Same speech, different year? There's often a sameness to annual oratory rituals like the address to the nation from the head of the state. Think Red Fort, think State of the Nation.
It's usually the same story with the media coverage. Except CNN chose to play it differently with US President Barack Obama's State of the Nation address.
The channel mounted its report as though it were a Wes Anderson film.
Anderson's style is immediately recognisable in signature movies like The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Darjeeling Limited, and Fantastic Mr Fox.
In the video above, CNN's Alex Rosen offers details of the speech in the classic deadpan style of Anderson's narrators. Much like the films, the report is divided into episodes, with the colour coding and choice of music (Nico's These Days playing to Bobby Jindal's entry is immediately reminiscent of Gwenyth Paltrow's character Margot in the film The Royal Tenenbaums) all evoking an Anderson universe.
Rosen's voiceover states the facts. "The annual State of the Union address is a modern version of a constitutional mandate that the President shall from time to time give to the congress information of the state of the union."
"No matter how the country is doing, the President declares the State of the union is strong."
The principal characters? Barack H Obama as the President, Paul D Ryan as the speaker, and US Vice President Joe Biden as Uncle Joe.
Acknowledging Wes Anderson's influence, the vastly entertaining report ending with these lines: "And next year, much like Wes Anderson movies, the state of the union address will look and feel very familiar, with a different lead character but many of the same faces."
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