By CNN Political Unit
(CNN) — Charlton Heston’s declaration that gun control advocates would have to pry his firearms “from my cold, dead hands” provides the punch line for comedian Jim Carrey’s new video mocking the late actor and NRA president.
Carrey, who appears on a spoof version of the old comedy show “Hee Haw” both as Heston and as the frontman of a country-western band “Lonesome Earl And The Clutterbusters,” is a vocal proponent of stricter gun control laws.
“Charlton Heston movies are no longer in demand, and his immortal soul may lay forever in the sand. The angels wouldn’t take him up to heaven like he planned, because they couldn’t pry the gun from his cold dead hand,” Carrey sings in the video, which was posted Monday on the comedy website Funny or Die.
Heston, who died in 2008, rose to fame as an actor in movies like “The Ten Commandments” and “Ben-Hur.” Later in life, however, he turned his attention to political advocacy, eventually becoming the president of the National Rifle Association from 1998-2003.
He famously used the line mocked in Carrey’s video during a 2000 speech to NRA members, going specifically after then-Vice President Al Gore, who was running for president at the time.
“As we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to say those fighting words for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed, and especially for you, Mr. Gore: ‘From my cold, dead hands!” Heston declared.
Carrey starred in movies like “Ace Ventura Pet Detective” and “The Mask.” He actively argues his case for gun control on Twitter @JimCarrey.
Carrey said in a statement that he found America’s rash of gun violence “frustrating” and the video was “my fun little way of expressing that frustration.”
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