

Shit My Dad Says Gets a TV Deal after 72 tweets - vaksel
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/09/sometimes-twitter-accounts-about-sht-your-dad-says-get-you-tv-deals/

======
ivankirigin

      "Son, it doesn't take a fucking genius to make up bullshit 
      people agree with, add 'fuck', then slap on an old-man icon." ~ Dad, saying shit

<http://twitter.com/hotdogsladies/statuses/5427392585>

~~~
unalone
Merlin bugs me when he gets cynical about stuff. He spends most of his career
looking at how things are deeper and more meaningful than they seem, and then
on occasion he dismisses something with a line or two that's got more to it.
He does the same thing when he writes about the Beatles, because he always
implies that a) the only reason they broke up was Yoko Ono, and b) Yoko was a
stupid woman who couldn't write good music, and c) she seduced John.

It's annoying that somebody so smart is occasionally so willing to get snippy
without contributing to the conversation.

~~~
ivankirigin
He had a follow up.

    
    
      I kid 'em, but I truly am super-happy for "Shit My Dad Says." 
      Seems disingenuous to front like YOU wouldn't be thrilled by the same offer.
    

<http://twitter.com/hotdogsladies/status/5590745881>

I think he is correct that the tweets are somewhat fabricated, but also right
that this is cool to see a twitterer get a tv deal.

~~~
unalone
Ah, okay. That context makes it seem more nudge-and-wink. Thanks for following
up!

------
patio11
Shit My Dad Says is now more profitable than Twitter, despite being a flash in
the pan sustained mostly by transient hype.

~~~
olefoo
Twitter gets payments from some telcos because it helps to drive text usage.
It's not quite the furnace fed with hundred dollar bills that it's sometimes
portrayed as.

~~~
MicahWedemeyer
Do you have any further info on this? It seems like a likely story, but I've
never heard anything about it.

~~~
olefoo
I saw a story about it when they reenabled text for canadians and a couple of
friends of mine were able to start using twitter from their phones again.

I find this story <http://www.thestar.com/article/592619> but it doesn't
mention any deal w/ twitter.

------
chrischen
I'm guessing the guy got hired to be a TV writer because those tweets were
written by him and the tv producers liked his writing, and not because they
randomly chose some guy who tweeted what his dad said.

~~~
Scriptor
It's probably more because the guy owns the rights to the tweets, so he added
him being hired as part of the deal. He probably won't do much in the way of
writing the actual show.

~~~
smanek
<http://canyoucopyrightatweet.com/>

Lawyer Says: "I have read hundreds if not thousands of Tweets and have yet to
read one I believe would be protectable, but the possibility exists."

~~~
ErrantX
But if they use all or a large part of the Tweets from that one account there
might well be some legal footing.

------
MicahWedemeyer
Only 72, but they are hilarious as hell. Quality, not quantity.

~~~
mynameishere
I looked through them all and found not the slightest bit of "quality". Not
sure what you mean by "quality". Cheap, fake crap?

ED: Quit downmodding me and read the god damned things, people:

 _"When I used to live in Los Angeles, I used to step in human feces a lot."_

It's absolute garbage. Raise your standards a bit. You only get one life and
one brain.

~~~
unalone
The meter is beautiful, the phrasing is eloquent, and the concept is
hilarious.

 _You don't know shit, and you're not shit. Don't take that the wrong way,
that was meant to cheer you up._

 _Sometimes life leaves a hundred dollar bill on your dresser, and you don't
realize until later that it's because it fucked you._

 _We didn't have a prom. Dancing wasn't allowed...What's Footloose?...That's
the plot of the movie? That sounds like a pile of shit._

It's identifiable, it's beautiful, and it's poetic.

These are the sorts of phrasings that can only come out of an old and wise and
hilarious person. The confidence in forming his thoughts that way; the lazy
beat of the language. I spend an inordinate amount of time learning to write
dialogue, and let me tell you: If Justin's writing that himself, he's got a
career as a screenwriter ahead of him. That's some brilliance right there.

Hopefully the examples I've picked do justice without my having to say too
much. If you'd like to press your luck, and feel like spreading your smug
cockery online without warrant, then I'll go Communications major on your ass
and comprehensively make you look stupid in front of people on a web forum
that you won't ever know in real life, but I think that would be a waste of
both our times.

