A joke’s going around Twitter. Some fellow wrote the following: “Clavicular was mid jestergooning when a group of Foids came and spiked his Cortisol levels. Is Ignoring the Foids while munting and mogging Moids more useful then SMV chadfishing in the club?” Other people have explained the terms, so I won’t. My point is that wise guys across Twitter are recycling the post. I’ve seen it show up as a dialogue between George and Jerry, a dialogue between Jeeves and Bertie, and an opinion being fiercely delivered by (I think) Kara Swisher. Someone posted about the legal problems encountered by the tweet’s star: “Clavicular was mid felonygooning when a prisonmaxxing policeoid justice mogged him.” A clutch of other tweets has done the minimum by repeating the goony terms over screengrabs from SpongeBob SquarePants.
It’s been a while since I saw people on Twitter all seize on the same joke and show what they could do with it. The last time I remember was the photo of the girl talking intensely into a boy’s ear while he stares off, disconsolate. That was August 2022, Google says, and two months later Elon took over. Since then users’ shared subjects have been politics, as always, and the debate over Elon good versus Elon bad. So there’s been a lot of slanging back and forth but not much to unite us. Now we have jestergooning and the Foids. It’s a hopeful sign.
Before Elon arrived, Twitter users might join together to chase some particular person who’d sinned against morality, ethics, or decorum. I mean the Character of the Day syndrome, when somebody would post some bit of behavior that was supposed to delight and impress fellow tweeters but instead provoked noisy outrage. The victim I remember best was Bean Dad, who described his tough-love approach to teaching his little girl how to use a can opener. Another was the lady therapist who announced how she’d put a new patient in their place for “trauma dumping.” Oh, the rain upon that lady’s head; everyone gave her what for.
No sign of the syndrome coming back, thank God. After Elon happened, people would say he was the permanent Character of the Day. But for the past couple of years comment on Twitter’s been about his shambolic doings in the great world, not his dopiness online. I think Twitter no longer feels its old need for a Character of the Day, and my theory as to why is Bluesky. A lot of committed liberals and leftists remain on the site and raise hell about politicians, billionaires, and pundits, but not about people without power. The scolds are gone.
Book corner. The middle of the sentence makes sense, but the start and finish are a couple of curveballs. “Russians, who were exploring their new freedoms, were watching Twelve Angry Viewers, a talk show in which a panel of teenagers argued over their favorite videos, drawing on their history.” The show started just when the Yeltsin era was ending, so possibly we can allow “exploring their new freedoms.” Odd to tether that big issue to this little matter, but all right. The second curveball’s tougher. “Drawing on their history.” How do you draw on Russian history to discuss a rock video? I suppose it’s possible. I just don’t know what would be involved.
The sentence is from What Makes Business Rock: Building the World’s Largest Global Networks by Bill Roedy and David Fisher. Roedy ran MTV Networks International and takes an executive’s hurried overview of programming.