Oops! The creators of the Game of Thrones on HBO were caught using a likeness of George W. Bush as a decapitated head on a spike.
Gizmodo wrote:
If you keep your eyes peeled when King Joffrey takes Sansa Stark to gaze upon the spiked head of her dead father around 12 minutes in, you'll notice that one of the heads looks slightly familiar. Show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss explained in their DVD commentary (from Season 1, episode 10) that the decapitated head is actually George Bush. This was discovered by redditor SidIncognito.
Game of Thrones producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss acknowledged it:
What happened was this: we use a lot of prosthetic body parts on the show: heads, arms, etc. We can't afford to have these all made from scratch, especially in scenes where we need a lot of them, so we rent them in bulk. After the scene was already shot, someone pointed out that one of the heads looked like George W. Bush.
In the DVD commentary, we mentioned this, though we should not have. We meant no disrespect to the former President and apologize if anything we said or did suggested otherwise.
Sigh... I'm not taking a left/right position on this one, but simply pointing out what is obvious and undeniable fact.
I don't know what they had the time to do. They had the time to mention it in the DVD commentary, thus they knew about it. Directors and Producers are always slipping in obscure references to other tv shows, movies, pop culture stuff. Whether it was deliberate or not, done by them or a prop person, it was done, and they acknowledged it. Alfred Hitchcock had more to think about than to arrange cameos in his films, and Joss Whedon has more to think about than figure out how to slip that Serenity ship into his movies. There's an R2D2 in Star Trek - how'd that get there?
I actually don't watch SNL, so I don't know how to gauge the level of disrespectfulness. Again, I take my cue from the directors themselves, who felt that they had to apologize and reassure that they meant no disrespect. They acknowledge that putting a recognizable political figure's head on a spike could be interpreted as disrespectful.
As for editing the video, they didn't have to edit a thing, but they didn't have to mention it in the commentary. So, either leave it in and say nothing, or take it out and say nothing. They left it in and said something. Not a smart move.
But if the shot totals less than two seconds, how did they themselves notice it with all the other "more important stuff" they were doing? Aha! They must have somehow known about it. It's probably not that difficult to edit it out or blur the image. Ask George Lucas about re-editing movies years later.
Therefore, my conclusion still stands. They knew about it, they thought it was funny and left it in, they commented on it, thinking it would be okay, then took some heat and apologized for a disrespectful move.
I think the directors, producers and pretty much everyone involved had more to think about than a way to slip an insult to an Ex-POTUS in there, don't you?
And even if it was intended, how is this any more disrespectful than any SNL skit that has involved a president?
And I think it would be pretty stupid to edit a video so far after the fact (notice how long it took for anyone to realize it. If they (the producers) hadn't said anything about it in the video commentary, I really think no one would have ever even know that it *looked* like Bush). To think they should remove/change one scene shot that totals less than 2 seconds (you actually have to stop the DVD to be able to see the face, otherwise it goes by way too fast for the human eye to catch with all the other stuff happening in the shot), just because it *might* offend someone, seems sort of silly and childish to me..
I gotta go with the "How could they not know" comment.
Despite some of the clever jokes, it is pretty disrespectful, no matter what your politics are.
The fact that it was mentioned in the DVD is enough to show that they noticed it, but didn't bother changing it for the DVD. If it wasn't originally deliberate, they still left it in, when they had the opportunity to remove it.
We're honestly supposed to believe that the person who put the wig and the make-up on the head, didn’t notice or say anything? We're supposed to believe the prop people and set decorator who placed the head in the scene, never said anything?
No, but we are supposed to believe that the head was spotted only afterwards, in a big scene when it was turned the other way, slathered in make-up, and lost in a crowd of other heads.
But since it's just Ol' Bush, no ones allowed to get upset ...we're all supposed to just chuckle and shrug our shoulders and say, "That's just a funny coincidence. Ha ha ha!"
#Jolly: I'm not upset about it at all.. my perspective is fine. But the POTUS now is virtually untouchable in the press. He's treated with kid gloves.
Seriously though if this sort of thing upsets people then they need to check in at their local reality service centre to get their sense of perspective calibrated.
"Democrats delenda est."
You would have to be either ignorant of history or a complete hypocrite to post these two statements in the same message. Given your political tendencies, I put the odds at 33% for each, with the remaining 34% to "both."
Back to your own website!
"What happened was this: we use a lot of prosthetic body parts on the show: heads, arms, etc. We can't afford to have these all made from scratch, especially in scenes where we need a lot of them, so we rent them in bulk. After the scene was already shot, someone pointed out that one of the heads looked like George W. Bush.
In the DVD commentary, we mentioned this, though we should not have. We meant no disrespect to the former President and apologize if anything we said or did suggested otherwise."
Any similarities to the Ex-President were unintentional - this is just another example of the media "running" with something before getting all the facts and People like you getting their panties in a bunch over an imagined slight to your All Mighty Bush...
Now back to Mom's basement so you can pursue happiness......but make sure you switch hands, or else your vidoe game skills may suffer.....
Not surprising at all considering how little they know of America, and how much hatred they have for it.
Democrats delenda est."
Simply another example of right-wing ignorance and proof of their intolerance and inability to let others pursue happiness...
Not surprising at all considering how little they know of America, and how much hatred they have for it.
Democrats delenda est.