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Clint Eastwood vs. the Chair vs. the Internet

Last night, on national television, Clint Eastwood spent twelve minutes haltingly addressing an empty chair. It was surreal. By doing this, the world-renowned actor and director will soon discover this: in 2012, no celebrity can ever hope to attempt a...

Last night, on national television, Clint Eastwood spent twelve minutes haltingly addressing an empty chair. It was surreal. By doing this, the world-renowned actor and director will soon discover this: in 2012, no celebrity can ever hope to attempt a poorly thought-out piece of politically-tinged performance art on live TV without birthing at least an octuplet of memes.

Seriously. What could the internet possibly love more than an iconic actor mumbling at an empty chair for twelve uninterrupted minutes:

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Obviously, there’s going to be a satirical Twitter account.

Vote for Romney, and you’ll get @invisiblenasa!

— Invisible Obama (@InvisibleObama) August 31, 2012

Someone should tell Marco Rubio he’s standing on my foot right now.

— Invisible Obama (@InvisibleObama) August 31, 2012

And people are going to upload copycat pics. They might even call it Eastwooding, and try to get the hashtagged meme-word to trend.

Obama’s “social media savvy” staffers will serve up an online retort that is way more relevant than anything those antebellum-minded Republicans can:

Meme art, make more meme art!

And gifs. Oh, the gifs.

The interesting thing about this whole debacle is that Eastwood’s schtick was based on one of the most primitive conceits imaginable. Here’s a giant convention center, carefully constructed to resemble a Frank Lloyd Wright building, with every news camera in the nation pointed at it. There’s a massive budget, enough stage lighting to do a Pink Floyd lazer show, and a giant, elaborate banner heralding the arrival of one of the most acclaimed actors and directors in the world. And Dirty Harry requests but one stage prop: an empty chair. One single wooden chair with which to stage an embarrassing Vaudeville act.

We can only speculate why Clint thought this stunt was a good idea—it probably just popped into his head while he was shaving the morning of his speech. But its utter simplicity is at the core of why we’re mocking it; the internet doesn’t suffer the outmoded well. Especially when poorly delivered by doddering old Republicans.