We all have those movies that some would call “guilty pleasures,” but that each of us calls one of their favorites. In that particular realm, former NFL wide-receiver/Dancing with the Stars contestant Chad ‘Ochocinco’ Johnson has just outed himself as a fan of a rather infamous motion picture. As it turns out, the man is a big Howard the Duck fan, and we’re not talking about any of his quick appearances in the MCU. No, as you’ll see in the following tweet, Johnson is a booster for the George Lucas produced 1986 box office bomb that people love to sack in the endzone of history.
Surely, the internet would respond to such news in only the most serious and reverent of tones, right? Well, obviously the answer would be no, but the responses weren’t too terrible either. While Chad Johnson’s challenge to name that film wasn’t a serious one, there were some pretty fun wrong answers that weren’t Howard the Duck. Starting with this first response, a wise witted responder to Johnson’s Twitter post had the right animal in mind, but the wrong franchise, and definitely the wrong studio.
You thought people didn’t know this one?! Gotta love Mighty Ducks...
As if that answer wasn’t enough of a comedic button on the subject, another one of Chad Johnson’s would be conversation partners jumped in with a rather ingenious response. Swapping Howard the Duck for the Martin Scorsese classic Goodfellas, the conversation soon took a slight detour into furthering the joke, and slamming into a controversial topic of conversation. As one fan posted,
Oh, come on. Way to make it obvious. That's Goodfellas.
We can argue Goodfellas versus Casino, or any other Scorsese movie for that matter, all the live long day, but we’re not here for that. We’re here to talk Howard The Duck, which is exactly what this next tweeter did. As a matter of fact, our next contestant decided to drop some knowledge on the crowd, with a fun fact about what’s now going to be widely known as one of Chad Johnson’s favorite films:
FunFact: the writer/director of Howard The Duck also wrote the screenplay for American Graffiti & Indiana Jones & the Temple Of Doom. #FilmTwitter
Another fun fact: director/co-writer Willard Huyck also did some script doctor work on Star Wars, and with co-writer/wife Gloria Katz also dreamed up the screenplay for another forgotten beauty produced by George Lucas, the 1930’s radio whodunnit Radioland Murders. Just as wacky as Howard the Duck, but much more grounded and witty, it’s a film you should seek out as if you were seeking out Howard’s appearance in Avengers: Endgame.
Which brings us to the final response to Mr. Ochocinco’s love for Howard the Duck, and it’s a pretty fantastic point of order. With his big cameo at the end of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, the world would have thought that Howard would have been on the fast track to make his way back to the big screen. But as history’s shown us, that definitely wasn’t the case, and it’s still a bone that some fans will pick with Kevin Feige and the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe apparatus.
Howard the Duck! Still a little disappointed he wasn’t part of Avengers last battle vs Thanos.
Yes, Howard the Duck was at the final battle against Thanos in Avengers: Endgame, but for a character who was on the path to reclaiming their cool, a participation trophy isn’t enough to warrant a pat on the back. Chad Johnson would probably agree with this fact, seeing as he’s a hard in the paint Howard The Duck fan; and quite frankly we’d love to hear from him on the matter. For now though, we’ll just wrap with the fact that no matter how obscure or out there a movie may seem, there’s always at least one pro-football star that’s going to help you put some love for that movie out into the universe. Now if only we could find a current/former NFL player who is a fan of John Carter.
