Dril: Difference between revisions
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{{short description|Pseudonymous Twitter user (born 1987)}} |
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{{about|the Twitter user||DRIL (disambiguation){{!}}DRIL}} |
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{{good article}} |
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{{DISPLAYTITLE:dril}} |
{{DISPLAYTITLE:dril}} |
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{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2024}} |
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{{About2|the [[Twitter]] user|For the tool, see [[drill]]. For the surgical method of treating [[vascular access steal syndrome]], see [[DRIL]]}} |
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{{Infobox person |
{{Infobox person |
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| name = |
| name = dril |
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| image = |
| image = Dril self-portrait.jpg{{!}}border |
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| alt = A line art-style illustration of a smug-looking man with sunglasses and a cigarette in the corner of his mouth. He wears a military uniform, including a cape, medals, epaulettes, and an armband that displays the word "Pussy". |
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| caption = Two dril tweets.<ref>{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=216933685562327041 |date = June 24, 2012 |title=please stop changing the "Gomco Clamp" wikipedia entry, i have the entire article tattooed on my back and im sick of having to update it}}</ref><ref>{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=317131720522625024 |date = March 27, 2013 |title=please keep my denny's coupon gender rant off of wikipedia's list of notable tantrums-- it is NOT notable}}</ref> The account's [[Avatar (computing)|avatar]] is a blurry portrait of American actor [[Jack Nicholson]]. |
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| caption = A [[self-portrait]] from dril's 2018 book, based on his Twitter [[Avatar (computing)|avatar]], a blurred image of actor [[Jack Nicholson]]'s face |
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| other_names = wint (display name) |
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| other_names = wint (intermittent Twitter display name), Paul Dochney (creator) |
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| years_active = 2008–present |
| years_active = 2008–present |
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| known_for = [[Surreal humour|Absurdist]] [[Twitter|tweets]] |
| known_for = [[Surreal humour|Absurdist]] [[Twitter|tweets]] |
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| notable_works = ''[[Dril Official "Mr. Ten Years" Anniversary Collection]]'' |
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| website = {{url|https://twitter.com/dril|@dril on Twitter}} |
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| website = {{hlist|{{plainlink|https://twitter.com/dril|@dril on Twitter}}|{{plainlink|http://www.wint.co/|wint.co}}}} |
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| signature = Dril signature.svg |
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| signature_alt = @dril |
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}} |
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'''@dril''' is a [[pseudonym]]ous |
'''@dril''' is a [[pseudonym]]ous Twitter user best known for his idiosyncratic style of [[absurdist humor]] and [[Non sequitur (literary device)|non-sequiturs]]. The account and the character associated with the tweets are all commonly referred to as '''dril''' (the account's [[username]] on Twitter) or '''wint''' (the account's intermittent display name), both rendered lowercase but often capitalized by others. Since his first tweet in 2008, dril has become a popular and influential Twitter user with more than 1.8 million followers.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lorenz |first1=Taylor |author1-link=Taylor Lorenz |title=Twitter king Dril on Musk's chaotic reign |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/11/22/dril-musk-twitter-future/ |access-date=November 24, 2022 |newspaper=Washington Post}}</ref> |
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Dril is one of the most notable accounts associated with "[[Weird Twitter]]", a subculture on the site that shares a surreal, ironic sense of humor. The character associated with dril is highly distinctive, often described as a bizarre reflection of a typical male American Internet user. Other social media users have repurposed dril's tweets for humorous or satiric effect in a variety of political and cultural contexts. Many of dril's tweets, phrases, and tropes have become familiar parts of [[Internet slang]]. |
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The few available details about his life fueled speculation about his identity, though a large contingent of his fanbase insisted that others respect his choice to maintain his privacy. In 2017, following a [[doxing]] incident, a piece from ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' suggested the author's identity.<ref name="Swearingen" /> Dril was identified as '''Paul Dochney''' (born 1987). Dochney typically responded to press inquiries "in-character". Dochney confirmed his identity on several occasions thereafter, and in 2023 he participated in his first interview under his own name at ''[[The Ringer (website)|The Ringer]]''.<ref name="Rogers 2023" /> |
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== Biography and identity == |
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Little is known about the author of the dril account. As of {{CURRENTYEAR}}, the author has not publicly identified himself. When asked about his anonymity in a private Q&A, dril responded "i am an almost 30 year old man and i could not really care less about the platform i use to convey [[dick joke]]s."<ref name="Mcdonough" /> Prior to creating the [[Twitter]] account, the person behind dril was a poster at the [[Something Awful]] [[Internet forum|forums]] under the name "gigantic drill".<ref name="weird survey" /> The first dril tweet — the entire contents of which are the word "no" — was posted on September 15, 2008.<ref name="Mcdonough" /> |
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Beyond tweeting, Dochney funds his work through [[Patreon]], has created [[Animated cartoon|animated short films]] and contributed illustrations and writing to other artists' collaborative projects. His first book, ''[[Dril Official "Mr. Ten Years" Anniversary Collection]]'' (2018), is a compilation of the account's "greatest hits" alongside new illustrations. In 2019 he announced the launch of a streaming web series called ''Truthpoint: Darkweb Rising'', an ''[[InfoWars]]'' parody co-created with comedian Derek Estevez-Olsen for [[Adult Swim]]. Writers have praised dril for his originality and humor; for example, poet [[Patricia Lockwood]] said of him: "he is a master of tone, he is a master of character".<ref name="lockwood lecture" /> |
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{{Quote box |
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|quote =[[File:Disc Plain cyan.svg|border|left|32px]]{{float|left=4px|{{font|😎|size=200%}}}}<poem> |
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== Biography == |
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'''wint''' |
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Dochney was born in June 1987.<ref>{{cite news |last=Hodges |first=Eileen Smith |date=January 30, 1988 |title=278 years old—and counting |newspaper=[[Courier-Post]] |location=[[Cherry Hill, New Jersey]] |publisher=[[Gannett]] |page=1D |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/182778862 |url-access=subscription |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}} {{subscription required}}</ref> He grew up in [[New Jersey]], raised by [[Working class|working-class]] parents: his father worked as a manager at [[FedEx]] while his mother, a homemaker, sought out odd jobs for additional income.<ref name="Rogers 2023" /> He graduated from [[Haddonfield Memorial High School]].<ref>{{cite book |date=2005 |title=The Shield |volume=106 |publisher=[[Haddonfield Memorial High School]] |location=New Jersey |page=211 |url=https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1622120069:1265 |url-access=subscription |access-date=April 13, 2023 |via=[[Ancestry.com]]}}</ref> After dropping out of college on his first attempt, he restarted at [[Wilmington University]] in Delaware and attained a [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in media design (i.e., [[Graphic design|graphic]] and [[web design]]).<ref name="Rogers 2023" /> He moved to [[Philadelphia]] in the late 2010s.<ref name="Jones 2019">{{cite web |last=Jones |first=Layla A. |date=October 20, 2019 |title=Philly's most infamous Weird Twitter star has a new TV show. Here's what it's like. |website=[[Billy Penn (news site)|Billy Penn]] |publisher=[[WHYY-FM]] |location=Philadelphia |url=https://billypenn.com/2019/10/20/phillys-most-infamous-weird-twitter-star-has-a-new-tv-show-heres-what-its-like/ |access-date=April 30, 2023 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191020175603/https://billypenn.com/2019/10/20/phillys-most-infamous-weird-twitter-star-has-a-new-tv-show-heres-what-its-like/ |archive-date=October 20, 2019}}</ref> By the early 2020s, Dochney resided in [[Greater Los Angeles]].<ref name="Rogers 2023" /><ref name="Marshall New Yorker" /> |
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@dril |
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{{tweet |
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no</poem> |
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| image = Dril self-portrait.jpg |
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|source = 10:25 AM - 15 Sep 2008<ref>{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=922321981 |date = September 15, 2008 |title=no}}</ref> |
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| name = wint |
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| username = dril |
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| unverified = y |
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|bgcolor= #FFFFFF |
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| date = September 15, 2008 |
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| left = y |
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| text = no |
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| reference = <ref group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=922321981 |date = September 15, 2008 |title=no|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170515062206/https://twitter.com/dril/status/922321981 |archive-date=May 15, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> |
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Dochney was an avid Internet user [[Digital native|from early childhood]].<ref name="Rogers 2023" /> By the 2000s, he was posting at the [[Something Awful]] [[Internet forum|forums]] under the name "gigantic drill".<ref name="weird survey" /><ref name="Purdom" /> He spent most of his time posting artwork to the site's "Fuck You and Die" (FYAD) forum.<ref name="Rogers 2023" /> According to David Thorpe, a former Something Awful admin, gigantic drill was known as "just a guy who was posting funny stuff on there", but never one of the site's featured front page writers.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/nzg4yw/fuck-you-and-die-an-oral-history-of-something-awful|title=Fuck You And Die: An Oral History of Something Awful |last=Wofford|first= Taylor|date=April 5, 2017|website= Motherboard|publisher= [[Vice Media]]|access-date= May 21, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180225110723/https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/nzg4yw/fuck-you-and-die-an-oral-history-of-something-awful|archive-date=February 25, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Dril joined Twitter about two years after its launch, adopting the handle "@dril" because the correctly spelled "@drill" had already been taken.<ref name="Rogers 2023" /> Dril sent his first tweet, the single word "no", on September 15, 2008.<ref name="McDonough" /> |
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The @dril Twitter account then remained silent for nine months before making its second tweet—"how do i get cowboy paint off a dog ."—and has posted regularly in the years since.<ref name="Mcdonough" /> |
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Later, when reflecting on the state of Twitter at the time of his first tweet, dril said "everyone was just posting bullshit like, 'Oh, this is what I had for lunch.' It was just, like, tech guys posting inane details about their lives. I posted 'no' because I didn't care for it at the time. I still really don't care for it."<ref name="Rogers 2023" /> The @dril account then remained silent on Twitter for nine months before his second tweet—"how do i get cowboy paint off a dog{{nbsp}}."<ref group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=2299229204 |date = June 23, 2009 |title=how do i get cowboy paint off a dog .|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180118225448/https:/twitter.com/dril/status/2299229204 |archive-date=January 18, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>—and has posted regularly in the years since.<ref name="Purdom" /><ref name="McDonough" /> |
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Jacob Bakkila, one of the writers behind the similarly absurd and popular [[Horse ebooks|Horse_ebooks]] Twitter account, claimed to have been hired for a project by the person behind the dril account.<ref name="dril q">{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/horse-ebooks-the-dril-question |
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|title= Horse_Ebooks: The Dril Question |
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|last1=Herrman |
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|first1=John |
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|last2=Notopoulos |
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|first2=Katie |
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|date=September 24, 2013 |
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|website=[[BuzzFeed]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> According to Bakkila, dril is a [[graphic designer]] who lives somewhere in the [[New York metropolitan area|New York metropolitan tri-state area]].<ref name="dril q" /> John Herrman and Katie Notopoulos at ''[[BuzzFeed]]'' speculated that dril may be a collaborative project or that Bakkila himself was behind dril.<ref name="dril q" /> Bakkila denied the rumor that he was dril, but said he was "a friend" and that dril had contributed to the Horse_ebooks sequel.<ref name="verge">{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.theverge.com/2013/9/24/4767840/horse-ebooks-artist-speaks-i-expected-it-would-be-polarizing |
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|title=@Horse_ebooks artist speaks: 'I expected it would be polarizing' |
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|last=Brandom |
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|first=Russell |
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|date=September 24, 2013 |
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|website=[[The Verge]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> |
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== Tweets == |
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===Style and affiliation with "Weird Twitter"=== |
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An article about dril in ''[[The Oxford Student]]'', a [[Student publication|student newspaper]] at the [[University of Oxford]], singled out this 2011 dril tweet as the account's guiding "[[manifesto]]":<ref name="oxstud">{{cite web |
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|url=http://oxfordstudent.com/2017/02/26/everything-i-tweet-real-age-dril/ |
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|title='everything i tweet is real': The Age of Dril |
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|last=Shaw |
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|first=Will |
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|date=February 26, 2017 |
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|website=[[The Oxford Student]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> |
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===Identity=== |
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{{Quote box |
{{Quote box |
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| quote = I mean, my name is already out there. It's in my Wikipedia article. Maybe people need to grow up. Just accept that I'm not like [[Santa Claus]]. I'm not a magic elf who posts. |
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|quote =[[File:Disc Plain cyan.svg|border|left|32px]]{{float|left=4px|{{font|😎|size=200%}}}}<poem> |
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| author = Dochney |
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'''wint''' |
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| source = ''[[The Ringer (website)|The Ringer]]'' (April 12, 2023)<ref name="Rogers 2023" /> |
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@dril |
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| align = right |
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| width = 25% |
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fuck "jokes". everything i tweet is real. raw insight without the horse shit. no, i will NOT follow trolls. twitter dot com. i live for this</poem> |
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| style = min-width:10em |
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|source = 4:54 PM - 13 Oct 2011<ref>{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=124634198387605504 |date = October 13, 2011 |title=fuck 'jokes'. everything i tweet is real. raw insight without the horse shit. no, i will NOT follow trolls. twitter dot com. i live for this}}</ref> |
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| salign = right |
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|align = center |
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|bgcolor= #FFFFFF |
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Dochney initially maintained anonymity; for many years, little was known about the author behind the @dril account. When asked about the account's longtime anonymity during a private Q&A in 2017, he responded "i am an almost 30 year old man and i could not really care less about the Authenticity of the platform i use to convey [[dick joke]]s."<ref name="McDonough" /> Jacob Bakkila, one of the writers behind the @[[Horse_ebooks]] Twitter account, hinted in 2013 that the person behind dril had once hired him for a project.<ref name="dril q">{{cite web|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/horse-ebooks-the-dril-question|title= Horse_Ebooks: The Dril Question|last1=Herrman|first1=John|last2=Notopoulos|first2=Katie|date=September 24, 2013|website=[[BuzzFeed]]|access-date=August 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170127012822/https://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/horse-ebooks-the-dril-question|archive-date=January 27, 2017 |
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Providing a rare, (supposedly) out-of-character statement to ''[[BuzzFeed]]'' for an [[oral history]] about "Weird Twitter," dril commented on his own work and motivations: |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> Bakkila told ''[[BuzzFeed]]'' that dril's author was a [[graphic designer]] living somewhere in the [[New York metropolitan area|New York metropolitan tri-state area]].<ref name="dril q" /> ''BuzzFeed''{{'}}s John Herrman and Katie Notopoulos speculated that the account might be a collaborative project or that Bakkila himself was behind it.<ref name="dril q" /> Bakkila denied the rumor that he was dril, adding that dril was "a friend" who had contributed to the @Horse_ebooks sequel, ''Bear Stearns Bravo''.<ref name="verge">{{cite web|url=https://www.theverge.com/2013/9/24/4767840/horse-ebooks-artist-speaks-i-expected-it-would-be-polarizing|title=@Horse_ebooks artist speaks: 'I expected it would be polarizing'|last=Brandom|first=Russell|date=September 24, 2013|website=[[The Verge]]|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826030456/https://www.theverge.com/2013/9/24/4767840/horse-ebooks-artist-speaks-i-expected-it-would-be-polarizing|archive-date=August 26, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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On November 16, 2017, a [[Tumblr]] post identifying dril's author as Paul Dochney went [[Viral phenomenon|viral]].<ref name="Brogan" /> Other posts identifying Dochney existed as early as 2014 on Tumblr, Twitter, and [[Reddit]], but these earlier posts had not gone viral or been publicized in the media.{{NoteTag|Dochney confirmed that his identity had been uncovered "plenty of times" before the doxing, but these posts had not attracted significant attention or publicity.<ref name="ass hole" group="dril">{{cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7gwz5a/were_dril_and_kc_green_and_were_the_good_internet/dqmnzrn/?context=1|title= We're Dril and KC Green, and we're the good internet boys. Ask us anything about games theories and breakfast meals. • r/IAmA|author= dril (as "dril_VERIFED")|date= December 1, 2017|website= [[Reddit]]|access-date=January 1, 2018|archive-url=https://archive.today/20180109222324/https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7gwz5a/were_dril_and_kc_green_and_were_the_good_internet/dqmnzrn/?context=1|archive-date = January 9, 2018|url-status=live|quote=i think people have uncovered it plenty of times, but theres nothing scandalous enough there to make it worth publicizing and looking like an ass hole while doing so}}</ref>}}<ref name="Swearingen" /><ref name="dot doxed" /> The 2017 post unmasked dril through "informed guesswork" founded on other clues, including a [[LinkedIn]] page associated with ''Bear Stearns Bravo'' and a writing credit on ''[[Hiveswap]]'', an [[adventure game]] set in the universe of [[Andrew Hussie]]'s long-running [[webcomic]] ''[[Homestuck]]''.<ref name="Swearingen">{{cite web |url=https://nymag.com/selectall/2017/11/it-is-with-a-heavy-heart-that-twitter-found-out-who-dril-is.html |title=It Is With a Heavy Heart That Twitter Is Finding Out Who @Dril Is|last= Swearingen|first= Jake|date= November 17, 2017|website=[[New York (magazine)|New York]]|access-date= November 17, 2017 |
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{{quote|Twitter, as I understand it, is a sort of "Hell" that I was banished to upon death in my previous life. In this abstract realm, the only thing I am certain of is that my cries are awarded "Favs" or "RTs" when they are particularly miserable or profane. These ethereal merits do nothing to ease my suffering, but I have deliriously convinced myself that gathering enough of them will impress my unseen superiors and grant me a promotion to a higher plane of existence. This is my sole motivation.<ref name="oral" />}} |
