Star Wars: Jar Jar Binks Is Trending on Twitter and Nobody Knows Why

The Internet was left puzzled Monday after infamous Gungan Jar Jar Binks emerged as a trending [...]

By Cameron Bonomolo

The Internet was left puzzled Monday after infamous Gungan Jar Jar Binks emerged as a trending topic on Twitter, in part because Star Wars fans were questioning why the Phantom Menace star was trending.

One tweet questioning the phenomenon, from ESPN writer Ryan McGee, was favorited more than 4,500 times. Others questioning the trend speculated the hapless sidekick-turned-politician had finally been revealed as a Sith lord, fulfilling a long-running fan theory.

An investigation by the Tampa Bay Times narrowed the trend to a tweet from Luke Skywalker star Mark Hamill, who in the early hours of Monday tweeted a graphic helping fans determine their Star Wars fate. If your name starts with the letter "J," Jar Jar Binks is tied to a fate determined by your birth month.

That tweet has been favorited more than 13,000 times with nearly 6,000 comments.

Other users used the opportunity to praise actor Ahmed Best, who famously weathered the character's poor reputation in the 20 years since debuting as the floppy-eared Gungan.

In 2018, Best said "media backlash" made him contemplate suicide. A year later, the star admitted he was apprehensive against attending Star Wars Celebration Chicago, which celebrated the 20th anniversary of the first Star Wars prequel.

"The main thing [fans] obviously got upset about was Jar Jar," Lucas recently told StarWars.com.

"But they got upset at Jar Jar because he was there for the kids. When I did A New Hope, everybody felt the same way about Threepio. They hated him. They thought he was too childish and the jokes were bad. They said the same thing. It's just that the initial wave of Star Wars sort of overwhelmed the criticism of Threepio. We even played on that in Empire, making fun of him and acknowledging the fact that he was annoying. And then in the third one we did the same thing with Ewoks. People just went berserk. They said it was horrible, it ruined the movie, and how can you watch this, and all that kind of stuff."

Lucas also credits the rise of the Internet, which coincided with the release of 1999's Phantom Menace, for persistent Jar Jar hatred.

"So I was used to that sort of thing, but for some reason, the criticism through the internet became more alive," Lucas added.

"And the news media began to listen to the fans. Obviously, when a fan, or a group, or a blog says something terrible, they take it seriously, and suddenly that became the reality. It was very hard to turn back from that."

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