Masha Fante
Former Republican presidential nominee and current Utah Senator Mitt Romney celebrated his 72nd birthday on Tuesday with a cake made of Twinkies, which he called his “favorite snack.”
And while this is somewhat unusual (albeit whimsical) in itself, it was Romney’s unique—nay, controversial—method of blowing out the candles that really caught Twitter’s attention.
My team surprised me with a cake made out of my favorite snack—twinkies! Looking forward to all this year has in store. pic.twitter.com/lQfyIrQ9Qe
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) March 12, 2019
The former governor of Massachusetts picked up each of the candles and blew them out, one by one. He posted the video to Twitter, where he was instantly roasted for his “deeply weird” and “non-human” candle-blowing technique.
This is the most bizarre technique for blowing out birthday candles that I’ve ever witnessed. Mitt Romney is a deeply weird dude. pic.twitter.com/kLGuJawDpv
— Bradford Pearson (@BradfordPearson) March 12, 2019
Mitt Romney has been alive for 72 years and apparently has never seen a normal person blow out birthday candles
— Mitt Romney was still blowing directly at the cake (@bart_smith) March 12, 2019
“mitt romney tenderly plucks each individual birthday candle out of his cake and delicately blows it out before moving on to the next candle” is a genuinely hilarious bit and I’m absolutely furious that *reality* beat me to it
— chair admirer (@KrangTNelson) March 12, 2019
the footages of mitt romney "blowing" "out" "his" "candles" pic.twitter.com/fSZ7Piex72
— hunter harris (@hunteryharris) March 12, 2019
Mitt Romney blows out candles on a cake by individually pulling the candles out, and shame on me for expecting anything different. https://t.co/BykfzeftMx
— Tara Golshan (@taragolshan) March 12, 2019
congratulations to Mitt Romney’s staff for making the guy who strapped a dog to the roof of his car and owns a dancing horse and has an elevator for his cars seem almost human and relatable
— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) March 12, 2019
Nice “common man” play.
— JimmyV (@JVwoud) March 12, 2019
extremely normal and cool sir!
— chair admirer (@KrangTNelson) March 12, 2019
How do you not know how to blow out candles? It’s distressing, Mitt.
— roxane gay (@rgay) March 12, 2019
“Ah, my favorite hoo-man food. I am ravenous” https://t.co/KrbaxY25SU
— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) March 12, 2019
If a Westworld robot did this, they would immediately be brought into the shop for repairs https://t.co/CdDmcomRM2
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) March 12, 2019
Space Alien Blows Out Birthday Candles in Totally Normal Way https://t.co/QHl5zjBUO2
— Quinn Sutherland (@ReelQuinn) March 12, 2019
First time with birthday candles, buddy? https://t.co/uCEXJk6F6U
— Linda Holmes (@lindaholmes) March 12, 2019
Some argued that Romney was simply avoiding getting his saliva all over his birthday treat—a courteous maneuver, considering it is flu season.
Hot take: the weird way Mitt Romney blows out candles individually is actually Good because he’s not getting spit on the cake
— Dana Schwartz (@DanaSchwartzzz) March 12, 2019
It is abundantly clear now that Mitt Romney is a member of the Illuminati. lol.
Seriously tho, shouldn’t we all blow out candles like this? #Hygienic pic.twitter.com/duB0CAsZYn
— Kyle J. Howard ❤️ (@KyleJamesHoward) March 12, 2019
Lotta people making fun of Mitt Romney for blowing out his candles this way but everyone should do this during flu season, thank you for coming to my TED talk https://t.co/rviJRjHovZ
— Catherine Silverman (@catmsilverman) March 12, 2019
I have to give him credit as much as it pains me. Blowing across food other people will eat does spread germs.
— Gregory Howard (@gregorylh411) March 12, 2019
…While others aren’t so sure.
I see people patting Mitt Romney on the back for taking candles out of his birthday cake one by one and blowing on them because it’s “more hygienic.” Wrong! He still slobbers all over the cake. pic.twitter.com/ETtQhUmHox
— Vic Berger IV (@VicBergerIV) March 12, 2019
In my personal and humble opinion, Romney himself makes the greatest point of all for his uncommon cake approach, but y’all ain’t ready for that conversation: “These are all wishes I’m getting,” he says, picking each individual candle off of the Twinkie cake. “All these wishes.”
h/t Twitter