President Biden got a visit from Mark Hamill. Donald Trump fashioned himself into a buff Jedi.
New York State transportation officials, meanwhile, had fun with Star Wars Day over the weekend, translating digital highway signs into Yoda-speak to tout road safety.
“Slow down you must,” read one sign, before flashing to: “Arrive safely you will.”
“If you read these in your best Yoda impression, you’re doing it right!” the New York State Department of Transportation tweeted on Saturday. “This May the 4th weekend, NYSDOT is using the Force to promote something truly important: safety on our roads.”
Near Albany on Sunday it was, “Sith happens so slow down.”
“The safety message is real,” the state tweeted. “A little fun for #MayTheFourth — but the safety message is real. Drive smart, you must.”
Keeping work crews safe was another theme.
“Even the Dark Lord of the Sith can’t hide his disappointment when drivers fail to slow down or move over for highway crews,” DOT said on Facebook with a photo of a face-palming Darth Vader superimposed in front of a work truck at the roadside. “It’s not complicated — orange cones mean slow down and move over if possible. It’s the law, not a Jedi mind trick.”
Some people blasted the signs as dangerously distracting, while others were wildly amused.
The signs were posted just days after “Star Wars” creator George Lukas finally revealed that Yoda speaks backward as “a way to get people to actually listen.”
“Star Wars Day” grew out of the oft-uttered line, “May the force be with you.” That morphed at some point into May the Fourth, and a faux-legend was born.
Last year the White House invoked the day with Biden intoning solemnly on X, “May the Fourth be with you, America,” and Mark Hamill moving into the shot with, “Always.”
The White House posted a meme-like picture captioned with the “Star Wars” version of the president’s blast against “Radical Left Lunatics,” with nearly the same wording. Trump accused them of “fighting so hard to bring Sith Lords, Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, & well-known MS-13 Gang Members back into our Galaxy. You’re not the Rebellion — you’re the Empire.”
However, the light saber his image was brandishing was red, normally the color of the blade used by the dark side, Variety noted.
With News Wire Services
