Whatever your plans on May 22 to 25, you better pencil in a visit to the polling booth for the European elections, warns the Danish parliament in a racy YouTube cartoon.
The video features Voteman, a muscle-bound man with severe dental health issues (which do not seem to interfere with his energetic love life), who leaves the company of several sensual women to ride his dolphins into town to wallop non-voters. (Voteman apparently embarked upon the path of a superhero years ago when he failed to vote in the European Parliament elections—denying himself the ability to weigh in on policy ranging from climate regulations to agricultural subsidies to ”the amount of cinnamon allowed in his cinnamon buns.”)
“We are trying to inspire the very young,” the Danish parliament’s chairman, Mogens Lykketoft, explained to DR Nyheder (Danish), Denmark’s public radio and television news outlet. “A high turnout is important, so you use every method you can.”
The video angered some, who called it sexist and overly violent. (Danish)
For now, Voteman seems to be focused on the Danish population, but considering Denmark had the fifth-highest turnout in the 2009 European Elections, it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine he’ll soon be after lazy citizens from other European countries.
Watch the video below. (Update: The Danish Parliament took it down from its YouTube channel, but another YouTube user reposted it.)
WARNING: video contains censored cartoon nudity.
Europeans beware, Voteman is coming for you.