HBO has this week revealed that its popular drama “Game of Thrones” used a modeled head of former President George W. Bush in a grisly decapitation scene in Season One.
The tenth episode of season one “Game of Thrones,” now out on DVD, features the younger Bush’s head on a stake, and notes that his head appears in a “couple of beheading scenes,” according to commentary on the “Game of Thrones” DVD.
The show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss state that George W. Bush’s was used as physical inspiration to create a head for a scene in which King Joffrey shows Sansa Stark her deceased father’s head on a stick.
“It’s not a choice, not a political statement!” one of the writers insisted during the DVD commentary. “We just had to use what heads we had around.”
HBO did not respond to our request for comment, but as outrage mounted Wednesday, did release a statement saying they were “deeply dismayed to see this and find it unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste.”
Several people on social media sites have called for a boycott of HBO, calling the “Thrones” move “uncool” and an example of “lamestream media.” However, others on Twitter gave the impaling act the thumbs up.
“No wonder I love this show,” tweeted one, while another called it “clever.”