Star Trek actor George Takei has become a social media guru of sorts. Posting regular updates on websites like Facebook and Twitter, he routinely uses his star power wisely as a green celebrity. Just after the Eastern Standard Time midnight hour on September 1st, he posted one of the wittiest graphics about the Clint Eastwood chair speech while the topic was trending on the Internet.
Eastwood had given a speech to an empty chair during an improv that lasted over ten minutes in front of the Republican National Convention. Pretending to be asking United States President Barak Obama a slew of question about his political beliefs, allegedly failed campaign promises, and hoping to persuade Americans to vote for his favorite candidate Mitt Romney, the actor was the subject of countless major media reports.
Rumors about his political affiliations began to fly as well when home viewers were left feeling like the actor had missed his mark with the presentation. They questioned the veracity of his lines of inquiry that were put forward as facts implicitly despite their controversial truths, mocked his increasing age, and even Stephen Colbert made fun of him on “The Colbert Report” episode that aired August 31st, 2012.
But funny Japanese-American actor George Takei elected to take the high road in his political activism. The otherwise outspoken advocate for gay rights and human rights posted a clever graphic on his Facebook wall that featured Clint Eastwood talking to a big blue chair.
The chair Takei showed in the joking graphic photo is actually a giant puppet called “Chairy” — a prop that is prominently featured on the “Pee Wee Herman Show”. Paul Reubens has also featured Chairy in his Broadway show, a stage adaptation of the cult classic Saturday morning children’s show.
Along with the photo, “Lieutenant Sulu” from the original “Star Trek” television series that featured William Shatner and Leonard Nemoy posted the aside, “I couldn’t resist. Dirty Chairy?”
The political satire might have only been evident to Hollywood Insiders from the Baby Boomer Generation and Generation X age people and who have continued to follow Reuben’s career, but for those in the know the funny photo was hilarious.
Plus, it had the added benefit for Takei that once again his humorous quotation helped the photo go almost immediately viral. Fortunately for the aging out-of-the-closet actor, that’s something that seems to happen with regularity for him. Almost all his status updates that include funny photos featuring Trekkie humor or insightful comments about gay rights do quite well as traffic generators on the internet for him.
Paul Reubens, age 60, is an American actor, writer, film producer, and comedian, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman. His hit television show was cancelled despite having a huge following as a cult classic when he was arrested in a pornographic movie theater in Sarasota, Florida for public masturbation.
While his arrest was no laughing matter, his fans have supported him loyally over the years. His stage production has been a breath of fresh air on the Broadway musical scene. Since there is such a large gay population in New York city and who commute to shows from all over the country, it is not surprising that Takei got the joke and shared it with his own fan base.
George Takei competed on the reality television show “Celebrity Apprentice” with host Donald Trump in 2012. He surprised fans when he competed for a Japanese-American charity rather than a gay marriage rights organization. He is 75.
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