Vice Principals on HBO Advertisement Analysis

Race, Gender and Class as Sources of Comedic Tension in HBO’s Advertisement for Season One of “Vice Principals”

An online ad for Season One of HBO’s show “Vice Principals,” starring Danny McBride, Walton Goggins and Kimberly Gregory, consists of a two-minute trailer that showcases the main “selling” points of the comedy series—conflict, romance, “bromance,” action, and racial tension. The two main sources of conflict in the series, as represented in the ad, are between the two rivaling vice principals played by McBride and Goggins, both of whom vie for the Principal’s job, and between the two of them and the new principal played by Gregory, against whom McBride and Goggins unite to overthrow). The characters represent various types: McBride plays a middle-class, middle-aged white male with a traditional though pudgy bearing (he sports a sweater vest to school and has a very out-of-date hair cut and moustache that resembles more a stereotypical profile of a police officer from the 1980s than it does a contemporary male role model); Goggins plays a white, yuppy, metrosexual, with his hair tips dyed blonde, tight-fitting clothes (he wears a colorful bow tie in every scene), and a walk that looks more like a woman’s strut than a man’s; Gregory plays a bold, upper middle class African American woman who holds a position of authority over McBride and Goggins, since she plays their new boss at the school. The ad shows that they resent her for taking a job they feel rightfully belongs to them and two men conspire to challenge her—overcoming their repugnance for one another in the process.

The ad turns a few race and gender conventions on their head in order to generate conflict and laughs for the perceived audience of the ad. The first convention that is inverted is the gender convention: McBride’s character represents the stereotypical stuffy, doughy, choleric personality associated with authoritarianism—yet, midway through the ad, he breaks down in tears after learning that the job he has coveted has gone to Kimberly Gregory (not just a woman but an African American woman—which sets up in the mind of the audience a sense of grievance that McBride’s character, used to the privilege associated with whiteness, now feels as the new “boss” pushes him out of the way to assume her position as principal of the school he desires to run. His masculinity comes across as “weak,” vulnerable and emotional—but at the same time, the audience should feel a reasonable amount of appreciation for this honesty in character portrayal because it shows that men do sometimes feel upset and weak and vulnerable to the point that they will cry. The ad does not depict the moment sarcastically or condescendingly but rather as an honest moment that produces both laughter and sympathy because it is both genuine and pathetic at one and the same time. Goggins has the most effeminate tendencies of the three characters, as his character displays qualities traditionally associated with femininity—such as pristine or immaculate wardrobe, perfect hair, a hip-shaking runway type of walk, and body language that more conservative and less tolerant parties have described as “limp-wristed” (Palmer).

Class convention also gets inverted in the ad. The trailer shows McBride’s character talking to an African American lunch room employee who represents a lower class African American—a type popularly represented in American culture. Gregory’s character, however, represents an upper class African American (woman to boot)—a minority character not typical of traditional or conventional narratives. Yet Gregory’s character also displays the gritty toughness typically associated with a street tough African American, especially when she states to McBride: “I will drag your face all up and down the parking lot” through gritted teeth with an expression on her face that shows she really means it and will do it. So while her character is of a higher social class than McBride’s character in the ad (demonstrated by her more expensive and in-style dress, her home—which is more upscale than McBride’s—and her job position, which pays better)

The ad also inverts race conventions: McBride—the stuffy white guy appropriates the language of black culture when he states, “It’s gonna be dope—super dope,” in front of the African American lunch room worker, who responds, “You’re not gonna kill everyone, right?” A scene of McBride’s white rage immediately follows with the camera pitched low at the floor, tilted up at McBride as he towers over the screen, hulking his shoulders and bellowing fiercely like a fighter about to destroy his opponent in the ring. The ad ends with a title card at that moment, displaying the name of the HBO series. The audience should feel riveted, disturbed, uneasy, expectant and slightly giddy from all various conflicts, introverted tropes, conventional tropes, and race, gender and class inversions that filled the ad. The ad gives no sense of how any of this will be resolved, but that lack also enables the ad to work effectively: the viewer will have to watch the series to find out.