~~~
nvn1
At the risk of getting downmodded because people disagree with me, it's
hackneyed dull crap. Hey, my opinion's as valid as yours, right?

~~~
mynameishere
Well, yours are. Mine aren't.

It's really weird when a bunch of people you _thought_ were intelligent all
seem to enjoy the same kind of fart jokes or whatever.

"No, no, listen. It's really eloquent..."

[PHHHHBBBBGGGTTTTHHHH..!!!]

Maybe that's the joke? Like, it's really fucking stupid, everyone knows it,
but stands around laughing trying to sucker innocents into laughing as well?

~~~
unalone
You're allowed to state your opinion. You're not allowed to be a smug turd
about it. Making the absurd implication that by reading this guy's 72 tweets
we're wasting our life and our brain comes across as massively egodouche. Even
if this guy was making fart jokes, you wouldn't be justified in the comment
you made.

But, as it happens, his jokes _aren't_ fart jokes. They're smart and superbly
funny, and I say this as something of a Humor Asshole. You're not the Smart
Person Who Reprimands Stupid People in this archetypal Internet conversation.
You are the Person Who Doesn't Get It And So Projects His Dislike. You know
how there're people online who insist that Shakespeare was a hack writer and
people that like him are only pretending? That's who you are in this scenario.

Shitmydadsays is one of two huge Internet joke site loves in my world, along
with MLIA. The reason I think it's brilliant is that it does such a good job
of communicating who Justin's dad is. He's apathetic, entirely tactless, calls
out bullshit when he sees it, and still feels a fondness for his son. Now, it
sounds easy in theory to convey those things, but in practice, creating short
pieces of dialogue that manages to both be engaging and sounds like a certain
character is really, really difficult. Most _people_ aren't capable of doing
it and being amusing. Write down the words most people you know speak in a
day, and you couldn't make a site like this. I've seen spinoffs. They serve to
remind me just how rare it is to find somebody that speaks in a unique voice,
particularly one that's also entertaining.

If you feel like it, and I do this morning, you can break down the words he
says to understand why people are finding it funny.

"Just pay the parking ticket. Don't be so outraged. You're not a freedom
fighter in the civil rights movement. You double parked."

It's fascinating that these tweets set up an entire story. That's hard, too.
From these four lines, we know that Justin is upset over a parking ticket.
That's the establishment of the scenario, conveyed entirely in the _response_
to his feelings, and in a natural way that doesn't come across as a set-up.
You didn't read that and think "What a superficial set-up," because it's not.

The joke's funny for three reasons at once. First off, yes, it's funny that
the father's not taking Justin's side, because grouchy old men are funny,
especially when they're snapping at youngsters. But that's the absolute
surface of the joke. The juxtaposition between the parking ticket and his
likening to the civil rights movement is hilarious. Partly that's because the
father was old enough to see the civil rights movement and Justin wasn't.
Another part is that it also serves to show just how absurd it was that
Justin's so mad at the parking ticket. It really _doesn't_ compare to civil
rights, does it? So it's such a ridiculous perspective that still manages to
have the realism of the father's age.

And finally, there's identification. We've been in situations like this,
getting mad at small shit. So Justin's dad's words both make us identify with
Justin and make us realize how foolish we were being. There's wisdom in his
words that requires his sense of humor to fully work.

You get all that in four sentences. I've seen a lot of passages of
Shakespeare's that didn't work so well. And this guy will never be as prolific
in his brilliance, that's the genius of the short form. You can focus on the
best stuff and eliminate the crap. So these lines fit Twitter perfectly as a
medium.

"You worry too much. Eat some bacon... What? No, I got no idea if it'll make
you feel better, I just made too much bacon."

