On Thursday, two things happened. In the morning, The New York Times revealed that Donald Trump was dead even with Hillary Clinton in terms of national support — at 40 percent each, according to a New YorkTimes/CBS News survey. Then, a few hours later, the Emmys revealed that both HBO’s “Veep” and “Silicon Valley” had been nominated once more for Outstanding Comedy Series.
The events had nothing to do with each other. But all three acts ― the Donald Trump campaign, the Julia Louis-Dreyfus-led TV series about Washington D.C. incompetence and Mike Judge’s show about tech startups ― do share one thing in common: basking in the all-American tradition of white men failing upward.
Regardless of how much you believe the start of Trump’s success should be attributed to that of his father, the real estate wizard Fred Trump, what’s indisputable is that Trump has continued since then, in spite of his own repeated failures. There were the well-documented bankruptcies of his Atlantic City casinos, yes, but there were also the now-defunct Trump Airlines, Trump Magazine, Trump Mortgage, Trump Vodka and on and on and on. And yet, here we find him, a businessman with a trail of disaster behind him, promoting himself as the businessman who can turn America around. And doing so successfully.
The disconnect between Trump’s business narrative and business history has frustrated his many critics on both sides of the aisle, who believe they should provide ample evidence of his inability to lead the nation. But maybe we ― and I include myself in that group ― shouldn’t be so surprised. After all, the U.S. has a long and storied history of people, and white men in particular, achieving great success in spite of themselves.
Anyone who has worked at an office for a length of time knows the tangible feeling of disgust as a less qualified (and sometimes wholly incompetent) employee gets the raise you deserved, the promotion you wanted or the recognition you need. Everywhere, there is evidence should you seek it that the system is set up for certain people at the expense of others. Men have an easier time receiving funding for their company or getting promoted within it. CEOs get $40 million golden parachutes to go away. George W. Bush, of all people, becomes president.
Maybe that’s what makes two particular storylines in “Veep” and “Silicon Valley” so painful: the unstoppable rises of Jonah Ryan and Nelson “Big Head” Bighetti.
Jonah Ryan, played by Timothy Simons, is a giant, gangly idiot of a man who works for, and sometimes seemingly against, President Selina Meyer. In Season 5, however, he finds himself thrust into a congressional race by sheer force of luck ― his uncle, a politically powerful man in New Hampshire, needing “some spectacular dumbass” to run against a widow until the real candidate ― Jonah’s cousin ― comes back from his military tour. But Jonah, as confident as he is foolish, gains momentum through a willingness to say whatever needs to be said (sound familiar?), and then, against all odds, he wins. Congressman Jonah Ryan, the newest spectacular dumbass in Congress.
In “Silicon Valley,” on the other hand, there is Big Head, played by Josh Brener. Unlike Jonah, he is short. Like him, he is an idiot of a man with impeccable luck. While Ryan obtains power in spite of himself, Big Head obtains money. Despite no clear talent of any sort, the former Pied Piper employee ends up earning $600,000 to do nothing but sit on the roof at Hooli, a Google-like corporate behemoth, simply because the company’s CEO, Gavin Belson, wanted to stick it to Pied Piper. In essence, as someone puts it, Big Head becomes Hooli’s “VP of Spite.” In Season 3, the company even hands the local idiot a $20 million severance package if he will agree to a non-disclosure agreement.
“You will not discuss anything you did at Hooli at all, in perpetuity, throughout the universe,” a Hooli employee tells him.
“I didn’t really do anything at Hooli, so ... ” he replies.
“Good! You’re getting the hang of it already.”
(Big Head, naturally, is later offered a job as CEO of Pied Piper.)
Perhaps the success of Big Head and Jonah Ryan should frustrate viewers. America, after all, was built on the idea that hard work leads to opportunity, not that bumbling idiocy leads to success. But certainly no one should ever be shocked by the storylines. After all, we have spent our entire lives watching men fail upward in real life. And soon, one could fail his way into the White House, too.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.
Before You Go
