On Friday, Joss Whedon, creator of television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and director of the films The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, took aim at House Speaker Paul Ryan in a tweet that was redolent with leftist hatred as he imagined murdering Ryan:
Violence solves nothing. I want a rhino to fuck @SpeakerRyan to death with its horn because it’s FUNNY, not because he’s a #GOPmurderbro
— Joss Whedon (@joss) January 14, 2017
Whedon was likely triggered by Ryan’s announcement the day before that Republicans planned to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law at the same time they approved a GOP replacement plan.
In September, Joss Whedon launched Save the Day, a super PAC that intended to encourage people to vote, asking celebrities to join in a video for his project. It was clear which side he was on; at one point actor Don Cheadle pointed out how important it was to keep “a racist, abusive coward who could permanently damage the fabric of our society.” Leslie Odom Jr. of Hamilton, The Musical, asked why Americans would “give nuclear weapons to a man whose signature move is firing things.”
Whedon confessed, “At least one person was like, ‘I didn’t expect this to be quite so partisan. I don’t want to alienate half my fan base.’ But nobody backed out.”
Whedon commented of Trump, “I thought the lowest low is when he and his people started indicating that there would be rioting if he didn’t win. It was like, Oh, this smacks of beer hall putsch. This is very ’30s Berlin. And then yesterday comes, and for all the backtracking in the world, there is no mistaking exactly what he said.”
Whedon deleted his Twitter account in May 2015 so he could focus Avengers: Age of Ultron.
It’s just joy that he has returned.