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Bad Chart Thursday: Trump Less Popular than “The Sex Lives of Potato Men”

Donald Trump’s approval rating has remained at a historic low for a new president: 43%, as of February 1, according to Gallup. A whopping 52% disapprove of the job he’s doing.

Since he cares more about how popular he is than he cares about Americans (except wealthy white men), the Constitution, US laws, or even pretending to tell the truth, I thought I’d give him a chance to be at least more popular than something besides half an onion in a bag.

Inspired by one of my favorite protest signs, which compared Trump’s approval rating to the Rotten Tomatoes rating of Paul Blart: Mall Cop, I sought out a selection of movies that might just be unpopular enough to beat Trump in his race to the bottom.

For each movie, Rotten Tomatoes gives two scores: The Tomatometer score refers to the percentage of positive reviews from approved critics, and the Audience score is the percentage of positive ratings from the public. Generally, the Audience percentage is higher than the Tomatometer percentage, so to be fair to Trump, I’ve used the Audience score in these comparisons.

First up, a movie I thought would be easy to beat: The Sex Lives of the Potato Men. According to the blurb, this movie could easily describe the adventures of Bannon and Trump:

The self-proclaimed Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid of Birmingham, two unadulterated guys spend their time either chasing women for sex, or being chased by them for revenge.

Potato men with hyperinflated self-images and no filter treat women as objects, leading to a march against them of justifiably pissed-off women.

I was actually surprised to find that at 61%, The Sex Lives of Potato Men is actually more popular than Trump.

The president came close to being as popular as Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies, which came out at 48%. To be fair, before the unconstitutional, illegal, and cruel attempt at a Muslim ban, Trump was only two points less popular as Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies. So there’s that.

The next movie, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV, is hugely more popular than Trump, at 66%, but at least he’s more popular than Chairman of the Board (18%), starring a celebrity of Trump-inauguration caliber: Carrot Top.

But that would be the sole movie that is less popular than Trump. The president can’t even compete with The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure (64%) or Who’s Your Caddy? (58%). And Breakin’ 2—Electric Boogaloo, at 65%, unsurprisingly leaves Donald in a tailspin.

I finally gave up after Trump couldn’t even beat Bride of Chucky in a popularity contest (46% to Trump’s 43%). That they are that close is explained by the similarities of their stories: An ugly psychopathic fake child with scraggly unkempt hair who comes to life and sucks the soul out of a woman, trapping her spirit in a bridal figurine. The only difference is that Chucky never became president.

Chart of Trump vs. Select Movies

(Click here for a larger version of the chart.)

Melanie Mallon

Melanie is a freelance editor and writer living in a small town outside Minneapolis with her husband, two kids, dog, and two cats. When not making fun of bad charts or running the Uncensorship Project, she spends her time wrangling commas, making colon jokes, and putting out random dumpster fires. You can find her on Twitter as @MelMall, on Facebook, and on Instagram.

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One Comment

  1. In some surveys, his approval is under 40%. His disapproval is 55%.

    Trump wasn’t and isn’t invincible. In fact, he’s really the weakest politician I’ve ever seen. (And I reached that conclusion long before he threatened to invade Mexico.)

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