If you live in New York, chances are you’re enjoying a comfortably blue news feed from your fellow voters this election day. Which is no surprise, since NY has long been about 99 percent for #Her in Five Thirty Eight‘s polls. If you do come across someone today who happened to vote for Trump or a third-party candidate, you should be kind; hard as it may be to “understand,” we’re all human, and we’re all trying. Besides, people already booed Trump at the polls today.
What’s more, we all have something fundamental in common: a love of New York City. And as the new election video above reminds us, a shared love of New York City comes with a shared hatred too, for the real Public Enemy No. 1. It’s not Trump supporters; it’s tourists.
“2016 Election Special” is the first episode of a new Youtube-based web series called Television, created by Brooklyn-based comedians Miles Robbins, Zack Segel and Nikolai Vanyo. Dressed as a 70s newscaster and a modern-day reporter, respectively, Robbins and Segel take to the streets of Times Square in Manhattan to interview tourists about their political views while Vanyo films. At first glance, it may seem like they’re out to mock one political leaning or another— but as the video continues and gets progressively more #electioncore in nature, it becomes clear that what the web series creators are really out to hate on is NYC’s booming tourism industry and the people who buy into it.
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A cameo of Trump’s tiny hands and an impromptu makeout session are just two of the many absurd things you’ll enjoy in this joyful tourist takedown that plays like something you’d see on Adult Swim. Robbins and Segel also find themselves having to explain the idea of a show called “Television” to a confused pedestrian, rallying for a closeup of the Uniqlo logo on a sheepish shopper’s bag, and having to blur out a woman’s face after she decides against signing their video release forms.
It’s absurd enough to entertain you without adding to your election anxiety, and it’ll help remind you what you’re still going to have to fight for after the election is over.
After all the long form op-eds and exhaustive investigative features this election has brought us, it’s nice to see some content that doesn’t take sides while still managing to bring New Yorkers together over a common theme. And that theme is, GO HOME JERKO TOURISTS. Or at least walk faster. Sadly, appearing in this video will probably have been the most cultural relevant part of their visit to New York.
Following Sam on Twitter would also be a veeeeery New York thing to do: @ahoysamantha