What if Army Vet Elvis Presley Had Been a Real Secret Agent?

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Agent Elvis Presley
"Agent Elvis." (Netflix)

The most outrageous fact about the wild new Netflix animated series "Agent Elvis" is that it's 100% approved by the Presley estate. Not only that, it was co-created by the Army veteran's ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, and she voices the character that's loosely based on her own marriage to Elvis.

The show features stylish animation from the Sony team behind the "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" movie and features Matthew McConaughy voicing Elvis with a performance that's just as much "Alright, alright, alright" as it is "Thank you verruh much."

The series is obviously inspired by Presley's notorious visit to the White House in December 1970. The singer impulsively called on President Richard Nixon, flew to Washington and showed up unannounced. The White House staff thought Elvis could help the president's reputation with the kids, so they let him into the Oval Office after confiscating the Colt .45 that Presley had brought as a gift for the president.

What Elvis really wanted was a badge from the federal Bureau of Narcotics to go with his growing collection of badges presented to him by local law enforcement at his concerts around the country. Nixon decided that giving Presley a badge would encourage the singer to support his administration's anti-drug campaign, so he hooked up the singer and gave us (honorary) Agent Elvis.

Agent Elvis Presley
"Agent Elvis" (Netflix)

This story, while 100% true, is absolutely bonkers. Five decades later, it's impossible to imagine anyone showing up unannounced at the White House with a pistol and getting in to see the president, but Elvis lived at a level of fame that doesn't really exist anymore.

Related: How Much Pvt. Presley Do We Get in the Epic 'Elvis' Movie?

After decades of jokes about Elvis the narcotics agent, someone finally explored what it would be like if an Army-trained karate black belt pop star was actually working for a secret agency called The Central Bureau (TCB, get it?). Agent Elvis' sidekick is a psychic chimpanzee named Scatter (inspired by the singer's real pet chimp).

Agent Elvis declares he's a patriot, telling a criminal that he "decided a while ago, I wasn't gonna just sit around while this country's torn apart by all the chaos, the dirtbag hippies, the drugs, the crime."

McConaughy is joined by an all-star comic voice cast including Kaitlin Olson ("It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia") as TCB agent CeCe Ryder; Don Cheadle ("Boogie Nights") as the Commander of TCB; Johnny Knoxville ("Jackass") as Elvis' buddy, Bobby Ray; and Niecy Nash ("Reno 911") as the King's nanny Bertie.

"Agent Elvis" will shock the King's elderly fans, the ones who love the clean-living characters he played in his movies and the gospel albums he made. The singer's life wasn't nearly as chaotic as the craziness portrayed in the series, but the animated Elvis is closer to the real one than the characters he played in movies like "Fun in Acapulco."

If you enjoy the animated spy series "Archer" or the weirdness served up on the late-night Adult Swim programming from the Cartoon Network, then "Agent Elvis" gets a strong recommendation. It's incredibly silly and wickedly funny. Anyone who's looking for a story of a clean-living singer who uses his fame to help the government won't find it here.

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