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Vice President Who?
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A repeating trope in Government Procedurals dealing with the American Political System is the pointlessness of the office of the vice president. The office was originally set up as a literal case of Second Place Is for Losers — the runner-up of the presidential election was simply made vice president. Politicians immediately began trying to game the system so that both the presidency and vice presidency went to their preferred candidates, and before long, this proved to cause awkward situations such as a president and a vice president of different political ideologies (i.e., John Adams being elected as president and Thomas Jefferson as vice president in the 1796 election), with the system crashing in the election of 1800: The Democratic-Republicans wanted Jefferson as president and Aaron Burr as vice president, but their electors screwed up and Jefferson and Burr tied for the presidency, so the outgoing — and repudiated — House of Representatives had to resolve the tie. After 36 ballots and Alexander Hamilton's vigorous lobbying, the House chose Jefferson as president. As a direct result, the system was changed by the 12th Amendment so that voters deliberately chose the vice president in a separate, simultaneous race. Thereafter, for much of American history, various parties chose their vice presidential nominees simply "to balance the ticket" for the comparatively trivial reasons of achieving geographic, demographic, or opinion "diversity" with presidential nominees, with little thought to their actual qualifications, because the vice presidency has no constitutional duties other than to preside over the Senate (a ceremonial task, and usually passed around among junior senators anyhow) and no constitutional powers other than taking over if the president dies/resigns (something that has only happened nine times in 230+ years of there being full-time presidents, plus four occasions across three presidencies where the VP was temporarily appointed as Acting President while the President was incapacitated by a medical procedure, which had a combined elapsed time of less than a day), and casting tie-breaking Senate votes (which has happened roughly 250 times, most of them before the Civil War — as a rule, unless they're doing it purely to make a statement, senators try not to put a bill to a vote unless there's a fairly good chance that it will pass. Additionally, the number of bills that actually pass with fewer than 60 votes has decreased in recent years due to the increased use of the filibuster, which under current rules requires 60 votes to get the bill out of debate and to an actual vote). Consequently, vice presidents are commonly portrayed as useless, ineffectual, stupid, or a combination of the above, and they become the butt of jokes. Can lead to Reassignment Backfire when the VP succeeds to the presidency upon the president's death. This trope is not necessarily limited to the vice presidency but can apply to other countries that have offices that are nominally second-in-command but are in fact unimportant, such as the post of deputy prime minister in parliamentary systems, the post of prime minister in semi-presidential systems, or the post of lieutenant governor in many American states. See also Kicked Upstairs, a broader trope for when characters are "promoted" into higher-ranking but powerless positions. Contrast Puppet King, when the nominal leader (as opposed to the #2) is actually powerless, Evil Chancellor, when the #2 is manipulating or plotting to unseat his boss, and Volatile Second Tier Position, where the #2 is the most likely person to be blamed, held accountable for, and be used as a scapegoat (or suffer a You Have Failed Me) when something goes wrong. For an actual list of the U.S. vice presidents, see The Vice Presidents of the United States. |
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Parodied in A Bug's Life when some of the grasshoppers consider skipping invading the ants for food for a year, not considering the trek worth the hassle. Unwilling to complain to Hopper however, they butter up Molt into explaining the idea, outright using this trope. "You're his brother, that's like vice-president". Expectedly Molt takes to this "title" and does so, with the grasshoppers assured even if Hopper doesn't like it, he'll only Shoot the Messenger. They were wrong... | |
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Four Days in November: This John F. Kennedy assassination documentary notes that Vice President Johnson arrived in Texas "almost unnoticed", and that he flew commercial. | |
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Agent X is built around the idea that the Vice-President has so few publicly known duties so that (s)he can command a black ops officer in defense of the nation. | |
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Jack Ryan was hoping for this when he agreed to replace Vice President Kealty when he resigned due to a sex scandal, only expecting to have to warm a chair for a year before retiring from government service entirely (it was an election year, and he wasn't going to be the VP candidate on the ballot). Then an airliner crashed into the Capital during a joint session of Congress, killing the President and most of the government. | |
