Tim Allen Trending And Under Fire For A Joke
After Tim Allen tweeted a crack about Joe Biden, social media piled on the comic and brought up his 1978 drug trafficking
This article is more than 2 years old
On Monday Tim Allen, as you can see above, tweeted a crack about President Joe Biden’s Sunday 60 Minutes appearance. It’s fairly tame as far as online humor is concerned, but regardless the social media response to Allen has been pretty huge. The Toy Story star’s name was sent trending on Twitter with some bringing up his 1978 drug trafficking arrest, some giving Allen their support, some thinking the whole thing is just silly, and a few just really disappointed with the joke from a purely aesthetic point of view.
A lot of the folks going after Tim Allen don’t seem so offended over the joke itself as they are seemingly taking the opportunity to go after the vocal conservative star. Few are mentioning anything problematic about the joke itself, other than it exposes Allen’s political leanings to those who don’t already know. You can see examples of those below.
One thing that’s being mentioned quite a bit in the wake of the joke is Tim Allen’s 1978 arrest at the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport for possession of close to a pound and a half of cocaine. Allen was paroled after serving two and a quarter years in federal prison, as well as giving up the names of other dealers he’d worked with. The story is one multiple Twitter users are using to tear down the actor, with many sharing his mugshot.
Tim Allen talked about his time in prison with The Hollywood Reporter last year. The Galaxy Quest star said that after his father died, he became a manipulative thief and an addict. Ironically, prison may have been one of the biggest contributing factors to Allen going sober and staying that way for over two decades.
“It was the first time ever I did what I was told and played the game,” Tim Allen said of his time in prison. “I learned literally how to live day by day. And I learned how to shut up. You definitely want to learn how to shut up.”
Of course, clearly a lot of the people on Twitter think Tim Allen hasn’t learned to “shut up” quite well enough, but there are those who are more than fine with his tweet. His supporters have gotten almost as vocal as Allen’s detractors online, attacking his critics and sometimes using pretty ugly language to do so. You can see some examples of that below.
There are some–though they seem to be in the vocal minority so far–who aren’t necessarily wearing their politics on their sleeves, but regardless think this is all mountains made from molehills. The joke Tim Allen made, after all, isn’t exactly the most offensive thing ever tweeted. You can see some examples of this discourse below.
Regardless of the social media rioting, we’re fairly certain Tim Allen’s career is safe. Chris Evans may have taken over the voice of one his signature characters for Lightyear, but Allen will soon be reprising his role as Scott Calvin, aka Santa Claus, in Disney+‘s The Santa Clauses.
