I love Twitter. It’s great for comedy.<\/p>\n
There are so many good comedians on Twitter you can, and should, be following. Here’s a quick pick:<\/p>\n
@serafinowicz<\/a>\u00a0– great thoughts and jokes from Peter Serafinowicz And loads more of course. What’s common to all of these is that they do JOKES. All sorts of\u00a0different<\/em> jokes, but things that are recognisable as jokes. Puns, observations, funny signs, surreal nonsense – all things that are funny with words or pictures.<\/p>\n What I can’t stand though, is bad Twitter comedy<\/span>. And sadly there’s loads of it.<\/p>\n You may or might not know about my @jokeisntfunny<\/a>\u00a0Twitter account. It’s an online “anticomedian’ persona where I pretend to not get jokes that aren’t funny, and also point out jokes that have been overdone.<\/p>\n I got the idea when I saw some tweets from Adam Bloom<\/a>\u00a0bemoaning the state of standup, and how some subjects have just been done to death. I’d noticed the same thing on Twitter, and thought something had to be done.<\/p>\n I’ve been only marginally successful I think. At most I’ve maybe managed to annoy a few comedians, coming across as some attempt at trolling (which of course it is) rather than changing the state of Twitter comedy for the better. So I’d like to have a go at better articulating what I don’t like on Twitter. And what better way to do that than with some case studies?<\/p>\n Case Study 1:\u00a0David Schneider<\/b><\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidschneider\/status\/505354242371379200<\/p>\n David Schneider is a comic actor I actually quite like. I love him in Alan Partridge and The Day Today, and all that. The problem is I just really don’t like his Twitter. And it took me a while to figure out why. But I’ve boiled it down to at least some of the following:<\/p>\n The jokes are frequently\u00a0such-and-such has been leaked from [some political thing]\u00a0<\/em>and it’s supposed to be really funny. Like in the above example, which is supposedly a government memo.<\/p>\n Obviously we all know it’s not a real government memo. It doesn’t even look like one. So why did DS go to the effort of trying to make it look like one? Or when even make a joke at all?<\/p>\n Cameron’s repeated emphasis on the raised terror threat is an obvious attempt to shift attention away from UKIP defections<\/em> could actually be quite an insightful comment. Making it into a joke is pointless, especially when much of the surrounding padding is so weak: I mean,\u00a0twerking?\u00a0<\/em>Really?<\/p>\n So yeah, it’s lazy and not that funny. But it’s insanely popular. The above tweet got 1.1k RTs, and 417 Favs<\/strong>. I’m not suggesting that RTs\/Favs are any indication of success, but they do indicate popularity. And Schneider’s 194k followers speak volumes.<\/p>\n Oh and by the way, David Schneider also offered a \u00a399-a-ticket seminar on how to be successful on Twitter. Read about it here<\/a>. Pity those who actually paid up and went.<\/p>\n Case Study 2: The Poke<\/strong><\/p>\n Sloths that look like Ian Beale http:\/\/t.co\/XR2ScBl28n<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/5V4Skrrp5s<\/a><\/p>\n — The Poke (@ThePoke) December 10, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n@ryanqnorth<\/a>\u00a0– just one of the funniest people on the internet in general
\n@meganamram<\/a>\u00a0– surreal funny stuff
\n@robdelaney<\/a>\u00a0– pretty much the king of twitter
\n@joejwest<\/a>\u00a0– Jack’s mate. Funny.
\n@AstonishingSod<\/a>\u00a0– worth mentioning if only for the extreme number of Twitter accounts they have (a chap after my own heart)
\n@fart<\/a>\u00a0– just “weird twitter” stuff
\n@millsandboom<\/a>\u00a0– possibly the one person who Twitter who shares my exact thoughts on everything. Some days I almost RT every tweet.<\/p>\n\n
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