In a video generated using artificial intelligence (AI), flames lick the Los Angeles night sky as the famous Hollywood sign burns brightly.
The scene shifts to a Gotham-inspired building where Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, cast as the Joker, sits atop a throne, clutching a gavel and wearing a smeared red smile.
A mother on her hands and knees begs Bass to remove homeless drug addicts who make the streets unsafe for her children. A man whose home burned down in a wildfire is dragged before her, where he pleads to rebuild.
Enter Spencer Pratt as Batman-styled superhero, ready to change the status quo and clean up the city.
No one believed that Pratt, a former television reality star, had a chance to become Los Angeles’s next mayor. In 2007, on MTV’s “The Hills,” he was the troublemaking boyfriend—and later husband—of Heidi Montag.
As a registered Republican running as an independent, his odds of pulling out a win in deep-blue Los Angeles seemed a pipe dream.
His chances got better when the AI videos began going viral. Now, as the June 2 primaries play out for the Golden State, he may be a real contender for mayor.
Pratt, who lost his home in the Palisades fire and now parks an RV on his burned-out lot, has said he wants to fix the city’s disaster response. He’s also campaigning to remove homeless encampments and enforce laws against public drug use.
The Joker video received millions of views on social media. It was produced by AI creator Charles Curran, a Pratt supporter.
Curran followed up with two more AI videos, again casting Pratt as the hero and Bass as the villain. One shows her as Star Wars’ Darth Vader, and in the latest, she’s portrayed as Marvel’s Thanos.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a 2016 presidential contender, said in a May 5 post on X that the Joker video was “maybe the best political ad of the year.”
‘Dangerous Trend’
In real life, Bass has condemned the fictitious videos.
“Actually, I think it’s a very dangerous trend,” she said during a May 13 CNN interview.
“His social media is now taking on a violent turn,” she said, stating that the tomatoes being thrown at her in the Joker video looked like blood.
Bass said demonizing people in these videos could “provoke people who are unstable.“
She said that voters in her city are upset and that Pratt is capitalizing on that by painting himself as a savior.
“I think that plays into people’s desperation, and I think oftentimes, we look for someone superhuman to save us,” she said. “The reality is it never happens. Those are fictional characters.”
A Cygnal poll conducted May 15–May 18 of 500 likely nonpartisan primary voters showed that Pratt was gaining ground.
In polling, an “initial ballot” asks voters who they will vote for, with little to no information provided. In an “informed ballot,” respondents are asked again and given additional information, such as the candidate’s policy positions.
Pratt moved from 22 percent to 25 percent on the informed ballot, pulling even with Bass at 25 percent.
“Bass is flat, capped out, and carrying the weight of a city voters believe is headed in the wrong direction,” Cygnal CEO Brent Buchanan said in a statement.
It has been 25 years since a Republican served as mayor in Los Angeles. The last one was two-term mayor Dick Riordan, elected in 1993.
—Darlene McCormick Sanchez; Stacy Robinson
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