Maybe, maybe not. But he just played one on TV. (Though not in the movie Cop Out, despite the binoculars in the scene above with Tracy Morgan.)
That’s right. Willis talked about what happened when “me and my girl birdwatch” during a sketch on the most recent edition of Saturday Night Live. His character, a barber who seems slightly out of place amongst the other tall-tale tellers in the barbershop, also speculated on why robins’ eggs are blue (while displaying a remarkable lack of understanding of biology). See it for yourself here. (The birding-related jokes begin at about the 1:51 mark.)
Silly, yes, but it’s kind of nice anytime birding enters the public consciousness—there’s no such thing as bad publicity, right? And hey. If seeing John McClane as a kind of obtuse hair-snipping birder doesn’t do much for you, that’s OK. Maybe you’ll prefer his moves in Boy Dance Party.
I am a big fan of silly and, like you mention, anything that helps raise public consciousness about birds. To that end, I’m reminded of the Onion’s satirical article “Ornithologist Forced To Participate In History Channel’s ‘What If Humans Suddenly Became Birds?’ Program” and Portlandia’s “Put a Bird On It.” (That last one doesn’t do birds any favors actually but I still found it funny since my own home looks like it was decorated by a bird).
Onion article link: http://www.theonion.com/articles/ornithologist-forced-to-participate-in-history-cha,30803/
Portlandia Put a Bird on It clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XM3vWJmpfo
“Put a Bird on It” is actually the only Portlandia sketch I’ve ever seen … and I love it! Thank for bringing the Onion article to the attention of birders everywhere, as well. 🙂