Life imitated art to a bone-chilling degree when the hosts of “Good Morning Britain” inadvertently recreated a scene from the 2021 film “Don’t Look Up.”
On Monday’s episode of the ITV morning show, climate activist Miranda Whelehan of Just Stop Oil attempted to explain why the group has been peacefully obstructing oil terminals in Essex. However, presenter Richard Madeley repeatedly minimized her urgent message about the environmental destruction caused by oil consumption.
“This ‘Just Stop Oil’ slogan is very playground-ish isn’t it, it’s very Vicky Pollard, quite childish,” Madeley said at one point. Though he admitted that society needs to “wean” itself off oil, he said that people “deeply resent having their personal lives massively interrupted.” Madeley also dismissed one of Whelehan’s points by commenting that “the clothes that you’re wearing, to some extent, owe their clothes to oil, because they were taken in a car or a truck or a van to a shop, you know?”
“We’re talking about crop failure by 2030,” Whelehan retorted. “We’re talking about people in this country, right now, in fuel poverty because of the prices of oil, and you’re talking about the clothes that I’m wearing?”
Immediately, viewers took note of the eerie similarities between the fraught interview and a scene from “Don’t Look Up” in which climate scientists played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence appear on a morning talk show called “The Daily Rip” to warn the world about the asteroid coming to obliterate the planet. Instead of taking their message seriously, the hosts, played by Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry, joke about hoping it hits an ex-wife’s house and encourage them to “keep the bad news light.” Particularly salient is the moment Jennifer Lawrence’s character Kate becomes completely fed up and says, “We’re trying to tell you that the entire planet is about to be destroyed!”
MSNBC’s “Mehdi Hasan Show” went so far as to edit the “Good Morning Britain” interview and “Don’t Look Up” scenes together, putting their striking similarities on full display.
“So folks have been comparing the weird @GMB morning show interview with the climate activist in the UK with *that* scene from #DontLookUp,” Hasan tweeted Wednesday. “So we at the @MehdiHasanShow put them side by side & the results are.. astounding. Reality mirroring art!”
Many other social media users weighed in about the undeniable resemblance.
“This is #DontLookUp in real life and shows how our media system globally is helping set the world on fire,” wrote one user.
“No wonder the media hated Don’t Look Up,” added another. “Although it would have been a much funnier film if Richard ‘Partridge’ Madeley featured in it.”
Written and directed by Adam McKay, “Don’t Look Up” was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture, at the 2022 Academy Awards. The Netflix film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Ariana Grande, Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry and Timothee Chalamet, among others.
