Tim Allen 'Woke' Joke Results in Backlash, References to Drug Charges

Prominent conservatives have railed against "wokeness" in recent years, with Home Improvement star Tim Allen helping to lead the pack. The comedian's politically tinged tweets frequently go viral, and Monday afternoon's offering attracted mountains of backlash.

"Who is the face of woke," the 69-year-old actor wrote. "Do wokees have a club house in someone's backyard or maybe a cute yet safe playpen somewhere?"

By late Tuesday morning, Allen's tweet had received some 44,000 likes and more than 7,400 retweets.

Republicans often hurl "woke" as an insult aimed at progressives––slang that's meant to denote an almost fanatical dedication to leftist ideologies. Merriam-Webster defines the term as being "aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice)."

Many social media users are upset over Allen's new anti-woke joke, some dredging up the actor's previous brush with crime. Back in his 20s, before he found success in Hollywood, Allen spent more than two years behind bars after pleading guilty to drug trafficking charges.

"The fact that Tim Allen spent time in prison for cocaine distribution and still got another chance at life, then ran a show that was essentially a reboot of his older show into the ground and then complained about woke cancel culture will never not be funny to me," Twitter user @PhilipCardella wrote.

"Can't really say who is the face of woke, but we know who the face of coke is," @aintscarylarry replied, along with a photo of Allen's decades-old mugshot.

Others referenced the star's time on the '90s sitcom Home Improvement, which featured a show-within-a-show called Tool Time.

"Tool Time was a really accurate name," Adam Parkhomenko, a Democratic strategist, replied to Allen's tweet.

And some social media users introduced their own theories about potential meet-up spots for "wokees."

"The clubhouse is their voting location. Sorry not sorry," tweeted Medium and True Romance actress Patricia Arquette.

"Every full moon at midnight we meet at the Hollywood cemetery right by where they buried your career," Twitter user @APMC1985 replied.

As for the face of woke? This cowboy hat-wearing Texan admitted to being the leader in a tweet.

"Here you go Tim," wrote Paul Schroder, a well-known liberal TikToker from the Lone Star State, along with a selfie. "I'm the President of woke."

Allen posted another viral tweet last month that cast doubt on the soundness of Democratic President Joe Biden's mental faculties. Earlier this year, the actor was at the center of a debate surrounding Disney Pixar's Lightyear, which cast Chris Evans in the titular role that Allen had previously made famous in the Toy Story films.

Lightyear, which features a brief same-sex kiss, has also been accused of being too "woke."

Newsweek has reached out to an Allen representative for comment.