The comedic twist, where the father's advice turns out not to be advice, comes
across as perfectly deadpan. He's sympathizing with Justin, and offers him
food—then turns it around, says it's not going to help him, and gives a more
mundane reason for his advice that's hilarious in its own right. (Making too
much bacon is a mental image that I find pretty chortle-worthy.) So, again,
you get a lot going on in a short timeframe. You also get the dialect coming
across ("No, I got no idea") that's subtle but still really fits what he's
saying. As I wrote before: It adds a rhythm to the proceedings. I can hear
this guy's voice in my head. It convinces me. If, on the other hand, a young
twenty-year-old were to say:

"Maybe that's the joke? Like, it's really fucking stupid, everyone knows it,
but stands around laughing trying to sucker innocents into laughing as well?"

I read that as overwrought, wordy, and not particularly brilliant of an
observation, all respect to you. You could say the same much more quickly and
less wound up; as it is, I could use the father's words as dialogue but yours
would sound unnatural and a bit boring.

"Son, people will always try and fuck you. Don't waste your life planning for
a fucking, just be alert when your pants are down."

This is _good advice_. I can see an earnest guy rewriting this into an entire
For Hacker News post, but here it's said marvelously succinctly. It's not
funny. It's _smart_. And it further creates the character of the father in our
minds.

Now, you could argue that Justin's father's swears detract from his humor, but
you'd be wrong and kneejerk. Here's why:

"Does anyone your age know how to comb their fucking hair? It looks like two
squirrels crawled on their head and started fucking."

Consider the impact of the first use of "fucking." If he said "Does anyone
your age know how to comb their hair?", then the second line would sound far
too much like an attempt at a joke. With that first "fucking" in place,
though, his tone is conveyed to us over the Internet. He's being sassy and
rude, and so we've established a flow of conversation. That first "fucking" is
an essential part of those two sentences; it lets him get away with the
incredible image of the second sentence. I've seen two squirrels fucking, and
the image of a hairdo that looks like that is priceless.

"A scar ain't 13 god damned stitches. I'll introduce you to men with REAL
scars, then we'll all laugh at your fucking 13 stitches together."

Hopefully at this point you're getting into the flow of it. The first sentence
establishes he's irate, he provides that little bit of perspective, opens the
world to other people, to "men with REAL scars", and then places the perfect
punchline of having all those REAL men laughing at his son, which is both
funny in the "haha 20-something gets mocked" sense and in the "juxtaposition
of real men with real scars still taking the time to laugh at a 20-something"
sense. There's something for everybody! Fart joke people get their "fart
joke", sophisticates like me get something a bit more delactable.

A good test is to ask yourself: Could Fireland, or Steven Wright, or Emo
Philips, or Jack Handey, say those two lines better? I'd bet that in most
situations they couldn't improve upon those lines significantly if at all.
It's gold from the start.

There you go, mynameishere. You asked why you thought it was funny and I've
responded to you in detail. I eagerly await your enlightened counterpoints.
Otherwise, let's admit that maybe there's something special about
Shitmydadsays, even if you don't see it.

~~~
jimbokun
It seems to me you have the core of a doctoral thesis in literary criticism
here (said as someone who knows absolutely nothing about literary criticism).
In any case, it seems like someone _should_ write a thesis on Shit My Dad
Says.

(Maybe literary criticism is the wrong discipline? Is there something more
applicable?)

~~~
unalone
Well, it's early in the morning and I might come to my senses later, but what
the hell, the Internet's got a lot of free space:
<http://shitmydadsaysexplained.tumblr.com/>

I promise you within four entries you'll never be able to read SMDS without
breaking it down into components, and the humor will be lost, and you'll hate
me forever.