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Subverted with Sudden Death as the plot has villain Foss holding the vice president hostage during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. It's noted how much security the VP has and Foss acknowledging that it's the VP's presence that will give weight to his demands for a billion dollars. At one point, Foss tells one of his people to "get rid" of a little girl who wandered onto their plans. The VP snaps "you hurt her and you lose me as a hostage because you'll have to shoot me" and Foss is indeed forced to spare the girl. |
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The Simpsons: When Springfield Elementary School loses a band contest to a team that cheated, Lisa was so upset she tried to ask for President Clinton's help and wouldn't settle for Vice-President Gore. One episode features Homer imagining himself receiving a medal from the President while Maggie received a Vice-Presidential medal of envy. |
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In the Timeline-191 series of Alternate History novels by Harry Turtledove: Donald Partridge, the second vice-president of evil Confederate Nazi President Jake Featherston, is chosen for that office specifically because he is an ineffectual cipher. Featherston's first Vice-President had tried to assassinate him. Partridge doesn't do much more than hanging out with society ladies and tell jokes. Partridge himself doubts that history will remember him at all in his final scene, where Featherstone has died and Partridge's first and only act as president is to surrender to the Union. And on the union side, the Vice-President is asked by his new in-laws to describe his job and does so by lampshading this trope. He explains that the government is a machine, and in it is one all-important piece that keeps all the other parts running. That's the President. As Vice-President, he is the backup copy of that piece, whose job is to sit in the closet and collect dust unless something happens to the original. |
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In the first episode of the dub of Samurai Pizza Cats, when the city authorities are discussing how to get rid of the Monster of the Week, Big Cheese suggests electing it vice president "that way we'd never hear from it again" as an alternative to bribing it to leave. | |
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In Joe Steele (another Turtledove Alternate History novel) John Garner Nance is a respected senator before becoming vice-president, and afterwards is the Only Sane Man and Token Good Teammate of the administration... which is why he is not allowed to have any role in running the government for the entirety of the decades-long Steele presidency. When Steele dies, most of his cabinet doesn't even know where to find Nance to tell him the news (namely, in the nearby bar where he spends most of his days Drowning My Sorrows). | |
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Exaggerated in Of Thee I Sing with Throttlebottom, who is a perennial victim of Recognition Failure. At one point, even Throttlebottom forgets his own name. | |
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In House of Cards (US): Vice-President Jim Matthews greatly resents his political irrelevance after he resigned as governor of Pennsylvania to run on Garrett Walker's national ticket. Likewise, Walker considers Matthews to be a pain in the ass and only used him to get voters. In part because of the manipulation by Frank Underwood, he ultimately resigns from the position in order to run again for governor of Pennsylvania. Frank replaces Matthews, who uses his influence and connections (and flat-out illegal actions) to wield the maximum amount of power as Vice-President, up to and succeeding Walker as POTUS by forcing the latter to resign. When Frank becomes President in Season 3, he actively invokes this trope by appointing the inoffensive and easily sidelined Donald Blythe as his Vice-President. And even then, Frank plans on dropping him in favor of someone a bit more dynamic for the campaign ticket. Of course, it's great impeachment insurance, but it's not good assassination insurance. As happens when Frank gets shot by Lucas Goodwin and is hospitalized for two weeks, meaning Blythe becomes Acting President under the 25th Amendment. Blythe is only able to move things along by being Claire's puppet. |
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In the Community episode "Intro to Political Science", Joe Biden makes an appearance (sort of) while on a Vice-Presidential Tour that was going to stop at Greendale. This trope is referenced when he wakes up from a nap and says he had a dream about being a REAL President. This became Hilarious in Hindsight when he actually became President. | |
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In John Adams, Vice-President Adams is chagrined when George Washington excludes him from Cabinet meetings. This was Truth in Television, as the early American political system installed the presidential runner-up as vice-president, making the president and vice-president political rivals. | |
