Jimmy Kimmel's 'I'm Just a Lie' spoofs Schoolhouse Rock
The parody of 'I'm Just a Bill' features an animated untruth that "just popped out of the president's brain."
- Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year" award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Kids who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s know "Schoolhouse Rock" only too well. The catchy songs and cartoons taught the preamble to the US Constitution, multiplication, and how conjunctions function, among other things. But one of the most famous ditties is "I'm Just a Bill," a 1976 segment where a sad little bill (mandating that school buses stop at railroad crossings) tries to wind his way to eventually become a law.
On Tuesday night, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" updated "I'm Just a Bill" for the Donald Trump administration, retitling it "I'm Just a Lie" and offering an animated look at how alternative facts make the rounds in politics.
"I'm just a lie, yes, I'm only a lie, I'm so untrue that I just want to cry," sings the cartoon star of the Kimmel version. "Well, I just popped out of the president's brain, and the very idea of me's completely insane."
Cartoon versions of CNN host Brian Stelter, presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway and White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer also make appearances -- with Spicer getting a clown suit.
In the end, the boy who's learning about government looks a little unwell, but never fear, the lie reassures him -- there's always Trumpcare.