Triumph the Insult Comic Dog to Host Hulu Election Special
Triumph the Insult Comic Dog will sniff out the kind of b.s. that’s unique to the campaign trail in Triumph’s Election Special 2016, set to air on Hulu in February.
The hour-long special is being presented with Funny or Die and will find the foul-mouthed dog crashing campaign events, ridiculing the press and tackling the tough issues voters care about most. Triumph will visit the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, and, per a press release, has already dropped by a Democratic debate, a Tea Party convention and spent several days tracking a Ted Cruz bus tour.
The 2016 campaign, however, is far from Triumph’s first electoral rodeo. The dog filmed several segments during the 2004 campaign, visited the Republican National Convention in 2008 and stalked “spin alley” after the final debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in 2012 (all were for Conan O’Brien’s Late Night or Conan).
O’Brien co-created Triumph with Robert Smigel, who continues to voice and puppeteer the cigar-smoking dog. Smigel debuted the character in 1997 on Late Night, where he quickly became a fixture. In the years since, Triumph has taken on everyone from Eminem (who had an especially big bone to pick with the pup after the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards) to World Cup fanatics. Most recently, Triumph and 30 Rock‘s Jack McBrayer starred in the short-lived Adult Swim sitcom, The Jack and Triumph Show.