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|archive-url=https://archive.today/20171117234310/http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/11/it-is-with-a-heavy-heart-that-twitter-found-out-who-dril-is.html|archive-date=November 17, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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The Tumblr post was described by the press as a "[[doxing]]": an unwelcome broadcasting of private personal information online.<ref name="dot doxed">{{cite web |url=https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/dril-doxed/ |title=Weird Twitter icon @Dril doxed|last=Kelly|first=Tiffany|date=November 17, 2017|website=[[The Daily Dot]]|access-date=November 17, 2017|archive-url=https://archive.today/20171117230920/https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/dril-doxed/|archive-date=November 17, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Mash dox">{{cite web|url=http://mashable.com/2017/11/17/dril-got-doxxed/|title='Weird Twitter' icon @dril just got doxxed|last=Morse|first=Jack|date=November 17, 2017|website=[[Mashable]]|access-date=November 17, 2017|archive-url=https://archive.today/20171117230939/http://mashable.com/2017/11/17/dril-got-doxxed/%23fEK.NjCOrmqw|archive-date = November 17, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The post was met with backlash and dismay among Twitter users, many of whom voiced a preference for keeping dril's personal identity a mystery and preserving the author's privacy.<ref name="Swearingen" /><ref name="Brogan">{{cite web|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/11/17/twitter_account_dril_identified_on_tumblr_and_reddit.html|title= Twitter's Best Weirdo Got Identified and It Doesn't Matter|last= Brogan|first= Jacob|date= November 17, 2017|website=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]|access-date= November 17, 2017|archive-url=https://archive.today/20171118002850/http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/11/17/twitter_account_dril_identified_on_tumblr_and_reddit.html?ref=hvper.com|archive-date=November 18, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="dot doxed"/><ref name="Mash dox" /> According to Jozefien Wouters, writing for the Belgian news magazine ''[[Knack (magazine)|Knack]]'': |
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{{blockquote|The strange thing is that the unmasking caused only a relatively small shockwave. Everyone decided to pretend that nothing had happened. "I will not let you guys ruin the last good thing on this website. Protect dril, respect dril, leave dril alone", a fan tweeted. Nobody really wants to know who is making compulsive nonsense from his keyboard on the other side of the computer screen.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://focus.knack.be/entertainment/tv-radio/dril-is-de-koning-van-de-rare-tweets-nu-heeft-hij-een-boek-uit/article-normal-1195347.html|title=Dril is de koning van de rare tweets. Nu heeft hij een boek uit|trans-title=Dril is the king of weird tweets. Now he has a book out|language=nl|last=Wouters|first=Jozefien|date=September 11, 2018|website=[[Knack (magazine)|Focus Knack]]|access-date=November 11, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181111235334/https://focus.knack.be/entertainment/tv-radio/dril-is-de-koning-van-de-rare-tweets-nu-heeft-hij-een-boek-uit/article-normal-1195347.html|archive-date=November 11, 2018|url-status=live|url-access=registration|postscript=none}} {{registration required|nolink=1}}</ref>}} |
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Dril addressed the doxing on his Patreon page, writing "everything's normal. i guess im {{sic}} 'doxxed' now. sorry. it's fine. i {{sic|donr}} really give a shit."<ref group="dril">{{cite web|url=https://www.patreon.com/posts/everythings-15640350|title=everything's normal|last=dril|date=November 30, 2017|website=[[Patreon]]|access-date=December 21, 2017|url-access=subscription|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222105329/https://www.patreon.com/posts/everythings-15640350|archive-date=December 22, 2017|url-status=live}} {{subscription required}}</ref> In a Reddit "[[Reddit#IAmA and AMA|ask us anything]]" interview, dril confirmed that he had worked on ''Hiveswap''.<ref name="IAmA everyone involved" group="dril">{{cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7gwz5a/were_dril_and_kc_green_and_were_the_good_internet/dqmi7hy/?context=1|title=We're Dril and KC Green, and we're the good internet boys. Ask us anything about games theories and breakfast meals. • r/IAmA|author=dril (as "dril_VERIFED")|date=December 1, 2017|website=[[Reddit]]|access-date=January 9, 2018|archive-url=https://archive.today/20180109215521/https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7gwz5a/were_dril_and_kc_green_and_were_the_good_internet/dqmi7hy/?context=1|archive-date=January 9, 2018|url-status=live|quote=everyone involved sorta knows each other through the common link of somethingawful that has existed for over a decade now. i was originally approached to work on the hiveswap game that just came out, but moved over to the book since i t seemed pretty apparent i was better suited to the filthy bro and jeff universe}}</ref><ref name="IAmA if its" group="dril">{{cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7gwz5a/were_dril_and_kc_green_and_were_the_good_internet/dqmn93l/?context=3|title=We're Dril and KC Green, and we're the good internet boys. Ask us anything about games theories and breakfast meals. • r/IAmA|author=dril (as "dril_VERIFED")|date=December 1, 2017|website=[[Reddit]]|access-date=January 1, 2018|archive-url=https://archive.today/20180109215913/https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7gwz5a/were_dril_and_kc_green_and_were_the_good_internet/dqmn93l/?context=3|archive-date=January 9, 2018|url-status=live|quote=if its not him hes very good at lying}}</ref> He said the personal impact of the doxing had been minimal, adding that people had been "surprisingly normal" and he had no "sordid past" to hide,<ref name="IAmA people have" group="dril">{{cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7gwz5a/were_dril_and_kc_green_and_were_the_good_internet/dqmjmf0/?context=3|title=We're Dril and KC Green, and we're the good internet boys. Ask us anything about games theories and breakfast meals. • r/IAmA|author=dril (as "dril_VERIFED")|date=December 1, 2017|website=[[Reddit]]|access-date=December 4, 2017|archive-url=https://archive.today/20171204192926/https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7gwz5a/were_dril_and_kc_green_and_were_the_good_internet/dqmjmf0/?context=3|archive-date=December 4, 2017|url-status=live|quote=people have been surprisingly normal about the whole thing. i think someone called my parents at like 1am once but that's about it. i dont really have a permanent address right now or a sordid past so theres not much to dox anyway}}</ref> but also described being outed as "my Cross to bear"<ref name="IAmA there were" group="dril">{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7gwz5a/were_dril_and_kc_green_and_were_the_good_internet/dqmekbg/?context=1 |
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|title=We're Dril and KC Green, and we're the good internet boys. Ask us anything about games theories and breakfast meals. • r/IAmA|author=dril (as "dril_VERIFED")|date=December 1, 2017|website=[[Reddit]]|access-date=January 1, 2018|archive-url =https://archive.today/20180109220434/https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7gwz5a/were_dril_and_kc_green_and_were_the_good_internet/dqmekbg/?context=1|archive-date=January 9, 2018|url-status=live|quote=there were a good 6 or 7 years where nobody knew about my internet shit but it's unavoidable now. this is my Cross to bear}}</ref> and said "theres nothing scandalous enough there to make it worth publicizing and looking like an ass hole while doing so."<ref name="ass hole" group="dril" /> |
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In August 2018, the Twitter account announced that dril was transferring the [[Publishing contract|publishing rights]] of his tweets to Paul Dochney, whom he called his "Agent And Master", for the purpose of publishing [[Dril Official "Mr. Ten Years" Anniversary Collection|his first book]].<ref group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=1028250494580404226 |date=August 11, 2018 |title='I Hereby Sign Over All Content Publishing Rights To 'Paul Dochney,' My Agent And Master' – WINT @dril |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180825024747/https://twitter.com/dril/status/1028250494580404226 |archive-date=August 25, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> Some reporters subsequently identified dril as Dochney.<ref name="Pick" /><ref name="Stephen" /> In a 2020 [[Reddit]] AMA, dril commented, "i doxxed myself so amazon would give me permission to publish my other book last year. im some guy named paul dochney who cares big whoop."<ref group="dril">{{cite web |author=dril (as "dril_VERIFED") |title=i am Dril, CEO of the Dril account on twitter.com and today i digital released "The Get Rich and Become God Method" Ask me any thing |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/fuc6ql/i_am_dril_ceo_of_the_dril_account_on_twittercom/fmddeh3/ |work=[[Reddit]] |date=April 4, 2020 |access-date=May 4, 2021}}</ref> Dochney gave his first fully "out-of-character" interview under his own name in April 2023, when he was profiled at ''[[The Ringer (website)|The Ringer]]''.<ref name="Rogers 2023">{{Cite web |last=Rogers |first=Nate |date=April 12, 2023 |title=Dril Is Everyone. More Specifically, He's a Guy Named Paul. |url=https://www.theringer.com/tech/2023/4/12/23673003/dril-twitter-interview-profile-identity |website=[[The Ringer (website)|The Ringer]] |access-date=April 12, 2023 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412153823/https://www.theringer.com/tech/2023/4/12/23673003/dril-twitter-interview-profile-identity |archive-date=April 12, 2023}}</ref> The latter interview solidified his intent to be publicly identified under his personal name.<ref>{{cite web |last=Ingram |first=Mathew |date=April 13, 2023 |title=ChatGPT, artificial intelligence, and the news |website=[[Columbia Journalism Review]] |publisher=[[Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism]] |location=New York |url=https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/chatgpt_ai_fears_media.php |access-date=April 13, 2023 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414004716/https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/chatgpt_ai_fears_media.php |archive-date=April 14, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=McCarter |first=Reid |date=April 13, 2023 |title=Dril shares his real name and thoughts on working outside of Twitter |website=[[The A.V. Club]] |url=https://www.avclub.com/dril-wint-twitter-paul-dochney-elon-musk-the-ringer-1850332589 |url-status=live |access-date=April 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826031518/http://news.avclub.com/get-involved-internet-donate-to-twitter-god-dril-s-p-1798256658 |archive-date=August 26, 2017}}</ref> |
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==Character and writing style== |
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Dochney writes dril tweets [[wiktionary:in character|in character]], using an [[Avatar (computing)|avatar]] of a blurry image of [[Jack Nicholson]] smiling and wearing sunglasses. Although there is no consistent narrative,<ref name="Bellin" /><ref name="Whyman Nobel" /> the [[Character's voice|"voice" or "character"]] is considered highly distinctive. Writer Alexander McDonough called dril a "grinning Jack Nicholson with severe persecution and self-esteem issues, poor physical health, and a bizarre love/hate relationship with cops."<ref name="McDonough">{{cite web |
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|url = https://medium.com/@amcdonough_43502/dril-weird-twitters-enigmatic-icon-85da8aff502 |
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|title = @dril: Weird Twitter's Enigmatic Icon |
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|last = McDonough |
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|first = Alexander |
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|date = May 8, 2017 |
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|website = [[Medium (website)|Medium]] |
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|access-date = August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170826031957/https://medium.com/%40amcdonough_43502/dril-weird-twitters-enigmatic-icon-85da8aff502 |
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|archive-date = August 26, 2017 |
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|url-status = live}}</ref> Bijan Stephen at ''[[The Verge]]'' likened dril to an online version of the "[[wise fool]]" [[stock character]].<ref name="Stephen">{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/27/17907568/dril-book-official-mr-ten-years-anniversary-collection-review-tweets-twitter |
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|title=@Dril Is the Best Chronicler of the Internet's Last Decade |
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|last=Stephen |
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|first=Bijan |
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|date=September 27, 2018 |
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|website=[[The Verge]] |
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|access-date=October 8, 2018 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180927225603/https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/27/17907568/dril-book-official-mr-ten-years-anniversary-collection-review-tweets-twitter |
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|archive-date=September 27, 2018 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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Critics have described dril's voice as an amalgamation of ordinary Internet users, most of all those who are arrogant, obsessive, ignorant, or hapless. Professor of English literature Roger Bellin describes the character of dril as "generally a recognizable type: a self-important buffoon who's often raging out (show yourself, coward), or other times preening (buddy, they won't even let me), over some bit of nonsense that we're all meant to realize is absurdly unimportant."<ref name="Bellin">{{cite web |last1=Bellin |first1=Roger |date=October 6, 2017 |title=The Sometime Daily |url=http://thesometime.com/daily/2017/10/819/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191019173204/http://thesometime.com/daily/2017/10/819/ |archive-date=October 19, 2019 |access-date=January 8, 2020 |website=The Sometime Daily}}</ref> ''Vice'' reviewer Rachel Pick describes dril as "a bumbling, maladapted fool ... a pudgy, oily man, frequently in a state of undress, who doesn't go through life as much as he is spilled across it."<ref name="Pick" /> According to ''[[The A.V. Club]]''{{'}}s Clayton Purdom, dril is a sort of [[patron saint]] of Internet users, or "your uncle's [[Web browsing history|search history]] come to life and filtered through a scabrous comic sensibility, and ... possibly the most popular, beloved man on the entire internet (after, maybe, [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock]])."<ref name="Purdom" /> Christine Erickson at ''[[Mashable]]'' said dril's character was like "a [[spambot]] equivalent to the kind of crazy that [[Clint Eastwood]] portrays".<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://mashable.com/2012/09/10/twitter-humor/ |
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|title=25 Twitter Accounts to Make You Laugh |
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|last=Erickson |
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|first=Christine |
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|date=September 10, 2012 |
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|website=[[Mashable]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826032519/http://mashable.com/2012/09/10/twitter-humor/ |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> At ''[[Kotaku]]'', Gita Jackson called dril a "joke account that also inadvertently catalogues ... every way to be mad online".<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://kotaku.com/how-to-use-twitter-in-2017-maybe-1795966337 |
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|title=How to Use Twitter in 2017, Maybe |
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|last=Jackson |
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|first=Gita |
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|date=June 9, 2017 |
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|website=[[Kotaku]] |
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|access-date=September 14, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819142946/https://kotaku.com/how-to-use-twitter-in-2017-maybe-1795966337 |
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|archive-date=August 19, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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In a lecture given at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], American poet [[Patricia Lockwood]] described dril as a literary [[alter ego]] of Twitter users and the Internet in general. Comparing the account's persona to Ignatius J. Reilly, the protagonist of [[John Kennedy Toole]]'s novel ''[[A Confederacy of Dunces]]'' (1980), Lockwood cited dril as an example of new possibilities in [[first-person narrative]] that could be explored online. Lockwood said of dril: |
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{{blockquote|He is a master of [[Tone (literature)|tone]], he is a master of character; his accidents are not accidents and his spelling mistakes are not mistakes. His character is the anonymous psycho of the [[Comments section|comments box]]. He has been banned from every forum. He is all-present and nothing-knowing. He is the [[corn syrup]] addiction of America and he is an expired [[Applebee's]] coupon. We worship him in a big, nude church while the police blast [[Kenny Loggins]] and wait for us to come out. We will never come out. We like Kenny Loggins.<ref name="lockwood lecture">{{cite AV media | url=https://media.sas.upenn.edu/watch/144691 | people=[[Patricia Lockwood|Lockwood, Patricia]] (lecturer) | date=April 11, 2013 | title=Launch Event for Twit Crit | medium=videotaped lecture | location=The United States | publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania]] | time=11:14–14:30 | access-date=August 24, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327204815/https://media.sas.upenn.edu/watch/144691 | archive-date=March 27, 2019 | url-status=live }}</ref>}} |
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Dril's tweets are, in the words of Jordan Sargent at ''[[Gawker]]'', a series of "quietly seething and unhinged [[avant-garde]] scribblings".<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://defamer.gawker.com/iggy-azalea-please-log-off-twitter-forever-1684841145 |
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|title=Iggy Azalea, Please Log Off Twitter Forever |
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|last=Sargent |
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|first=Jordan |
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|date=February 10, 2015 |
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|website=[[Gawker]] |
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|publisher=[[Univision Communications]] (originally published by [[Gawker Media]]) |
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|access-date=October 18, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160907013054/http://defamer.gawker.com/iggy-azalea-please-log-off-twitter-forever-1684841145 |
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|archive-date=September 7, 2016 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> His tweets are deliberately peppered with odd [[Typographical error|typos]] like misspelled words, grammatical mistakes, punctuation errors, and [[eggcorn]]s.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/social-media/2016/10/why-are-online-jokes-funnier-without-punctuation-and-capital |
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|title=Why are online jokes funnier without punctuation and capital letters? |
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|last=Tait |
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|first=Amelia |
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|date=October 21, 2016 |
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|website=[[New Statesman]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826032608/http://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/social-media/2016/10/why-are-online-jokes-funnier-without-punctuation-and-capital |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> Yohann Koshy in ''[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]'' said dril's writing "reads like [[obscene]] [[nonsense verse]]—the syntax mutilated, the humour irredeemable".<ref name="vice satire">{{cite web |
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|url = https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/53n9v8/the-new-wave-of-satire-for-our-morbid-political-landscape |
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|title = The New Wave of Satire for Our Morbid Political Landscape |
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|last = Koshy |
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|first = Yohann |
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|date = May 10, 2017 |
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|website = [[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |
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|publisher = [[Vice Media]] |
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|access-date = August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url = https://archive.today/20180703171206/https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/53n9v8/the-new-wave-of-satire-for-our-morbid-political-landscape |
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|archive-date = July 3, 2018 |
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|url-status = live |
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}}</ref> In the preface to his first book, dril called his writing style "Prestige Short Prose".<ref name="Pick">{{cite web |
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| url = https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qvmqew/dril-new-book-tweets-interview |
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| last = Pick |
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| first = Rachel |
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| title = Cowards and Trolls Log Off: Dril's New Book Is Awesome |
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| website = [[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |
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| publisher = [[Vice Media]] |
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| date = August 28, 2018 |
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| access-date = September 4, 2018 |
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| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180904191243/https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qvmqew/dril-new-book-tweets-interview |
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| archive-date = September 4, 2018 |
