Republican Senator Ted Cruz tried to take down Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill on net neutrality and Star Wars on Twitter and has failed spectacularly in the process. Naturally, Twitter has gone bonkers over the unexpected online face-off.

On Saturday (16 December), Hamill took aim at a video posted by Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, who voted to repeal landmark net neutrality regulations last week. Since the controversial vote that fell along party lines, critics have slammed Pai for dismantling the Obama-era regulations.

In an attempt to reassure people over the supposed harmlessness of the vote, the Daily Caller posted a video of Pai explaining the various things Americans will be able to do without net neutrality rules. The cringe-worthy video featured Pai wielding a lightsaber, possibly in light of the release of the latest Star Wars movie - The Last Jedi.

"Cute video Ajit 'Aren't I Precious?' Pai," Hamill tweeted to Pai on Saturday, along with a vomiting emoji. "But you are profoundly unworthy to wield a lightsaber - A Jedi acts selflessly for the common man-NOT lie 2 enrich giant corporations.

"Btw - did you pay John Williams his royalty? #AJediYouareNOT."

While Twitter erupted with praise for Hamill's "brilliant" take down of Pai, Cruz retweeted Hamill's post on Sunday and attempted to defend the net neutrality vote.

"Luke, I know Hollywood can be confusing, but it was Vader who supported govt power over everything said & done on the Internet," Cruz tweeted. "That's why giant corps (Google, Facebook, Netflix) supported the FCC power grab of net neutrality. Reject the dark side: free the net!"

However, Cruz got the spelling of Hamill's name wrong in the process and accidentally tweeted at a defunct Twitter account that uses two m's in the actor's last time.

The 66-year-old actor didn't wait too long to pounce on the opportunity to slam the GOP senator over the error and his stance on the issue.

Hamill's jab was in reference to the senator's alleged porn-watching gaffe from earlier this year when his official Twitter account liked an explicit pornographic video in September. Cruz later denied clicking "like" on the video and dismissed the "inadvertent" incident as a "staffing issue".

Naturally, Twitter burst with a lot of praise, cheers and hilariously sarcastic memes in response to Hamill's "epic burn."

"This is the tweet of the year," one Twitter user wrote while another called Cruz the "Jar Jar Binks of the Republican Party."

"Luke is versed in fighting the dark force," someone tweeted.

Mark Hamill Luke Skywalker Star Wars
Senator Ted Cruz tried to take on Mark Hamill on Twitter and got owned instead. LucasFilm