Bobby is far from the only aged former movie star who spends all of his time obsessing over what’s on cable TV, but the Biden campaign’s decision to dispatch him to Trump’s trial was embarrassing for De Niro.

The last time Robert De Niro starred in a hit movie, Trump was president. And I use the term “hit movie” very generously because the movie in question was The Irishman which was one of those Netflix deals that released in movie theaters just to qualify for Oscar season where it made $8 million.

Here, this chart from The Numbers nicely sums up De Niro’s career box office trajectory.

De Niro lately shows up in random TV miniseries and plays people’s eccentric grandpas in indies like About My Father and The War With Grandpa.

Not exactly movie star stuff.

To be fair to De Niro, he’s on the older side. Other actors like Jack Nicholson and Gene Hackman went out on top and are remembered fondly. There’s no chance of that happening because De Niro has showed up in so much garbage for a paycheck, every Fockers movie, Father of the Bride 3 and Dirty Grandpa, that is what a whole generation knows him for. His old pals putting him in movies like Killers of the Flower Moon won’t turn that around. So what was the cachet in bringing him out to the Trump trial?

It was either that or Dirty Grandpa Meets the Fockers Part 4.

De Niro is a perfect proxy for Biden. He’s well past his prime and has destroyed his reputation. And if Biden does a Weekend at Bernie’s, maybe De Niro can impersonate him at the convention.