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| url-status = live}}</ref> Pick suggested that the phrase was likely "meant to make fun of the snobby [[Literary theory|lit theory]] types who want to make Dril out to be some [[highbrow]] art project", but she concluded it was an apt term to describe dril's style of "part art form, part [[Bathroom reading|jokes to read on the toilet]]".<ref name="Pick" /> Pick also compared dril's writing to the surreal [[one-line joke|one-liner jokes]] of [[Jack Handey]] and the [[flash fiction]] short story "[[For sale: baby shoes, never worn]]".<ref name="Pick" /> Jonah Engel Bromwich, in ''The New York Times'', said dril was a major influence on the spread of [[dialogue]], written in the same method as screenwriting, as a comedic writing style on Twitter.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news |
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|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/05/us/politics/trump-dialogues.html |
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|title=The Trump Dialogues, From a Parody Universe |
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|last=Bromwich |
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|first=Jonah Engel |
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|date=October 4, 2016 |
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|website=[[The New York Times]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826071046/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/05/us/politics/trump-dialogues.html |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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Dril has been identified as one of the "most revered"<ref name="dril q" /> and "quintessential"<ref name="Reply All">{{cite podcast |
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| |
|url = https://gimletmedia.com/episode/12-backend-trouble/ |
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| |
|title = Back End Trouble |
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| |
|number = 12 |
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| |
|website = [[Reply All (podcast)|Reply All]] |
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| |
|publisher = [[Gimlet Media]] |
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| |
|host = [[PJ Vogt]], Alex Goldman |
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| |
|date = February 4, 2015 |
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| |
|time = 20:36 |
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| |
|quote = ALEX GOLDMAN: 'The quintessential Weird Twitterer is dril.' |
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| |
|access-date = August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url = https://archive.today/20150410174937/http://gimletmedia.com/episode/12-backend-trouble/ |
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}}</ref> accounts associated with the "Weird Twitter" scene, a loose [[subculture]] of users associated with surreal, ironic, or subversive humor.<ref name="oral">{{cite web |
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|archive-date = April 10, 2015 |
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|url-status = dead |
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}}</ref> accounts associated with the "Weird Twitter" scene, a loose [[subculture]] of associated users who share a surreal, ironic, subversive sense of humor.<ref name="oral">{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/weird-twitter-the-oral-history |
|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/weird-twitter-the-oral-history |
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|title=Weird Twitter: The Oral History |
|title=Weird Twitter: The Oral History |
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|first2=Katie |
|first2=Katie |
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|date=April 5, 2013 |
|date=April 5, 2013 |
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|website=[[BuzzFeed]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805205054/https://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/weird-twitter-the-oral-history |
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|archive-date=August 5, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="AV">{{cite web |
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|url=http://news.avclub.com/get-involved-internet-donate-to-twitter-god-dril-s-p-1798256658 |
|url=http://news.avclub.com/get-involved-internet-donate-to-twitter-god-dril-s-p-1798256658 |
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|title=Get Involved, Internet!: Donate to Twitter god dril's Patreon so he can 'create Hell' |
|title=Get Involved, Internet!: Donate to Twitter god dril's Patreon so he can 'create Hell' |
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|first1=Randall |
|first1=Randall |
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|date=January 20, 2017 |
|date=January 20, 2017 |
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|website=[[The A.V. Club]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
||
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826031518/http://news.avclub.com/get-involved-internet-donate-to-twitter-god-dril-s-p-1798256658 |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |
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|url=https://www.wired.com/2016/03/10th-birthday-short-history-twitter-tweets/ |
|url=https://www.wired.com/2016/03/10th-birthday-short-history-twitter-tweets/ |
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|title=On Its 10th Birthday, a Short History of Twitter in Tweets |
|title=On Its 10th Birthday, a Short History of Twitter in Tweets |
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|first=Julia |
|first=Julia |
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|date=March 21, 2016 |
|date=March 21, 2016 |
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|magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |
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|publisher=[[Condé Nast]] |
|publisher=[[Condé Nast]] |
||
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> Writing for ''[[Complex (magazine)|Complex]]'', Brenden Gallagher compared dril to a musician who refuses to [[Selling out|sell out]] or an [[auteur|auteurist]] [[Independent film|indie filmmaker]], as Twitter's version of "the enigmatic figure that even [an art form's] best known practitioners look to with reverence."<ref name="weird survey">{{cite web |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826030952/https://www.wired.com/2016/03/10th-birthday-short-history-twitter-tweets/ |
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|url=http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2014/07/a-survey-of-the-best-and-weirdest-of-weird-twitter/dril |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|title=A Survey of The Best and Weirdest of Weird Twitter |
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|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |
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|last=Gallagher |
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|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/edzitron/2013/03/18/hendren/ |
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|first=Brenden |
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|title=The Devil Tweets Proudly: Jon Hendren, Destroyer of Internet Brands and Mayor of 'Weird Twitter' |
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|date=July 16, 2014 |
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|last=Zitron |
|||
|website=[[Kinja]] |
|||
|first=Ed |
|||
|publisher=[[Univision Communications]] (originally published by [[Gawker Media]]) |
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|date=March 18, 2013 |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> Like many other notable Weird Twitter users, dril began posting on [[Something Awful]]'s FYAD board, and carried over many of the board's [[in-joke]]s and tone to Twitter.<ref>{{cite web |
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|website=[[Forbes]] |
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|access-date=September 27, 2016 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160927032102/https://www.forbes.com/sites/edzitron/2013/03/18/hendren/#782d7dbd67a5 |
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|archive-date=September 27, 2016 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> dril was one of many Weird Twitter personalities who migrated to Twitter from [[Something Awful]]'s FYAD board and carried over the forum's [[in-joke]]s and tone.<ref name="Purdom" /><ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/the-internets-last-great-troll-lair-may-have-been-killed-by |
|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/the-internets-last-great-troll-lair-may-have-been-killed-by |
||
|title=The Internet's Last Great Troll Lair May Have Been Shut Down By The Secret Service |
|title=The Internet's Last Great Troll Lair May Have Been Shut Down By The Secret Service |
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|first=Katie |
|first=Katie |
||
|date=April 30, 2014 |
|date=April 30, 2014 |
||
|website=[[BuzzFeed]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> Sentences in dril's tweets, like those of many other Weird Twitter accounts, are peppered with [[Idiosyncrasy|idiosyncratic]] grammatical mistakes, punctuation errors, misspelled words, and [[eggcorn]]s.<ref>{{cite web |
|||
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161015073136/https://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/the-internets-last-great-troll-lair-may-have-been-killed-by |
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|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/social-media/2016/10/why-are-online-jokes-funnier-without-punctuation-and-capital |
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|archive-date=October 15, 2016 |
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|title=Why are online jokes funnier without punctuation and capital letters? |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> Like others on Weird Twitter, dril's tweets have been described as having a [[dada]]ist sensibility.<ref>{{cite web |
|||
|last=Tait |
|||
|first=Amelia |
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|date=October 21, 2016 |
|||
|website=[[New Statesman]] |
|||
|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> Like many on Weird Twitter, dril's tweets have a [[Dada|dadaist]] sensibility.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.theontarion.com/2016/04/dadaism-in-the-age-of-twitter/ |
|url=https://www.theontarion.com/2016/04/dadaism-in-the-age-of-twitter/ |
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|title=Dadaism in the age of Twitter |
|title=Dadaism in the age of Twitter |
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|first=Sierra |
|first=Sierra |
||
|date=April 14, 2016 |
|date=April 14, 2016 |
||
|website=[[The Ontarion]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
||
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826031236/https://www.theontarion.com/2016/04/dadaism-in-the-age-of-twitter/ |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> Writing for ''[[Complex (magazine)|Complex]]'', Brenden Gallagher compared dril to a musician who refuses to [[Selling out|sell out]] or an [[auteur]]ist [[Independent film|indie filmmaker]], as Twitter's version of "the enigmatic figure that even [an art form's] best known practitioners look to with reverence".<ref name="weird survey">{{cite web |
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|url = http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2014/07/a-survey-of-the-best-and-weirdest-of-weird-twitter/dril |
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|title = A Survey of The Best and Weirdest of Weird Twitter |
|||
|last = Gallagher |
|||
|first = Brenden |
|||
|date = July 16, 2014 |
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|website = [[Complex (magazine)|Complex]] |
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|access-date = August 24, 2017 |
|||
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160820030106/http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2014/07/a-survey-of-the-best-and-weirdest-of-weird-twitter/ |
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|archive-date = August 20, 2016 |
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|url-status = live}}</ref> Sean T. Collins described dril's humor as a "blend of fist-on-the-table bluster, abject confusion and burned-toast syntax", noting the influence of surreal humor found in [[Monty Python]] (especially the [[Sketch comedy|sketches]] from their show ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' and [[Terry Gilliam]]'s animations) and [[Adult Swim]] shows like ''[[Space Ghost Coast to Coast]]'' and ''[[Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!]]''<ref name="collins">{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dril-and-the-boys-twitter_us_5bb66529e4b028e1fe3bfd71 |
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|last=Collins |
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|first=Sean T. |
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|date=October 5, 2018 |
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|title=The Love Song of Dril and the Boys |
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|website=[[HuffPost]] |
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|access-date=October 7, 2018 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181005205522/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dril-and-the-boys-twitter_us_5bb66529e4b028e1fe3bfd71 |
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|archive-date=October 5, 2018 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> Collins called dril's tweets "a new way to be funny, with a rhythm and vocabulary all their own. I love it."<ref name="collins" /> |
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=== Motivation and satirical elements === |
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===Character or persona=== |
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Most of dril's writing is understood to be absurd, surreal, ironic, or nonsensical.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pick |first1=Rachel |title='I'm His Pig': @Dril Responds to Elon Musk Buying Twitter |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkp5xz/im-his-pig-dril-responds-to-elon-musk-buying-twitter |website=Vice |date=April 27, 2022 |publisher=` |access-date=November 7, 2022 |language=en}}</ref> An article about dril in ''[[The Oxford Student]]'' singled out this 2011 dril tweet as the account's guiding "[[manifesto]]":<ref name="oxstud">{{cite web |
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{{multiple image|align=right |
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|url=http://oxfordstudent.com/2017/02/26/everything-i-tweet-real-age-dril/ |
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|total_width=350|perrow = 2 |
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|title='everything i tweet is real': The Age of Dril |
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|width1=467|height1=646|image1=Jack Nicholson - 1976.jpg |
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|last=Shaw |
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|width2=732|height2=1008|image2=Donald Trump Pentagon 2017.jpg |
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|first=Will |
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|width3=2592|height3=1684|image3=CanalChartersRexConfederacy1.jpg |
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|date=February 26, 2017 |
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|caption3=dril's persona has been compared to [[Jack Nicholson]] (who is dril's avatar on Twitter),<ref name="Mcdonough" /><ref name="Leslie" /> [[Donald Trump]] (who is, like dril, a prolific Twitter user),<ref name="officially weird" /> and Ignatius J. Reilly (depicted as a parade float), the oafish protagonist of [[John Kennedy Toole]]'s novel ''[[A Confederacy of Dunces]]''.<ref name="lockwood lecture" />}} |
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|website=[[The Oxford Student]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170627073744/http://oxfordstudent.com/2017/02/26/everything-i-tweet-real-age-dril/ |
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|archive-date=June 27, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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{{tweet |
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The [[Characterization#Character's voice|"voice" or "character"]] of the dril persona is highly distinctive. Generally assumed to be male, dril's character is strongly associated with the account's [[Avatar (computing)|avatar]], a blurry image of [[Jack Nicholson]] smiling and wearing sunglasses; a "grinning Jack Nicholson with severe persecution and self-esteem issues, poor physical health, and a bizarre love/hate relationship with cops."<ref name="Mcdonough">{{cite web |
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| image = Dril self-portrait.jpg |
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|url=https://medium.com/@amcdonough_43502/dril-weird-twitters-enigmatic-icon-85da8aff502 |
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| name = wint |
|||
|title=@dril: Weird Twitter's Enigmatic Icon |
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| username = dril |
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|last=Mcdonough |
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| unverified = y |
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|first=Alexander |
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| date = October 13, 2011 |
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| text = fuck "jokes". everything i tweet is real. raw insight without the horse shit. no, i will NOT follow trolls. twitter dot com. i live for this |
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|website=[[Medium (website)|Medium]] |
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| reference = <ref group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=124634198387605504 |date = October 13, 2011 |title=fuck 'jokes'. everything i tweet is real. raw insight without the horse shit. no, i will NOT follow trolls. twitter dot com. i live for this|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701003402/https://twitter.com/dril/status/124634198387605504 |archive-date=July 1, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> Christine Erickson at ''[[Mashable]]'' said dril's character was like "a [[spambot]] equivalent to the kind of crazy that [[Clint Eastwood]] portrays."<ref>{{cite web |
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| block = yes |
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|url=http://mashable.com/2012/09/10/twitter-humor/#TnFN9ETFngqw |
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}} |
|||
|title=25 Twitter Accounts to Make You Laugh |
|||
|last=Erickson |
|||
|first=Christine |
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|date=September 10, 2012 |
|||
|website=[[Mashable]] |
|||
|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> Noting the familiarity of dril's "naive appeals to moderation" and "[[Flaming (Internet)|flame war]] posturing," Will Shaw of ''The Oxford Student'' said dril "is the internet's [[Collective consciousness|collective]] [[Id, ego and super-ego|id]], given form. He's the internet equivalent of the [[Beowulf|Beowulf-poet]]; we may never know who he really is, but we recognise when he is being channelled."<ref name="oxstud" /> An article in ''[[The New York Times]]'' noted dril's influence in the proliferation of a style similar to [[screenwriting]] that is now common to comedy on Twitter.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/05/us/politics/trump-dialogues.html |
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|title=The Trump Dialogues, From a Parody Universe |
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|last=Bromwich |
|||
|first=Jonah Engel |
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|date=October 4, 2016 |
|||
|website=[[The New York Times]] |
|||
|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> |
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Providing an ostensibly out-of-character statement to ''BuzzFeed'' for an [[oral history]] on "Weird Twitter" in 2013, dril commented on the nature of his work and motivation: |
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In a lecture given at the [[University of Pennsylvania]], American poet [[Patricia Lockwood]] described dril as a literary [[alter ego]] of Twitter users and the Internet in general. Comparing the account's persona to Ignatius J. Reilly, the protagonist of [[John Kennedy Toole]]'s novel ''[[A Confederacy of Dunces]]'' (1980), Lockwood cited dril as an example of new possibilities in [[first-person narrative]] that could be explored online. Lockwood said of dril: |
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{{blockquote|Twitter, as I understand it, is a sort of "Hell" that I was banished to upon death in my previous life. In this abstract realm, the only thing I am certain of is that my cries are awarded "Favs" or "RTs" when they are particularly miserable or profane. These ethereal merits do nothing to ease my suffering, but I have deliriously convinced myself that gathering enough of them will impress my unseen superiors and grant me a promotion to a higher plane of existence. This is my sole motivation.<ref name="oral" />}} |
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{{quote|He is a master of [[Tone (literature)|tone]], he is a master of [[Character (arts)|character]]; his accidents are not accidents and his spelling mistakes are not mistakes. His character is the anonymous psycho of the [[Comments section|comments box]]. He has been banned from every forum. He is all-present and nothing-knowing. He is the [[corn syrup]] addiction of America and he is an expired [[Applebee's]] coupon. We worship him in a big, nude church while the police blast [[Kenny Loggins]] and wait for us to come out. We will never come out. We like Kenny Loggins.<ref name="lockwood lecture">{{cite AV media |url=https://media.sas.upenn.edu/watch/144691 |people=[[Patricia Lockwood|Lockwood, Patricia]] (lecturer) | date=April 11, 2013 | title=Launch Event for Twit Crit | medium=videotaped lecture | location=The United States | publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania]]| time=11:14–14:30 |access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref>}} |
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In a 2017 Reddit AMA, he commented: |
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{{blockquote|my friend told me to join twitter ten years ago and i thought it looked dumb as shit so i tried posting the worst things i could think of to destroy it and it didnt work<ref name="destroy twitter" group="dril">{{cite web|url=https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7gwz5a/comment/dqmck3k/?context=3|title= We're Dril and KC Green, and we're the good internet boys. Ask us anything about games theories and breakfast meals. • r/IAmA|author= dril (as "dril_VERIFED")|date= December 1, 2017|website= [[Reddit]]|access-date=January 1, 2018|quote=my friend told me to join twitter ten years ago and i thought it looked dumb as shit so i tried posting the worst things i could think of to destroy it and it didnt work}}</ref>}} |
