Clint Eastwood’s now-infamous speech at the Republican National Convention included a dialogue—or rather monologue—with an empty chair. The idea was that he was addressing an invisible President Obama, who the actor and director was both conducting a (one-sided) interview with and giving a bit of a lecture. Within moments, a new Twitter account popped up called @InvisibleObama to record and parody the incident. Here are the anonymous user’s best tweets, followed by the new sensation known as “Eastwooding.”
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— Invisible Obama (@InvisibleObama) August 31, 2012
The GOP built me.
— Invisible Obama (@InvisibleObama) August 31, 2012
When Mitt Romney says “Mr. Chairman,” do you think he’s referring to me?
— Invisible Obama (@InvisibleObama) August 31, 2012
Mitt, if you would talk to me like Clint did, I’d tell you that my iPod plays “Invisible Touch.” On repeat.
— Invisible Obama (@InvisibleObama) August 31, 2012
Vote for Romney, and you’ll get
— Invisible Obama (@InvisibleObama) August 31, 2012@invisiblenasa!
Global warming’s invisible too? Oh it’s on now.
— Invisible Obama (@InvisibleObama) August 31, 2012
I’m behind Mitt! No seriously. I’m right behind him.
— Invisible Obama (@InvisibleObama) August 31, 2012
Hey
— Invisible Obama (@InvisibleObama) August 31, 2012@piersmorgan, I got your empty chair right here. No seriously. I do.
Sometime overnight, Twitter deleted the account. But by Friday morning, the account was reinstated. Here’s the first tweet after @InvisibleObama’s absence:
I’m back. Sorry about that.
— Invisible Obama (@InvisibleObama) August 31, 2012@twitter took the invisible thing a little too literally. Now where were we...
Predictably, @InvisibleObama wasn’t the only Twitter user having fun with the creepy event. Ben Smith of Buzzfeed snapped a pic of The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza interview of an invisible Barack:
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) August 31, 2012
#Eastwooding twitter.com/daveweigel/sta…
Not to be outdone, Chris Geidner got an exclusive with the whole (invisible) Obama family:
Exclusive: The Obama family stops by
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) August 31, 2012@buzzfeed’s workspace at#RNC2012. twitter.com/chrisgeidner/s…
Also, the hashtag #Eastwooding quickly sprang up. Similar to planking, Eastwooding is when you angrily and accusatorially point at an empty chair.
— delrayser (@delrayser) August 31, 2012
#eastwooding twitter.com/delrayser/stat…
Just doing a little
— James G Gilmore (@jamesggilmore) August 31, 2012#eastwooding before bed. twitter.com/jamesggilmore/…
— marilolis (@marilolis) August 31, 2012
#eastwooding twitter.com/marilolis/stat…
Even the president had a response:
This seat’s taken. OFA.BO/c2gbfi, twitter.com/BarackObama/st…
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 31, 2012