really noticed this little fact until series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss pointed that little bit out on the DVD commentary saying, “George Bush’s head appears in a couple of beheading scenes. It’s not a choice; it’s not a political statement. We just had to use whatever heads we had lying around.” Of course that didn’t please HBO who thought the use of the Bush head was “unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste” and the episode has since been edited with the head digitally removed.
Of course putting on a mask is in no means the same as putting a President’s head on a stick but with this being an election year, it might not have been the best timing. HBO did issue a statement saying, “It’s a complete and utter coincidence and one show has nothing to do with the other.” The masks were actually bought at a costume store called Costume Craze who blogged about their part in the episode:
True Blood’s production team purchased several Obama masks from us earlier this year, and we’ve been waiting in suspense for them to appear. We wondered why True Blood would need Obama masks… Would it be for a scene with a political rally or protest? It is an election year, after all.
Nope! It turns out these masks were for bad guys. The kind of bad guys who shoot guns from the back of a pickup truck and record video of their crimes. It was a pretty scary scene, but I won’t give away spoilers.
As least it can be said that HBO is a bipartisan equal opportunity network when it comes to mocking presidents.
So did you see the episode? What did you think of the use of the Obama masks?