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Commenters have frequently, if sometimes facetiously, compared dril's persona to [[Donald Trump]] (and vice versa), particularly [[Donald Trump on social media|Trump's voice on Twitter and other social media]]. Writer [[Parker Molloy]] questioned whether Trump was the anonymous writer behind dril,<ref>{{Cite tweet |last=Molloy |first=Parker |author-link=Parker Molloy |user=ParkerMolloy |number=892394197705269250 |date = August 1, 2017 |title=We're going to find out that Trump's been dril all along, aren't we?}}</ref> and a 2016 article at ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' magazine even argued that Trump should choose dril to as his vice-presidential running mate (a position eventually filled by politician [[Mike Pence]]) due to their similar tweeting styles.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/05/dril-should-be-trumps-vice-president.html |
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|title=Dril Should Be Trump's Vice-President |
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|last=Feldman |
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|first=Brian |
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|date=May 20, 2016 |
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|website=[[New York (magazine)|New York]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> In a joke about Trump's use of social media, journalist and [[MSNBC]] host [[Chris Hayes (journalist)|Chris Hayes]] said that protestors should yell at [[Donald Trump]] to [[login|log off]] to "see if they can get him to recreate that @dril tweet,"<ref>{{Cite tweet |last=Hayes |first=Chris |author-link=Chris Hayes (journalist) |user=chrislhayes |number=862294380417355776 |date = May 10, 2017 |title=Protestors at WH today should yell at the building telling the President to logoff and see if they can get him to recreate that @dril tweet.}}</ref> a reference to the following: |
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[[Dan Hitchens]] at Christian journal ''[[First Things]]'' noted, in an article about the use of [[irony]] on social media, that "[m]uch of the art of Twitter consists in appearing to put forward a position while giving the impression that you might be kidding", citing American author [[David Foster Wallace]]'s warnings about the pervasiveness of irony in modern culture.<ref name="FT">{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/10/the-limits-of-irony |
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|title=The Limits of Irony |
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|last=Hitchens |
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|first=Dan |
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|author-link=Dan Hitchens |
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|date=October 16, 2017 |
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|website=[[First Things]] |
|||
|access-date=October 16, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016204849/https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/10/the-limits-of-irony |
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|archive-date=October 16, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Hitchens, dril is the "cult account that towers above the rest" in his mastery of irony, and dril's "inspired errors in spelling, logic, and decorum can only be produced by a clever creator, but the creator never lets the mask slip. Half the joke is our joint awareness of @dril's lack of self-awareness."<ref name="FT" /> |
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Although dril's content is typically absurd or nonsensical, some have noted an undercurrent of satire or [[social commentary]] in dril's tweets.<ref name="oxstud" /><ref name="AV" /> Surveying Weird Twitter for ''Complex'', Gallagher commented that dril's "vicious satire of [[Conservatism in the United States|conservatives]], [[gamer]]s, [[conspiracy theorist]]s, and other less savory aspects of the Internet is always on point, always hilarious, always in character."<ref name="weird survey" /> Fellow Weird Twitter user @rare_basement said dril's "[[trolling]] [of] [[Penn State]] fans during [[Penn State child sex abuse scandal|the molestation scandal]] was so brilliant, always on the right side of the issue, but super funny and subtle about it."<ref name="oral" /> Although dril does not avow an explicit political identity, the account's politics are generally identified as [[Left-wing politics|leftist]], an alignment common among Weird Twitter users.<ref name="Purdom" /> However, the abstraction and vagueness of dril's tweets have allowed them to be spread and repurposed by people of varying ideologies across the political spectrum.<ref name="Purdom" /><ref name="tablet" /> Celebrities, journalists, and former members of both [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] and [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] presidential administrations follow dril,<ref name="tablet" /> and even the far-right ''[[Breitbart News]]'' has quoted dril on its Twitter feed.<ref name="Purdom" /> |
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== Influence == |
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=== Impact on Internet slang === |
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{{Quote box |
{{Quote box |
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| quote = Like [[Dante]] or [[Shakespeare]], Dril is a creator of [[vernacular]]: If you've ever tweeted about [[The Boys Are Back in Town|the boys being back in town]],<ref group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=670963270317154304 |date = November 29, 2015 |title=its fucked up how there are like 1000 christmas songs but only 1 song aboutr the boys being back in town |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170207140204/https://twitter.com/dril/status/670963270317154304 |archive-date=February 7, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> or bemoaned some group of people being at it again,<ref group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=514845232509501440 |date = September 24, 2014 |title=it is with a heavy heart that i must announce that the celebs are at it again |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160704015011/https://twitter.com/dril/status/514845232509501440 |archive-date=July 4, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> or ruminated on things "they" won't even let you do,<ref group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=171450835388203008 |date = February 19, 2012 |title=another day volunteering at the betsy ross museum. everyone keeps asking me if they can fuck the flag. buddy, they wont even let me fuck it |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017162356/https://twitter.com/dril/status/171450835388203008 |archive-date=October 17, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> or asked for budgeting help because your family is dying,<ref name="budget" group="dril" /> you're quoting Dril, maybe without even consciously realizing it by now ... [T]hrough sheer force of genius, his sense of humor has become everyone else's as well. |
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|quote = [[File:Disc Plain cyan.svg|border|left|32px]]{{float|left=4px|{{font|😎|size=200%}}}}<poem> |
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| author = Armin Rosen |
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'''wint''' |
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| source = ''[[Tablet (magazine)|Tablet]]''<ref name="tablet">{{cite web |
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@dril |
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|url = http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/250196/in-praise-of-dril-the-twitter-genius-who-is-never-funnier-than-when-he-tweets-about-israel-or-jews |
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|title = In Praise of Dril, the Twitter Genius Who Is Never Funnier Than When He Tweets About Israel or Jews |
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|last = Rosen |
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|first = Armin |
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|date = November 27, 2017 |
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|website = [[Tablet (magazine)|Tablet]] |
|||
|access-date = November 28, 2017 |
|||
|archive-url = https://archive.today/20171128080526/http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/250196/in-praise-of-dril-the-twitter-genius-who-is-never-funnier-than-when-he-tweets-about-israel-or-jews |
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|archive-date = November 28, 2017 |
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|url-status = live}}</ref> |
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| align = right |
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| width = 25% |
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| style = min-width:10em |
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| salign = right |
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}} |
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References to dril's tweets have become part of the [[vernacular]] of [[Internet slang]]. Some of dril's distinctive phrases have become so ubiquitous that they are used even by those who are unaware of the phrases' origin.<ref name="Swearingen" /><ref name="tablet" /><ref name="dbk">{{cite news |
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who the fuck is scraeming 'LOG OFF' at my house. show yourself, coward. i will never log off</poem> |
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|url=http://www.dbknews.com/2017/11/29/who-is-dril-weird-twitter-comedy-anonymous-dox/ |
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|source = 11:36 PM - 15 Sep 2012<ref>{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=247222360309121024 |date = September 15, 2012 |title=who the fuck is scraeming 'LOG OFF' at my house. show yourself, coward. i will never log off}}</ref> |
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|title=The disappearing anonymity of Wint (@dril) |
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|width = 50% |
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|last=Dunigan |
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|align = center |
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|first=Maeve |
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|bgcolor= #FFFFFF |
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|date=November 29, 2017 |
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|website=[[The Diamondback]] |
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|access-date=November 29, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171129230816/http://www.dbknews.com/2017/11/29/who-is-dril-weird-twitter-comedy-anonymous-dox/ |
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|archive-date=November 29, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> Although dril's biggest influence is on Twitter, his tweets are also popular on other social media platforms—for example, meme-aggregating groups on Facebook commonly share his content,<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.theawl.com/2016/07/post-aesthetics-and-the-memetic-marxists/ |
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|title=Post Aesthetics and the Memetic Marxists |
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|last=McBride |
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|first=Jameson Randall |
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|date=July 11, 2016 |
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|website=[[The Awl]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826030528/https://www.theawl.com/2016/07/post-aesthetics-and-the-memetic-marxists/ |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> and several [[Tumblr]] users and trends have referenced and been influenced by dril.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url = https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/tumblr-skeleton-war/ |
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|title = The strange and frightful tale behind Tumblr's Skeleton War |
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|last = Baker-Whitelaw |
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|first = Gavia |
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|date = October 31, 2014 |
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|website = [[The Daily Dot]] |
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|access-date = September 11, 2017 |
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|archive-url = https://archive.today/20170911204915/https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/tumblr-skeleton-war/ |
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|archive-date = September 11, 2017 |
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|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/spooky-scary-skeletons-from-the-bible-to-tumblr |
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|title=Spooky Scary Skeletons, From The Bible To Tumblr |
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|last=Giaimo |
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|first=Cara |
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|date=October 30, 2015 |
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|website=[[Atlas Obscura]] |
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|access-date=September 11, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312163338/http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/spooky-scary-skeletons-from-the-bible-to-tumblr |
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|archive-date=March 12, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://www.businessinsider.com/the-signs-as-astrology-tumblr-2015-12 |
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|title=An incredibly bizarre astrology trend dominated Tumblr this year |
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|last=Mulshine |
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|first=Molly |
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|date=December 21, 2015 |
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|website=[[Business Insider]] |
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|access-date=September 11, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170818154840/http://www.businessinsider.com/the-signs-as-astrology-tumblr-2015-12 |
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|archive-date=August 18, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> There was a ''[[Know Your Meme]]'' guide to dril in 2014, at a time when ''KYM'' pages for individual Twitter users were comparatively rare.<ref name="weird survey" /> |
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A common piece of conventional wisdom on Twitter holds that it is possible to find a dril Tweet that corresponds to virtually any situation or statement,<ref name="Purdom">{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.avclub.com/following-dril-the-twitter-account-at-the-end-of-the-w-1819327846 |
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|title=Following Dril, the Twitter account at the end of the world |
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|last1=Purdom |
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|first1=Clayton |
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|date=October 19, 2017 |
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|website=[[The A.V. Club]] |
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|access-date=October 19, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020063823/https://www.avclub.com/following-dril-the-twitter-account-at-the-end-of-the-w-1819327846 |
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|archive-date=October 20, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.avclub.com/dril-politely-requests-that-you-do-not-respond-to-his-p-1823557541 |
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|title=Dril politely requests that you do not respond to his posts |
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|last=Purdom |
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|first=Clayton |
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|date=March 6, 2018 |
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|website=[[The A.V. Club]] |
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|access-date=April 4, 2018 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180307030512/https://www.avclub.com/dril-politely-requests-that-you-do-not-respond-to-his-p-1823557541 |
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|archive-date=March 7, 2018 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Kalaf">{{cite web |
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|url = https://deadspin.com/everything-that-should-die-in-2018-1821136833 |
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|title = Everything That Should Die in 2018 |
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|last = Kalaf |
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|first = Samer |
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|author2 = ''Deadspin'' staff |
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|date = December 29, 2017 |
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|website = [[Deadspin]] |
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|publisher = [[Univision Communications]] |
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|access-date = January 15, 2017 |
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|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180101030624/https://deadspin.com/everything-that-should-die-in-2018-1821136833 |
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|archive-date = January 1, 2018 |
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|url-status = live}}</ref> leading to the saying "There's always a dril Tweet."<ref>{{Cite web|last=eireanndolan|title=There's always a dril tweet|url=https://twitter.com/eireanndolan/status/1272656056259395586 |access-date=2021-07-14|website=Twitter|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=noahpinion|title=There's always a dril tweet|url=https://twitter.com/noahpinion/status/1400474609443500034 |access-date=2021-07-14|website=Twitter|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=jeffrueter|title=There's always a dril tweet.|url=https://twitter.com/jeffrueter/status/1292645160703201280 |access-date=2021-07-14|website=Twitter|language=en}}</ref> As an example, the dril Tweet below has been widely referenced after a person apologizes for making a dramatically offensive and obviously incorrect statement:<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.indy100.com/article/sameera-khan-russia-today-stalin-meme-twitter-8576131 |
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|title=Russia Today reporter deactivates Twitter account after sharing pro-Stalin memes |
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|last=Evans |
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|first=Greg |
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|date=October 9, 2018 |
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|website=indy100 |
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|publisher=[[The Independent|Independent News & Media]] |
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|access-date=October 9, 2018 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009225940/https://www.indy100.com/article/sameera-khan-russia-today-stalin-meme-twitter-8576131 |
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|archive-date=October 9, 2018 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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{{tweet |
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|image = Dril self-portrait.jpg |
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|name = wint |
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|username = dril |
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|unverified = y |
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|date = February 15, 2017 |
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|text = issuing correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the terror group [[ISIL]]. you do not, under any circumstances, "[[wikt:hand it to someone|gotta hand it to them]]" |
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|reference = <ref group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=831805955402776576 |date = February 15, 2017 |title=issuing correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the terror group ISIL. you do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to them" |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718210822/https:/twitter.com/dril/status/831805955402776576 |archive-date=July 18, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> |
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|block = yes |
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}} |
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As described by Purdom, finding the dril tweet that matches an event or statement has become an online [[parlor game]], made possible because dril had "rendered a tightly written comedic exaggeration of every daily outrage and conflict from the [[news cycle]] in which we find ourselves trapped."<ref name="Purdom" /> Purdom also found that dril's early preoccupations and sensibility had an outsized, "[[Velvet Underground]]-like influence on the tenor of the internet to come."<ref name="Purdom" /> By the end of 2017, the staff of ''[[Deadspin]]'' declared that "comparing everything to @dril" was a trend that "should die" in 2018, asserting that dril himself remained funny but dril comparisons had become an overused, lazy trope, because too many Twitter users were relying on dril references "as a substitute for an actual joke."<ref name="Kalaf" /> Until 2021, dril's first tweet, "no", was used by dril as his "pinned tweet", a feature of Twitter that allows one tweet the user considers to be particularly important to be "pinned" out of chronological order at the top of a Twitter feed. Despite, or because of, its lack of context, it has amassed thousands of likes and retweets. According to Will Oremus at ''Slate'', the popularity of the "no" tweet is an example of how "The [[metadata]] [[The medium is the message|is the message]]" on social media, as metrics like retweets provide important context and carry independent meaning, akin to a [[laugh track]] on TV.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/the-demetricator-will-change-how-you-think-about-twitter-and-facebook.html |
|||
|title= Stop Tweeting by the Numbers|last=Oremus|first=Will|date=March 7, 2018|website=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]|access-date=April 4, 2018|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20180404075601/https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/the-demetricator-will-change-how-you-think-about-twitter-and-facebook.html|archive-date =April 4, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Koshy">{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/10/observer-anthony-burgess-prize-yohann-koshy-dril-official-mr-ten-years-anniversary-colletion |
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|title=Yohann Koshy on Dril Official 'Mr Ten Years' Anniversary Collection |
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|last=Koshy |
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|first=Yohann |
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|date=March 10, 2019 |
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|website=[[The Observer]] |
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|publisher=[[Guardian Media Group]] |
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|access-date=March 11, 2019 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190310103548/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/10/observer-anthony-burgess-prize-yohann-koshy-dril-official-mr-ten-years-anniversary-colletion |
