Twitter: Global MST3K

Ever since I heard about Twitter, and even since I joined it, I’ve been wondering just what it is FOR, and why it is so popular and fun. And today I think I figured it out. It’s global MST3K.

Of course that’s only part of the story. It was designed to update family and friends on your life, and many still use it for that (as well as celebrities updating their fans). And it provides an alternative to email for sharing news/links. And of course there are the spammers and self-promoters.

But, just look at the trending topics. When X-factor was on earlier, it was almost entirely X-factor related tweets. Thousands upon thousands of jokes, comments, riffs, all delivered in real time, supplementing the show itself. Or the Peep Show characters – that turned out to be a fan, watching the show and throwing out more jokes in sync with what was happening on screen.

It’s not just limited to TV of course. Riffing of bad movies is popular obviously, but there’s also people’s experience of technology (Windows 7, Google Wave) and current events (Balloon Boy!). Sure, commentary, satire and parody always happened before, but never at this breakneck real-time pace. Except in things like MST3K.

Youtube

I think I may have found the finest example of a Youtube comment thread. On the video for ever controversial comic Frankie Boyle’s Most Offensive Jokes (of course, a hilarious video in itself) the following exchange takes place:

MrHeadingley (-9)
Please somebody write something on here which pertains to English. I am skimming Frankie’s videos and am yet to find an intelligent statement from anyone, or from Frankie himself. Frankie Boyle is full of comments for other people: straightforward insults that were funny for about 7 people back in 1976. He laughs at his own jokes and looks painfully nervous; he tries to dominate everything and repeats almost every joke night after night in his stand up. Val Doonican was more entertaining.

truemansparks (+1)
Dear Mr headingley the impression i get from your comments makes me think that you are nothing more than a vile turd chewing pile of putrid lizard excrement with the mental capacity of a slow worm on pot,so shut the fuck up you disgusting necrophiliac baboon felcher!p.s how dare you drag Val Doonnican into this his live shows were fucking blistering !!

MrHeadingley (0)
truemansparks,
Only one ‘n’ in the middle of Doonican

It helps that the middle comment was the first I saw, which made the sudden leap from foul-mouthed invective to a passionate defence of Val Doonican all the more entertaining. And MrHeadingley’s comeback is exquisite.

Twidiocy

Wow, has it really been that long since I posted?

Anyway, this post is going to be about stupid things I see on Twitter. And I’ll update it over time. GO!

“Major Breakthrough in cancer research is trending topics! If cancer was to be eradicated, that would be the greatest gift from our God!”
link

“#tmobilesucks becuz its for black people”
link
(in fact anything said by “BeastialityestBeast”)

“wtf. Lil Wayne is going to jail. fkjdnfgbk;jdnfbdfjknbdf. dumb. best rapper thats alive bye.”
link

W1F3Y_B_R3AL DAAAMMM: BEN OF 4 AN HR AND #rihannasforehead STILL A #TT … OWELL BACK @ !T {IM GOIN !N}
link (oh god! the background!)

Stylus

So the stylus for my beloved Nintendo DS seems to have vanished into thin air, which is a little annoying. But even more annoying is buying a new one. Apparently if you want a new stylus, you also have to buy a case, “screen protector” (read: sticky back plastic), game cases and/or headphones (or “earbuds”, as most of the packs seem to call them. Does anyone call them that in real life?)

Eventually I managed to find one sans all the extras. Well, when I say one, I actually mean four. To quote Oscar Wilde:

To lose one DS stylus may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose 4? Seriously? What the hell is wrong with you?

Actually it’s not really four. Two are short styluses (styli?) for the DS Lite, and two are long styluses for the DSi. Of course this is even more illogical. I now have two DSi styluses which are almost useless as they don’t fit in the hole of my DS Lite.

To top it off, they come in absurdly large packaging, and it’s that damned plastic which I needed the help of my trusty swiss army knife to open.

stylus