Ted Cruz Tweet Sends Chill Down Collective Spine Of Twitterverse

AUSTIN, TEXAS — In a bit of personal appropriation of a past pejorative lodged against him that doubles as Halloween greeting, U.S. Sen Ted Cruz on Tuesday conveyed good wishes to all via Twitter with a coded missive reminiscent of the feared Zodiac killer's calling card.

The attempt at dark humor fell flat, with the added effect of sending a chill down the collective spine of the Twitterverse.

Some background: The Ted Cruz-Zodiac Killer mock-conspiracy theory began (as most things are wont to do these days) with an Internet meme during the senator's ultimately unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2015-16. The inference suggests that Cruz is the still-unidentified serial murderer dubbed the Zodiac Killer who terrorized California in the late 1960s and early 70s with a string of slayings.

One slight problem to the theory: Cruz was born in 1970, so couldn't possibly have committed the murders that began before he was even born. Even ardent fans of the macabre conspiracy theory understand the implausibility, even while advancing the idea further with creation of now-countless variations of the original meme. The point being made isn't necessarily that Cruz is the Zodiac Killer, NPR once explained, but conveying "...a feeling they have about Cruz: They think he's creepy. And they want to point that out as clearly as they can."

Clearly meant in the spirit of dark humor, Cruz's appropriation of the meme for his own use didn't go well in the Twitter landscape — even on a day when people generally enjoy being scared. Some on Twitter questioned the appropriateness of such a tweet, suggesting it was unbecoming of a sitting senator. Others questioned the tactic at a time when Cruz is locked in a close race with El Paso, Texas, congressman Beto O'Rourke and should therefore focus on serious matters to convey to his constituency.

Others just thought it wasn't funny.

"Ted Cruz's closing argument in a close Senate race is that people were correct to call him the Zodiac Killer," one Twitter user observed in palpable deadpan delivery:

Some took to making comparisons in the degrees of perceived harm of Cruz's policies to the actions of his pretend alter ego:

Others took the opportunity to advance a further theory that Cruz might have hired a young intern to ghost-write (no Halloween-related pun intended) his tweets in an effort to appeal to a younger demographic:

Still others seemed to take the tweet seriously — notwithstanding the chronological challenge of the theory's premise — in a world where legions still chase after Bigfoot in wooded areas, untold ranks swear being hauled into extraterrestrial alien spacecraft for observation and many swear to have encountered the elusive Chubacabra.

The ensuing dialogue following Cruz's tweet proved funnier than the original joke, and maybe that was the senator's intention. But given the overall reaction from political observers, Cruz's Halloween tweet also seems to confirm the adage that while drama is easy, comedy is decidedly hard. And in this case, also just a little bit creepy.

Related story: Has the Code of The Zodiac Killer Been Cracked?

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