It’s that time of year again: Tonight, President Joe Biden will address a special joint session of Congress to tell us what the State of our Union is. (I hope it’s strong!) 

You can, of course, watch live to see what accomplishments are being celebrated, what setbacks are being spun, how often Democrats give particular lines standing ovations, and which Republicans decide to heckle. Or you can just sidestep all of that and instead contemplate a less divisive politics: the fake kind. 

To that end, here is our list of the 10 (or so) funniest fictional presidents in TV history…

10 President Lisa Simpson (voice of Yeardley Smith) of The Simpsons
For its second flash-forward episode (following “Lisa’s Wedding” in 1995), “Bart to the Future” journeys to Bart’s (voice of Nancy Cartwright) early middle age. At 40, he’s an aspiring musician, deep in the shadow of his 38-year-old sister Lisa, who’s just been elected America’s “first straight female President.” The portrayal comes in last on our last not only because Bart has to teach Lisa how to get out of her problems the way he does (shaming geeks — other world leaders, in this case — by making them feel uncool if they assert themselves), but also because an incidental joke finds Lisa mentioning the huge debt her administration has inherited from “President Trump.” Barely funny then; a lot less funny now!Play
9 President Taqu’il (voice of Killer Mike) and President Ford (Mr. Ford) of Frisky Dingo
The second of Frisky Dingo’s two seasons revolved around the presidential ambitions of Killface (voice of series creator Adam Reed) in the months after his doomsday device, the Annihilatrix, was accidentally activated, accidentally pushing the earth a tiny bit further away from the sun, thus “solving global warming.” Soon, Killface’s archnemesis, Xander Crews (also Reed) surfaces to oppose Killface’s candidacy. Frisky Dingo being what it is, the two of them end up in space, leaving Killface’s running mate Taqu’il to ascend to the presidency (thanks to a “corrupt Supreme Court” — gee, what must that be like?) and appoint Killface’s former campaign manager, Mr. Ford, to Secretary of Homeland Security.  Evidently, President Taqu’il hasn’t been paying attention to Mr. Ford’s steady rise from mental hospital orderly to pet shop clerk to gun shop owner and so on, or he might be on guard against Mr. Ford’s ambitions and keep him far away from the presidency. As it is, Taqu’il and almost his whole Cabinet are killed, clearing Mr. Ford’s path up the line of succession to become president himself. Generally speaking, I felt Mr. Ford’s role grew too large in the second season, but I’m still sorry we didn’t get a third to see what a Mr. Ford administration would have been like.
8 President Ellen Claremont (Uma Thurman) of Red, White & Royal Blue
In this straight-to-streaming romcom, Alex (Taylor Zakhar Perez) and Henry (Nicholas Galitzine) meet at a wedding, and though many obstacles are in their way, they eventually manage to fall in love and hook up, not necessarily in that order. One obstacle is that Henry is Prince Henry, of the British royal family, and barely anyone in his life knows he’s queer. The other is that Alex is the son of Ellen Claremont, the American president, and he still hasn’t totally come to terms with his own bisexuality.  Although the movie has gags, Ellen doesn’t get much funny business to carry off, other than to respond to Alex coming out to her by blurting out buzzwords about queer sex she presumably learned for the campaign trail (“We can talk about getting you on Truvada…”) and to speak in the most unconvincing Texan accent you ever heard. Play Enjoy seeing a Democratic woman president from Texas; it’s probably not likely to happen in our lifetime so it might as well appear in a movie!
7 President Richard M. Nixon (voice of Billy West) of Futurama
Set in the year 3000, Futurama depicts an America in which suicide booths are available on street corners; robots sometimes do work humans would prefer not to, and other times just drink and cause trouble; and the sentient heads of notable figures are preserved in jars. One such head belongs to Richard Nixon, and when bending robot Bender (John DiMaggio) takes advantage of a spike in the price of titanium to pawn his 40-percent titanium body for a quick payday, Nixon buys it so that he can place his head jar on top of it and run for President of Earth. The Constitution says no body can be elected president more than twice, but technically this body is new! Even after Leela (Katey Sagal) and Fry (West again) use — what else? — incriminating audio to blackmail Nixon into returning Bender’s body…Play…Nixon still wins and upgrades to an even more terrifying robot body, laying waste to his enemies and the White House itself. (Funny in 1999; too real today!)
6 President Gordon Shumway (voice of Paul Fusco) of ALF