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|archive-date=March 10, 2019 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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=== Satirical recontextualization === |
|||
Other social media users frequently quote, [[Recontextualisation|recontextualize]], or [[remix]] dril tweets for their own satirical purposes, and some accounts are even exclusively dedicated to this purpose.<ref name="oxstud" /> One such account, @EveryoneIsDril, shares screenshots of tweets by other people that look like dril's typing mannerisms.<ref name="oxstud" /> Another, "wint MP" or @parliawint, attaches dril tweets styled like [[teletext]] [[closed caption]]s to images from [[BBC News]] of British politicians and journalists speaking.<ref name="vice satire" /> Although seemingly [[Niche market|niche]], the wint MP account garnered 14,000 followers by May 2017. Tom dissonance, the creator of wint MP, attributed the account's success to its functioning as a joke on multiple levels, and for multiple audiences: "there are people who get the in-jokey references; there's a broader level of people who get politics and dril, and understand the significance of one commenting on another; and beyond that there are people who just appreciate an official figure in a suit saying something ridiculous. It's an onion of silliness."<ref name="vice satire" /> Koshy commented that wint MP "stands out from traditional forms of satire because it has no [[Normative ethics|normative force]]. It recommends nothing about [[Is–ought problem|the way things should be]]. The political field it presents is slack-jawed, demented, putrid and amoral – there is no value beyond the scope of its image."<ref name="vice satire" /> |
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Not all satirical riffing on dril is political in nature; for example, the account @drilmagic attracted thousands of followers presenting mashups of dril tweets and cards from the game ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]''.<ref name="mic magic">{{cite web |
|||
|url = https://mic.com/articles/183440/drilmagic-twitter-magic-the-gathering-dril-tweets-how-to-make |
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|title = Stop tweeting at Trump and tweet at @drilmagic instead. It's the best account you're not following. |
|||
|last = Kleinman |
|||
|first = Jacob |
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|date = August 10, 2017 |
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|website = [[Mic (media company)|Mic]] |
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|access-date = September 6, 2017 |
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|archive-url = https://archive.today/20170911170725/https://mic.com/articles/183440/drilmagic-twitter-magic-the-gathering-dril-tweets-how-to-make |
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|archive-date = September 11, 2017 |
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|url-status = live}}</ref> Ben Wilinofsky, a card player who contributed to @drilmagic, said the account and its format became a success because "''Magic'' has a very self-serious lore that is great [[Foil (literature)|foil]] for an account that so often has the self-serious in its crosshairs."<ref name="mic magic" /> Several attempts have been made to create [[Natural-language generation|AI text generators]] (often manually curated) that create messages in the style of dril tweets.<ref name="Papavasilou">{{cite web |last1=Papavasilou |first1=Sam |title=Artificial Intelligence Generates Real Jokes on Twitter |url=https://thelumberjack.org/2020/02/15/twitter-bots-are-learning-to-be-funny/ |website=The Lumberjack |date=February 15, 2020 |access-date=April 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200406140315/https://thelumberjack.org/2020/02/15/twitter-bots-are-learning-to-be-funny/ |archive-date=April 6, 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Woolf">{{cite web |last1=Woolf |first1=Max |title=How to Build a Twitter Text-Generating AI Bot With GPT-2 |url=https://minimaxir.com/2020/01/twitter-gpt2-bot/ |website=Minimaxir |date=January 16, 2020 |access-date=April 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200426201845/https://minimaxir.com/2020/01/twitter-gpt2-bot/ |archive-date=April 26, 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Kreminski Wardrip-Fruin">{{cite book |last1=Kreminski |first1=Max |last2=Wardrip-Fruin |first2=Noah |title=Interactive storytelling: 11th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, ICIDS 2018, Dublin, Ireland, December 5–8, 2018, Proceedings |isbn=9783030040284 |pages=275–278 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XLN7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA276 |access-date=May 17, 2020 |chapter=Throwing Bottles at God: Predictive Text as a Game Mechanic in an AI-based Narrative Game|date=November 26, 2018 |publisher=Springer }}</ref><ref name="Moon MGR">{{cite web |last1=Moon |first1=Carer |title=Make dril and AI dril Put on Mech Suits and Fight |url=https://merrygoroundmagazine.com/make-dril-and-ai-dril-put-on-mech-suits-and-fight/ |website=Merry-Go-Round Magazine |date=March 13, 2020 |access-date=December 13, 2020}}</ref> |
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===Comparisons to Donald Trump=== |
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{{See also|Donald Trump on social media}} |
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[[File:Donald Trump "Putting our MINORS back to work" (cropped).jpg|thumb|alt=Trump at a rally, wearing a suit and red tie, positioned in front of a microphone. A video caption promises that "we are putting our minors back to work", misspelling "miner" (mine worker) as "minor" (underage person).|Screenshot of a [[Donald Trump]] video post on Facebook with a typo. Commentators have frequently drawn comparisons between [[Donald Trump on social media|Trump's social media presence]] and dril.]] |
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There are several people whose voices on social media are often compared to dril's—the musician and actor [[Ice-T]] is one<ref name="DD Ice-T">{{cite web |
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|url = https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/ice-t-dril-twitter/ |
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|title = Ice-T wants to know who the heck Dril is |
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|last = Kelly |
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|first = Tiffany |
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|date = August 20, 2018 |
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|website = [[The Daily Dot]] |
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|access-date = August 25, 2018 |
|||
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180821114013/https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/ice-t-dril-twitter/ |
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|archive-date = August 21, 2018 |
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|url-status = live}}</ref><ref name="Ice Vice Baby">{{cite web |
|||
|url = https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/7xq379/is-ice-t-dril-an-exhaustive-investigation |
|||
|title = Is Ice-T Dril? An Exhaustive Investigation |
|||
|last1 = Ozzi |
|||
|first1 = Dan |
|||
|last2 = Smith |
|||
|first2 = Trey |
|||
|date = August 24, 2018 |
|||
|website = Noisey |
|||
|publisher = [[Vice Media]] |
|||
|access-date = August 25, 2018 |
|||
|archive-url = https://archive.today/20180825225932/https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/7xq379/is-ice-t-dril-an-exhaustive-investigation |
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|archive-date = August 25, 2018 |
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|url-status = live |
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}}</ref>—but [[Donald Trump]] is likely the most common comparison. Commentators have frequently compared dril to Trump (and vice versa), particularly [[Donald Trump on social media|Trump's voice on Twitter and other social media platforms]].<ref name="Purdom" /> According to Purdom, "Both are aging, endlessly aggrieved white men who seemingly do not understand core components of the internet, yet they perfectly embody its anonymous rage, its ability to turn people into lunatics being swarmed and eaten alive by enemies and trolls."<ref name="Purdom" /> |
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In a 2016 article for ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' magazine, Brian Feldman argued that Trump should choose dril as his vice-presidential running mate because the writer perceived commonalities between dril's "incoherent, [[libidinous]], authoritarian [[Spamming|comment-spam]]" and Trump's own campaign tweeting.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url = http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/05/dril-should-be-trumps-vice-president.html |
|||
|title = Dril Should Be Trump's Vice-President |
|||
|last = Feldman |
|||
|first = Brian |
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|date = May 20, 2016 |
|||
|website = [[New York (magazine)|New York]] |
|||
|access-date = August 24, 2017 |
|||
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170207143052/http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/05/dril-should-be-trumps-vice-president.html |
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|archive-date = February 7, 2017 |
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|url-status = live}}</ref> In a joke about Trump's use of social media, journalist and [[MSNBC]] host [[Chris Hayes (journalist)|Chris Hayes]] said that protestors should yell at Trump to [[log off]] to "see if they can get him to recreate that @dril Tweet",<ref>{{Cite tweet |last=Hayes |first=Chris |author-link=Chris Hayes (journalist) |user=chrislhayes |number=862294380417355776 |date = May 10, 2017 |title=Protestors at WH today should yell at the building telling the President to logoff and see if they can get him to recreate that @dril tweet. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170906230828/https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/862294380417355776 |archive-date=September 6, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> a reference to the following: |
|||
{{tweet |
|||
|image = Dril self-portrait.jpg |
|||
|name = wint |
|||
|username = dril |
|||
|unverified = y |
|||
|date = September 15, 2012 |
|||
|text = who the fuck is scraeming 'LOG OFF' at my house. show yourself, coward. i will never log off |
|||
|reference = <ref group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=247222360309121024 |date = September 15, 2012 |title=who the fuck is scraeming 'LOG OFF' at my house. show yourself, coward. i will never log off |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731175339/https://twitter.com/dril/status/247222360309121024 |archive-date=July 31, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> |
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|block = yes |
|||
}} |
}} |
||
Eve Peyser, in a ''[[Gizmodo]]'' article declaring the [[2016 United States presidential election|2016 presidential election]] was "the Weird Twitter election", had earlier compared the same dril tweet to the "tone, structure and message" of a Trump tweet.<ref name="officially weird">{{cite web |
|||
|url= |
|url=https://gizmodo.com/its-officially-the-weird-twitter-election-1788369470 |
||
|title=It's Officially the Weird Twitter Election |
|title=It's Officially the Weird Twitter Election |
||
|last=Peyser |
|last=Peyser |
||
|first=Eve |
|first=Eve |
||
|date=October 29, 2016 |
|date=October 29, 2016 |
||
|website=[[Gizmodo]] |
|||
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
|||
|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> David Covucci at ''The Daily Dot'' coined "Dril's Law" as an [[adage]] stating that "[f]or every single thing Donald Trump has tweeted, Dril did it earlier and better."<ref name="daily dot trump">{{cite web |
|||
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826033052/http://gizmodo.com/its-officially-the-weird-twitter-election-1788369470 |
|||
|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
|||
|url-status=live}}</ref> David Covucci at ''The Daily Dot'' coined "Dril's Law", an [[adage]] stating that "[f]or every single thing Donald Trump has tweeted, Dril did it earlier and better."<ref name="daily dot trump">{{cite web |
|||
|url=https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/donald-trump-dril-twitter/ |
|url=https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/donald-trump-dril-twitter/ |
||
|title=Does Donald Trump steal all of his tweets from this weird Twitter user? |
|title=Does Donald Trump steal all of his tweets from this weird Twitter user? |
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Line 212: | Line 551: | ||
|first=David |
|first=David |
||
|date=March 13, 2017 |
|date=March 13, 2017 |
||
|website=[[The Daily Dot]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> Covucci also asked "What if Donald Trump is @dril? Would it be any stranger than Donald Trump being president of the United States?"<ref name="daily dot trump" /> Anna North, responding to Covucci's question in ''The New York Times'', said "another explanation" for the similarity between dril and Trump "seems more likely: Donald Trump's Twitter presence isn't [[Absurdism|absurdist]], it's just [[Absurdity|absurd]]."<ref>{{cite web |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826071654/https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/donald-trump-dril-twitter/ |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> Covucci also asked: "What if Donald Trump is @dril? Would it be any stranger than Donald Trump being president of the United States?"<ref name="daily dot trump" /> Responding to Covucci's question, Anna North wrote in ''[[The New York Times]]'' that "another explanation" for the similarity between dril and Trump "seems more likely: Donald Trump's Twitter presence isn't [[Absurdism|absurdist]], it's just [[Absurdity|absurd]]."<ref>{{cite news |
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|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/opinion/donald-trumps-twitter-comedy.html |
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/opinion/donald-trumps-twitter-comedy.html |
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|title=Donald Trump's Twitter Comedy |
|title=Donald Trump's Twitter Comedy |
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|first=Anna |
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|date=May 31, 2017 |
|date=May 31, 2017 |
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|website=[[The New York Times]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170906014326/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/opinion/donald-trumps-twitter-comedy.html |
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|archive-date=September 6, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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=== |
=== "Corncob" === |
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[[File:Cornheap.jpg|thumb|A large heap of [[corncob]]s. A misunderstanding over a reference to dril's "corncob" tweet led one journalist to quip: "The lesson here is clear. Always check for @dril references before you send that Tweet."<ref name="ddcc" />]] |
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Although dril's content is typically somewhat absurd or nonsensical—once called "[[Obscenity|obscene]] [[nonsense verse]] [with] the syntax mutilated, the humour irredeemable" by Yohann Koshy in ''[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]''<ref name="vice satire">{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/53n9v8/the-new-wave-of-satire-for-our-morbid-political-landscape |
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|title=The New Wave of Satire for Our Morbid Political Landscape |
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|last=Koshy |
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|first=Yohann |
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|date=May 10, 2017 |
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|website=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref>—some have noted an underlying element of [[satire]] or [[social commentary]] in dril's tweets.<ref name="oxstud" /><ref name="AV" /> Surveying Weird Twitter for ''Complex'', Gallagher commented that dril's "vicious satire of [[Conservatism in the United States|conservatives]], [[gamer]]s, [[Conspiracy theory|conspiracy theorists]], and other less savory aspects of the Internet is always on point, always hilarious, always in character."<ref name="weird survey" /> Fellow Weird Twitter user @rare_basement said dril's "[[Internet troll|trolling]] [of] [[Pennsylvania State University|Penn State]] fans during the [[Penn State child sex abuse scandal|molestation scandal]] was so brilliant, always on the right side of the issue, but super funny and subtle about it."<ref name="oral" /> |
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In 2011, dril tweeted the following: |
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Other accounts not operated by dril have repurposed dril tweets for satirical purposes. One such account, @EveryoneIsDril, shares screenshots of tweets by other people that sound like dril.<ref name="oxstud" /> Another, "wint MP" or @parliawint, attaches dril tweets as captions to screenshots from [[BBC News]] of British politicians and journalists speaking.<ref name="vice satire" /> Although seemingly [[Niche market|niche]], the wint MP account garnered 14,000 followers by May 2017. Tom Dissonance, the creator of wint MP, attributed the account's success to its functioning as a joke on multiple levels, and for multiple audiences: "there are people who get the in-jokey references; there's a broader level of people who get politics and dril, and understand the significance of one commenting on another; and beyond that there are people who just appreciate an official figure in a suit saying something ridiculous. It's an onion of silliness."<ref name="vice satire" /> Koshy commented that wint MP "stands out from traditional forms of satire because it has no [[Normative ethics|normative force]]. It recommends nothing about [[Is–ought problem|the way things should be]]. The political field it presents is slack-jawed, demented, putrid and amoral – there is no value beyond the scope of its image."<ref name="vice satire" /> According to Shaw, the absurd political atmosphere of the mid to late 2010s was "the Age of Dril":<ref name="oxstud" /> |
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{{quote|Artefacts like these are perfect satirical tools for the new age of [[Reactionary|reactionism]]. Gluts of nonsense are a political tool; it's been remarked that the Trump administration seems to be trying to exhaust and befuddle the opposition through the sheer volume of bad policies and public scandals, and our political vocabulary is vulgarising at hyperspeed. It's hard to think of a more Dril-like phrase than 'The [[Bowling Green Massacre]]', or indeed '[[Brexit]] Means Brexit'.<ref name="oxstud" />}} |
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== Memes == |
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dril's tweets often become [[internet meme]]s in their own right. There was a ''[[Know Your Meme]]'' guide to dril in 2014, at a time when ''KYM'' pages for individual Twitter users would have been comparatively rare.<ref name="weird survey" /> His tweets are popular on social media accounts that aggregate memes from elsewhere.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.theawl.com/2016/07/post-aesthetics-and-the-memetic-marxists/ |
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|title=Post Aesthetics and the Memetic Marxists |
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|last=McBride |
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|first=Jameson Randall |
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|date=July 11, 2016 |
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|website=[[The Awl]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> In addition to being recontextualized for satirical purposes, dril's tweets are referenced in ways that become idiomatic. |
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=== Corncob === |
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[[File:Cornheap.jpg|thumb|A large heap of [[corncob]]s. A misunderstanding over a reference to dril's use of the word corncob led one journalist to quip: "The lesson here is clear. Always check for @dril references before you send that tweet."<ref name="ddcc" />]] |
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In 2011, dril tweeted: |
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{{Quote box |
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|quote =[[File:Disc Plain cyan.svg|border|left|32px]]{{float|left=4px|{{font|😎|size=200%}}}}<poem> |
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'''wint''' |
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@dril |
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{{tweet |
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"im not owned! im not owned!!", i continue to insist as i slowly shrink and transform into a corn cob</poem> |
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|image = Dril self-portrait.jpg |
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|source = 4:20 PM - 10 Nov 2011<ref>{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=134787490526658561 |date = November 10, 2011 |title='im not owned! im not owned!!', i continue to insist as i slowly shrink and transform into a corn cob}}</ref> |
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|name = wint |
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|username = dril |
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|unverified = y |
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|bgcolor= #FFFFFF |
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|date = November 10, 2011 |
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| text="im not owned! im not owned!!', i continue to insist as i slowly shrink and transform into a corn cob |
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|reference = <ref group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=134787490526658561 |date = November 10, 2011 |title='im not owned! im not owned!!', i continue to insist as i slowly shrink and transform into a corn cob |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170807195033/https://twitter.com/dril/status/134787490526658561 |archive-date=August 7, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> |
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|block = yes |
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}} |
}} |
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The tweet describes an argument or similar situation in which one participant has clearly been "[[Owned (slang)|owned]]" but refuses to acknowledge it or to take a break, instead doubling down and insisting beyond any credibility that they have not been owned.<ref name="Singal">{{cite web |
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|url= |
|url=https://nymag.com/selectall/2017/08/why-is-everyone-on-twitter-suddenly-talking-about-corncobs.html |
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|title=Why Is Everyone on Twitter Suddenly Talking About Corncobs? |
|title=Why Is Everyone on Twitter Suddenly Talking About Corncobs? |
