Michael Ian Black is a very famous celebrity, and all he wants is for Taco Bell to acknowledge that by hiring him as their spokesman.
The comedian's Twitter feed, which boasts over 1,500,000 followers and was recently voted the sixth best Twitter on TIME.com, has been Black's main source of promoting the campaign since he launched it last week. A few sample tweets:
- Visiting my kid's class today. Will try to get them to write angry letters to Taco Bell while I'm there. #mibfortacobell
Black, who has appeared in such legendary comedic vanguards as "The State," "Stella," and "Wet Hot American Summer," often embodies a comedic persona of an arrogant, high-society celebrity willing to shamelessly sell out for any cause, big or small. So, his naked request to shill for the fast-food chain while in between jobs only makes sense. (He wrote on his blog recently that he shot a pilot for E! entitled "The Black List," which according to Black, is the comic "giving daily pop culture commentary and jokes.")
Although he's shot two videos appealing directly to President Obama to be appointed the spokesman for Taco Bell, Black has not said much about the subject on Twitter over the last few days. We're not giving up hope, however, and hope to soon see Black's visage promoting various concoctions of meat, cheese and tortillas.
WATCH: Michael Ian Black's appeal to President Obama.
Outside of Black's comedic persona, however, lies an intently focused and thoughtful personality that recognizes the power that social media holds in our daily conversation. He co-founded Witstream.com, a site that carefully aggregates the funniest tweets from the funniest people on Twitter. At the South By Southwest festival in Austin he performed stand-up as part of the comedy programming, but also spoke on several panels in the Interactive portion of the festival about how social media can help comedians and vice-versa. We had a chance to talk to him about these issues, as well as his opinion of President Obama (careful, some NSFW language) and his favorite current TV show. Watch our exclusive interview above.