ALF has been living on earth for a TV season and a half when the presidential election comes up on the show; he’s frustrated to learn that this isn’t sufficient to entitle him to vote. Watching a debate only convinces ALF that he could make a great president, and when Kate (Anne Schedeen) goes to sleep that night, she has a very strange dream in which ALF has fulfilled his political ambitions — and he actually has enacted his political solutions, to great effect. Play Once again, the concept of SCOTUS shenanigans comes up here, although our own legislators could probably do worse than confirming Judge Reinhold to a lifetime appointment, and… maybe have?
5 President Guy “Whitey” Corngood and President Truman Theodore Fruitty (both Jay Johnston) of Mr. Show
These days, we know Jay Johnston primarily for his arrest last summer on charges related to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. But in the 1990s, when he was the tallest and most conventionally handsome cast member on the sketch series Mr. Show, he was the natural pick to portray U.S. presidents.First, and less prominently, Johnston played President Guy “Whitey” Corngood, a figurehead who had very little to say about a plan to blow up the moon.Play Later, Johnston — possibly wearing the same wig he did as Corngood — portrayed a different president. And while Corngood could get away with offering entirely content-free comments on his way to or from a car, President Truman Theodore “Two T” Fruitty is directly implicated in a scandal. (No, it’s not the scandal of Jill Talley performing in brownface, but that’s not great either.)Play
4 President David Herman (David Herman) of MadTV
Some readers will have had the experience of waking up from a night of heavy drinking to wonder what they may have gotten up to the previous night, since it’s been entirely blacked out of their memories. So it is for David Herman in this MadTV sketch: His room may look like crap, but it is, in fact, in the White House, because he drank so much that he blacked out and became president.Play One unexpectedly funny aspect of this sketch is that Herman’s practical solutions to intractable political problems aren’t that different, in spirit, from ALF’s. Another is that someone in this sketch has a problem with substance use and it’s not Artie Lange.
3 President Phil Stacy Miller (Boris Kodjoe) and President Phil Tandy Miller (Will Forte) of The Last Man on Earth
The very few survivors of a devastating viral outbreak witness the deaths of basically everyone in the presidential line of succession, as it stood back in the late 2010s.Play But as the series starts, we don’t know there are survivors, plural; initially, there’s just Phil Miller (Forte). Before long, he links up with Carol (Kristen Schaal), and the two elect him president, because why not — there’s nothing to preside over. As more survivors join their group in Tucson, however, the question of leadership becomes more complicated. When a second Phil Miller (Kodjoe) shows up, much more capable and charming, he poses a challenge to the original Phil’s presidency; the first fight Phil I loses to Phil II is a game of Jenga, resulting in Phil I’s demotion from Tucson’s Phil of record to Tandy, Phil I’s middle name. When the female residents of Tucson demand a recall election due to Tandy’s gross incompetence, Phil sails to victory. And while Tucson doesn’t officially observe the right of prima nocta, Phil does sleep with Carol, previously Phil’s partner. Tandy and Todd (Mel Rodriguez) resolve to murder Phil in retaliation, because politics is a dirty business, no matter how small the electorate. 
2 President Quentin Trembley III (Alex Hirsch) of Gravity Falls
One could argue that Quentin Trembley III doesn’t belong on a list of fictional presidents, and that he was, in fact, the very real 8th and a ½ president of the United States. Here: Educate yourself!Play Gravity Falls was primarily a show for kids and tweens, but evidently its creators believed there’s no wrong time to plant conspiracy theories. At least this one is pretty benign! A character who is canonically the silliest president in history must be ranked high on a list like this, no matter the age of his intended audience. But surely we all knew who would be ranked first.
1 President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) of Veep
Veep featured a lot of presidents, starting with Stuart Hughes, the one who never appeared on-screen or even called his titular vice-president, Selina. There were others we heard about succeeding her, including Kemi Talbot (Toks Olagundoye) and Richard Splett (Sam Richardson). But when a show is established as being about the frustrations and rage of a vice-president kept in check by her mostly pointless office, the audience is going to be waiting to see her transcend her circumstances — and Selina finally does, first by accession following Hughes’ early resignation due to a personal crisis, and then a few years later, in her fourth campaign, which gets ugly. PlayLouis-Dreyfus won six Emmys for her performance as Selina, and rightly so: The character is an utter monster, but if you aren’t prepared to act like a sociopath without boundaries, ethics or shame, you have no business entering fictional politics.