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|last=Singal |
|last=Singal |
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|first=Jesse |
|first=Jesse |
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|date=August 3, 2017 |
|date=August 3, 2017 |
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|website=[[New York (magazine)|New York]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911171001/http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/08/why-is-everyone-on-twitter-suddenly-talking-about-corncobs.html |
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|archive-date=September 11, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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Shortly after it was posted, Twitter users began to use screenshots of the corncob tweet to point out when a person refused to acknowledge losing an argument or suffering some other humiliation.<ref name="Statesman Cob">{{cite web |
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|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/observations/2017/09/internet-dictionary-what-does-it-mean-be-corncobbed |
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|title=The internet dictionary: what does it mean to be corncobbed? |
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|last=Tait |
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|first=Amelia |
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|date=September 4, 2017 |
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|website=[[New Statesman]] |
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|access-date=September 6, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170907033628/http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/observations/2017/09/internet-dictionary-what-does-it-mean-be-corncobbed |
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|archive-date=September 7, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> By 2017, the word "corncob" by itself had become common slang on Twitter for this purpose.<ref name="Statesman Cob" /> ''The Ringer''{{'}}s Kate Knibbs observed that, while "corncob" as slang remained limited to communities on Twitter, the "corncob" archetype is universal and identifiable throughout contemporary culture.<ref name="Ringer">{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.theringer.com/tech/2017/8/28/16212192/internet-lingo-twitter-corn-cob |
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|title=Welcome to Corn Cob Season |
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|last=Knibbs |
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|first=Kate |
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|date=August 28, 2017 |
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|website=[[The Ringer (website)|The Ringer]] |
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|access-date=August 29, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901213910/https://www.theringer.com/tech/2017/8/28/16212192/internet-lingo-twitter-corn-cob |
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|archive-date=September 1, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Knibbs, "the ''condition'' of being a corn cob—of allowing yourself to be defined by and reduced to a piercing insistence that a perceived slight has not diminished you—[has] spread far beyond a small corner of Twitter."<ref name="Ringer" /> Among public figures whose behavior was described as fitting the "corncob" archetype, Knibbs listed Donald Trump, [[Julian Assange]], actress [[Louise Linton]], [[Kim Kardashian]]'s friend [[Jonathan Cheban]], [[Kanye West]] (noting his numerous outbursts and 2016 song "[[Famous (Kanye West song)|Famous]]"), and [[Taylor Swift]] (noting her 2017 song "[[Look What You Made Me Do]]").<ref name="Ringer" /> |
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The term "corncob" became controversial after the reference was used in a meme |
The term "corncob" became controversial after the reference was used in a meme with leftist criticisms of then-Senator (and later Vice President) [[Kamala Harris]]. The political commentator [[Al Giordano]] asserted, citing a dated [[Urban Dictionary]] definition of "corncobbed", that "[e]very cretin who has spread this meme needs to reckon with how it uses 'corncob', a [[rape culture]] and [[homophobic]] term popular among dudebros",<ref name="ddcc" /><ref name="binch" /><ref name="Statesman Cob" /> confusing the word with the slang term ''[[wiktionary:cornhole|cornhole]]''. [[Neera Tanden]], the president of the [[Center for American Progress]] and an advisor on Hillary Clinton's [[Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016|2016 campaign]], called on a Twitter user—an [[Ohio State]] student—to "denounce" the corncob meme.<ref name="Singal" /> Various news publications reported on the story, and noted that the fast pace of Twitter discourse and unusual slang and in-jokes meant that a misunderstanding risked embarrassment and mocking.<ref name="ddcc">{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/kamala-harris-corncob-meme/ |
|url=https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/kamala-harris-corncob-meme/ |
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|title=How a Kamala Harris meme turned into a fight over corncobs |
|title=How a Kamala Harris meme turned into a fight over corncobs |
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|first=Tiffany |
|first=Tiffany |
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|date=August 3, 2017 |
|date=August 3, 2017 |
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|website=[[The Daily Dot]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|quote=To navigate Twitter in 2017, you need to keep up with many inside jokes, memes, and quotes that change on a daily basis. It's easy to become confused about why something is trending. But doing research before tweeting about it usually pays off. Otherwise, you're setting yourself up for a roast. ... The lesson here is clear. Always check for @dril references before you send that tweet. |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826071948/https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/kamala-harris-corncob-meme/ |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Singal" /><ref name="binch">{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d338qj/corncob-donut-binch-a-guide-to-weird-leftist-internet-slang |
|url=https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d338qj/corncob-donut-binch-a-guide-to-weird-leftist-internet-slang |
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|title=Corncob? Donut? Binch? A Guide to Weird Leftist Internet Slang |
|title=Corncob? Donut? Binch? A Guide to Weird Leftist Internet Slang |
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|first=Eve |
|first=Eve |
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|date=August 22, 2017 |
|date=August 22, 2017 |
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|website=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |
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|publisher=[[Vice Media]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180626042919/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d338qj/corncob-donut-binch-a-guide-to-weird-leftist-internet-slang |
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|archive-date=June 26, 2018 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> Amelia Tait, writer of an "internet dictionary" [[Column (periodical)|column]] in the ''[[New Statesman]]'', even wrote that Giordano had "exposed [himself] as ignorant of online culture" and had, himself, been corncobbed.<ref name="Statesman Cob" /> |
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The term resurfaced in March 2019, when the official campaign account for Senate Majority Leader [[Mitch McConnell]] used it to ridicule [[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]] by superimposing an image of a corncob onto Ocasio-Cortez's face.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Covucci |first=David |date=March 27, 2019 |title=Mitch McConnell uses a classic Dril meme to attack Ocasio-Cortez |url=https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/mitch-mcconnell-dril-ocasio-cortez-meme/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=[[The Daily Dot]] |language=en-US}}</ref> |
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=== Large adult sons === |
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[[Jia Tolentino]], a staff writer for ''[[The New Yorker]]'' credited dril as an originator of the "large adult son" [[Trope (literature)|trope]].<ref name="son">{{cite web |
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=== Family and other characters=== |
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|url=http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-land-of-the-large-adult-son |
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Dril tweets often refer to his relationships with family members—particularly an unnamed wife/ex-wife, and numerous sons—in a manner reminiscent of father figures in American sitcoms like ''[[Married... with Children]]''.<ref name="Purdom" /> [[Tom Whyman]] for ''[[The Outline (website)|The Outline]]'' described dril as "at once married and divorced (from the same essential 'wife')".<ref name="Whyman Nobel" /> [[Jia Tolentino]], a staff writer for ''[[The New Yorker]]'', credited dril as an originator of the "large adult son" [[Trope (literature)|trope]].<ref name="son">{{cite magazine |
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|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-land-of-the-large-adult-son |
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|title=The Land of the Large Adult Son |
|title=The Land of the Large Adult Son |
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|last=Tolentino |
|last=Tolentino |
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|author-link=Jia Tolentino |
|author-link=Jia Tolentino |
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|date=August 4, 2017 |
|date=August 4, 2017 |
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|magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> The trope, which Tolentino noted is common on social media and online [[sports journalism]], involves particular observations of hapless male behavior that is "endlessly excusable: though [the large adult son] does nothing right, he can do no wrong."<ref name="son" /> The character of dril repeatedly refers to his "sons," who are usually involved in the kind of "classic large-adult-son behavior" Tolentino describes as "alarming, with a whiff of the surreal."<ref name="son" /> The sons are compared to [[Family of Donald Trump|Trump's sons]], particularly [[Eric Trump]] and [[Donald Trump Jr.|Donald Jr.]], and [[Mike Huckabee]]'s sons, [[David Huckabee|David]] and John Mark.<ref name="son" /><ref>{{cite web |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170902225031/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-land-of-the-large-adult-son |
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|archive-date=September 2, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> The trope, which Tolentino described as commonplace across social media and especially online [[sports journalism]], involves particular observations of hapless male behavior that is "endlessly excusable: though [the large adult son] does nothing right, he can do no wrong."<ref name="son" /> The character of dril repeatedly refers to his "sons", who are usually involved in the kind of "classic large-adult-son behavior" Tolentino describes as "alarming, with a whiff of the surreal".<ref name="son" /> The sons are compared to [[Family of Donald Trump|Trump's sons]], particularly [[Donald Trump Jr.|Donald Jr.]] and [[Eric Trump]], as well as [[Mike Huckabee]]'s sons.<ref name="son" /><ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2017/08/04/huckabees-sons-analyzed-in-new-yorker-essay-on-large-adult-son-meme |
|url=https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2017/08/04/huckabees-sons-analyzed-in-new-yorker-essay-on-large-adult-son-meme |
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|title=Huckabee's sons analyzed in ''New Yorker'' essay on 'large adult son' meme |
|title=Huckabee's sons analyzed in ''New Yorker'' essay on 'large adult son' meme |
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|first=Jacob |
|first=Jacob |
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|date=August 4, 2017 |
|date=August 4, 2017 |
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|website=[[Arkansas Times]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826071547/https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2017/08/04/huckabees-sons-analyzed-in-new-yorker-essay-on-large-adult-son-meme |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> dril's regular posts about his disastrous marriage have also been compared to the [[wife guy]] stereotype that became popular in the late 2010s, of a man who gains attention on social media for posting about his wife, although dril's posts on the subject predate the emergence of this stereotype.<ref name="The Outline 14 May 2019">{{cite news|last1=Whyman|first1=Tom|date=May 14, 2019|title=Anatomy of the Wife Guy|language=en|work=The Outline|url=https://theoutline.com/post/7426/the-wife-guy|access-date=June 11, 2019}}</ref><ref name="Hess wife guy">{{cite news |last1=Hess |first1=Amanda |author-link=Amanda Hess|title=The Age of the Internet 'Wife Guy' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/arts/internet-wife-guy-robbie-tripp.html |access-date=June 11, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=June 5, 2019}}</ref> |
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Besides the character's family, other fictitious recurring characters in dril's tweets are an internet user named 'digimonotis', with whom dril is locked in a [[flame war]] after a prior falling-out,<ref name="Purdom" /> and "the boys", a group of friends with similarly bizarre personality characteristics to dril.<ref name="collins" /> |
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==="(((Keebler Elves)))" controversy === |
==="(((Keebler Elves)))" controversy === |
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In June 2016, dril |
In June 2016, dril drew controversy for a tweet that used [[triple parentheses]] around the name of the corporate [[mascot]]s of the cookie company [[Keebler]]:<ref name="triple p">{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/dril-keebler-elves-anti-semite-weird-twitter/ |
|url=https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/dril-keebler-elves-anti-semite-weird-twitter/ |
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|title=This @dril joke about the Keebler Elves brought Nazi chaos to Weird Twitter |
|title=This @dril joke about the Keebler Elves brought Nazi chaos to Weird Twitter |
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|first=Jay |
|first=Jay |
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|date=July 6, 2016 |
|date=July 6, 2016 |
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|website=[[The Daily Dot]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826071234/https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/dril-keebler-elves-anti-semite-weird-twitter/ |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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{{tweet |
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{{Quote box |
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|image = Dril self-portrait.jpg |
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|quote = [[File:Disc Plain cyan.svg|border|left|32px]]{{float|left=4px|{{font|😎|size=200%}}}}<poem> |
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|name = wint |
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'''wint''' |
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|username = dril |
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@dril |
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|unverified = y |
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|date = June 28, 2016 |
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|text = i refuse to consume any product that has been created by, or is claimed to have been created by, the (((Keebler Elves))) |
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|reference = <ref group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=747822549069926400 |date = June 28, 2016 |title=i refuse to consume any product that has been created by, or is claimed to have been created by, the (((Keebler Elves))) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808122916/https://twitter.com/dril/status/747822549069926400 |archive-date=August 8, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> |
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|block = yes |
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}} |
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Triple parentheses, or "echoes", are used online by the [[alt-right]] as an [[antisemitic]] symbol to highlight the names of Jews. Journalist Jay Hathaway wrote that most of dril's followers understood the tweet to be an ironic joke exploring the uncertain "etiquette around this very 2016 expression of bigotry ... Can a non-Jew apply the (((echoes))) to his own name as a show of allyship? Is it OK to use the parentheses in a joke at the white supremacists' expense? There's no clear consensus."<ref name="triple p" /> |
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i refuse to consume any product that has been created by, or is claimed to have been created by, the (((Keebler Elves)))</poem> |
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|source = 9:02 AM - 28 Jun 2016<ref>{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=747822549069926400 |date =June 28, 2016 |title=i refuse to consume any product that has been created by, or is claimed to have been created by, the (((Keebler Elves)))}}</ref> |
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As the "(((Keebler Elves)))" tweet spread, some far-right accounts praised dril, interpreting the tweet as a [[Dog-whistle politics|covert signal]] of genuine antisemitic views.<ref name="triple p" /> Others criticized the tweet as bigoted, even if the intent was [[Hipster racism|ironic]], or at least in [[Taste (sociology)|poor taste]].<ref name="McDonough" /><ref name="triple p" /> In response to the controversy, dril alternated between dismissing those who believed he was an antisemite and making sarcastic promises to become "less racist" with the help of donations.<ref name="McDonough" /><ref group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=749438005706883072 |date=July 2, 2016 |title=trying to heal..... please donate to my go fund me... $10 will make me less racist... $100 will make me extremely less racist...thank you... |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171211215601/https://twitter.com/dril/status/749438005706883072 |archive-date=December 11, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Writer Alexander McDonough said dril's "refusal to clarify his views speaks to his trust in his audience to 'get' his jokes" and to dril's confidence in his [[Internet privacy|privacy]].<ref name="McDonough" /> "Likewise," McDonough wrote, "[dril's] audience trusts him to make pointed satire that crosses boundaries but is never hateful. The joke is always on himself or an entrenched elite, dril never [[wiktionary:punch down|punches down]]."<ref name="McDonough" /> According to McDonough, the controversy did not seem to have any long-term impact on dril's popularity.<ref name="McDonough" /> In the Jewish magazine ''[[Tablet (magazine)|Tablet]]'', Armin Rosen called the tweet "an obviously satirical performance of anti-Jewish bigotry" and "the only funny anti-Semitism meta-controversy in the history of the internet."<ref name="tablet" /> |
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|width = 50% |
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|align = center |
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===Criticism of Elon Musk=== |
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|bgcolor= #FFFFFF |
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{{See also|Twitter Blue verification controversy}} |
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[[File:Elon Musk Colorado 2022 (cropped).jpg|thumb|alt=Photograph of Elon Musk's head|Dril criticized Twitter CEO [[Elon Musk]] (''pictured in 2022'') after [[Acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk|his acquisition of Twitter]], especially by promoting the slogan #BlockTheBlue to rebuke the [[Twitter Blue verification controversy|new verification policy]].]] |
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Dril has been outspoken in his criticism of [[Elon Musk]]'s [[Twitter under Elon Musk|stewardship as CEO of Twitter]], particularly Musk's changes to the [[Twitter verification]] system. On November 9, 2022, after Twitter began attaching blue checkmarks to paid Twitter Blue subscribers, dril said he would "absolutely block on sight" anyone with a paid blue checkmark and he started a #BlockTheBlue hashtag.<ref name="pcgamer">{{cite news |last=Chalk |first=Andy |title=Epic Games boss defends Twitter, calls #BlocktheBlue supporters 'losers and goons' |url=https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-games-boss-defends-twitter-calls-blocktheblue-supporters-losers-and-goons/ |access-date=April 25, 2023 |work=PC Gamer |date=April 24, 2023 |language=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424235716/https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-games-boss-defends-twitter-calls-blocktheblue-supporters-losers-and-goons/ |archive-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref> |
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{{tweet |
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|image = Dril self-portrait.jpg |
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|name = wint |
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|username = dril |
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|unverified = y |
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|left = yes |
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|date = November 9, 2022 |
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|text = you just paid $8 to eat my ass stupid #BlockTheBlue |
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|reference = <ref group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=1590460790347542528 |date=November 9, 2022 |title=you just paid $8 to eat my ass stupid #BlockTheBlue |url=https://twitter.com/dril/status/1590460790347542528 |access-date=April 25, 2023}}</ref> |
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}} |
}} |
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Dril revived his #BlockTheBlue campaign in late April 2023, when Twitter [[Twitter Blue verification controversy#Verification status removals|removed checkmarks]] from legacy verified accounts, telling journalist Matt Binder, "I am actively rooting for the downfall of twitter. I hope to sabotage their efforts to become profitable, no matter how futile, in the hopes that they will eventually close up shop and release us all from this toilet."<ref name="binder">{{cite news |last1=Binder |first1=Matt |title=Dril and other Twitter power users begin campaign to 'Block the Blue' paid checkmarks |url=https://mashable.com/article/block-the-blue-twitter-campaign-dril |access-date=April 25, 2023 |work=Mashable |date=April 21, 2023 |language=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230421183350/http://mashable.com/article/block-the-blue-twitter-campaign-dril |archive-date=April 21, 2023}}</ref> He described the users paying for Twitter Blue as "dead-eyed cretins who are usually trying to sell you something stupid"<ref name="binder" /> and "the most dog shit accounts on here."<ref group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=1590460790347542528 |date=November 10, 2022 |title=it has never been easier to identify the most dog shit accounts on here. block without hesitation |url=https://twitter.com/dril/status/1590575698884063232 |access-date=April 25, 2023}}</ref> |
