Writer of US political satire points out similarity with ‘continuity with change’ slogan used by president in TV comedy, chosen as ‘the most meaningless election slogan we could think of’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The writer of Veep has labelled the slogan used by the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, “hollow and oxymoronic” after the government used almost the exact same “meaningless” phrase from season four of the political satire.

Turnbull and senior government ministers have been pushing the three-word slogan “continuity and change” in an attempt to distance his government from that of Tony Abbott.

“Continuity with change” is used throughout season four of the HBO series, when Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s character, US president Selina Meyer, is campaigning for re-election.

Simon Blackwell, Veep’s writer and executive producer, had the similarity brought to his attention by his fellow producer Frank Rich on Twitter.

Simon Blackwell (@simonblackwell) In S4 of Veep we came up with the most meaningless election slogan we could think of. Now adopted by Australian PM. https://t.co/64YmQvImj5

He told Guardian Australia he came up with “continuity with change” when the series’ art director Jim Gloster needed a slogan to go on the side of Meyer’s campaign bus.

“We needed it to be hollow and oxymoronic, to say absolutely nothing but seem to have depth and meaning. It couldn’t be too daft though – it had to be funny but still believable,” he said.

“Selina wants to be all things to all people – she wants to assure the American public that government is carrying on as normal after the president has stepped down, that there is no crisis, but she also wants to seem fresh and forward-looking.

“It did make me laugh a lot when I saw that the Australian PM’s people had been on the same mental journey and come up with the same meaningless phrase.”

Blackwell is a long-time collaborator with Veep’s creator Armando Iannucci, having written on every episode of the sitcom The Thick of It and co-written the spin-off film In The Loop.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus also remarked on Turnbull’s slogan to her 590,000 Twitter followers.

It’s not the first time the line between fact and fiction has blurred for Malcolm Turnbull’s government.

Turnbull’s tweet on Monday that “the time for game-playing is over” drew the attention of the official Twitter account of the Netflix political thriller House of Cards.

House of Cards (@HouseofCards) .@TurnbullMalcolm I admire your methodology, Prime Minister. If you don't like how the table is set, turn over the table.

Last year Turnbull said he had nothing in common with the series’ underhanded president Frank Underwood, “other than we both use a rowing machine”.