Failed #Hashtags

So, we're on Twitter. Duh. Everybody's on Twitter. (Even our boss- even your Mom, which doesn't come as much of a surprise since, according to the kids in the neighborhood, she's sort of a early-adopter of social networking websites- if you catch my drift.)

Anyway, #hashtags are the cool thing on Twitter- basically they're little subject headings for your little posts so people can search for results based on what you're talking about. Anyway, the really cool ones become memes, and, as everyone knows, memes make you money, and, as our readers know, we need money. So, we've been trying (poorly) to start some #hashtag memes. Here is a gallery of our failure.

1. #twittervandalism
Inspired by our series of blogs about Wikipedia Vandalism, we figured we should apply the same treatment to the micro-blog. Twitter-hijacking is surprisingly common- though the recent Tila Tequila thing may kind of put a damper on it- or at least put a damper on it being "funny" or "art."

2. #knockknock
We thought by posting the hashtag #knockknock, people would respond with #whosthere, then we'd say #bananas, then they'd say #bananaswho, then we'd say #orangeyougladididntsaybanana, then they'd says #lolwot. We thought that would be funny. Apparently it wasn't. Sorry, we wasted your time.

3. #onlyats
Okay, now this one I genuinely thought people would dig. It's a game, spell out a sentence by only using valid Twitter user-names. It has yet to take off... Which is really too bad, because unlike those other ones- I really, really believed that #onlyats was going to be the meme-money-train straight to our door.

You know who drives the meme-money train? Rick Astley. True story.

Sorry for all our failures. I guess that's why we're working where we're working...

Dan

Great Moments in Wikipedia Vandalism, Part 4

We haven't done one of these in a while... but someone (specifically someone at the IP address 158.64.118.154) added the following information to the Surrealism page on Wikipedia- and I'll be honest, I checked with Vince, and neither of us knew this. But it's on wikipedia (or it was...) so it must be true...

Surrealism was made in victorian britain by Jack Bauer.

Fascinating... However our friend, who we'll call 158 for short, has also been doing some exhaustive research on Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. Of Page's time with the Yardbirds he writes

I like pIE

And saves his biggest bombshell for the section on Page's formative years, where he pronounces

Jimmy Page is gAy

Wow!

Dan

Great Moments in Wikipedia Vandalism, Part 3

This showed up on the Wikipedia entry for sitcom creator Chuck Lorre, no doubt in honor of his new show on CBS, The Big Bang Theory.

We can't decide who we think is madder -- this guy at Chuck Lorre, or that guy back in March who was mad at Larry Charles after Borat came out. You be the judge.

Unlike most sitcom show runners, Lorre takes a "hands on" approach to writing each episode. Even though the show has a staff of writers, he doesn't trust their talent or expertise and instead writes every episode in the "writers room." And rather than give individual writers credit on episodes (and appropriate residuals, or royalties) he and his co-show-runners put their names on every script, guaranteeing them more money than their already exorbitant executive producer salaries.

Lorre has been regularly despised and feared by his production staffs for years, and continues to intimidate the people who work for him as well as the networks and production companies who employ him, in order to compensate for his own insecurities.

Dan.

Great Moments in Wikipedia Thievery, Part I

As our loyal readers well know, Dan has been offering up a series of blogs called "Great Moments in Wikipedia Vandalism" for months now. He spends hours upon hours that might be more productively spent sleeping (where do you think a Surrealist's ideas come from?), fooding, YouTubing, MySpacing, IMing, or banging pots and pans together combing through the 1,989,575 articles on Wikipedia, all for your benefit.

Now it comes to our attention that The Onion has been reading and repurposing Dan's blogs without giving appropriate credit.

Here's the Onion story:

Hard To Tell If Wikipedia Entry On Dada Has Been Vandalized Or Not

August 20, 2007 | Issue 43•34

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND—The Wikipedia entry on Dada—the World War I–era "anti-art" movement characterized by random nonsense words, bizarre photocollage, and the repurposing of pre-existing material to strange and disturbing effect—may or may not have been severely vandalized, sources said Monday.

"This is either totally messed up or completely accurate," said Reed College art history major Ted Brendon. "There's a mustache drawn on the photo of Marcel Duchamp, the font size keeps changing, and halfway through, the type starts going in a circle. Also, the majority of the actual entry is made up of Krazy Kat cartoons with abstract poetry written in the dialogue balloons."

The fact that the web page continually reverts to a "normal" state, observers say, is either evidence that ongoing vandalization is being deleted through vigilant updating, or a deliberate statement on the impermanence of superficial petit-bourgeois culture in the age of modernity.

So a pair of Surrealists run an ongoing column on Wikipedia Vandalism, and all of a sudden a humor magazine runs a piece on Wikipedia Vandalism and Dada? I don't think it takes out-of-the-ordinary mental acuity to see the connection here. Next thing you know, they're going to scoop us on finding the Greatest Pimp in the World.

Mr. Onion, I hope you're happy. I'm having to do this post because I can't get Dan to stop crying. Or, more literally, I can't get him to stop IMing me "boo-hoo. boo-hoo. boo-hoo." It's gotten to where I can't get any work done a-t'all.

We don't object, we merely ask that you cite sources. And by sources, we mean us.

Vince out.

Great Moments in Wikipedia Vandalism, Part 2

Alright, I'll tell you right now, today's vandalism isn't as great as last times, but it did occur on the surrealism article, so I feel we're responsible for bringing it to you.

Here's an excerpt from the original article.

The [[Bureau of Surrealist Research]] (Centrale Surréaliste) was the Paris office where the Surrealist writers and artists gathered to meet, hold discussions, and conduct interviews with the goal of investigating speech under trance.

Here's the same section, post-vandalism:

The [[Bureau of Surrealist Research]] (Centrale Surréaliste) was the Paris office where the Surrealist writers and artists gathered to meet, hold discussions, and conduct interviews with the goal of investigating speech under trance.

Love Kandace && Karrly

Thanks for reading!

Dan.

Great Moments in Wikipedia Vandalism, Part 1

While we don't support Wikipedia Vandalism, we do appreciate the fact that it can sometimes go beyond misinformation and potty humor into something more. Something... surreal...

Today we look at Larry Charles, director of lthe film Borat and several episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, he's also producer of the show Entourage, and was a writer for Seinfeld. Let's see what wikipedia says:

'''Larry [[Suck My Balls]]Charles''' (2278 - ) is an [[United StatesAmerican poo thrower, director for crappy movies. Larry was in jail for throwing poop and not wearing an cloths. He was the only man to have sex with George Bush. [[sitcom]] ''[[Seinfeld]]'', contributing some of the show's darkest and most absurd storylines, and as director of the film ''[[Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan]]''.


Born in 2278 in fucking land Charles performed stand-up sex moves in the 2007 until he was hired to be a pimp. This began a career in prostitution.

If you see any absurd Wiki-vandalism, let us know. But don't create your own! (That would be wrong, and not nearly as funny).

Dan.