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Triple parentheses, or "echoes," are used online by by the [[alt-right]] as an [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] symbol to highlight the names of [[Jewish]] people. Journalist Jay Hathaway wrote that most of dril's followers understood the tweet to be an ironic joke exploring the uncertain "etiquette around this very 2016 expression of bigotry ... Can a non-Jew apply the (((echoes))) to his own name as a show of allyship? Is it OK to use the parentheses in a joke at the white supremacists' expense? There’s no clear consensus."<ref name="triple p" /> |
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On April 22, Twitter gave dril and Binder blue checks on their accounts, even though they had not subscribed to Twitter Blue.<ref name="pearl">{{cite news |last1=Pearl |first1=Mike |title=Twitter gives dril a spite checkmark |url=https://mashable.com/article/twitter-verifies-dril-mashable-block-the-blue |access-date=April 25, 2023 |work=Mashable |date=April 22, 2023 |language=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230422231128/https://mashable.com/article/twitter-verifies-dril-mashable-block-the-blue |archive-date=April 22, 2023}}</ref> Dril then repeatedly changed his display name in an effort to remove the blue checkmark, which in turn was reinstated several times.<ref name="pearl" /> His display name settled on "slave to [[Woke]]". Afterward, when numerous other legacy verified accounts were appended with involuntary blue checkmarks despite not paying for Twitter Blue, dril reposted a suggestion that the practice may violate the federal [[Lanham Act]]'s prohibitions on [[False advertising|false endorsements]] and quipped "its ok [Musk] fired the people in charge of telling him its illegal."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bonifacic |first1=Igor |title=Twitter adds blue checks to accounts of dead celebrities |url=https://www.engadget.com/twitter-adds-blue-checks-to-accounts-of-dead-celebrities-223749275.html |access-date=April 25, 2023 |work=Engadget |date=April 23, 2023 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424045124/https://www.engadget.com/twitter-adds-blue-checks-to-accounts-of-dead-celebrities-223749275.html |archive-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref> |
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As the "(((Keebler Elves)))" tweet spread, dril was praised by far-right accounts who interpreted his tweet as an indication of genuine antisemitic views and criticized by those who interpreted the tweet as bigoted, whether intentionally so or not.<ref name="triple p" /> Writer Alexander Mcdonough said dril's "refusal to clarify his views speaks to his trust in his audience to 'get' his jokes" and to dril's confidence in his [[Internet privacy|privacy]].<ref name="Mcdonough" /> "Likewise," Mcdonough wrote, "[dril's] audience trusts him to make pointed satire that crosses boundaries but is never hateful. The joke is always on himself or an entrenched elite, dril never [[wiktionary:punch down|punches down]]."<ref name="Mcdonough" /> According to Mcdonough, the controversy did not seem to have any long-term impact on dril's popularity.<ref name="Mcdonough" /> |
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A few days later, dril created an account on [[Bluesky Social|Bluesky]]—a decentralized social network presented as an alternative to Twitter—during the app's invite-only [[early access]] phase.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/27/23701021/dril-bluesky-twitter |title=Dril and AOC are now on Bluesky |date=April 27, 2023 |last=Peters |first=Jay |work=[[The Verge]] |access-date=April 30, 2023 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427190131/https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/27/23701021/dril-bluesky-twitter |archive-date=April 27, 2023}}</ref> |
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==Other projects== |
==Other projects== |
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In addition to his tweets, Dochney has many visual art side projects and collaborations with other artists. He has made several animations, including a short film titled ''COW-BOY''<ref group="dril">{{cite web |
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In addition to his tweets, several web videos have been attributed to dril, including a fictional animated series about the attempts of ''[[South Park]]'' creator [[Trey Parker]] and [[Green Day]] drummer [[Tré Cool]] to rename the month of April "Trépril" and "one policeman's mission to stop them at any cost."<ref name="dril q" /> Jacob Bakkila claimed that dril contributed to one of his projects, an interactive video series called ''Bear Sterns Bravo'' that was the sequel to the [[Horse ebooks]] Twitter account.<ref name="verge" /> dril contributed an article to ''[[Paper (magazine)|Paper]]'' on how to "break the internet" as part of the November 2014 issue of the magazine, with a front cover featuring [[Kim Kardashian]], themed around the concept of breaking the internet.<ref>{{cite web |
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|author = dril (as "wint.co") |
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|url=http://www.papermag.com/twitters-biggest-weirdest-mystery-man-on-how-to-actually-break-the-int-1427451072.html |
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|title = ''cow-boy'' |
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|title=Twitter's Biggest, Weirdest Mystery Man on How to Actually Break the Internet |
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|date = September 22, 2014 |
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|author=dril |
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|url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V124BxEN90 |
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|editor-last=Klausner |
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|publisher = YouTube |
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|editor-first=Julie |
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|date= |
|access-date = January 1, 2018 |
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|archive-url = https://archive.today/20180109221243/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V124BxEN90 |
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|website=[[Paper (magazine)|Paper]] |
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|archive-date = January 9, 2018 |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> The first issue of the online magazine ''Extremely Good Shit'', edited by comedian [[Brandon Wardell (comedian)|Brandon Wardell]] and published by [[Super Deluxe]], featured an illustration of a dril tweet.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url-status = live}}</ref><ref name="IAmA i would" group="dril">{{cite web |
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|url=http://news.avclub.com/check-out-extremely-good-shit-an-online-magazine-about-1798255604 |
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|url = https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7gwz5a/were_dril_and_kc_green_and_were_the_good_internet/dqmol2c/?context=1 |
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|title=Check out ''Extremely Good Shit'', an online magazine about extremely good shit |
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|title = We're Dril and KC Green, and we're the good internet boys. Ask us anything about games theories and breakfast meals. • r/IAmA |
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|last=Purdom |
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|author = dril (as "dril_VERIFED") |
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|first=Clayton |
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|date=December |
|date = December 1, 2017 |
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|website = [[Reddit]] |
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|access-date= |
|access-date = January 1, 2018 |
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|archive-url = https://archive.today/20180109220912/https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/7gwz5a/were_dril_and_kc_green_and_were_the_good_internet/dqmol2c/?context=1 |
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|archive-date = January 9, 2018 |
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|url-status = live |
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|quote = i would love to return to animation in some form,.. although it wouldnt be a cow-boy or "dril" thing as i have a bunch of newer ideas im more excited to pursue}}</ref> and a fictional series about the attempts of ''[[South Park]]'' co-creator [[Trey Parker]] and [[Green Day]] drummer [[Tré Cool]] to rename the month of April "Treypril/Trépril" and "one policeman's mission to stop them at any cost."<ref name="dril q" /> Dochney has expressed interest in creating further animated films,{{NoteTag|name=Treypril|When asked about the status of the "Treypril" series on his [[Tumblr]] in April 2014, dril responded that "the police won",<ref group="dril">{{cite web |
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|author = dril |
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|title = What Happened to Treypril? |
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|url = http://worstdril.tumblr.com/post/82989094120/what-happened-to-treypril |
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|website = [[Tumblr]] |
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|date = April 17, 2014 |
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|access-date = December 18, 2017 |
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|archive-url = https://archive.today/20171218203038/http://worstdril.tumblr.com/post/82989094120/what-happened-to-treypril |
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|archive-date = December 18, 2017 |
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|url-status = live}}</ref> implying that the series was finished. He then posted used and unused image assets from the series.<ref group="dril">{{cite web |
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|author = dril |
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|title = please enjoy 3 more days of this hell |
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|url = http://worstdril.tumblr.com/post/83434261971/loveinthetimeofcyberpunk-lost |
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|website = [[Tumblr]] |
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|date = April 21, 2014 |
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|access-date = December 18, 2017 |
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|archive-url = https://archive.today/20171218203149/http://worstdril.tumblr.com/post/83434261971/loveinthetimeofcyberpunk-lost |
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|archive-date = December 18, 2017 |
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|url-status = live}}</ref>}} but said he would prefer to work on projects separate from his "dril" identity.<ref name="IAmA i would" group="dril" /> |
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Dochney worked on ''Bear Stearns Bravo'', an interactive video series that was the sequel to the [[Horse ebooks]] Twitter account.<ref name="verge" /> He designed the cover of the 2016 [[vaporwave]]/funk album ''Cyber-Vision'' by Drew Fairweather ("Drew Toothpaste"), best known for the webcomics ''[[Toothpaste for Dinner]]'' and ''[[Married to the Sea]]''.<ref name="Cyber Vision">{{cite web |
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|last=Toothpaste |
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|first=Drew |
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|title=Cyber-Vision |
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|url=https://crudbump.bandcamp.com/album/cyber-vision |
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|website=[[Bandcamp]] |
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|date=August 28, 2016 |
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|access-date=December 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171224042315/https://crudbump.bandcamp.com/album/cyber-vision |
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|archive-date=December 24, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> Dochney wrote for ''[[Hiveswap]]'', a 2017 video game based on the webcomic ''[[Homestuck]]''.<ref name="IAmA everyone involved" group="dril" /><ref name="IAmA if its" group="dril" /> ''Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff and the Quest for the Missing Spoon'', a book based on a [[story within a story]] in ''Homestuck'',<ref>{{cite news |last1=Baron |first1=Reuben |title=Let Me Tell You About Homestuck, the Internet's Most Ambitious Comic |url=https://www.cbr.com/homestuck-internet-most-ambitious-comic-primer/ |access-date=February 15, 2021 |work=CBR |date=April 12, 2019 |archive-date=February 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215142252/https://www.cbr.com/homestuck-internet-most-ambitious-comic-primer/ |url-status=live |language=en}}</ref> lists dril as a contributing author and artist alongside ''Homestuck'' creator Andrew Hussie and ''[[Gunshow (webcomic)|Gunshow]]'' author KC Green.<ref name="Swearingen" /><ref>{{cite web |
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|url = https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1724736026/sweet-bro-and-hella-jeff-by-hussie-dril-and-kc-gre/ |
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|title = Check out ''Extremely Good Shit'', an online magazine about extremely good shit |
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|author = SBAHJ Probuctions |
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|date = November 17, 2017 |
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|website = [[Kickstarter]] |
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|access-date = November 17, 2017 |
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|archive-url = https://archive.today/20171118002857/https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1724736026/sweet-bro-and-hella-jeff-by-hussie-dril-and-kc-gre |
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|archive-date = November 18, 2017 |
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|url-status = live}}</ref> Dril was one of several artists who contributed illustrations for the [[card game]] ''The Devil's Level'', based on the Twitter account [[da share z0ne]].<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mbpyyb/da-share-zone-the-devils-level-admin-dril-interview |
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|title=Da Share Z0ne's Admin Wants You to Know They Have an IQ of 208 |
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|last=Pick |
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|first=Rachel |
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|date=January 25, 2018 |
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|website=Motherboard |
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|publisher=[[Vice Media]] |
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|access-date=January 25, 2018 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180125214620/https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mbpyyb/da-share-zone-the-devils-level-admin-dril-interview |
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|archive-date=January 25, 2018 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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In October 2019, dril announced that he and comedian Derek Estevez-Olsen were launching a web series called ''Truthpoint: Darkweb Rising'' for [[Adult Swim]].<ref name="Wilder sold out">{{cite web |last1=Wilder |first1=Darcie |title=Dril Didn't Sell Out You Sold Out |url=https://theoutline.com/post/8108/dril-adult-swim-show-selling-out?zd=1&zi=3tcksler |website=[[The Outline (website)|The Outline]] |access-date=May 17, 2020}}</ref> The show, a parody of ''[[InfoWars]]'', streams from Adult Swim's website on Wednesdays at midnight.<ref group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=1183214966217641984 |date=October 12, 2019 |title=the News, as you know it, has died... and from its ashes rises "TRUTHPOINT" streaming LIVE, wednesday at midnight (EST), on <nowiki>http://adultswim.com</nowiki> |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191013033117/https://twitter.com/dril/status/1183214966217641984 |archive-date=October 13, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> In the series, Dochney performs as dril wearing a [[rubber mask]] of an old man's face.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.geek.com/movies/dril-dolittle-and-joker-parody-oscar-the-grouch-were-this-weekends-fakest-trailers-1807264/ |
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|title=Dril, 'Dolittle,' and 'Joker' Parody Oscar the Grouch Were This Weekend's Fakest Trailers |
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|last=Minor |
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|first=Jordan |
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|date=October 14, 2019 |
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|website=[[Geek.com]] |
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|access-date=October 14, 2019 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191014165951/https://www.geek.com/movies/dril-dolittle-and-joker-parody-oscar-the-grouch-were-this-weekends-fakest-trailers-1807264/ |
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|archive-date=October 14, 2019 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> In February 2021, dril, Estevez-Olsen, and collaborator Pierce Campion released the short ''Virtual Prison'' as a pilot for a potential series on Adult Swim.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.avclub.com/dril-is-looking-to-expand-his-posting-empire-with-anoth-1846787970 |
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|title=Dril is looking to expand his posting empire with another TV show |
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|last=McCarter |
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|first=Reid |
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|date=April 29, 2021 |
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|website=[[The A.V. Club]] |
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|access-date=November 29, 2021 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130024652/https://www.avclub.com/dril-is-looking-to-expand-his-posting-empire-with-anoth-1846787970 |
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|archive-date=November 30, 2021 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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In February 2021, dril announced that he had begun developing a [[side-scrolling video game]] in his spare time, having done all the coding and artwork by himself until that point. With the working title ''copgame'', the project "follows the quest of a silent protagonist who stumbles upon the gift of immortality in a dangerous future where Top [[Internet celebrity|Influencers]] and corrupt hollywood guys maintain a cruel grip on society."<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/games/dril/dril-is-making-a-game/ |
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|title=Dril Is Making a Game |
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|last=Taveras |
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|first=Moises |
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|date=February 5, 2021 |
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|website=[[Paste (magazine)|Paste]] |
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|access-date=November 29, 2021 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206010155/https://www.pastemagazine.com/games/dril/dril-is-making-a-game/ |
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|archive-date=February 6, 2021 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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===Patreon account and books=== |
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{{Main|Dril Official "Mr. Ten Years" Anniversary Collection}} |
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In January 2017, dril opened a [[Patreon]] account for fans to make monthly payments in support of his tweets and various future projects, including "video, illustration, and long-form writing."<ref>{{cite web |title=dril |url=https://www.patreon.com/dril |website=[[Patreon]] |access-date=April 29, 2023}}</ref><ref name="AV" /> On the Patreon, dril described his plans for two book projects: an elaborate art book "with a narrative adjacent to the 'Mythos' surrounding my posts" and a "[[best of]]"-style compilation of tweets as a [[coffee table book]] with bonus content.<ref group="dril">{{cite web |
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===Patreon=== |
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In January 2017, dril opened a [[Patreon]] account, enabling fans to subscribe on a monthly basis to support his tweets and future projects, including "video, illustration, and long-form writing."<ref name="AV" /> On the Patreon, dril described working on two books, the first an elaborate art book and the second a "greatest hits" compilation of his tweets as a [[coffee table book]].<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.patreon.com/posts/what-is-this-why-8190514 |
|url=https://www.patreon.com/posts/what-is-this-why-8190514 |
||
|title=<nowiki>'</nowiki>what is this shit. why am i giving you money<nowiki>'</nowiki> |
|title=<nowiki>'</nowiki>what is this shit. why am i giving you money<nowiki>'</nowiki> |
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|last=dril |
|last=dril |
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|date=February 21, 2017 |
|date=February 21, 2017 |
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|website=[[Patreon]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
||
|url-access=subscription |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170911171724/https://www.patreon.com/posts/what-is-this-why-8190514 |
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|archive-date=September 11, 2017 |
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|url-status=live |
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}}{{subscription required}}</ref> The account's monthly revenue was $2,200 as of October 2017<ref name="Purdom" /> and $1,468 as of April 2023.<ref name="Rogers 2023" /> Dochney said he earned "as much money as a [[Kmart]] manager or something" from his Patreon and other dril-related endeavors, which are his primary source of income.<ref name="Rogers 2023" /> |
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Dril published his first book, ''[[Dril Official "Mr. Ten Years" Anniversary Collection]]'', in August 2018.<ref name="dril book">{{cite web |
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== Reception == |