------
adamhowell
It's a great story -- especially since Shit My Dad Says is hilarious -- but
this does more to prove how desperate the networks are for hits in the 18-34
demographic and how poor their judgement has become (see 'Cavemen') than it
does to prove anything about Twitter talent shining through, etc.

~~~
mechanical_fish
This doesn't look especially "desperate" to me. They gave the guy "a deal".
The article doesn't mention the price. It doesn't mention a pilot, let alone
an order of six episodes. It says there's a writer, a co-writer, a producer,
and a press release. That's all just paper, and precious little paper so far.
The sunk cost of this for the network could literally range all the way down
to: The cost of printing out that press release.

(Because, believe me, if you're an aspiring screenwriter and a studio calls
and offers to read your spec script, put out a press release, introduce you to
a producer whose name you've actually _heard_ , and pay you as little as _one
nickel_ , you _take_ that call. Because having a studio on the other end of a
phone line may be all you need to get an _agent_ , who will not only help you
negotiate your way up to _fifty whole bucks_ above union scale, but will also
probably shop your next script or two around. Which is where the value is.
Many aspiring screenwriters never get this far.)

------
bartl
Here's an insightful interview with Justin before this happened:
[http://www.maxim.com/humor/stupid-fun/83977/interview-
justin...](http://www.maxim.com/humor/stupid-fun/83977/interview-justin-from-
twitters-shitmydadsays.html)

~~~
nonrecursive
Good to know that he's actually a writer for Maxim. Makes the TV deal seem
less bizarre.

~~~
loupgarou21
I had a subscription to a magazine that went out of business. They sold the
rest of my subscription to Maxim, and sent me a letter letting me know that I
could get a check for the remainder of my money instead of getting Maxim.
There were only a couple of issues left in the subscription anyway, so I
figured it wasn't worth the trouble to get the check.

I read through the first issue of Maxim that showed up and realized that it
was 1.) basically porn for kids too young to get actual porn and 2.) actually
insulting to the reader. I'm not saying that the writing quality was so poor
that it was an insult to the reader, I'm saying that the writers actually
insult the reader by calling the reader a loser, telling the reader that his
penis is tiny, and calling into question the reader's sexuality.

I don't know how they make any money by actually insulting the people that
bother to buy the magazine. If I had to guess, I'd say that most of the people
buying the magazine aren't doing it for the articles.

------
Mongoose
Poor _1001 Rules for My Unborn Son_. 406 updates and all I got was this lousy
book deal. <http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/>

~~~
rick888
Great site! I just checked it out and couldn't stop reading.

~~~
unalone
If you need to break the addiction, read a few pages looking for misogyny,
bigotry, and casual discrimination against various sorts of people. Your
habit'll break by sun-up.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
what are you the joke police?

~~~
unalone
Am I not allowed to state a dissenting opinion online anymore? Shitmydadsays
is a brilliant Internet source, and Rules For My Unborn Son strikes me as
bigoted and outdated.

~~~
wooster
Opinions, sure. Libel and threats, not so much.

"misogyny, bigotry, and casual discrimination"

"I'll go Communications major on your ass"

~~~
unalone
I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to become as serious a thread as it was. I
meant my response lightheartedly, as in: "Hey, you _could_ look at it like
that and you'll find it." It's got a very 1950s mindset, and I was saying that
if you get hooked that's what I realized that made me stop reading it.

Libel? It's an Internet comment, and it's not one taking itself that
seriously. It's not like I'm launching a massive anti-Rules campaign. It's my
opinion, and I was trying not to be a douche about it. Sorry if I came across
as douchey.

But, seriously, "I'll go Communications major on your ass" is a _threat_? I
was implying that if he wanted to be an asshole, I'd devote some major time to
explaining what makes Shitmydadsays such a compelling read for me, from the
perspective of somebody who's career is going to be focused on the written
word.

------
alttab
Almost makes me wonder what we're doing busting our ass writing software.
</sarcasm>

I'm a little surprised at this - are they turning the blog into the idea for a
show? Those 72 one liners would be burned up in as little as half a season
(not that I even know how long that is because I don't watch TV).

That said, a sit com that had cankerous old farts in it is nothing new.
"There's Something about Raymond", "Seinfield", ... jeez the list goes on.

Ok, I _used_ to watch _a lot_ of TV.

------
ivenkys
So there is some use for Twitter after all, isn't this just the "old media"
attempting to get cool and "with it" by jumping onto what is a bona-fide
internet hit ?

Well good on you Justin.

------
davenaff
A great outcome for a truly hilarious collection of tweets. I've always
wondered whether the 'dad' was real, but I ultimately decided it didn't matter
- the tweets are simply hilarious.

------
joez
I hope this guy turns out to be a smashing success and inspires more quality
content on Twitter.

