We all loved playing with lightsabers, so don’t pretend you didn’t, just thankfully no one caught us on tape like the Star Wars kid.
Charles Lippincott, who was the publicity supervisor on the original Star Wars and brought the film to Comic Con, knew the movie was going to be a hit when the film previewed, and he saw a kid sword fighting down the street with a rolled up Star Wars poster. Nothing wrong with playing pretend, unless you’re trying to fight the police with a light saber.
According to reports from Giant Freakin Robot and Cinema Blend, a 33-year-old man recently went nuts in a Toys R Us, hitting customers with lightsabers in each hand, and when the cops showed up, he actually wacked away a taser with his saber. Talk about the power of The Force. The police finally grappled the man to the ground, and he got 45 days in jail and two years probation for fourth-degree assault and resisting arrest.
At first you would think this is an isolated incident of somebody going nuts, like when the Spongebob guy got beat up on Hollywood Boulevard, but not long after the Toys R Us incident, a Catwoman and Ozzy impersonator went head to head on the same legendary movieland street, with the faux Ozzy getting pepper sprayed by the pseudo Catwoman.
According to ComicsAlliance, the Ozzy impersonator was harassing Catwoman all day long to the point where she had to warn him, “If you do not get away from me right now – I have pepper spray and I will spray you in the face.” When the cops arrived on the scene, Willy Wonka and Captain America boulevard impersonators backed up Catwoman’s story to the police.
As Andy Khouri writes, “For years, Hollywood Boulevard street performers have earned a living on tips from tourists… But as someone who’s lived in the neighborhood for many years, I can confirm that they are sometimes a nuisance, and many of them are just really creepy and weird… The Batman performer is rumored among Hollywood residents to be someone prone to acts of violence and drunkenness, and has been arrested numerous times.
“Feuds between the characters are not uncommon,” Khouri continued. “Local business owners were successful in getting the local police to impose a Watchmen-like Keane Act banning the costumed characters, but a court asserted the performers rights on free speech grounds.”
