Veep has always found a way to distance itself from America’s actual politics throughout its foulmouthed tenure — hooray, small-screen escapism! — but there was a pretty close call during production of the show’s sixth season, which begins airing on HBO this weekend. One joke (only one?) needed to be cut from the script because it became too real in the age of President Trump. “So much of Veep is often just sitting around thinking: ‘What’s the dumbest thing that could happen?’ They’re doing stuff that we couldn’t invent if we tried,†showrunner David Mandel explained in a column for The Hollywood Reporter. “The only thing we did have to change — it sounds like a bad joke, but it’s true — was a ‘golden shower’ joke in one of the episodes where someone is yelling at Jonah about a golden shower. We hadn’t filmed it yet, and we realized, ‘Oh, we need to change that.’†Instead, a different non-Trumpian joke was written in its place. “Who knew we would literally have to change a Veep golden showers joke because of the real president of the United States of America?†Mandel continued. “It doesn’t get any weirder than that.†We wouldn’t disagree.