We hardly needed more proof of the cesspool that is original programming on the pay cable networks. But just in case: “Game of Thrones” producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff have willingly admit [1]ted to using a gruesome image of former president George W. Bush’s head impaled on a stake during the HBO drama’s season one finale, “Fire and Blood.”
Bush’s decapitated likeness appeared as one of a a row of traitors’ heads on spikes (implication much?) in King’s Landing. When King Joffrey forced his child bride-to-be Sansa to gaze upon her father’s bloody, severed head the camera panned out and revealed a beheaded Bush covered in dirt and draped in long, matted hair.
In the DVD commentary Weiss and Benioff snickered as they discussed the scene. [2]
"The last head on the left is George Bush. 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 head we had around,” Benioff and Weiss said.
Right. But all the right people got the joke.
E Online smirked, saying [3], “the Republicans really didn’t like that.” HuffPo quipped [4] “Who knew Joffrey was a Democrat?” Similarly, ABCNews joked [5], “It seems some members of the Republican Party aren’t fans of the Lannisters, either.”
“In the ‘Game of Thrones,’ you win or you die, and George W. Bush did the latter in the HBO series — by decapitation,” Politico’s Mackenzie Weinger sniffed.
Needless to say, if it were President Obama’s head on a spike, Democrats and the media would howl with rage, and demand that “Game of Thrones” be removed from the air (as they’ve done with conservative radio hosts).
Stay tuned to find out if “The View’s” Joy Behar, who recently said [6] she wanted to see Mitt Romney’s house burn down, will weigh in on the situation.
“Game of Thrones” Season 1 was released on DVD in March before the second season premiere in April. The bloody, medieval drama has already come under fire by liberal and conservative critics for its appalling amount of nudity and gratuitous sex [7].