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On the Dream SMP, this is zig-zagged in L'Manburg, depending on the administration in question. This is generally averted during the Soot administration, as Wilbur's VP, Tommy, helps L'Manburg grow by recruiting newcomers and building new structures, and takes part in several side events alongside his fellow L'Manburgians. During the election, Tommy does lots of campaigning by building signs and talking with members of the SMP, had a major role during the Presidential debate, and also secures endorsements for their party, POG2020. During the Schlatt administration of Manburg, this is played straight as Quackity, who served as Schlatt's VP after pooling his votes (30%) with Schlatt's (16%), had little to no actual political power and his main role in the cabinet was to "have a fat ass". This is due to Schlatt's desire to consolidate power onto himself and himself alone, which Quackity lampshades before his resignation from his position and taking Schlatt's second canon life, when he has had enough of Schlatt's abuse and Control Freak tendencies. Under the Tubbo administration, this is played with. Tommy initially helped rebuild L'Manburg after the Manburg-Pogtopia War, but later started to question Tubbo's leadership and suggest making more political change by banning several things (such as Americans and Australians) in the country, which Tubbo ended up vetoing. However, after Tommy gets exiled from the country under Dream's demands, Quackity takes his place and regains his role as VP, and wields a lot more political power than he did in the previous cabinet, being able to assemble and unofficially lead the Butcher Army in an attempt to consolidate national power and eliminate threats to the state. |
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Dilbert's dog, Dogbert, has some interesting ideas on what the Vice-President's job should be, particularly when he chooses Ratbert as his running mate. He has even more ideas in a later strip. |
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Air Force One: National Security Advisor Jack Doherty discusses this trope while being held hostage, "The Vice-President in this case is like the Queen of England. She can't even buy airline tickets without talking to someone like me." That being said, she seems to wield unofficial power as she's respected enough that they listen to her either way. | |
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The Death of Stalin: Georgy Malenkov, the number two man in Josef Stalin's USSR, is a pathetic butt-kisser, probably chosen for the job because he was no threat to Stalin. When Stalin dies Malenkov nominally takes leadership, but he is outmaneuvered by more competent men and soon deposed by Khrushchev.note In Real Life Malenkov was not the hopeless stooge that he's portrayed as in the movie, but he was deposed and later — after he himself made an unsuccessful attempt to depose Khrushchev — sent off to manage a power plant. | |
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Help! I'm Trapped...: In Help I'm Trapped in My Principal's Body Josh in the principal's body orders his secretary Mrs. Hub to call someone interesting as a test of his power. A few minutes later she announces she has the vice-president of the United States on the phone. | |
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In Jeff Greenfield's satirical novel The People’s Choice, the President-elect dies just two days after winning the November election. His dopey vice-presidential running mate Ted Block, chosen for the ticket for his pretty face and described as "a step or two slow out of the cognitive gate," seems poised to become President. But after Block picks one of his even dopier buddies to be his Vice-President, the Electoral College members realize they are not obligated to vote for him and in fact can vote for whoever they want (the Electors are the ones chosen in November, and they officially elect the President in December). Chaos ensues. Although in the end Block and his new Vice-President show some Hidden Depths, in the form of Realizing the country doesn't want them in charge and engineering a worthier successor to be made Speaker of the House of Representatives so the two of them can safely resign. From the same book, the outgoing vice-president is considered more politically savvy but tainted by a sex scandal. | |
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In the first episode of Capitol Critters, the mice and rats who live in the White House are surprised when two cats are brought in to try to catch them. (They're surprised because "they got dogs, they can't get cats, cats and dogs hate each other.") The one with the collar tag "P" is heroically built (for a nonanthropomorphic cat) and aggressive; the one with the collar tag "VP" is a pathetic loser who couldn't catch a cold and within seconds of his first appearance trips on his own tie. | |
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Perley Beecroft in Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here, a novel about a fascist takeover of the United States. He plays no part in the power struggles. | |
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Mass Effect: Navigator Pressley is allegedly the executive officer of the Normandy. However, it's Joker who really comes across as being the actual XO, having a much bigger role in the game and being the one who Shepard actually talks to any time they need to contact the Normandy while ashore. Pressley never even shows up during any of the mission debrief cutscenes and it's even possible for Shepard to go the entire game without speaking to him once. | |
