Ted Cruz must secretly love to tweet about movies, and I have to admit, I kind-of love it when he does this, too. It’s fun, and everything is so serious these days. Years ago, the noted The Princess Bride superfan feuded with Cary Elwes, and he once made the grave mistake of tweeting about Fight Club and received some swift comeuppance. And now, Ted’s waded into Rocky territory.
What an odd world we live in. This happened when writer Oliver Willis noted Twitter sidebar trends and made a crack about “trump: the movie” casting going too far, and Ted was apparently thrilled to see this happen because Carl Weathers’ name (he happened to be trending due to this week’s episode of The Mandalorian) appeared in the sidebar.
the casting for trump: the movie has gotten out of hand pic.twitter.com/E1HFd6p1cj
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) March 22, 2023
Ted pretended to be flattered, and he responded, “Nice! I’m being played by Apollo Creed!!”
Nice! I’m being played by Apollo Creed!! 🔥🔥🔥 https://t.co/4v1ckYbdYc
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 22, 2023
The joke (I guess) would be that Weathers, who embodied heavyweight champ Apollo Creed for the Rocky movies, would be playing Ted Cruz. This is, of course, very funny on multiple fronts. (It’s unclear whether Ted wanted to be played by Carl or the character Apollo, but that probably doesn’t matter.)
The photoshops began to fly, and even more than that, a certain Rocky IV scene surfaced in the commentary.
Ted might not have meant for this to happen.
— Michael Diaz (@MikeDiaz285) March 22, 2023
— Fitzy Cent (@fitzyMFNcent) March 22, 2023
Ted make sure you wear your red white and blue boxing trunks!! lol
— Tim W (@teamrope) March 22, 2023
— No Soup 4 Knowles (@nosoup4knowles) March 22, 2023
Then came a “You wouldn’t even be Ivan drago” remark and some giggles.
https://twitter.com/ManMythandJefe/status/1638592959041114112
😂Look at you with the jokes.
— HappyMcD (@HMCD1616) March 22, 2023
For the love of all holy safety. America is laughing at you, not with you. Keep trying, Ted.
— WooWho (@WooWho5) March 22, 2023
https://twitter.com/LadyDunn1967/status/1638595140037091335
Yes Fled, you’re definitely being played!!
— GrumpyOldBassist (@BassistOld) March 22, 2023
And this wouldn’t be complete without a Cancun/”Apollo Fleet” joke.
Raphael, they can change the characters name to Apollo Fleed! pic.twitter.com/rQXvc4XwNE
— Charles T. Barreca (@chuckbarr21) March 22, 2023