Michelle Obama’s new podcast IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson is supposed to be about “candid” conversations on life, relationships, and parenting. What it’s actually become is a slow-burning PR disaster wrapped in progressive buzzwords and low viewership. And now, thanks to a viral clip from the April 30th episode featuring comedians Damon and Marlon Wayans, the show is fueling one of the internet’s favorite—and most controversial—topics: the ongoing speculation about Michelle Obama’s gender.
In the clip, Michelle is talking about raising children with challenges, including one being “transgender,” and she says—while referring to her guest—it warms her heart, “particularly as a black man, you know?” The internet, predictably, lit up. Was she talking about herself? Was she awkwardly inserting herself into a trans narrative? Either way, it wasn’t a good look, and it certainly didn’t help the show’s already sinking ratings.
Let’s not forget the origins of this rumor. It was Joan Rivers who back in 2014 dropped the bombshell to TMZ that Michelle Obama was “a transgender. We all know it,” she said with a smirk, just weeks before she mysteriously passed away. Conspiracy theorists haven’t let it go since, and moments like this only throw more gas on the fire.
Marlon Wayans, for his part, has been open about his daughter Amai transitioning to a son named Kai. That’s his business, and he’s talked about it in various interviews, including on The Breakfast Club in 2023. But once Michelle entered that territory on her podcast, people weren’t focused on Wayans’ parenting—they were replaying her words, zooming in, analyzing every syllable, and trolling like it was 2015 again.
Beyond the gossip, the real headline might be that IMO is flopping—hard. The debut episode barely cleared 335,000 views on YouTube, and recent episodes are lucky to scrape 60,000. For someone who was once considered the media darling of the Democratic Party, those numbers are dismal. Maybe people just aren’t interested in watching elites lecture them on “authenticity” from multimillion-dollar homes.
So now Michelle is trending—not for “hope” or “change,” but for an awkward comment that reignited an internet firestorm and reminded us that even the Obamas can’t escape the consequences of trying too hard to stay relevant.
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