‘Big Little Lies’ Star Adam Scott Tells Mitch McConnell To Stop Using His ‘Parks And Rec’ GIF

These days Twitter creates strange bedfellows, and even stranger social media feuds, and this week, Big Little Lies star Adam Scott and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are beefing over a GIF with Scott’s image from the NBC sitcom, Parks and Recreation.

CNN explains that when Scott saw that McConnell had used his image in a GIF on a Twitter post, he sent the politician a short and less-than-sweet post to tell him to take it down.

“Dear Mitch McConnell & all those representing him,

Please refrain from using my image in support of anything but your own stunning & humiliating defeat.

Thanks!

Adam

cc: @senatemajldr @McConnellPress”

McConnell used the GIF from Parks and Recreation in response to a tweet by a reporter who shared a comment from Donald Trump about Supreme Court nominations. The initial tweet sparked a storm of Parks and Recreation GIFs, for and against McConnell, in response to the initial messages, as if everyone was speaking their own language from the show.

GIFs from Parks and Recreation seem to be a favorite of right-wing politicians and causes, and this isn’t the first time that someone associated with the show responded on Twitter and asked that the image be taken down.

No more Mister Nice Guy.? https://t.co/vFs2oZ0MpH

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) June 26, 2019

In February of 2018, the show creator Michael Schur responded to a tweet from the NRA which used a Parks and Recreation GIF that seemed to support gun rights. Schur asked nicely (sort of) that they take the GIF down.

“Hi, please take this down. I would prefer you not use a GIF from a show I worked on to promote your pro-slaughter agenda.”

But the recipients of the messages from the Parks and Recreation cast and crew haven’t always taken the message so well, says Vanity Fair, and that was the case with the Adam Scott and Mitch McConnell spat. Team McConnell responded to Scott’s message by tweeting a screenshot of the newspaper item referencing when Scott’s character on the sitcom ran his town’s budget into the ground because of his plans for a sports complex called Ice Town.

Scott upped the ante and sent a photo and a tweet back to McConnell which featured the Senator posed in front of a massive Confederate flag taken at a Sons of Confederate Veterans event in the 1990s. The image went viral again earlier this year during the Ralph Northam yearbook scandal about racist photos from the pasts of various politicians.

McConnell’s office hasn’t yet responded to the latest message from Scott.