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In one episode of Pinky and the Brain, Brain plans to take over the world by becoming an arts and crafts counselor at Camp Davey, where children of world leaders meet. He abandons the plan when the only children left are children of vice presidents. | |
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In Zootopia, Deputy Mayor Bellwether is a "glorified secretary" who was put on the ticket to appeal to the sheep vote. Her office is in a boiler room and she serves as a gofer and Butt-Monkey for Mayor Lionheart. She turns out to be the Big Bad. | |
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Bloom County indulged in this trope a couple of times. See this strip, in which Meadow Party Vice-Presidential nominee Opus proves he is "a natural for the job" by dozing off. In a 1985 strip Opus, who has gotten amnesia, is further rattled by Oliver's prediction that Halley's Comet will hit Earth and wipe out all life. He says "No past...no future...and nothin' much to be don' right at this moment. I feel like George Bush!!" |
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The Onion has a notable portrayal of "Diamond" Joe Biden: that of a stoner casanova who's always in trouble, looking for cash to make, women to date, and places to take his 1983 Pontiac Trans Am. They even released his own in-universe autobiography, The President of Vice. Here's a list of all their stories. | |
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America (The Book) includes a "Vice-Presidential Welcome Letter" that makes the job seem perfect for a Professional Slacker: | |
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The HBO series Veep is about Selina Meyer, an ineffectual, bumbling Vice-President, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who is ignored by the President and mocked by the media. She spends her time as Veep griping about having no power and wishing she were still in the Senate. Selina eventually ascends to the presidency and treats her own Veep the same manner she used to be treated. | |
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The vice president attends the historic launch of the first manned mission to Mars, Capricorn One. Doctor Kelloway notes this and regards it as an insult by the White House, a symbolic vote of no confidence in Kelloway's leadership at NASA. | |
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In the Turtledove novel Alpha and Omega the unnamed Vice-President is a terrible public speaker who quickly loses the interest of his audience even though his speech itself is an intelligent one. | |
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Futurama: There's a Running Gag about the heads of famous historical figures being kept preserved in jars. Meanwhile, the vice president of Earth is the headless body of Spiro Agnew instead, which just lumbers around menacingly. "Anthology of Interest I" inverts this by revealing that, in the Futurama universe, the Vice President's duties also include leadership of the Vice Presidential Action Rangers, who defend the space-time continuum. Fry points out the incongruity, to which Al Gore grumpily tells him to read the Constitution. |
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Both of President Bartlet's Veeps in The West Wing. Bartlet and John Hoynes personally dislike each other and Bartlet barely involves Hoynes in anything important, which Hoynes resents. Like many Real Life Veeps, Hoynes was one of Bartlet's biggest rivals when they were both running for President, and Bartlet only invited him to become his running mate because he knew that he couldn't win the election without the votes of Hoynes' supporters. After Hoynes was forced to resign, his replacement Robert "Bingo Bob" Russell is widely known as a bland political hack and was the only VP nominee that could get through a hostile Congress, but he tries to make himself more notable for his inevitable presidential campaign. Being an Unconventional Learning Experience about the US government, the show demonstrates (accurately) that the White House Chief of Staff often really serves as the President's Number Two, despite not being an elected position.note This ends up causing some drama in Season 2 when Bartlet is briefly incapacitated by an assassination attempt, and Leo (his Chief of Staff) immediately begins acting in his stead rather than letting Hoynes take over. Toby immediately points out the ethical problems with this, reminding Bartlet that Hoynes was elected by the people to succeed the president. | |
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Independence Day: Whitmore's vice president never appears on screen before being evacuated to NORAD and killed when the aliens destroy the base. | |
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Wrong is Right: Zigzagged. On one hand, the vice president is included in top-level strategy meetings and is taken seriously there. However, she also gets frisked at the door when no one else does and gets subjected to some jokes about being a Twofer Token Minority. | |
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Harley Hudson in Advise & Consent is ineffectual and terrified of the prospect of becoming President, and generally ignored by the administration. The unnamed Vice-President in “The Throne of Saturn� (who sounds like it COULD be Harley) mentally translates a presidential announcement into “I have asked the Vice-President to do the dirty work.� |
