The chaotic free-for-all of the political landscape has only been one aspect of the compounding madness that is 2020, but with the imminent US presidential election, it’s begun dominating public consciousness.
Be it the news of Kanye West announcing his candidacy or the recent debate descending into a fracas of mutual recrimination, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to take the process seriously in spite of the huge weight of import it carries. The next (il)logical step would be for a fictional character to announce that he’s running for the Oval Office, and lo and behold, Tremors‘ Burt Gummer has appeared to do just that.
Burt was not a central face in the horror comedy saga’s beginning, and there was even one point in the first movie where it looked like he and his wife Heather were about to be added to the body count, but his eccentric personality cemented him as a firm favorite among fans and he soon ascended to the de facto lead. And now, in a video to promote the series’ upcoming seventh installment (see above), Tremors: Shrieker Island, Burt declares his contempt for the presidential air-quotes-candidates and deciding that since those already a part of the system have messed it up, as the “ultimate outsider,” he’s the best person to sort it out.
Burt in the video is somewhat more articulate that he’s often known for, but his statements are certainly within character, as a distrust of the government has always been one of his defining characteristics, and to be honest, the notion of a politician who thinks laterally and speaks without a hint of duplicity would be rather refreshing.
With Burt being a gun-loving survivalist redneck, it would have been easy to make a different point by portraying him as a diehard Republican angered by the imagined danger of The Left coming for his Second Amendment rights. However, his being disgusted by the whole process and everyone involved in it is far closer to how the character would likely react to the chaos in Washington.
With part of the video’s title “Burt For President Episode 1,” this is presumably not the last communication we’ll receive from the secret underground bunker, with further messages being periodically released in the run up to the release of Tremors: Shrieker Island on October 20th.