As Cory Booker spoke on the Senate floor through Monday night and into Tuesday morning — an 18-hour address (not quite a filibuster, as no bill or nominee was being debated) attacking President Trump and Elon Musk‘s gutting of federal programs like Medicaid and Social Security — it evoked memories of another epic legislative speech: Patton Oswalt‘s Star Wars filibuster.
On Parks and Recreation‘s “Article Two” — season five, episode 19, which aired in 2013 — Oswalt played Garth Blundin, a Pawnee citizen and history buff who opposes changing hundreds-year-old local laws, no matter how nonsensical.
For example, once a year on Ted Party Day, a guy named Ted is thrown into the river — all because the word “tea” looks like “Ted” in calligraphic script.
To oppose the measure, holding up a copy of the “Pawnee Charter,” Blundin (Oswalt) delivers a “citizen filibuster” at a city hearing overseen by Councilwoman Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler, who directed the episode).
Oswalt then improvised a 10-minute speech on Star Wars Episode VII.
According to legend, he only stopped speaking once the entire cast, including background actors, had walked out. While a truncated version of the speech aired on the episode, NBC later posted the entire speech to YouTube.
Eleven years later, director Jon Favreau referenced the scene by editing the opening of the Disney+ series The Book of Boba Fett to the exact timing of Oswalt’s description of Boba Fett’s return.
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