Presidential elections always fall just a few days after Halloween, yet very few campaigns take advantage of the timing. Leave it to Joss Whedon to make a political spoof ad endorsing Mitt Romney as the right leader for a zombie uprising.
In the midst of what has become a very internet-influenced election year, self-identified liberal Whedon released a video over the weekend calling the Republican presidential candidate the "one with the vision and determination to cut through business-as-usual politics and finally put this country back on the path to the zombie apocalypse."
The clip, which has gotten more than 1.1 million views on YouTube since Sunday, details how the policies proposed by Romney would create just the right environment for the walking dead to take over. Whedon also advises that the new "one percent" will be those who can run fast or know parkour.
"Romney's ready to make the deep roll-backs in health care, education, social services, reproductive rights that will guarantee poverty, unemployment, overpopulation, disease, rioting – all crucial elements in creating a nightmare zombie wasteland," the Avengers director says in the video (above). "But it's his commitment to ungoverned corporate privilege that will nose-dive this economy into true insolvency and chaos – the kind of chaos you can't buy back. Money is only so much paper to the undead."
The video went viral almost immediately after being posted, hitting blogs and Facebook pages everywhere. It's indicative of the way the internet has responded to the current presidential race – with memes like Binders Full of Women and Fired Big Bird popping up following Romney's debates with President Obama and going viral almost in real time.
Whedon's satirical video is the second hip celeb endorsement to hit the web in the last week: The Obama campaign posted a clip featuring Girls creator Lena Dunham on Thursday that equated voting with losing one's virginity. The controversial video has racked up more than 2 million views so far, and both Whedon's and Dunham's videos have gotten more views than nearly any video the Romney campaign has posted, while the Obama campaign has more than half a dozen videos that have gotten 2 million-plus views.
It's unclear if Whedon's message was influenced by the joke on 30 Rock last season that Liz Lemon should dress up as "Mitt Zombie" for Halloween, but nevertheless it couldn't be more timely: Election Day is just over a week away, The Walking Dead is having a killer season, and in the current issue of Rolling Stone, President Obama is quoted as saying he hopes Romney's Halloween costume next year will "be an ex-presidential candidate."
So, the question is, are we ready for Election Day, its inevitable internet reaction and a zombie apocalypse?
"Mitt's ready," Whedon says. "He's not afraid to face a ravening, grasping horde of subhumans, because that's how he sees poor people already."
(Speaking of, is anyone else out there thinking a Whedon-directed flick where Black Widow goes all Buffy on some zombies sounds like a really good idea all of a sudden? Asking for a friend.)
