Mark Hamill is catching flak this week after he shared a meme depicting the funeral of President Donald Trump.
But the folks giving him a hard time might be missing some crucial context.
Hamill’s post appeared 11 days after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting, so perhaps the timing was inappropriate — but despite claims to the contrary, the actor was clearly not wishing death on Trump.
“He should live long enough to witness his inevitable devastating loss in the midterms, be held accountable for his unprecedented corruption, impeached, convicted & humiliated for his countless crimes,” Hamill captioned the Bluesky post, adding:
“Long enough to realize he’ll be disgraced in the history books, forevermore.”
He later elaborated, perhaps feeling that many of his followers had missed his point:
“Accurate Edit for Clarity: ‘He should live long enough to be held accountable for his crimes.’ Actually, I was wishing him the opposite of dead, but apologize if you found the image inappropriate,” the Star Wars star wrote.
One of Hamill’s harshest critics was comedian Jamie Kennedy, who addressed the issue on his podcast this week:
“That is insane. That is brain rot gone beyond,” Kennedy said (via Page Six), adding:
“This is nuts. Luke Skywalker has lost it, dude. You’re like a big voice in the world, and you’re promoting that. Like what is wrong with you?”
Kennedy went on to blast Hamill as “crazy” and note that Trump was duly elected.
“You can call this guy whatever you want, but he’s the elected leader, so clearly he’s legally in, and he won, and he’s the elected leader,” Kennedy continued.
“That’s just crazy that he did that. Like that’s just nuts. Do you know how irresponsible that is? All the people that follow you. You can write something tasteful and say you don’t like someone, but to do that? It’s evil.”
The uproar is similar to the backlash that Jimmy Kimmel faced for allegedly joking about Trump’s death in the days before the Correspondents’ Dinner shooting.
Both Donald and Melania Trump called on Kimmel to be fired, but their demands fell on deaf ears.
For one thing, the joke — in which Kimmel referred to Melania as “an expectant widow” — aired several days before the Correspondents’ Dinner.
Additionally, Kimmel was not calling on Trump to be assassinated but was instead referencing the fact that he’ll soon be eighty and appears to be battling health issues.
Perhaps one day, we’ll have a non-octogenarian president, and entertainers can get back to roasting politicians for their policies.