It’s hard to know what Louisiana governor and presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal is trying to accomplish here. Responding to the popularity of #BobbyJindalIsSoWhite and #Jindian, in which people lampooned Jindal’s disparaging of hyphenated-American identity (an identity he uses selectively, depending on his audience), Jindal not only started selling an absurd T-shirt with the new campaign slogan "Tanned. Rested. Ready," but he also repeated the sins of Robin Thicke and Chris Christie (whose own presidential run was launched yesterday with the poorly-concieved "#TellingItLikeItIs" hashtag) by inviting people (via his Super PAC) to ask him Twitter questions using the hashtag #AskBobby.
Is he trying to shore up his base by riling up the haters? Is he playing victim by inviting people to pile on? No matter what his intentions are, the results were predictably hilarious, with people going after everything from his personal white-washing to his regressive attitudes on same-sex marriage, women’s choice, and science/religious education. We compiled ten of our favorites right here:
10)
Hi @bobbyjindal, besides the hyphen, what other un-American punctuation marks should I stop using? #askbobby #jindian @aasif @harikondabolu
— Shaifali Puri (@ShaifaliP) June 30, 2015
9)
#AskBobby So, why’d you issue an executive order to allow anti-gay discrimination? http://t.co/kwTqmOEwQu pic.twitter.com/fwI9nzpgMn
— Slate (@Slate) July 1, 2015
8)
#AskBobby My question is why are you running? You have done 0 to help the people of your state! pic.twitter.com/MZhcwQNh0z
— Americans America (@americans4amer) June 30, 2015
7)
Lmao why are all of your self-portraits of a strange white man? #AskBobby @BobbyJindal pic.twitter.com/EP94kFh6Xp
— IGNORANT INTELLECT (@KW33NSOHI9H) June 30, 2015
6)
#AskBobby do you pretend to hate spicy food in front of your white friends?
— Delma (@explications) June 30, 2015
5)
#AskBobby Did U C all these guns Obama confiscated? pic.twitter.com/Yo7bqfPJYP
— esd2000 (@esd2000) July 1, 2015
4)
Are you away that Robert E. Lee was an early adopter of gay rights? #askbobby #tcot pic.twitter.com/DXZewlxL0V
— Flaming Hot Takes (@flaminghottakes) June 30, 2015
3)
Same address are you or is it your team that is really really really lazy #AskBobby pic.twitter.com/WbixsIoCAe
— Maggie Pollitt (@cajuncreolemutt) June 30, 2015
2)
#AskBobby When is Jesus coming back?
— Kennedy_is_Back (@The_Black_Ellen) July 1, 2015
1) Of course, our favorite comes from the #BobbyJindalIsSoWhite founder himself, Hari Kondabolu:
Hey @BobbyJindal, before deciding to call yourself "Bobby," were Greg, Peter or even Marcia options? #AskBobby
— Hari Kondabolu (@harikondabolu) June 30, 2015
Did we miss your favorite? Let us know in the comments!