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Get Smart: In "One Nation Invisible," the Chief asks Max who he thinks could walk through KAOS headquarters without attracting any attention, and Max guesses the vice-president. | |
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In the movie My Fellow Americans, Matthews is really dumb (a No Celebrities Were Harmed mock version of Dan Quayle). This turns out to be partly Obfuscating Stupidity, as he is essentially the Big Bad. | |
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Played with in Dave. The president's chief of staff claims that Vice President Nance has lost his mind and the government has been trying to remove him from power behind the scenes, and Dave knows so little about the VP that he doesn't know it's an obvious lie. When Dave finally meets Nance, Nance is introduced somewhat ridiculously, holding a spear and carrying a ceremonial headdress and beads that he received on his African goodwill tour. (Complete Truth in Television, as the VP often gets sent on goodwill tours and visits that the president doesn't have time for.) He is also being set up as the fall guy for a scandal that threatens the Mitchell White House. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Nance is easily the most decent and honorable member of the otherwise deeply corrupt Mitchell administration, and at the end of the film he becomes the new president when Dave stops impersonating President Mitchell and it's revealed to the public that Mitchell has been incapacitated by a stroke. | |
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Hamilton gets a lot of mileage out of mocking the Vice-President office. Hamilton straight up says "John Adams doesn't have a real job anyway" and President-elect Jefferson literally laughs in Burr's face when the latter gets the office after campaigning extensively against Jefferson. | |
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Full Disclosure: The first time Vice-President Arnold Nichols is mentioned, it’s to show terror at the idea of him succeeding Ericson. Besides Nichols himself, every single character in the book considers him to be a stupid, cowardly political hack who will serve as a Puppet King for Bannerman if he becomes president. | |
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In Freaks and Geeks, then-Vice-President George H. W. Bush speaks at McKinley High. Because of Mr. Rosso's checkered past with a Yippie-type organization, he's detained in his office by one of Bush's Secret Service officers (played by Ben Stiller), who goes on to confess his dissatisfaction with protecting the Vice-President. | |
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In one episode of The News Quiz, when discussing a lack of Lib Dems in the UK Coalition government, Andy Hamilton claimed that the post of Deputy Prime Minister (held by Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg) was made up by New Labour to keep John Prescott out of the way, and consisted of an office at the end of the corridor with a phone that didn't make outgoing calls. | |
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In Roger Ramjet episode 'Pay Cut', General Brassbottom tasks Roger with delivering secret plans to the vice president. No one else knows who he is either. In reality, Hubert Humphrey. | |
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In Sam and Max: Abe Lincoln Must Die!, if Sam examines the potted plant found in the Oval Office: | |
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The General's President: Haugen's processor, President Donnelly, is a former vice-president who recently assumed office after the sudden death of his predecessor. He is portrayed as a fretting, overwhelmed man who's on the verge of a nervous breakdown and has been manipulated into helping several unsavory people. That said, the amount of pressure he's under would break almost anyone else in the book. | |
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Barney Miller: In "Field Associate" a conspiracy theorist loon starts rattling off the names of prominent members of the Trilateral Commission. After naming Carter and Henry Kissinger, he mentions then-Vice President Walter Mondale and Dietrich says "Who?" | |
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Teddy, the Rough Rider: The New York pols who get Theodore Roosevelt nominated Vice-President because they want to get rid of him, chortle that the office is a "political tomb." | |
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In an episode of The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, Granny is called in to investigate a haunting at the White House. She apparently recognizes the Vice-President, but, when he asks how, she admits that she read his name tag, which just said: "Hello, I'm Vice-President Obsequious." Obsequious turns out to be the culprit. he wanted the President to leave so he could take over and gain notoriety. | |
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State of the Union: An irritated Mary forces her husband and presidential candidate Grant to sleep on the floor, but not before sarcastically saying "Good night, Mr. President." Grant shoots back with "You mean Mr. Vice-President, don't you?" | |
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