LOS ANGELES - No sooner has Walt Disney Co. named its new Star Wars film The Force Awakens than jokes fly on the Internet.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens trended on Twitter almost immediately after the title was revealed by Disney on Thursday, but a new hashtag, #rejectedstarwarstitles, popped up too, say reports by Bloomberg and The Guardian.
Empire Magazine contributer Simon Columb was among the people who took aim at the title. "Was it sleeping," he wrote on Twitter.
Others proposed titles of their own, including: Star Wars Episode VII: So Very Tired; Disney's Song Of The Sith; Star Wars: 100% Less Lucas; and Star Wars VII: The Force Calls In Sick And Watches NetFlix On Its Laptop All Day.
The New York Times writer Dave Itzkoff tweeted that Literally Anything Else would have been a better title.
According to a poll by Buzzfeed, only 8 per cent of readers felt the new title was the "Best. Star Wars title. Ever", 39 per cent felt "anything is better than The Phantom Menace", and 52 per cent felt "Nothing will be better than The Empire Strikes Back".
Some hilarious responses on Twitter:
