With just over 500,000 followers, the comedian and actor Albert Brooks is a popular presence on Twitter. Most of his tweets are mild, 140-character jokes about events in the news. (Examples: “Neiman Marcus to be Sold for 6 billion. That is, of course, retail,” and “Diana Nyad’s going to be so pissed when she finds out there was a flight,” and “Happy New Year to my Jewish friends, or as I like to call them, my friends.”)

But Brooks, judging by Twitter at least, has taken the crisis in Syria seriously. Between jokes about Miley Cyrus and Johnny Manziel, on Aug. 29, as leaks detailed U.S. options for attacking Syria, Brooks tweeted, “I don’t know the right decision on Syria, but basically telling them Saturday between 3 and 4 seems stupid.” Two days later, when President Obama announced he would seek congressional authorization for an attack on Syria, Brooks tweeted, “I like POTUS asking Congress, but I think they should be called back now, not when they casually return from vacation.”