Triumph the Insult Comic Dog discovered a Roger Ailes look-alike who was so convincing he decided to take him to the RNC, Triumph’s handler Robert Smigel told TCA this afternoon. In the company of Fake Ailes, Trumph “gained more access to areas I wasn’t supposed to go….I was like, ‘I’m with Roger Ailes’ and they would literally let me in. He’s the gift that keeps on giving,” Smigel said.
Triumph came to TCA – Triple Chin Association as Triumph calls the group – to talk about his latest Hulu election special, Triumph The Insult Comic Dog Summer Election Special 2016, debuting August 11, covering the RNC and DNC conventions in Cleveland and Philly, respectively.
“It is quite an honor to have joined the Hulu team,” he began. “You know everybody loves Hulu. Time Warner just announced it now owns a piece. Fox owns a piece, NBC owns a piece, Disney owns a piece. Yes, Hulu has so many fingers inside of it, it could easily be a member of the Duggar family.”
It’s the follow-up to its Triumph election special, which aired in February during the primary season.
In his previous Hulu special, Triumph took on the 2016 Presidential race in the heat of the primary election season – taking viewers from Iowa, to New Hampshire, to South Carolina in a tenacious news-gathering journey.
Triumph now is so well known by political reporters “all the media was more than happy to talk to Triumph” he had to figure out new ways “to be a pain in the ass” like photobombing Jake Tapper’s CNN show. “I was just trying to cause trouble somehow. I enjoy getting thrown out, sometimes,” Smigel said.
Another Triple Chinner kept pressing Smigel in re whether Triumph was lesser known among the old timers they assumed attended the RNC – apparently in comparison to the young hipsters at the DNC? Anyway, Smigel dismissed that saying “Everyone assumes everyone at the RNC is like Margaret Dumont in Animal Crackers.” At both conventions, he said, when he met people who had no idea who Triumph was, “everybody was a good mood” and wondered “who is this puppet?” or commented, “It’s a cute little dog! I love him!”
More to the point, Smigel also brought a “fake Telemundo reporter” to the RNC, which he said was one of his fave bits of the special. “We do things that seem like they would be Triumph ideas, cynical pranks. We put a lot of them in the show.”
Another Triple Chinner said he’d read that Smigel’s father, or it may have been his grandfather, had a career in cosmetic dentistry and one of his patients was Ivanka Trump. Smigel said when he met Trump, the night the candidate hosted Saturday Night Live, he mentioned this fact to Trump who responded “No, I don’t think so.”
Smigel says he’s talking to Hulu about doing more content with the streaming service. “I’m really enjoying it. I did this coming off a show that didn’t work and was feeling a little vulnerable and they were so eager to work with me – and especially Triumph – and they’ve been just amazing.”
Triumph’s Summer Election Special 2016 comes to Hulu in an expanded partnership with Funny Or Die. The special is created and executive produced by Robert Smigel and executive produced by Funny Or Die’s Anna Wenger and Mike Farah; Conan O’Brien, and Sue Fellows.
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