--- description: Barack Obama confessed that he has trouble remembering the names of the characters on Game of Thrones. title: Obama Says He Can't Keep Track of 'Game of Thrones' Characters image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf52baedc0088b9ef/698871912dce013b459e68c8/barack-obama-tyrion-lannister.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Obama Reveals He Can't Keep Track of the _Game of Thrones_ Characters  by [Megan McCluskey](/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer Nov 17, 2015 10:04 PM CUT  From left: Barack Obama and Tyrion Lannister. From left: Barack Obama and Tyrion Lannister.Mehmet Ali Ozcan—Getty Images; Helen Sloan—HBO/AP  by [Megan McCluskey](/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Staff Writer Nov 17, 2015 10:04 PM CUT Barack Obama confessed that he has trouble remembering the names of the characters on _Game of Thrones_ in an interview for _GQ’s_ “Men of The Year” [20th anniversary issue](http://www.gq.com/story/president-obama-bill-simmons-interview-gq-men-of-the-year "undefined"). The Commander in Chief sat down with HBO’s Bill Simmons, the former editor in chief of ESPN’s Grantland, for an exclusive White House Q&A, during which he said that he loves the popular HBO drama. However, when asked about his favorite character from the series, Obama responded, “My favorite character is probably…the dwarf, what’s his name?…The problem with _Game of Thrones…_is that I don’t remember the names of any of the characters.” In fact, he revealed he can only recall a single person from Westeros. “I remember the characters, so when I watch it, I know exactly what’s going on,” he said. “But if you read a review of the show afterwards and they’re mentioning such and such, the only one I remember is Jon Snow, because I can pronounce Jon Snow.” Basically, the show is long and full of actors. It’s no secret Obama is a fan of the show. Last year, co-creators of the show, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, [told _Vanity Fair_](http://time.com/20215/president-obama-gets-to-watch-game-of-thrones-season-4-before-you-do/ "undefined") that Obama was given advanced screeners of the show’s upcoming season. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4117124/obama-cant-keep-track-game-of-thrones-characters/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4117124/obama-cant-keep-track-game-of-thrones-characters/"},"headline":"Obama Reveals He Can't Keep Track of the Game of Thrones Characters","datePublished":"2015-11-17T22:04:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:27:00.137Z","description":"He's too busy running the real world to keep track of a fictional one","url":"https://time.com/4117124/obama-cant-keep-track-game-of-thrones-characters/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Barack Obama","Television","HBO","game of thrones","celebrities","Politicians","TV","Jon Snow"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf52baedc0088b9ef/698871912dce013b459e68c8/barack-obama-tyrion-lannister.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf52baedc0088b9ef/698871912dce013b459e68c8/barack-obama-tyrion-lannister.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"barack-obama-tyrion-lannister","caption":"From left: Barack Obama and Tyrion Lannister.","creditText":"Mehmet Ali Ozcan—Getty Images; Helen Sloan—HBO/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4117124/obama-cant-keep-track-game-of-thrones-characters/","name":"Obama Reveals He Can't Keep Track of the Game of Thrones Characters"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"'Thrones' Catching Up With Book Plot Means Spoilers For All","description":"The day","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/j83INjRk/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-06-16T18:30:15.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/j83INjRk.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4117124/obama-cant-keep-track-game-of-thrones-characters/","duration":"PT2M2S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4117124/obama-cant-keep-track-game-of-thrones-characters/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```