The White House's digital team is spending Friday afternoon trying its hardest to own President Barack Obama's sci-fi slip-up during a press conference earlier in the day.
Obama said during the conference that he can't perform a "Jedi mind meld" to get Republicans to agree to a sequester deal. Science fiction nerds across the country immediately blasted Obama for mixing his mind-meld metaphors: Jedi are peaceful protectors of the Star Wars universe, while the "mind meld" is a thought-sharing ability possessed by Star Trek's Vulcan species, the most well-known representative of which is Mr. Spock.
Sci-fi fans responded to Obama's gaffe by tweeting Wars-Trek mashup jokes:
But I was going to Toshi Station to pick up some dilithium crystals! #jedimindmeld— Jason Snell (@jsnell) March 1, 2013
I still can't believe Darth Vader was Kirk's father. #jedimindmeld— Obama, Vulcan Jedi (@0bamaVulcanJedi) March 1, 2013
Jedi mind-meld: "These are not the Klingons you're looking for."— Ryan Teague Beckwith (@ryanbeckwith) March 1, 2013
A few hours later, the White House opened hailing frequencies and sent this via Twitter and Facebook:
The top reference and font are familiar to Star Wars faithful: Obi-Wan Kenobi tricked a few Imperial Stormtroopers into thinking R2-D2 and C-3PO weren't the droids they were looking for, when in fact they were. The bottom reference, meanwhile, refers to Vulcans' insistence on logic above all else in the Star Trek universe.
The White House is also redirecting whitehouse.gov/JediMindMeld to a page about Obama's plan to avoid the sequester. Obama's strategy, however, wasn't the plan Republicans were looking for: they were light-years apart on a deal, and the sequester beams down Friday.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, meanwhile, raised shields and returned fire with a Star Wars joke of its own:
.@whitehouse You know who else was supposed to bring 'balance' to the force? #JediMindMeld— NRCC (@NRCC) March 1, 2013
It's worth noting that a sort of "Jedi mind meld" does indeed exist in the Star Wars extended universe canon, but somehow we're doubtful Obama is spending his time reading sci-fi novels when he has all that presidenting to do. Either way, I've got a bad feeling about this, Jean-Luc.