Hulu's critically acclaimed series The Handmaid's Tale would be chilling and disturbing regardless of who occupied The White House. But the adaptation of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, which originally published in 1985, has taken on an especially eerie tone given the Trump administration's frightening policies on reproductive rights.
The videos produced by Funny Or Die tend to be, you know, funny — but its latest mashup, titled "Trump's The Handmaid's Tale," shows the frightening parallels between America's current political climate and the dystopia created by Atwood.
"How can a dystopian future ruled by a fundamentalist regime that treats women as property get more terrifying?" the summary reads. "Hulu's latest series The Handmaid's Tale meets the only thing that could make it even scarier, President Donald Trump."
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Check out the must-watch video here:
It begins with an eerie monologue that Offred (Elisabeth Moss) delivered in episode three of The Handmaid's Tale — and it drives home a crucial message: complacency has devastating consequences.
"I was asleep before. That's how we let it happen. When they slaughtered Congress, we didn't wake up," Offred says. "When they blamed terrorists and suspended the Constitution, we didn't wake up then either. Now I'm awake."
Frightening scenes from The Handmaid's Tale are juxtaposed with comments made by Donald Trump: "She's deeply troubled and therefore great in bed" and "There has to be some form of punishment [for a woman who has an abortion]."
The video concludes with footage of Trump declaring at a presidential debate that, "nobody has more respect for women than I do. Nobody," immediately followed by his sexist rant against the female-led film Ghostbusters.
Sometimes, we have to laugh at these moments in order not to cry — but, as The Handmaid's Tale and Funny Or Die's mashup remind us, women's rights are under attack by Trump and prominent Republican congresspeople. And that's no laughing matter. As Offred's monologue reminds us, we need to stay woke.