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When a veteran stand-up comic is also funny on Twitter, it doesn’t exactly come as a shock. When an unknown phenom makes you physically choke on guffaws, though, it’s a revelation and also something of an extended audition. ...After catching the attention of the comedy cognoscenti in 2010, the then recent Harvard graduate soon got jobs writing on the Oscars and Disney’sA.N.T. Farm., before moving to a staff writer position at NBC’s ensemble sitcom Parks and Recreation. (The show was just renewed for a sixth season.) The in-demand writer is also an accomplished poet who’s writing asatirical guide to science for ladies. Megan Amram’s frothy blend of dark humor and smart, surreal silliness has found more than 356,000 followers on Twitter so far. Although not everybody trying to generate laughs online is doing so for the same reasons, or with the same twisted flair, Amram’s consistent comedic quality is enviable for anyone trying to make their mark with brief bursts of humor. The multidiscipline writer recently spoke with Co.Create about puns, poetry, and how to be funny on Twitter altogether....
As you've probably heard by now, what The Onion is apologizing for is a tweet sent during the Academy Awards about the nine-year-old star of "Beasts of the Southern Wild." ... "Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better,” Onion CEO Steve Hannah wrote, vowing to “take immediate steps to discipline those responsible.” It’s the first time anyone can remember that The Onion has apologized for a joke that offended, and not for want of opportunity. If The Onion has a rule that children are exempt from outré humor, it must not have been in place when it published “Fun Toy Banned Because Of Three Stupid Dead Kids,” “God Answers Prayers Of Paralyzed Little Boy; ‘No,’ Says God,” “Ex-Pedophiles Share Tips On How To Make Your Kids Less Attractive,” or “Pope Vows To Get Church Pedophilia Down To Acceptable Levels.” Or, to cite a few that riff on real children, this one about Alana “Honey Boo Boo” Thompson, or this one about Suri Cruise, or this other one about Suri Cruise, or this one about JonBenet Ramsey....
Take a scroll through some bizarre, head-scratching fortunes that somehow made their ways into cookies. WTF, fortune cookie? Fortune cookies tend to have a 50:50 satisfying-to-disappointing ratio. Sometimes, you'll get a cookie that's stale, soggy and obviously past its expiration date. What's most disappointing, though, is when your fortune — a term that, for the sake of this post, we'll be using quite loosely — is less inspirational and more ... you know .. WTF-y. A quick Twitter search of the hashtag "#fortunecookie" revealed countless photos of fortunes that left users feeling a little short-changed. Scroll through some of the weirdest below....
Thanks to text messaging and social media sites like Twitter that have reduced much of today’s communication to a mere character count (if not simply a picture), it could be argued that people are growing weary of long-form content... Well, now there’s a site that helps you find just that. Launched today by the creators of Someecards and HappyPlace, The Gist gives a comedic take on the day’s top news in as few words as possible – usually just a sentence or two! With sections for politics, business, sports, tech, entertainment, nation, world, and big picture news, The Gist seems to have all its bases covered. Both informative and funny, The Gist strikes a winning combination for wannabe news junkies with too little time to get fully caught up on all of the day’s hot topics and who have grown accustomed to the easily-digestible, 140-character Twitter messages. In a recent conversation with Dave Kornfeld, editor-in-chief of The Gist, he noted that what inspired him most to launch the site was the chance to mimic the hectic pace of the news cycle in a funny, yet highly abbreviated way that people might possibly get real information from..?
Headlines create reality, people just live in it. The world can't get enough cheese. Stories sell a lot of wine. Traditional advertising is over.... And on, and on, and on, and on … the written word powers it all. None of it truly works without you. Go write your own ticket.
Everyone loves The Onion, right? Founded in 1988, the print and online satirical publication has found its way into the hearts of many.
