''The Presidents''
is a YouTube series created by user Saint Splooge, that portrays the United States Presidents and other world leaders and celebrities as middle-schoolers with the vocal mimicry AI Eleven Labs.
Joe, Donald, and Obamna are three friends just starting middle school, and new student George joins them in Season 2. Outside of sleepovers and playing in the sandbox, their main goal is to climb the social ladder at school. Unfortunately, the leader of the cool kids Ben Shapiro is determined to keep them down. He has the school Principal in his pocket and is also Joe's mom's boyfriend, so overcoming him is going to be a huge challenge.
This series provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Donald's dad is neglectful of his son and barely cares about him, as well as an alcoholic, which is probably why Donald acts the way he does.
- Adults Are Useless: Every authority figure in the series so far, except for George's dad.
- The Principal lets Ben get away with bullying and belittling the boys, and often harshly punishes them for little-to-no reason. His punishments themselves aren't well thought-out either; he invites Hitler to detention to Scare 'Em Straight, but didn't vet if he could speak English beforehand. Ms. Smith, one of the teachers, isn't as sadistic but does allow the Cool Kids to walk all over her and get away with their injustices.
- Joe's mom is dating a teenage boy, and stays out of the way while he abuses her son and his friends.
- Donald's mom sets no limits with him, and his dad is a dysfunctional temperamental alcoholic.
- Obamna's mom seems like a good mother at first, but lets her desire for dating/sex cause her to be neglectful and leave the boys with Ben.
- Even Principal Bernie isn't immune; he tries to be a good authority figure and is leagues better than the former Principal, but he's not away of how treacherous this school can be and underestimates Ping's manipulative machinations.
- All Just a Dream: The events of "The Presidents Meet Caillou" are all Obamna's dream.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Tristan to Andrew, insisting on playing with him and Kim at their sleepover.
- Ass Shove: Apparently one way that Ben bullies Joe is by shoving pencils up his ass.
- Big Bad: Ping, as the coolest kid in high school, is the driving force behind most of the boys' problems; though they deal more directly with Ben and Vlad.
- Bizarro Episode:
- "The Presidents Meet Cailou" breaks from form in several ways, having the boys acknowledged in-universe as "Presidents", an Interactive Narrator, tons of Mind Screw, and ending with The reveal it was all Obamna's dream.
- "The Presidents Have a Sleepover At Donald's House" introduces a strain of marijuana that creates the mutual hallucination of (or portal to) a medieval fantasy realm, where the boys go on a quest and Ben and Ping are evil overlords.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: The boys and Ben take a break from the plot to discuss viewer confusion about Ben's role in the series.
- Brick Joke:
- The first Sleepover episode has the boys make a bet on who can stay awake the longest, with the losers having to give the winner five dollars, but the video ends before a winner is decided. When Obamna wakes up from his dream in "The Presidents Meet Caillou", Trump remarks "Guess who owes me five dollars?"
- In "Start A Band", when discussing their bullies, Joe laments "I can't handle any more pencils shoved up my ass!" The episode ends with Ben approaching him with pencils.
- The Bully:
- Ben Shapiro is a high schooler who loves to pick on middle school kids.
- Vlad is the main bully in the boys' grade, leading a gang of thugs around to beat them up and take their lunch money.
- It's revealed that the Cool Kids, headed by Ping, use bullying as a way to keep themselves on top of the social order.
- Butt-Monkey: At school, all of Joe, Donald, and Obamna's plans blow up in their face and end up with them either humiliated or in trouble. Even their rare wins have strings attached.
- Character Development: So far, Joe shows the most character growth out of the three; going from a timid, submissive coward to standing up to Ben and co. and freely talking to his crush Hillary.
- Cool Old Guy: Principal Bernie is a competent middle-school Principal who hears the kids out and gives them fair punishments when they act out, and snarks back at Principal Pingas.
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Dawson Casting: To an extreme degree; the Presidents are said to be in middle school, but look and sound like their adult selves. - Defrosting Ice Queen: Hillary toward Joe in "Go to the School Dance".
- Dogged Nice Guy: Joe pines after Hillary, who hates his guts.
