Fox News broadcast graphic listing seven Trump administration officials on the Council to Re-Open America

Council to Re-open America

2020photoshop meme / image macrodead

Published October 18, 2026

On April 13, 2020, Fox News aired a graphic listing President Trump's advisory council for lifting coronavirus lockdowns, and Twitter users spent the rest of the day replacing the officials' headshots with horror villains, cartoon antagonists and video-game character-select screens. The Beaverton swapped in The Babadook and poisonous snakes within hours, kicking off a photoshop template that ran across Twitter through mid-April 2020.

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Overview

Edits keep the Fox News chyron and the 2-by-4 grid of headshots intact while replacing the seven real advisors with cartoon antagonists, horror creatures or wholly unrelated characters. Canadian satire site The Beaverton set the tone with a version listing The Babadook and "Poisonous snakes" among the appointees2. A second thread of jokes abandoned the Fox layout entirely and treated the council as a fighting-game roster, overlaying the headline on character-select screens from Mario Kart 64 and Super Smash Bros. Melee56.

The comedy hinged on two specific targets: the real presence of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner on a public-health advisory board, which critics called unqualified, and the clean grid design that was trivial to photoshop1. Stayhipp catalogued the best entries in a round-up that appeared within days of the Fox segment3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Fox News broadcast / Twitter (viral spread)
Date
2020

On April 13, 2020, Fox News ran a segment introducing President Donald Trump's advisory council for ending coronavirus lockdowns, titled the "Council to Re-open America." The on-screen graphic named Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Mark Meadows, Steve Mnuchin, Larry Kudlow, Robert Lighthizer and Wilbur Ross4.

Hours after the broadcast, Twitter user @NumbersMuncher posted a screenshot with the caption, "If someone asked me to write a parody of who would be on Trump's 'Council to re-open America,' I couldn't have come up with a list this good... Beyond parody," earning over 300 retweets and 1,000 likes1. Parody edits began appearing on Twitter the same afternoon.

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How It Spread

Later on April 13, The Beaverton posted a reworked version of the Fox graphic that replaced the officials with "The Babadook," "Poisonous snakes" and other threats, earning over 180 retweets and 650 likes2. Because the original was a plain grid of headshots with names underneath, anyone with basic photoshop skills could clone the layout in minutes, and dozens of variants surfaced across Twitter the same evening.

A parallel joke scrapped the Fox layout and substituted video-game character-select screens with the Council to Re-open America title overlaid on top. @ChaseHaynes89's Mario Kart 64 edit collected over 670 retweets and 2,200 likes5, and @burgerkrang's Super Smash Bros. Melee version picked up over 170 likes6. Stayhipp compiled a round-up that pointed to roughly a dozen variants circulating in the first 48 hours3.

Activity around the Council to Re-open America tapered off within a week as other coronavirus-era jokes took over feeds, and the template did not see sustained reuse after April 20204.

Timeline

2020-04-13

Fox News airs the segment introducing President Trump's "Council to Re-open America" advisory group.

2020-04-13

@NumbersMuncher posts a screenshot mocking the lineup, drawing over 300 retweets and 1,000 likes.

2020-04-13

The Beaverton publishes an edited version listing The Babadook and poisonous snakes among the appointees.

2020-04-13

@ChaseHaynes89 posts a Mario Kart 64 character-select screen version that collects over 670 retweets and 2,200 likes.

2020-04-13

@burgerkrang shares a Super Smash Bros. Melee version of the council.

2020-04

Stayhipp publishes a round-up collecting the best Council to Re-open America parodies.

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Frequently Asked Questions