The way in which the themes of race, class and gender are intertwined help make the ad effective in terms of rousing the viewer’s curiosity and playing on conventional norms and expectations. The ad identifies no good guys, yet in the ad McBride says to the attractive, white female teacher, “You shouldn’t give up hope just yet. The good guys are about to win” and subtly embodies a traditional moral code that resides below his sophomoric rage. His false sense of self and place reflects a type of white privilege that he quite possibly feels he should possess. The ad skewers the ironic assumptions of McBride in this scene by juxtaposing it with what Goggins states in the clip prior to this one and the Beach Boys song that follows.

In the clip prior to McBride’s assertion of privilege, Goggins states, “The only thing that matters is who has the power” and the words play over a scene of Kimberly Gregory giving a stirring speech in the high school gymnasium, a large American flag draped on the wall behind her—she positioned in front of the flag like the new emblem of American greatness. Goggins continues by stating in voice over, “And the wrong person has the power,” as the students lift up Gregory and parade her across the field in jubilant celebration. The moment captures the essential conflict of the show, as displayed in the ad: the conflict of authority between race, gender, and class all rolled into one dynamic, represented by the complex relationship of Goggins, McBride and Gregory’s respective characters.

The ad does not indicate that any one character is heroic or more sympathetic than another. Instead, the ad shows that every character has flaws as well as good points. The ad essentially promotes the show as one that investigates the human drama in a darkly comedic way, not shying away from controversial issues or characterizations, mainly because these issues and characterizes exist in society. Their reflection in the ad shows that the complexities of the real world can exist on the screen and serve as the subject of an entertaining show that delves into the psyche and character of seemingly ruthless individuals battling for control of a school and using any means whatsoever to overthrow an individual they scorn. For instance, at another point in the ad, McBride and Goggins destroy the property and home of Gregory’s character in what amounts to a scene of barbaric ruthlessness.

Ironically played over the second half of the ad is the song “Be True to Your School” by the Beach Boys, the California boy band of the 1960s. Their “whiteness” and old-fashioned take on school spirit, unity, and trueness should resonate with the viewer in a sharply skewering sort of way—for the main characters of the show demonstrate a remarkable lack of the type of school spirit and “whiteness” that the Beach Boys sing about in their hit song from the 60s. The assumptions that the ad makes about men and women and social class reflect aggression and hostility towards political correctness: the characters have no concern for “PC” culture—their main ambition exudes a cockiness that borders on the psychotic. The ad generates laughs by displaying an exaggerated sense of various traits and mannerisms most commonly associated with specific groups yet here displayed by persons not part of those groups. For instance, the uber-masculine McBride weeps; Goggins (the flamboyant metrosexual—a type commonly associated with acceptance and tolerance) displays insane aggression and hostility; Gregory gives the stereotypical “Uncle Tom” African American good will cackle laugh yet underneath it hides an all-seeing suspicion of her surroundings, showing that she possesses a devious streak just as mean as her two white male counterparts.

In conclusion, the ad effectively portrays a world where race, gender and class are complexly intertwined in non-conventional ways. The ad attracts the viewer by presenting this complexity and the ensuing conflict that arises from tensions within the relationships through a comedic lens. However, at the same time, moments of serious drama elevate that lens in an introspective and honest way that makes the viewer question the exact manner of the show’s narrative and structure. To answer that question, the viewer will have to tune in to find out—so the ad works in achieving what it sets out to do: it sparks the interest of the viewer by displaying a situation comedy full of race, gender, and class issues introverted—a world where a moral order may or may not exist.

Works Cited
Palmer, Brian. “What Do Limp Wrists Have to Do with Gay Men?” Slate, 9 May 2012.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2012/05/sean_harris_on_gay_men_what_do_limp_wrists_have_to_do_with_homosexuality_.html
“Vice Principals Season One.” YouTube, 6 June 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rZLVEicLLM