Now, “America’s Finest News Source” is launching a new “documentary” on Yahoo! Screen’s Comedy Channel, called ‘The Extremely Accurate History of the Internet,’ a title which alludes to the exact opposite sentiment. The Onion’s show will dive deep into the past of this “vast and glorious data network”, kicking off with the “carved stone modems of our African ancestors”, through the WiFi-enabled monks of Medieval Europe, to the porn-laden Web we see today. Yahoo Screen – formerly Yahoo Video – is a video-sharing portal featuring Yahoo-only material, with all user-generated videos removed in March last year to make way for its new professional service. The Comedy Channel went live in March this year. In addition to the Onion’s new offering, Yahoo Screen is also renewing ‘Odd News,’ ‘Sketchy,’ ‘First Dates with Toby Harris,’ and ‘Burning Love’.... [If you like reading The Onion, you're going to love watching The Onion. Highly recommended viewing for those who share a love of satire ~ Jeff]
Genius - covers all the key social media services in the context of donut eating! [Pure PR 2.0 fun - JD]
Are PR pros in danger of becoming PR zombies? We may have reached a tipping point caused by Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome. Seriously. I’m no longer surprised by others attacking the PR zombies among us. Just look at The Economist, the Bad Pitch Blog and any recent examples of airhead public relations, Bad PR, PR Fails and social media snafus. Here are 13 sure signs you’re a PR zombie suffering from this contagion...
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The Onion points out how awesome sponsored content is and how there is still an need for print in the digital age. The ad industry tends to talk in ways that baffle civilians. Sometimes it pays to have reminders of that. Thanks to The Onion, we do. The Onion does a great job of spoofing these digital media news stories, and points out what should be pretty obvious. For example, how ridiculous and obnoxious sponsored content can be. See the five great digital media industry spoof articles and click through to The Onion for the full stories....
The poor attempt by cell phone companies to disguise our mobile infrastructure as something natural is almost insulting. Photographer Dillon Marsh has documented some of the most egregious examples.... You’ve all seen them. One lone spectacle of arboreal majesty, towering above the treeline as you drive down the highway. It’s only when you get closer (though not too close, because the disguise is not so good) that you realize the impressive tree is nothing more than a cell phone tower with some rudimentary camouflage, meant to blend into its surroundings, but actually sticking out more for their poor attempt at blending in....
Google Glass secret development lab It's a secret lab. More than eight miles underground in Mountain View, California. There are no signs at the entrance to the ground level elevator. Just retinal scans and armed guards checking employee ID cards. Here, Google Glass engineers are working furiously against impossible technology hurdles, formidable deadlines and potential competitors. A secret document was leaked to us today by one of the engineers working on a stealth Google Glass project. He’s a friend of a friend’s cousin’s uncle....
A company called Powerful Yogurt is now selling what it calls "the first yogurt in the U.S. designed for a man's health and nutrition needs." The Sandwich Monday gang gives it a very manly taste test. Last week on Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me, we talked about a new yogurt for men, or brogurt, from a company called Powerful Yogurt. Here's what our panelist, comedian Jessi Klein, had to say about it: "If male yogurt marketing is anywhere near as annoying as female yogurt marketing, you are in for a treat. Every female yogurt commercial is basically like women in a wedding dress just petting a kitten and eating yogurt." Powerful sent us a crate of the stuff this week. It arrived as all manly products do, carried by a Navy Seal who then punches it into your face....
How would "Seinfeld" play out in the 21st Century? A new Twitter account shows you. The Twitter account Modern Seinfeld (@SeinfeldToday) popped up Sunday evening, imagining characters of the legendary sitcom living in the age of social media. What would edgy Elaine write on Yelp to pan a nasty restaurant? How would brusque Kramer interact with employees at the Apple store? What would neurotic George’s profile look like on an online dating website? By Monday afternoon, it had more than 28,000 followers – and seemingly everyone was getting in on the game.... [Simple awesomeness and another wasted 10 minutes to your day LOL ~ Jeff]
Which means more interviews for the 'Father of the Emoticon'... Tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the emoticon, which means that Carnegie Melon computer science professor Scott Fahlman has been dutifully answering questions from journalists who, unlike me, did not interview "The Father of the Emoticon" back in 2007 for the 25th anniversary. You can read that interview in full below. Just to make sure, though, I did email Fahlman recently and asked if I had perhaps missed any important emoticon-related news over the past five years. His reply: "I looked back at that interview and I've been saying exactly the same things all this week. Nothing new -- nor should there be."... [Inquiring minds want to know about the emoticon ;-) ]
Best Of The Onion: Ten Onion Stories That Poke Fun At News Media... These Onion media stories will make you cry... with laughter. Good medicine for PR pros and journalists.
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That's funny
Anyone who thinks you can't make a reputation on Twitter is hiding one's head under the ostrich and the earth.
She's an accomplished poet, too!