In the late 1970s, Star Wars wasn’t just a popular series of movies that are still obsessed over by the internet. A handful of characters were also around to teach us humans some basic lessons about our lives. At the time, it was sort of normal to see a rock star who had been in some trouble with the law agree to film a public service announcement, warning others about the horrors of what he or she just experienced, in exchange for a lighter punishment. It also became more and more normal for celebrities and characters from popular culture to teach us life lessons, seemingly peaking in the ‘80s with the Saturday morning One to Grow On series. Speaking of which, Let’s watch Jason Bateman tell us to keep our boom boxes at a reasonable level.
Jason Bateman has a good point here, so please listen to him and keep the volume of your boom boxes low and, who knows, you just might make a new friend on the bus.
Anyway.
In this anti-drunk driving PSA, it seems poor Muftak, a regular at Mos Eisley Cantina, was overserved. (I’m sure the bartender, Wuher, regrets this and will make amends.)
Muftak starts getting belligerent and has to be escorted out. Which, let’s be honest, at least he didn’t try to start a fight with the friend of a Jedi Knight and wind up getting his arm cut off. It’s nice to know Muftak has good friends. After, a voiceover tells us that even in a galaxy far, far away, friends don’t let friends drive drunk. Though, as we hear this, we see the Millennium Falcon speeding off into space. Is Han Solo driving drunk? I sure hope not.
I’m not exactly sure where C-3PO and R2-D2 are when C-3PO catches R2-D2 smoking, but there are sure a lot of wires around. There’s part of me that kind of likes that R2-D2 smokes cigarettes, in a “he would” kind of way. I also like to assume this little adventure is canon and I hope it’s addressed in The Force Awakens.
Both C-3PO and R2-D2 eventually concede that, as droids, the cigarettes aren’t going to hurt them much, but that it sets a bad example. If nothing else, this PSA features a pretty great, “Oh, hello, I didn’t see you there,” moment towards the camera. That’s right, C-3PO, we’ve been watching you the whole time! Regardless, I hope the first official poster from The Force Awakens is just R2-D2 smoking.
After R2-D2 quit smoking, he dumped that constant nag, C-3PO, and found a new sense of purpose, namely how much Americans were spending on their energy bills. More specifically, the amount of energy your refrigerator is using if it has dirty coils. Warning: After watching this video, you will want your own R2 unit just for its ability to move and then clean the back of a refrigerator.
Now that measles are back, maybe — or definitely! — it’s time to bring back C-3PO and R2-D2 pleading with the parents of Earth to have their children immunized.
What’s startling is that when I first saw this commercial back in the ‘80s, I remember thinking, Measles and whooping cough? Who gets these diseases? Well, we did it, everyone. Because they are back. And if people won’t listen to medical professionals, perhaps they will listen to the wise words of C-3PO and R2-D2?
Mike Ryan has written for The Huffington Post, Wired, Vanity Fair and New York. He is senior entertainment writer at Uproxx. You can contact him directly on Twitter.
