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Last week, I did something a lot of people do every day: I tweeted out a joke.
But that didnt stop thousands of people from seeing my tweet and assuming it was real.
Monday, February 10, 12:15 p.m.:Its the 80th anniversary of Tom and Jerry.
I wondered what a professor would think about it.
And so I freewrote an intro paragraph, making sure to set up a professor for some line edits.
What the hell was the assignment?
Monday, February 10, 1:30 p.m.:It gets a few retweets and about a hundred likes.
This comment will go on to get 20,000 likes.
It dawns on me that people think this is real.
Honestly I think theyre just bored/unchallenged.
I have to turn my notifications off.
Even though Im kind of a leftist myself, I silently agree with her.
Ive hit 50,000 likes.
I apologize for the disturbance.
Tuesday, February 11, 12:07 p.m.:TheNew YorkDaily Newsasks me for a comment.
The U.K.Daily Mailwrites a story about it, with a huge picture of me captioned Jokester.
I hit 500,000 likes.
Only about a third of the packed UCB audience understands what hes talking about.
I hit 700,000 likes.
He opens his computer to find 200 emails and calls me into his office.
I tell him about my tweet and how it went viral in the past 72 hours.
He suggests I not do that again.
So, has my life changed?
I have a few articles about my prank and a few thousand more followers on Twitter.
But Im back at my desk on my lunch break from IT.
So I beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the Looney Tunes cinematic universe.
