Senator’s Bizarre Use of Aquaman and Star Wars Images in Senate Presentation Goes Viral

No matter what side of things you are politically, climate change is a hot topic. While scientists around the globe warn of various catastrophic impacts that climate change will have on the environment, the economy, and even human life itself, politicians in Washington D.C. are debating how to deal with it — including a Green New Deal proposal. While the Democratic-backed proposal isn’t exactly supported by the GOP, one Senator took his reaction to the proposal to a whole new, and viral-worthy level: with images from Star Wars and the animated Aquaman.

During his remarks on the Green New Deal on Capitol Hill Tuesday (which you can see, in full, on his YouTube channel here), Utah Senator Mike Lee openly mocked the Green New Deal using an image of Luke Skywalker riding a tauntaun from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and one of the animated Aquaman riding a seahorse to outline options he thought made as much sense as solutions offered in the proposal — that’s to say, they make none at all.

“Under the Green New Deal, this is probably Hawaii’s best bet,” the Senator noted of Aquaman and his seahorse. “Now, I’m the first to admit that a massive fleet of giant, highly trained seahorses would be cool. It would be really, really awesome.”

He’s probably not wrong on the “cool” factor, though we’re not so sure about the tauntauns. After all, they don’t smell particularly great.

The Star Wars and Aquaman images weren’t the only things Senator Lee mocked the Green New Deal with, either. He opened is presentation with an image of the late President Ronald Reagan riding a velociraptor and continued on with images of babies as well as one featuring a scene from Sharknado. He even went so far as to paraphrase Dr. Evil from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery in his regard for the proposal.

“Climate change is no joke, but the Green New Deal is a joke,” he said. “It is the legislative equivalent of Austin Powers‘ Dr. Evil, demanding sharks with freaking lasers on their heads.”

As one might expect, the presentation got quite a bit of attention. When Senator Lee shared a screenshot of his presentation to Twitter — complete with the Tauntaun image — it was quickly brought to Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill. Once Hamill found out it was, in fact, a real image and not photoshopped, he came up with the best hashtag for the situation of all: #CongressSmellsBadOnTheInside.

What do you think about this surprising appearance by Luke Skywalker and Aquaman (and Sharknado!) in the Senate today? Let us know in the comments below.