Social justice warriors have done it again. A writer at Slate shamed Cinnabon into deleting its tweet commemorating Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher, best known for her role as Princess Leia Organa.
“RIP Carrie Fisher, you’ll always have the best buns in the galaxy,” the company tweeted. The tweet featured a cinnamon-sugar picture of Princess Leia with her signature hair buns as cinnamon rolls.
Cinnabon’s funny tribute to Carrie Fisher.
While this tweet might have been “too soon,” liberals took entirely too much offense at it.
Here are some tweets expressing outrage.
Tacky. Get over yourself and stop capitalizing on the tragic loss of an icon.. #Objectification
— Julie Alexandria (@JulieAlexandria) December 27, 2016
what 49 year old "social media expert" thought this was a good idea? #poortaste
— Andrew Morton (@mortocks) December 28, 2016
Who the heck is running your twitter account? No, that didn't make me laugh. She DIED for Christ's sake.
— J. R. Tomlin, Author (@JRTomlinAuthor) December 28, 2016
Slate’s Matthew Dessem asked “Twenty-Four Questions Raised By Cinnabon’s Regrettable Tweet,” as if he had nothing better to do. Here’s a sampling of his questions:
1. Did anyone look at the tweet and say “maybe not” [sic] before you sent it?
2. When you said Carrie Fisher had “the best buns in the galaxy,” were you talking about her butt?
3. Did you know Carrie Fisher hated the Star Wars hairstyle depicted in your tweet, referring to it as a “hair prison for the fat” in her cheeks?
4. Have you considered renaming your Cinnabon® Classic Roll a “Dough Prison® for the Fat” in memory of Ms. Fisher?
15. Do you think dead people have more attractive “rolls” and “buns” than the living? Is that sort of Cinnabon’s “thing?”
I understand Dessem’s point, but it is patently absurd to ask such questions. Cinnabon was clearly making a joke out of the Princess Leia hair buns, something Star Wars nerds do all the time. (My wife loves to dress up as Princess Leia, and she makes jokes about the hair buns all the time — they are iconic, even if Carrie Fisher did not like them.)
The earlier questions, while exceedingly snide, certainly had a point. But Dessem also veered into the unintelligible.
8. Shouldn’t you have put a period after “Fisher” and capitalized “You’ll?”
9. Is the pile of cinnamon on Fisher’s left shoulder meant to indicate the left shoulder of her dress is dirty, or is it a fourth wall—breaking pile of cinnamon, like the cinnamon sticks?
If Dessem wanted to be nit-picky about grammar, why did he not put a comma after “say” and before “maybe not” in his point number 1? Normally I wouldn’t mention such things, but one asinine complaint (number 8) deserves another. And since when is art perfect, especially commercial art? No, the design isn’t making a statement about Leia’s allegedly dirty dress. For crying out loud.
Also, sorry to go on, but I feel compelled to address this tripe:
16. Given the way the spice trade drove imperial conquest in Indonesia, do you think Princess Leia, no fan of empires, would have enjoyed the “sweet, luscious flavor that is exclusively known as Cinnabon® Makara® Cinnamon” you import from Indonesia?
Yes, global grievance politics about imperial conquest in Indonesia (which has been independent since 1945) is employed to further demonize a company (founded in 1985) whose sole purpose is to deliver sweet treats. Also, since when did the Dutch and British empires destroy entire planets? Princess Leia does not just hate empires in general — she hates empires that use Death Stars to blow up the planet she grew up on.
The European empires committed atrocities, but there is simply no moral equivalence between them and the Empire in Star Wars. Get off your high horse and look at the world the way it is today.
Nevertheless, Dessem’s bullying worked. Cinnabon not only deleted the tweet, but apologized as well, saying, “We shouldn’t have posted it.”
Our deleted tweet was genuinely meant as a tribute, but we shouldn't have posted it. We are truly sorry.
— Cinnabon (@Cinnabon) December 28, 2016
Many Twitter users disagreed, calling the tribute “hilarious.”
Cinnabon tweet was hilarious–as was Fisher's Star Wars hairdo. Can we pls stop all the joke policing? https://t.co/jm2ZoQdwJm via @BrowBeat
— Amy Alkon (@amyalkon) December 28, 2016
Others argued that Fisher — well-known for her sense of humor — would have loved it.
Those of you faking outrage about this Cinnabon tribute to carrie, sod off.
She would have loved it. She had the sense of humor you lack. pic.twitter.com/iV9zHhV4Xg
— Boogie four numbers (@Boogie2988) December 28, 2016
Some say she would have even retweeted it!
Anyone who attacked @Cinnabon for this obviously didn't know that Carrie would have retweeted this and made a snarky comment https://t.co/EjKVSlEEG4
— JO (@sunfIowervs) December 28, 2016
It may be considered in bad taste to promote cinnamon rolls after the death of a celebrity. That complaint certainly makes sense, but this level of outrage does not. Carrie Fisher likely would have made light of the situation, not gotten on her high horse berating a confectionary with comparisons to imperial-controlled Indonesia.
Carrie Fisher, may you rest in peace. Social justice warriors, may you learn from her wit and humor to take things a little less personally.
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