Randy Rainbow's Musical Response to Trump's 'Inject Disinfectants' Gaffe

When President Trump prompted alarm among medical professionals and companies that manufacture cleaning products by publicly musing about the therapeutic value of an "injection" of "disinfectant" - along with floating a theory about somehow piping UV light to the interior of the human body - as a means to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, social media lit up with the usual partisan outcry, with some condemning Trump's words and others defending him.

Trump's defenders later posited the none-too-convincing explanation that the president's April 23 remarks had been "taken out of context," and the president made the claim that his medical musings had been "very satirical."

Fact checking site Snopes verified the comments, offering this excerpt from a White House transcript:

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. So I asked Bill a question that probably some of you are thinking of, if you're totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous – whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light – and I think you said that that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you're going to test that too. It sounds interesting.

THE PRESIDENT: Right. And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you're going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds – it sounds interesting to me.

Randy Rainbow, reliably enough, recapped the controversy and added his own spin with a new parody song video - perhaps proving in the process that laughter really is the best medicine.

In the April 25 video, titled "A Spoonful of Clorox" (which fit new lyrics to the song "A Spoonful of Sugar" by Richard Sherman / Robert Sherman, from the Walt Disney musical motion picture "Mary Poppins"), Rainbow noted:

There are home remedies to try; you find the one that works, and snap! You're safe!"

That, of course, is the hook for every miracle cure since the days of antiquity. Indeed, pseudoscience has long proclaimed an endless procession of potions, pills, palliatives, and elixirs to treat real and imagined ailments.

The New York Times published an op-ed piece in which Melissa Eaton, Anne Borden King, Emma Dalmayne and Amanda Seigler - tagged as "mothers of autistic children who have been working to prevent medical misinformation" - compared Trump's speculations with the claims made by what they referred to ass "the 'bleach cures' movement," in which various religious and secular organizations and individuals have been flogging "substances [that] will cure autism, acne, cancer, diabetes, Covid-19 and so much more."

Noted the writers: "This is a crucial red flag for pseudoscience: When a product claims it can cure anything, it's a fake."

The president has already been cited by at least one person who was sickened by an unproven remedy she believed Trump had endorsed,. NBC News reported on an Arizona woman who, hearing the president praise the putative benefits of chloroquine, dosed herself and her husband with the substance.

The woman became gravely ill; her husband died.

With this tragic lesson already having unfolded, would the American public hasten to try out injections of household cleaning products, hopeful that their "disinfectant" properties would shield them from the coronavirus?

The makers of Lysol, a common cleaning product, and Clorox, a brand of bleach used in cleaning and laundry, seemed to take this scenario as a real possibility, quickly issuing statements of warning, reported PR Week.

Declared RB, the manufacturer of Lysol:

"As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route)."

A Clorox spokesperson issued a similar statement:

"Bleach and other disinfectants are not suitable for consumption or injection under any circumstances. People should always read the label for proper usage instructions."

Even members of Trump's own government made it clear that ingestion or injection of "disinfectants" would be a bad idea. Openly gay CNN anchor Anderson Cooper took to Twitter to share the words of FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, who said, "I certainly wouldn't recommend the internal ingestion of a disinfectant."

"I certainly wouldn't recommend the internal ingestion of a disinfectant," says FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, responding to President Trump suggesting the use of a disinfectant that can kill a Covid-19 infection "by injection inside." #CNNTownHall https://t.co/IlD9ZOfPy7 pic.twitter.com/jpFttUrZZE– Anderson Cooper 360� (@AC360) April 24, 2020

But no goofy gaffe would be complete without the Rainbow seal of approval in the form of a parody musical video, and those in doubt about what constitutes "very satirical" content needed only to hear Rainbow's bespoke lyrics to catch his drift.

Rainbow hopped merrily onto Trump's train of medically inadvisable thought, crooning that "every product 'neath your sink might be a medicine to drink," as a photo of a toddler grabbing onto a large bottle of bleach flashed. (Warning: Don't try this at home. Seriously.)

"No need for tests," Rainbow declared brightly, in a reference to the way the U.S, has been unable to produce and distribute sorely needed COVID-19 testing kits in an effective and timely manner.

"The president suggests," Rainbow went on to croon, "...that a spoonful of Clorox makes your temperature go down; your temperature go down; temperature go down!"

Added the comedian, "It's the latest COVID craze!"

But temperatures elsewhere were shooting up as right-wing pundits pushed back, perhaps in a rage at the coverage the Trump's comments prompted or maybe out of weary frustration at having to wrangle and finesse yet another presidential gaffe - or, possibly, a potent cocktail of both.

Reported Media Matters:

On his radio show, MSNBC's Hugh Hewitt attacked the media for "abusing ... Trump's comments on ultraviolet light" because "he didn't say what they say he said." Hewitt also promised to never buy Lysol products again, due to the company's statement against internal use of its products.

Media Matters went on to report that right-wing news site Breitbart resorted to "ludicrously claiming in its 'fact check,' that 'Trump used the word "inject," but what he meant was using a process – which he left "medical doctors" to define – in which patients' lungs might be cleared of the virus, given new knowledge about its response to light and other factors. ... At no time did Trump actually propose injecting patients with disinfectant.' "

Longtime talk radio provocateur and recent recipient of the Presidential Medal of Honor recipient Rush Limbaugh also rushed to defend Trump, Media Matters noted.

Rainbow wasn't buying the bleach-infused whitewash.

"A politician who distracts has very little time for facts," Rainbow chirps in the video. "The scientists he's hired are perplexed. While Dr. Birx is 'bout to barf and hang herself with her own scarf, he diatribes and recklessly prescribes that some Pledge on your pancakes makes coronavirus pass."

Not overlooking Trump's odd suggestion to pipe light into the body, Rainbow went on to sing, "Heal yourself with UV rays."

(We repeat: Do not try this at home, either! UV rays are known to cause cancer.)

Backed by the Rainbow Chorus of multiple images of himself attired in nurse drag, Rainbow went on to sing, "A little Drano in your cup will clear your sinuses right up... and quench your thirst. Unless it kills you first!"

More handy aux health tips followed, including "Slap your mom with a Swiffer 'ill her temperature goes down," "Spray your boyfriend with Lysol till he's six feet underground!," and "Since it's improbably you'll win with your hydroxychloroquine, splash some Windex in your wine and you'll resolve."

Furthermore, "There's no vaccine, so try some Mr. Clean," Rainbow harmonizes with more backup singer images of himself.

(Really. Truly. Don't try any of this at home! Frequent hand washing, social distancing, and quarantining methods are thought to be legitimate methods to help avoid contracting the virus.)

Watch the full video below.