Let’s face it, Americans have lost their sense of humor. In today’s tense and stressful times, there seems to be no room for a little good-natured ribbing over any subject. Most of all, the scolds on social media have no patience for a joke about voting. Actor Chris Pratt found that out from a post on his Instagram account.

Chris Pratt is known as a down to earth kind of guy. He doesn’t take himself seriously and if there is such a thing as a good guy left in Hollywood, it’s Pratt. He is a Christian and he mentors young people. An example of his personal faith was on exhibit during the 2018 MTV Movie & TV Awards show. He stunned the audience with a powerful and moving acceptance speech. While picking up the show’s Generation Award he delivered something he called “9 Rules from Chris Pratt, Generation Award Winner.” At the time I covered the awards show for Newsbusters. I remember being pleasantly surprised because it was a sharp contrast from the usual crap that is exhibited on MTV, especially during awards shows. There is a video clip of his speech at that link and it’s worth watching. From my article at the time:

The rules led off with some basics like remembering to breathe and to serve others. He reminded the MTV audience that they have a soul and to be careful with it. He veered off into some silliness for levity and then he let them have his testimony. He told them that God is real and that He loves them. He spoke about grace and said, “Like the freedom that we enjoy in this country, that grace was paid for with somebody else’s blood.” That was probably the last thing I expected to hear while tuning into MTV.

So, it is certainly in-character for Chris Pratt to rib his fellow celebs now over their overwrought, self-indulgent public service announcements (PSAs) about voting this year. The real message from his is that they all take themselves way too seriously and who can argue with that?

If, like me, you do not remember a time when so many ads and PSAs have bombarded our airwaves and social media, you are not alone. Pratt has certainly recognized it and he decided to turn a plea for votes from fans into a gentle wake-up call to the leftists in Hollywood. While they are all busy putting on their most sincere expressions and using their most serious voices to tell everyone to register to vote and exercise their right to do so, Pratt mocked them by asking for votes of his own. His movie “Onward” is up for a People’s Choice Award and asked his fans to vote for it. He posted it on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CF1tC7opgEy/?utm_source=ig_embed

With all that’s going on in the world it is more important than ever that you vote. Just ask any celebrity. They will tell you. Every day. Several times a day. To vote. But me? I will tell you EXACTLY who to vote for. #onward The heroes before us did not spill their blood only to have their sacrifices wasted by your apathy. The upcoming 2020 People’s Choice Awards is the most consequential vote in the history of mankind times a million infinity. Vote for #Onward for family movie of the year. Or else. You WILL die. No hyperbole. Click the link in my bio. Let your voice be heard.

Perfect, right? You will die if you don’t vote for his movie is the right amount of hyperbole, if you ask me. How many times have we heard liberals tell us that if Trump wins again, democracy is dead and essentially, our country is gone? And he circled back to the 2018 speech by referencing the blood of heroes who sacrificed themselves for our freedom.

We really have no idea for whom Chris Pratt votes and that is refreshing. We don’t have to watch a performance from him and have something political he said in an interview or speech flash in our mind. He recognizes he is not a politician but an entertainer. I appreciate that. Others, however, do not.

Chris Pratt said the election does not concern me because I am a white privileged man, instead vote for my movie so I can get more awards 😁😁😁 pic.twitter.com/R67yjrAvRM

— tabitha (@buckymatters) October 2, 2020

I’m not really sure it’s funny to tell people to vote for your animated movie while the world is how it is. Comes off as privileged and totally tone deaf.

— savehorror (@savehorror) October 2, 2020

It was funny to probably half of his fans, I think. Like everything else, reactions were divided as some people weighed in that it’s ok to not take everything so seriously. If an actor wants to bring some levity over voting for an award, it’s ok.

What Chris Pratt said is legitimately funny, y’all are just easily angered. pic.twitter.com/FaB1XPKtzQ

— K’Bucko (@KBucko7) October 5, 2020

https://twitter.com/bookcartpusher/status/1313171539022557191

There are four actors who are well-known for superhero movie roles – Chris Pratt, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pine, and, Chris Evans. Pratt is now being called “the worst Chris”, though Chris Hemsworth posted a similar request for votes from fans around the same time as Pratt. Hemsworth’s post was more straightforward – please vote for me. At least one entertainment writer understood that Pratt’s post was all in fun and asks that others lighten up.

To clarify, I mean no offense to Chris Hemsworth here. (Loved Extraction by the way.) It just feels a little unfair that people are dumping on Chris Pratt because he may be a little bit different than the other Marvel (and DC in Chris Pine’s case) stars who fill out the superhero slate. In fact, it feels like any negative response to this post is mostly due to other reasons some people have expressed in the past for not liking Chris Pratt perhaps including his high-profile divorce, his openness about his religious beliefs and his hunting. I’ve seen complaints about him going shirtless after he got in shape for movies, which Chris Hemsworth has been known to do a time or two also. In the case of the People’s Choice Awards, he also asked people to vote for Extraction. He just didn’t have a couple sentences in front of it pretending to allude to the upcoming political election.

It’s fine if you don’t like the guy and don’t want to support big budget movies like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 or Jurassic World: Dominion or heck, Onward at the People’s Choice Awards. I’m just saying, within the context of the mysterious case of the People’s Choice Award votes, Chris Pratt was clearly joking. Maybe cut him some slack.

Just one high profile celebrity in Hollywood dared to go a different way on a message about voting and here we are. There are 27 more days until Election Day. We can all use a chuckle right about now. If you are interested, “Onward” is streaming on Disney Plus.