- Dull Surprise: Sometimes the dialogue comes off this way, due to the AI voices, which adds to the humor.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The first few videos are titled with "The US Presidents".
- In the first few episodes, the character based on Barack Obama appears to be named "Obama", with "Obamna" as simply a mispronunciation by Donald. As the show goes on, everybody (including himself and his mom) call him "Obamna", suggesting that is his real name.
- In the first "The Presidents Have a Sleepover!", Ben is portrayed as an adult and a strict, party-pooping father figure who actually wants Joe and his friends to have fun within (his definition of) reason; rather than an outright sadist. From "Get Detention" onward, he's a teenaged bully from the high school whose goal is to make the boys miserable. He's still dating Joe's mom and acts like a dad at home, though.
- In "Get Detention", Saint Splooge experimented with giving the characters cartoonish, moving mouths. This was quietly dropped.
- Enfant Terrible: It says something that Donald was able to escape a perverted kidnapper just by being that annoying.
- Emo Teen: George listens to angsty music and acts pretty moody in his debut.
- Ephebophile: Joe's mom is dating highschooler Ben Shapiro.
- Even Evil Has Standards: In "Science Fair", a group of violent drug dealers and malajusted junkies are so put off by Ben's bullying ways that they turn the tides to help the boys win.
- Expy: Donald resembles other loudmouth shittalking kids Cartman and Eddy.
- Freudian Trio: Impulsive, no-filter Donald is the Id; cautious and level-headed Obamna is the Superego; and Joe is the Ego.
- High-School Hustler: Kim lurks in the shadows selling mysterious potions that turn out to just be Modelo.
- His Name Really Is "Barkeep": Cailou's parents are actually named Mommy and Daddy.
- Irony: Ben goes on frequent diatribes about how the boys are losers and will stay losers because no one in the school hierarchy can ever rise above their station; however, flashbacks in "Field Trip to the Zoo" reveals that Ben was a nerd who was mercilessly bullied in middle school just as much, if not more, than the main trio are, and that he ended up rising up the ranks after Ping noticed him. In the present day, he's still mostly subservient under Ping, who's the real ruler of the school.
- High Turnover Rate: After Pingas is fired, the school Principal position seems to be becoming this.
- Jerkass:
- Ben Shapiro is a sadististic, domineering bully who goes out of his way to involve himself in middle school events just to pick on the boys.
- The Principal is an angry jerk who shows favoritism to the cool kids and is a Sore Loser to boot.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Donald is rude, selfish, scheming, and has an insult for everybody he meets... but he's also a loyal friend and won't hesitate to use his foul mouth to stand up for his pals as much as himself.
- Karma Houdini: Downplayed with Donald; he's a Butt-Monkey like the rest of his friends and does get in trouble, but he gets a way with a lot of badmouthing that would get most kids in trouble, notably calling his teacher a bitch and cussing out his mom.
- Kiddie Kid: Ignoring the fact that they look and sound like grown men... the boys are supposed to be starting middle school (6th-7th grade), but still play in sandboxes and Biden specifically acts more six than twelve.
- Love Triangle: Joe pines for Hillary, who's dating highschooler Ben... who's also dating Joe's mom, though the latter fact doesn't seem to come up when dealing with the triangle plotline. In "Go to the School Dance", Ben and Hillary have broken up and she actually starts to like Joe back, but is wishy-washy on dating him or getting back with Ben because of social appearances. Later, George expresses interest in her too; though he's seemed to have gotten over it.
- Lower-Deck Episode:
- "Kim and Andrew's Epic Sleepover" is one for Kim and Andrew, who are normally supporting characters. The only one of the main four to appear is Donald, and not until halfway through.
- In "Science Fair", Ben and the boys' story serve as a backdrop for a crime farce starring drug lord Heisenberg, addict Dusty, and other junkies and members of the town's criminal underworld fighting each other for the "candy" the boys made for their project.
- Malicious Misnaming: Whenever a teacher says "Good morning" to the class, most of the students will greet them back in kind, but Donald will never fail to throw a vulgar insult; calling Mr. Zuck "Mr. Fuck" and telling Ms. Smith "Good morning, bitch."
