#the-wire

The Wire (2002–2008)

If The Wire alum Isiah Whitlock, Jr. ever decides to focus on a side hustle, “marketing genius” might be his new title. The actor, who recently introduced a talking bobblehead of his popular Wire politician Clay Davis via Kickstarter, has campaigned his figure all the way to the White House.

Whitlock, whose project was fully funded on Kickstarter in less than a day, has teamed with his Veep co-star Anna Chlumsky for a new House of Bobbleheads video in which the duo play off their roles in the HBO political comedy to concoct a plan to market the sheeeeeeeeeee-it-talking bobblehead.

As for Washington, D.C., Whitlock is clearly in control of that region, as the sole Isiah Whitlock, Jr. Talking Bobblehead currently in existence, the very prototype used in the Kickstarter campaign, now resides in the White House. And not just in the White House… in the possession of The Wire megafan President Obama.

Related: President Obama Interviews ‘The Wire’ Creator David Simon

“I was sitting here in New Zealand about a week ago when I got a call from David Simon, the creator of The Wire. He told me he thought my bobblehead was the funniest thing he’d ever seen,” Whitlock tells Yahoo TV via email. “Then he asked me if I could get one delivered to him immediately.

“I said, ‘David, we’ve only got one! It’s the prototype we’re using for our Kickstarter campaign.’ He said, ‘Well when you hear who I’m going to give it to, you might want to give it up.”

Yep, the POTUS.

“He loved it! According to David, everyone in the room, including President Obama, exploded with laughter when my voice came out of the doll saying ‘sheeeeeeeee-it!’” Whitlock says. “The President told him it would probably save his voice at least five times a day. Then President Obama said, ‘This is less than $300, so I’m keeping it.’”

Whitlock, who’s in New Zealand filming the live-action/CGI remake of the Disney classic Pete’s Dragon, has already made more than five times his original goal for the bobblehead Kickstarter project, with 16 more days to go (which means, yes, there’s still time to secure one of the “stunningly handsome” figures for your own).

“Since The Wire went off the air in 2008, people have been making all kinds of T-shirts and posters and memes saying ‘Clay Davis for President.’ It’s just funny for me to think that old Clay finally found a way to move into the Oval Office.”

This, officially, is the coolest thing to happen in the land of The Wire since that talking Clay Davis bobblehead became a reality via Kickstarter: Barack Obama, POTUS and proud fan of The Wire, invited series creator David Simon to the White House to chat with him about criminal justice reform.

Lest you think this was just the President’s attempt to get Simon in the House to geek out about the HBO drama, not so. Simon, in addition to creating the series that covered everything from failing school systems and journalism to politics and criminal reform, was a Baltimore Sun reporter on the crime beat, and wrote the books The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood (which was adapted as the HBO miniseries of the same name) and Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, which inspired both the NBC drama Homicide and The Wire.

Related: 'House of Cards,' 'Scandal,' and the Other TV Shows U.S. Politicians Are Binge-Watching

During the interview, seen in the video above, Obama and Simon discuss how law enforcement efforts to focus on arresting everyone involved with drug offenses, even non-violent offenders, didn’t prove to be an effective way to deal with the problem, and in fact, left people feeling less safe, and ignored the bigger issues.

And yes, the President does also let his fanboy freak flag fly, telling Simon The Wire, is “one of the greatest not just television shows, but pieces of art in the last couple of decades,” and confirming that Michael K. Williams’s Omar was his favorite character.

overall: 9/10

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