“Open the schools”: Wallace Shawn’s viral canvassing moment with young voters sends fans into meltdown

A canvasser for Zohran Mamdani’s campaign in New York City was surprised to find legendary actor Wallace Shawn assigned to her group—and her comments pretty much broke the internet.

A history of Wallace Shawn

Referring to Shawn as Dr. Sturgis from Young Sheldon is pretty hilariously Gen Z. It’s extremely endearing to see that a new generation is still recognizing him from brand new things that they grew up watching, when previous generations had our own staples of his career that we know best.

The Princess Bride, Clueless, and My Dinner with Andre are probably his most familiar works, but there are also a staggering number of memorable guest and recurring roles on TV shows (like Gossip Girl) that many know him from.

It’s also not at all a surprise to see Shawn out there canvassing for Mamdani. As a playwright, his works have been noted for their political themes, and he’s been extremely open about his condemnation of Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people for many years.

The internet reacts

Seeing that such a beloved actor was out there in his own city, canvassing for Mamdani, was something folks online found pretty awesome—although there was still the expected level of existential crisis-ing happening at the realization that the younger folks may not know the sacred texts to which he was crucial.

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As for how the canvassing actually went, Devi wrote that her group knocked on around a hundred doors and “freaked out thousands of old people because i forgot wallace shawn was in clueless.”