George W. Bush's Severed Head Gets Game of Thrones Cameo

[Hevva]

George W. Bush's Severed Head Gets Game of Thrones Cameo

Turns out Joffrey stuck the former President's head on a spike in season one. Whoops?

In the mythical land of Westeros, daily survival is something of an achievement. The ways in which the land can kill you are myriad, with the latest scourge to organic life being the ruthless rule of the esteemed King Joffrey. Joffrey has a thing for getting seriously annoyed with his citizens and then shoving their heads on spikes without really thinking about it - including the head of, it has now been revealed, former President of the United States George W. Bush.

This slightly spoilery season one screencap [http://i.imgur.com/eBEGg.jpg] shows the final resting place of the President, lined up for show with other recent decapitatees.

The inclusion of the President was incidentally revealed in the DVD commentary of season one (as spotted by redditor SidIncognito [http://www.reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/uzq8c/i_see_the_resemblance_now_that_they_mention_it/]), where show creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss helpfully point out that that "the last head on the left" in the line of spike-mounted heads is that of "George Bush."

"George Bush's head appears in a couple of beheading scenes," they explain. "It's not a choice, it's not a political statement. We just had to use whatever head we had around."

Naturally, some onlookers were less than pleased with the unexpected cameo. In a quick response to the news that one of its flagship productions had knowingly used a President's prosthetic severed head as a prop, HBO said that, "We were deeply dismayed to see this and find it unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste. We made this clear to the executive producers of the series who apologized immediately for this inadvertent careless mistake. We are sorry this happened and will have it removed from any future DVD production."

Benioff and Weiss also apologized for the head. "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," they said in a statement. "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."

By the looks of things, the producers will try to avoid including President Bush in any well... [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117511-Game-of-Thrones-Season-3-Details-Surface]"


Source: i09 [http://www.reddit.com/r/gameofthrones/comments/uzq8c/i_see_the_resemblance_now_that_they_mention_it/]





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[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

it made ZERO difference before then, fucking overly PC people...god dammit.

I would be thrilled/find it hilarious if my head randomly was found on a tv show for lulz (granted he was the president, so a bit different, but still)

 

[Prince Regent]

So why exactly did they have his decapitated head lying around?

Anyway in my opinion the only real mistake was not using the prop, but revealing that it was used. No one would be insulted if no one knew.

 

[ScruffyMcBalls]

I see no issue, it's just a face. Though wouldn't it be cool if the creators did a competition of some kind where the reward would be to have your body parts replicated and used in the show? That'd be kickass, someone get on that.

 

[Azuaron]

So why exactly did they have his decapitated head lying around?

Anyway in my opinion the only real mistake was not using the prop, but revealing that it was used. No one would be insulted if no one knew.

To be clear, they didn't have his decapitated head around, they had his prosthetic head around and turned it into a decapitated head. Special effects companies and television production companies have lots of random props for movies and shows going back years, including prosthetic heads that they can use interchangeably on prosthetic torsos. I would've been a little surprised if they didn't have a W head lying around somewhere, just like I'm sure they've got Clinton and Obama heads rolling around.

As far as the actual controversy... everyone needs to get over themselves.

 

[Kodlak]

Hmmmm... sure it was 'unintentional'

 

[Thistlehart]

*gasps for breath laughing*

Oh my, that's fantastic! Intentional or not!

Too bad the producers are likely to get their goulies dragged over the coals for that one.

 

[Strazdas]

Finally the man got what he deserved.

 

[Kargathia]

*gasps for breath laughing*

Oh my, that's fantastic! Intentional or not!

Too bad the producers are likely to get their goulies dragged over the coals for that one.

Bunch of whiners if you ask me.

"I don't care you were on a budget and efficiently recycled old props! I'm offended!"

This is one of these cases where they really just need to suck it up, and stop blowing hot air over nothing.

 

[Thistlehart]

*gasps for breath laughing*

Oh my, that's fantastic! Intentional or not!

Too bad the producers are likely to get their goulies dragged over the coals for that one.

Bunch of whiners if you ask me.

"I don't care you were on a budget and efficiently recycled old props! I'm offended!"

This is one of these cases where they really just need to suck it up, and stop blowing hot air over nothing.

"But that's like threatening to kill him or saying he should die! *whinge whinge whinge*"
--Talking heads

I don't think its actually about any perceived threat. I think the complainers will complain so they can try to get their perma-stoned puppet-messiah's picture posted everywhere so people have to look at his clueless mug.

 

[Electrogecko]

So we never would've known that the head was actually a George Bush prop from just from watching the show.....then there's outrage when they give us behind the scenes information......uuhhh....huh. No points for honesty HBO. You should've just kept it an in-house joke.

The price for this kind of crap should at least be a glimpse of a Bush with a red and rotting neck hole, but we didn't even get to see it!

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

I don't see what the problem is. If they'd killed him and used his actual head that i could understand.

 

[Emiscary]

Who precisely objected to this? NO ONE likes that man. He's a walking statement about the dangers of nepotism.

"The President who Wasn't Intellectually Qualified to be President."

Is a pretty apt title for him.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I love how the media likes to act outraged by this. But in reality no one gives a shit. Why don't we give honesty a chance for once and just admit that no one gives a flying fuck? No one would give a flying fuck even if they actually executed that idiot and used his real head.

 

[Dahaka27]

This quite literally made me fall out of my chair with laughter, great stuff.

 

[magicmonkeybars]

So why exactly did they have his decapitated head lying around?

Anyway in my opinion the only real mistake was not using the prop, but revealing that it was used. No one would be insulted if no one knew.

To be clear, they didn't have his decapitated head around, they had his prosthetic head around and turned it into a decapitated head. Special effects companies and television production companies have lots of random props for movies and shows going back years, including prosthetic heads that they can use interchangeably on prosthetic torsos. I would've been a little surprised if they didn't have a W head lying around somewhere, just like I'm sure they've got Clinton and Obama heads rolling around.

As far as the actual controversy... everyone needs to get over themselves.

But the question remains, why did they have a prosthetic head of the former president in the first place ?
What was it used for initially ?
When would you need something like that ?

 

[cthulhuspawn82]

I think it was unintentional, they just used what heads they had. I also think they are just trying to get attention by pointing it out.

In any case, can anyone imagine what would happen if they used a spare Obama head? There would be a massive boycott of the show, NAACP and various civil rights groups attempted to get the show taken off the air and the DVDs pulled from store shelves, and don't forget the endless death threats the producers would receive.

I don't think it should be controversial. After all, it wasn't intentional. I'm just pointing out how crazy things would get all over the country if it was a spare Obama head instead.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

If they used my severed head on a show as popular as Game of Thrones, I would condiser it an honor. Nothing to lose your head over, at least. But I guess this issue has 'piked' the interest of people who just don't appreciate a good joke.