Heading into the holiday weekend, the Ron DeSantis campaign released a video that essentially argues that the Florida governor is way more homophobic than Trump and also a “badass” on par with cool Hollywood guys like Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort from The Wolf of Wall Street, Christian Bale’s Patrick Batemen from American Psycho, and Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders. Is one of those a serial killer? You bet.
Each choice is odder than the next, and not to mention, a minefield of copyright violations. So, naturally, one of the creative teams was bound to speak out, and fittingly, the Peaky Blinders came firing out of the fate with a statement denouncing the DeSantis campaign video:
On behalf of the partners of Peaky Blinders – Steven Knight, Cillian Murphy, Caryn Mandabach Productions, Tiger Aspect Productions and Banijay Rights – we confirm the footage of Tommy Shelby’s character used within the video posted by Ron DeSantis’ campaign was obtained without permission or official licence. We do not support nor endorse the video’s narrative and strongly disapprove of the use of the content in this manner.
Within minutes of the Peaky Blinders statement dropping on Twitter, fans of the show went wild dunking on DeSantis’ campaign for completely misunderstanding the show, and more importantly, Murphy’s portrayal of Tommy Shelby. The Florida governor got roasted in the replies as well as “alpha males” who routinely make memes of the show.
You can see some of the reactions below:
oooh i know cillian was mad as hell https://t.co/l5qw4FH35x
— edy (@anakinfeyd) July 5, 2023
he pissed off the peaky fooking blinders oh it’s over for him https://t.co/3G16AHFeVh
— mak🫧 (@bonsaiknj) July 5, 2023
Tommy Shelby canonically rejects Ron DeSantis by the order of the Peaky Blinders. https://t.co/MeFCpDY0on
— Lacy Baugher Milas (@LacyMB) July 5, 2023
any bitchass who uses peaky blinders for their bigotted shit are the biggest dumbasses for not realizing who tommy shelby is and what he represents lmao maybe yall would have better media literacy if yall werent underfunding and shutting down education https://t.co/oofDoGBvOQ
— Kailee (@GGKailee) July 5, 2023
the problem with the idiots appropriating tommy's character is that they do not understand what he represents.
this is a romani working class man who spent his life fighting against the establishment and its bastard child—fascism https://t.co/3BlbyjAkBC
— octavia (@peakybastard) July 5, 2023
https://twitter.com/LaVidaEmo/status/1676675123674329089
They said remove that shit now! By order of the Peaky fucking Blinders! https://t.co/O3Z8KRUkNg
— skeeyeehaw 💎 (@fantasticfreaux) July 5, 2023
https://twitter.com/hynxquinns/status/1676679588942839810