Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-Mo.) canceled appearance on Piers Morgan Tonight Monday night has sparked the latest parody Twitter account.
Akin, who received backlash from Republicans, Democrats, and the Internet for his comments about “legitimate rape,” canceled his scheduled interview at the last minute, and to start the show, host Piers Morgan acknowledged this with something people might have expected to see on The Newsroom: He showed an empty chair where Akin was supposed to sit in for an exclusive interview.
In the nearly 90-second clip, Morgan references the empty chair multiple times, and while he says it’s a nice chair, “it’s still an empty chair.”
“Congressman [Akin], you have an open invitation to join me in that chair whenever you feel up to it, because if you don’t keep your promise to appear on the show then you are what we would call in Britain a ‘gutless little twerp,’” Morgan said.
And while Akin, who apologized for his comments in a YouTube video, has yet to take up Morgan’s offer to fill in that empty chair, the chair has taken on a life of its own.
@AkinEmptyChair appeared on Twitter shortly after Morgan’s comment and quickly started in on chair puns, penned a series of #EmptyChair policies, and called out Akin’s opponent Claire McCaskill.
“I am Todd Akin’s empty chair and I approve this Piers Morgan appearance,” Akin’s Empty Chair tweeted.
Unlike some other parody Twitter accounts, this one existed before the Piers Morgan mention. The account has been tweeting since July 29, and according to Web caches, the account tried its hand at a couple other parody Twitter handles surrounding current issues—such as a fake NBC executive during the height of the Guy Adams controversy and Voucher Care—but seems to have comfortably settled into the empty chair left open by Akin.
It quickly got a seal of approval from Morgan, who tweeted to his followers that they should follow Akin’s Empty Chair and even sparked a rival parody account in @ChairMcCaskill, who also canceled an appearance on Piers Morgan Tonight on Monday.
Akin has announced that he plans to stay in the election, which gives his empty chair plenty to tweet about.
“There are not enough thank you cards in the world that Kevin Yoder could send to Todd Akin,” Akin’s Empty Chair wrote.
Photo via CNN
