Arnold Schwarzenegger Trolled With Batman & Robin Joke From Nickelback

Arnold Schwarzenegger has likely become accustomed to being mocked and berated by the President of the United States at this point — but last week, he took a shot across the bow from a Canadian rock band.

…To be fair, The Governator kind of brought it on himself.

Nickelback — a band that’s sold millions of albums and topped the charts consistently since its debut in the mid-’90s — are pretty used to being the butt of jokes, too.

With all that commercial success, little critical acclaim has followed, and to many, the band is identified as being the epitome of commercial success and creative bankruptcy.

In May 2013, for instance, the readers of Rolling Stone named Nickelback the second-worst band of the 1990s, behind Creed.

And just yesterday, NME reported that a U.S. Army command post had banned Nickelback, Slipknot and other “terrible rock groups” from being played there.

But when Schwarzenegger took a pot shot at the band on Twitter, they retaliated in kind — dredging up an experience he’d likely just as soon forget: 1997’s Batman & Robin, the film that nearly killed the Batman franchise and was the rare blockbuster misfire for the action movie legend.

It started innocently enough: The former California governor was advocating for reform of the way Congressional districts are drawn, suggesting (as have a number of recent court rulings) that political parties use their time in power to illegally manipulate district lines to stay in power essentially in perpetuity:

That reference to Nickelback’s approval rating, though, didn’t sit well with the band (or whoever runs their Twitter account, anyway), who shot back:

Showing a sense of perspective and a knack for self-deprecating humor that likely served him well as a Republican governor in the Democratic stronghold of California, Schwarzenegger told Nickelback that the diss was “ice cold.”

“I hope we can agree that we need a freeze on gerrymandering, guys,” he tweeted. “Thanks for the reply.”

As you might expect, those cold puns — a callback to the most notorious element of his character’s personality from Batman & Robin — earned him a “well played” and a ceasefire from Nickelback.