Jim Carrey mocks Charlton Heston in a new Funny or Die video (viewable below) that features the 51-year-old Mask actor in a spoof version of the old comedy series Hee Haw .
Carrey , a vocal supporter of stricter gun control laws , appears in the video as both Heston and the frontman of a country-western band known as “Lonesome Earl And The Clutterbusters.”
In the six-minute video entitled “Cold Dead Hand,” Carrey pokes fun at Heston’s famous declaration that gun control advocates would have to pry his firearms “from my cold, dead hands.” Carrey’s fictional frontman sings:
“Charlton Heston movies are no longer in demand, and his immortal soul may lay forever in the sand. The angels wouldn’t take him up to heaven like he planned, because they couldn’t pry the gun from his cold dead hand.”
Heston passed away in 2008, having spent his career in acting and political advocacy. He became famous on the back of movies such as Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments and later became the president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 through 2003.
Though the “cold, dead hands” quote actually dates from the 1970s, Heston used the phrase at an NRA convention in May 2000, warning then-presidential candidate Al Gore:
“As we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to say those fighting words for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed, and especially for you, Mr. Gore: ‘From my cold, dead hands!’ ”
As both sides of the gun control debate reacted to Carrey’s video, the man himself took to Twitter to offer his own view:
‘Cold Dead Hand’ is abt u heartless motherf%ckers unwilling 2 bend 4 the safety of our kids.Sorry if you’re offended… say.ly/jtu5rar
— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) March 24, 2013
Carrey later added that his own bodyguard “doesn’t have a hundred rounds in his clip”:
G’morning!Hope you’re enjoying Cold Dead Hand.FYI,my bodyguard doesn’t have a hundred rounds in his clip.I wish u all a bullet free day! ;^}
— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) March 25, 2013
You can view Jim Carrey’s Funny or Die video below. I’ve also embedded a video of Greg Gutfeld losing it on Fox News in reaction to the clip.