TBS Apologies for Hillary Clinton Hyena Video

TBS has issued a formal mea culpa for a satirical video produced by one of its comedy websites that equated Hillary Clinton to a hyena.

The short video featured footage of the Democratic presidential nominee laughing juxtaposed against the sounds of hyena cries. The video was created by TBS' The Heckler website last week and redistributed via TBS' official Twitter account.

The crassness of the video prompted TBS' own Samantha Bee to publicly criticize the Time Warner-owned cabler via Twitter, although she deleted the message shortly after it was issued Monday night. Bee fired off "delete your account" to TBS, a reference to a tweet that Clinton directed to her Republican rival Donald Trump last month.

"This post was obviously a poor attempt at humor and has been taken down," TBS said. "Moving forward we'll leave political satire to professionals like Samantha Bee."

The TBS flap underscores how much the presidential race has become fodder for pop culture content across all media. Clinton's status as the nation's first female presidential candidate from a major party has led to heightened scrutiny of how she is presented in a critical and satirical light.