Star Wars Day: The best and worst May the 4th tributes

Let’s face it, May the 4th is the weirdest time to be a Star Wars fan.

What started out as a fun geek in-joke has turned into big business, with brands, stars and donkeys jumping on the bantha-wagon to try to trend off the back of George Lucas’ series of independent films.

Some efforts are definitely from the light side of the force, while some are very much from the dark side.

So, while we try to work out why this thing hasn’t evolved into #The4thAwakens, we’ve collected some of the best and worst attempts to use a pun to cash-in on the most culturally resonant blockbusters of all time.

BEST

Fair play Heathrow, this is genius. Never before have we seen so much effort going into an arbitrary day, with genuinely brilliant results.

Our favourite detail? The fact that all flights to Alderaan have been cancelled.

Harsh, but fair.

It makes sense that the British Army would align themselves to Star Wars Day, the films are called Star WARS, after all.

And we’ve got to respect the fact that they’ve used it not as a recruitment tool, but as a sincere celebration of music.

Shove on your headphones, crank up the volume, and enjoy.

A lot of people have chucked a Chewie sample onto random footage today, which is fine, we’re not going to force choke them for it.

But The Donkey Sanctuary have gone one better – and filmed one of their donkeys doing an actual Chewbacca impression and we think it should replace The Last Jedi in the Star Wars canon.

Speaking of random, we have literally no idea why Luke Evans is standing next to a dude who’s performing a jazzy rendition of the Star Wars theme.

We have even less of an idea why he ends the video winking at the camera and quoting a hashtag, but this lands in the ‘best’ category because it’s so surreal it’s made us question the very nature of existence.

Evans isn’t in any Star Wars films, and has no association with them outside the fact that the hero of Empire Strikes Back and the main protagonist of his life are both named ‘Luke.’ So why has he done this? Answers on a postcard to Yavin 4, please.

Now, we know a lot of brands use Star Wars Day as a cynical excuse to promote themselves, but we can’t help but be touched by this one – which gives us a nostalgic look at an old pop-up book, while revealing that Cambridge University has some first editions in its library that we’d actually want to read.

WORST

‘You know your R2-D2 from your C3-PO…’

Right, we’re with you so far.

‘…But do you know how much #YourPension could be?’

Wait, what? How are those things connected? No wonder R2’s falling over. Or is it C3-PO? We’re confused.

It’s 2018, chucking a few lightsabers onto an old press shot isn’t good enough. As for what that footballer’s doing to BB-8, we don’t want to know.

Look, we appreciate the effort, but lightsabers would not work as golf clubs, they’d cut through the balls and ruin the course.

That so much effort has gone into such a flawed premise makes us sadder than Luke when he’s staring at the charred corpses of his relatives.

Oh, and it starts so well. The epic music kicks in, our anticipation builds via a glorious tracking shot that pans down to a… Handful of action figures that have been dumped on the floor.

We’re going to ignore the fact that Finn’s hanging out with Darth Vader (WHICH WOULD NEVER HAPPEN), as the stop motion’s going to kick in and they’re all going to high-five in a second, right?

No, the video’s over. Great.

Mr Bean. With a lightsaber. WHY GOD WHY?

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