- Mind Screw: "The Presidents Meet Caillou" ends with one. Justified, as it was all Obamna's dream.
- No Indoor Voice: The school Principal is always screaming angrily, even when he's happy.
- Not So Above It All: Obamna normally takes a backseat to the silliness, but at one point Ben finds his audition tape for America's Got Talent where he sings "Friday". He also gets irrationally angry about George taking the last slice of pizza.
- "Not So Different" Remark: When he interrupts their soccer game, Ben points out to Obamna that he and George playing on a team against Donald and Joe is essentially picking on those weaker than him; similar to the behavior that Obamna hates him for.
- Once an Episode:
- From the "Sleepover" series:
- Donald cussing out Ben.
- The boys debating which pizza chain is the best.
- Donald's mom telling him to be good, and Donald telling her to "Shut up, Mom!" (Except when the sleepover was at Donald's house, and we're treated to a more respectful conversation between Obamna and his mom)
- Joe revealing that he doesn't have a necessary component for the game they wanted to play.
- From the school episodes:
- Ben or Vlad ranting about how cool they are and how lame the boys are.
- From the "Sleepover" series:
- Only Sane Man: Between the childish and spacey Joe and the brash problem-child Donald, Obamna is definently the one holding things together.
- Parent with New Paramour: In "Have a Sleepover", Donald describes Ben as "your mom's new boyfriend".
- Politically Incorrect Hero:
- Donald, one of the protagonists, loves Hitler.
- George assuming that Obamna would want to play as Mace Windu just because he's black. He also uses "gay" as an insult to Obamna's and Joe's Playmobil toys.
- Potty Failure: Joe has a habit of wetting his pants when nervous. Also happens to Obamna once.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Oftentimes, the villains eyes will turn red when they're delivering or receiving a Breaking Speech.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The New Principal, Bernie, is nothing like Principal Pingas; he treats all the kids equally and is pretty fair with his punishments. He's still manipulated by Ping, but he has to act like a good student to get on Bernie's good side since Bernie isn't going to willingly join a corrupt system.
- Rousing Speech: Obamna frequently gives these, possibly referencing the ream Barrack Obama's skills as an orator.
- Running Gag:
- Joe pissing his pants or wetting the bed. Also happens to Obamna after a scary dream.
- Ben coming to the room to tell the boys to keep it down, and Donald cussing him out for it.
- Debates about which pizza chain is better.
- Donald's Malicious Misnaming (detailed above) whenever anyone says "Good morning, class."
- Serious Business: Being a "cool kid" is treated as important as holding office or kingship is in political thrillers.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: In The Movie, Obamna finally calls out the bullies on their constant hot air.Obamna: "It's just talk. All talk! No action! ... Every damn day, it's all we hear from you guys! 'We are superior!' 'We are cool big kids!' 'We are so much better than you!' 'You guys are peasants!' Blah, blah, blah, blah! If you guys are so much better than us, time to shut your mouths and show us!"
- The Stinger: After the closing title of The Movie, Ben opens the door to find Donald dating his mom .
- Toxic Friend Influence: In "Have a Sleepover at Donald's House", Obamna's mom worries about Donald being a bad influence on her son; based on the fact his parents don't set limits and he tends to bully Joe into breaking the rules. His actions are also most often what lead to their unfortunate predicaments.
- Vague Age: In his first appearance, Ben is dating Joe's mom and acting as a strict stepdad. However, once the boys start going to school, he's said to be a high-schooler. It was later confirmed that he's a Freshman (Sophomore in season 2) who also happens to be dating Joe's mom.
- Villain Respect: At various points, the Cool Kids will begrudgingly admit that Obamna has some talents. In the movie, Ben acknowledges his prowess in sports and his critical thinking skills.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Part of what makes the Cool Kids so frustrating is that the Principal and most of the adults think that they're model students.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: The main four boys constantly bicker, but it's obvious they love each other.
- Vocal Dissonance: The voices of middle-aged and senior-aged men; talking like young boys.
