Star Wars Day may be the most popular unofficial holiday on the planet. Based on the pun “May the fourth be with you,” it presents a perfect day for fans of George Lucas’ original trilogy (and perhaps the prequels) to get nerdy and spam the internet. President Barack Obama and his family are no exceptions, posting a video on Twitter to show their appreciation for that galaxy far, far away.
This also marks the very last year the Obamas can celebrate Star Wars Day while in the White House, as 2017 is approaching and Barack is in his eighth and final year. We don’t know who will take over the Oval Office next, but as evidenced by this video, the president isn’t worried about it as he unifies stormtroopers and a certain plucky little droid with a dance.
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Lots of videos have hit the internet featuring fans in stormtrooper costumes doing amusing things, although most of the time they’re dancing. The notoriously quiet soldiers of the empire don’t have a lot of space for expression in their design and have been mostly used as a symbolic worker and supporter originating from Darth Vader’s reign. This, of course, changed with Star Wars: The Force Awakens .
One of the few exceptions was a video where William Shatner and George Lucas shared a stage. Shatner was giving his homage to the Star Wars creator and dropped a quick joke about the classic sci-fi rivalry. At that point, stormtrooper-clad characters grabbed Shatner and appeared to start carrying him away as he revealed he was joking.
This latest celebration of Lucas’ vision wasn’t as epic as that meeting of the science fiction titans, but for Star Wars Day, the Obama family didn’t seem to care. Using R2-D2 as a makeshift DJ machine, President Barack Obama queued up Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” and called in the stormtroopers. R2-D2 even moved its domed head back and forth to the music.
Dance. Or dance not. There is no try. #MayThe4thBeWithYou https://t.co/9g1JUHV1n5
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 5, 2016
The video was revealed on Twitter on the official White House account with the caption, “Dance. Or dance not. There is no try.” This was obviously a clever spin on Yoda’s training of Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back , which to this day remains one of the most loved films in the series.
The Obama family isn’t the only one who celebrated Star Wars Day, of course, as Electronic Arts offered a special surprise for video gamers in Star Wars Battlefront . Everyone playing that day received 4,444 free credits and four free hours of multiplayer fun. Of course, not everybody owned the game that day, which is why EA suggested that those who didn’t should purchase it in advance and make the most of those four hours. Most new games take around four hours just to download and install the necessary updates (especially on PC, where the games can be even bigger than their console counterparts with the processing power available).
Of course, if you want to continue with the Star Wars Day fun long after May 4 has passed, there are more games being made for the franchise, such as one from the creative minds behind Titanfall and God of War 3 .
It’s unknown if anyone is taking advantage of the extension being called “revenge of the fifth,” but the day is already popular for Mexicans, being a celebration of their nation’s independence.
Did your Star Wars Day celebration turn out as epic as the one the Obama family had?
[Image via Frederic Legrand – COMEO/Shutterstock.com ]