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|url = https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mb4dvb/dril-official-mr-ten-years-anniversary-collection-book-vgtrn |
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dril's online writing has been praised by a variety of public figures, including poet [[Patricia Lockwood]];<ref name="oral" /><ref name="lockwood lecture" /> comedian and actor [[Rob Delaney]];<ref name="oral" /> writer and ''[[Chapo Trap House]]'' host Virgil Texas;<ref name="oral" /> and ''[[Reply All (podcast)|Reply All]]'' hosts [[PJ Vogt]] and Alex Goldman.<ref name="Reply All" /> In her 2017 book ''I Love My Computer Because My Friends Live in It: Stories from an Online Life'', author Jess Kimball Leslie described dril as a "true genius of the Internet ... who's seemingly co-opted part of the human meme that is Jack Nicholson and mixed it with [[postmodernism]] and [[Lysergic acid diethylamide|acid]]," and called the account's tweets "nothing short of [[miracle]]s."<ref name="Leslie">{{cite book |last=Leslie |first=Jess Kimball |year=2017 |title=I Love My Computer Because My Friends Live in It: Stories from an Online Life |publisher=[[Running Press]] |location=Philadelphia |isbn=978-0-7624-6171-4 |pages=188–189}}</ref> |
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|title = Dril, the Only Account on Twitter, Has a Book Now |
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|last = Slattery |
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|first = Peter |
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|date = August 23, 2018 |
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|website = [[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |
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|publisher = [[Vice Media]] |
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|access-date = August 23, 2018 |
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|archive-url = https://archive.today/20180823191614/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mb4dvb/dril-official-mr-ten-years-anniversary-collection-book-vgtrn |
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|archive-date = August 23, 2018 |
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|url-status = live |
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}}</ref> The book compiles the account's best tweets from its first ten years, as selected by the author, along with new original illustrations.<ref name="dril book" /> A second book, ''The Get Rich and Become God Method'', was published in 2020.<ref name="Gumroad GRABGM">{{cite web |last1=Wint |title=The Get Rich and Become God Method |url=https://gumroad.com/l/richgod |website=Gumroad |access-date=April 28, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Get Rich and Become God Method |isbn=979-8623565686}}</ref><ref name="Marshall New Yorker">{{cite magazine |last1=Marshall |first1=Colin |title=The Cracked Wisdom of Dril |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/the-cracked-wisdom-of-dril |magazine=The New Yorker |publisher=Condé Nast |access-date=April 29, 2023}}</ref> His third, ''The Dril Archives,'' was published in December 2022. It contains 10,000 posts and was released simultaneously in four editions, each being a different ordering: chronologically (titled ''Eternal''), alphabetically (''Refined''), by most likes (''Beloved'') and randomly (''Chaotic'').<ref group="dril">{{Cite web |title=each book has around 10000 posts |url=https://twitter.com/dril/status/1603765723213746176 |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=Twitter |language=en}}</ref> Dril revealed he had written another book, titled ''How to Cheat at Casino Games by Being a Bitch'', at a ''Truthpoint'' live performance in January 2023, when a supposed raffle to give a single copy of the book to an audience member instead ended with dril ripping up the printed manuscript in a performative rage. The pages were thrown to the crowd; based on recovered portions of the text, ''How to Cheat at Casino Games by Being a Bitch'' did appear to be a new original comedic narrative, not just a stage prop for the show.<ref name="Rogers 2023" /> |
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== Reception and following == |
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Following dril has often been described, sometimes half-seriously or [[tongue-in-cheek]], as one of the few good uses of Twitter.<ref>{{cite web |
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Over time, dril has grown from a relatively obscure Twitter account with a small [[cult following]] to a widely followed, well-known account on the site. In October 2012, dril had only 23,000 followers.<ref name="dd according" /> That number had grown to 166,000 by December 2014,<ref name="Paste 14">{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2014/12/the-75-best-twitter-accounts-of-2014.html |
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|title=The 75 Best Twitter Accounts of 2014 |
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|last=Hongo |
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|first=Hudson |
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|date=December 15, 2014 |
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|website=[[Paste (magazine)|Paste]] |
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|access-date=September 11, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170907170005/https://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2014/12/the-75-best-twitter-accounts-of-2014.html |
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|archive-date=September 7, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> and then 567,000 by May 2017.<ref name="McDonough" /> As of January 2021, dril had reached 1.6{{nbsp}}million followers.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url = https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/12/banned-donald-trump-genius-twitter |
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|last = Brooks |
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|first = Dan |
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|title = Now that he's been banned we can say it: Donald Trump was a genius at Twitter |
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|date = January 12, 2021 |
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|website = [[The Guardian]] |
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|access-date = November 29, 2021 |
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|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211020002228/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/12/banned-donald-trump-genius-twitter |
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|archive-date = October 20, 2021 |
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|url-status = live}}</ref> Unlike most comedians with large Twitter followings, dril became popular without a public reputation or career outside of the platform.<ref name="dbk" /> In March 2023, a report from the media outlet ''Platformer'' revealed that Twitter had included dril on a secret list of 35 "VIP" accounts whose [[Social media reach|reach]] was amplified by its algorithms, alongside such users as Twitter CEO [[Elon Musk]], President [[Joe Biden]], and basketball star [[LeBron James]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Belanger |first=Ashley |date=March 28, 2023 |title=Report: Twitter secretly boosted accounts instead of treating everyone equally |website=[[Ars Technica]] |url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/03/report-twitter-secretly-boosted-accounts-instead-of-treating-everyone-equally/ |url-status=live |access-date=April 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328181611/https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/03/report-twitter-secretly-boosted-accounts-instead-of-treating-everyone-equally/ |archive-date=March 28, 2023}}</ref> |
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Following dril has often been described—sometimes in a half-serious or [[tongue-in-cheek]] manner, other times sincerely—as one of the few good [[Twitter usage|uses of Twitter]].<ref name="AV2">{{cite web |
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|url=https://news.avclub.com/mike-huckabee-doesn-t-need-to-know-how-the-government-w-1798263484 |
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|title=Mike Huckabee doesn't need to know how the government works to fire off Twitter zingers |
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|last=Purdom |
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|first=Clayton |
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|date=June 14, 2017 |
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|website=[[The A.V. Club]] |
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|access-date=October 18, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009030918/https://news.avclub.com/mike-huckabee-doesn-t-need-to-know-how-the-government-w-1798263484 |
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|archive-date=October 9, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/27/13441120/vine-death-twitter-happiness-wheel-of-fortune-rip-fun |
|url=https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/27/13441120/vine-death-twitter-happiness-wheel-of-fortune-rip-fun |
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|title=Vine was an underrated source of joy on the internet |
|title=Vine was an underrated source of joy on the internet |
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|first=Lizzie |
|first=Lizzie |
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|date=October 27, 2016 |
|date=October 27, 2016 |
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|website=[[The Verge]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826030153/https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/27/13441120/vine-death-twitter-happiness-wheel-of-fortune-rip-fun |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/12/15/ifc_s_the_mirror_is_the_horrifying_show_america_needs.html |
|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/12/15/ifc_s_the_mirror_is_the_horrifying_show_america_needs.html |
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|title=We're Not Living in a ''Black Mirror'' Episode. We're Living In IFC's New Show ''The Mirror''. |
|title=We're Not Living in a ''Black Mirror'' Episode. We're Living In IFC's New Show ''The Mirror''. |
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|first=Matthew |
|first=Matthew |
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|date=December 15, 2016 |
|date=December 15, 2016 |
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|website=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826034905/http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/12/15/ifc_s_the_mirror_is_the_horrifying_show_america_needs.html |
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|url=https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/peach-app/ |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|title=The short life and cult appeal of Peach |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> In November 2017, shortly after the doxing incident, dril was called "arguably the most iconic Twitter account in the history of social media [and] practically internet royalty" in ''The A.V. Club''<ref name="AV unmasked">{{cite web |
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|last=Lawrence |
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|url=https://www.avclub.com/the-internet-has-unmasked-weird-twitter-icon-dril-1820575977 |
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|first=Kelsey |
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|title=The internet has unmasked Weird Twitter icon Dril |
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|date=December 20, 2016 |
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|last=Barsanti |
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|website=[[The Daily Dot]] |
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|first=Sam |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> In an analysis of "The Ratio"—a Twitter phenomenon in which tweets that have many more replies than retweets are assumed to be bad or controversial—[[data science]] startup Fast Forward Labs compared statistics from dril's account to those of politicians Trump, [[Hillary Clinton]], [[Bernie Sanders]], [[Paul Ryan]], and [[Mike Huckabee]].<ref>{{cite web |
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|date=June 14, 2017 |
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|url=http://blog.fastforwardlabs.com/2017/05/15/reply-retweet-ratio.html |
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|website=[[The A.V. Club]] |
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|title=A Quick Look at the Reply-to-Retweet Ratio |
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|access-date=November 19, 2017 |
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|last1=Williams |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171119011635/https://www.avclub.com/the-internet-has-unmasked-weird-twitter-icon-dril-1820575977 |
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|first1=Mike Lee |
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|archive-date=November 19, 2017 |
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|last2=Ansari |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> and "one of the internet's most unlikely treasures" in ''[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]''.<ref name="Brogan" /> In December 2019, Katie Notopoulos of ''[[BuzzFeed News]]'' called dril "Without a doubt [...] the most important person on Twitter of the 2010s."<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Notopoulos|first1=Katie|last2=Reinstein|first2=Julia|last3=Broderick|first3=Ryan|date=December 13, 2019|title=The 100 Memes That Defined The 2010s|url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katienotopoulos/memes-that-defined-the-2010s|access-date=2022-02-24|website=BuzzFeed News|language=en}}</ref> |
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|first2=Sepand |
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|date=May 15, 2017 |
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{{Quote box |
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|website=Fast Forward Labs |
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| quote = We can thank Twitter for mobilizing dissent, humanizing celebrities, and @dril. |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> Unlike the high number of replies drawn by the politicians' tweets, "famed Twitter personality @dril's ratio is just about perfect," with ''New York''{{'}}s Madison Malone Kircher concluding "[n]ever tweet, but if you must tweet, tweet like Dril, not like Paul Ryan."<ref>{{cite web |
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| author = Clayton Purdom |
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|url=http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/05/paul-ryan-has-worst-ratio-on-twitter.html |
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| source = ''[[The A.V. Club]]''<ref name="AV2" /> |
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|title=Paul Ryan Is the Most Hated Man on Twitter, Scientifically |
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| align = left |
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|last=Kircher |
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| width = 25% |
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|first=Madison Malone |
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| style = min-width: 10em |
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|date=May 16, 2017 |
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| salign = right |
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|website=[[New York (magazine)|New York]] |
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}} |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> |
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Dril's writing has been praised by a variety of public figures, including poet [[Patricia Lockwood]];<ref name="lockwood lecture" /><ref name="oral" /> actor-comedians [[Rob Delaney]]<ref name="oral" /> and [[David Cross]];<ref name="Rogers 2023" /> ''[[The New Yorker]]'' staff writer [[Adrian Chen]];<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/evnm9e/irl-club-is-an-anti-ted-talk-for-new-yorks-coolest-nerds |
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|title=irl club is an anti-ted talk for new york's coolest nerds |
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|last=Newell-Hanson |
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|first=Alice |
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|date=June 15, 2015 |
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|website=[[i-D]] |
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|publisher=[[Vice Media]] |
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|access-date=January 15, 2018 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180116065737/https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/evnm9e/irl-club-is-an-anti-ted-talk-for-new-yorks-coolest-nerds |
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|archive-date=January 16, 2018 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> and ''[[Reply All (podcast)|Reply All]]'' hosts [[PJ Vogt]] and Alex Goldman.<ref name="Reply All" /> In 2019, British writer Tom Whyman argued (in earnest) that dril should be considered for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] as "the one true poet of the internet age"; in Whyman's view, recognizing dril's writing as literature would be equivalent to historical [[Classificatory disputes about art|shifts in the definition of "art"]] prompted by avant-garde works by artists like [[Marcel Duchamp]] and [[Andy Warhol]].<ref name="Whyman Nobel">{{cite web |
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|url=https://theoutline.com/post/7245/give-the-nobel-prize-to-dril |
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|title=Give the Nobel Prize in Literature to Dril |
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|last=Whyman |
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|first=Tom |
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|date=March 26, 2019 |
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|website=[[The Outline (website)|The Outline]] |
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|access-date=March 27, 2019 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327203316/https://theoutline.com/post/7245/give-the-nobel-prize-to-dril |
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|archive-date=March 27, 2019 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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=== Acclaim for the account generally === |
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=== Appearances on lists of best tweets or tweeters === |
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dril is frequently listed among the funniest or best Twitter accounts. In 2012, ''[[The Daily Dot]]'' cited dril as one of the funniest accounts on Twitter and noted that reading dril's "[d]arkly funny ... odd, provocative, and clever" tweets "simultaneously brings a sense of head-scratching wonder and slightly uncomfortable chortles."<ref>{{cite web |
@dril is frequently listed among the funniest or best Twitter accounts. In 2012, ''[[The Daily Dot]]'' cited dril as one of the funniest accounts on Twitter and noted that reading dril's "[d]arkly funny ... odd, provocative, and clever" tweets "simultaneously brings a sense of head-scratching wonder and slightly uncomfortable chortles."<ref name="dd according">{{cite web |
||
|url=https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/twitter-five-funniest-reader-vote/ |
|url = https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/twitter-five-funniest-reader-vote/ |
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|title=Twitter's 5 other funniest people—according to you |
|title = Twitter's 5 other funniest people—according to you |
||
|last=Holt |
|last = Holt |
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|first=Kris |
|first = Kris |
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|date=October 25, 2012 |
|date = October 25, 2012 |
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|website = [[The Daily Dot]] |
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|access-date = August 24, 2017 |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> Max Read, then an editor of ''[[Gawker]]'', named dril one of the publication's "heroes" of 2013 in a year-in-review piece.<ref name="hero">{{cite web |
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|archive-url = https://archive.today/20170911172945/https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/twitter-five-funniest-reader-vote/ |
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|archive-date = September 11, 2017 |
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|url-status = live}}</ref> Max Read, then an editor of ''[[Gawker]]'', named dril one of the publication's "heroes" of 2013 in a year-in-review piece.<ref name="hero">{{cite web |
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|url=http://maxread.kinja.com/gawker-hero-dril-1492218723 |
|url=http://maxread.kinja.com/gawker-hero-dril-1492218723 |
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|title=Gawker Hero: @Dril |
|title=Gawker Hero: @Dril |
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|first=Max |
|first=Max |
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|date=December 31, 2013 |
|date=December 31, 2013 |
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|website=[[Kinja]] |
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|publisher=[[Univision Communications]] (originally published by [[Gawker Media]]) |
|publisher=[[Univision Communications]] (originally published by [[Gawker Media]]) |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> According to Read, dril's writing stood out in a paranoid [[World Wide Web|web]] landscape overrun by [[spambot]]s and covert corporate marketing: |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826071109/http://maxread.kinja.com/gawker-hero-dril-1492218723 |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Read, dril's writing stood out in a paranoid [[World Wide Web|web]] landscape overrun by [[spambot]]s and covert corporate marketing: |
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{{blockquote|Dril is not a bot. Dril is not a human. Dril is a psychic [[Markov chain]] whose input is the American internet. Dril is an intestine swollen with gas and incoherent politics and obscure signifiers and video-game memes and bile. Dril will not lie to you. Dril will not fool you. Dril is not a hoax. Dril is not a put-on. Dril is the only writer on the internet you can trust.<ref name="hero" />}} |
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''[[Paste (magazine)|Paste]]'' included dril on its lists of best Twitter accounts every year between 2013 and 2016,<ref name="Paste 14" /><ref>{{cite web |
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{{quote|Dril is not a bot. Dril is not a human. Dril is a psychic [[Markov chain]] whose input is the American internet. Dril is an intestine swollen with gas and incoherent politics and obscure signifiers and video-game memes and bile. Dril will not lie to you. Dril will not fool you. Dril is not a hoax. Dril is not a put-on. Dril is the only writer on the internet you can trust.<ref name="hero" />}} |
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|url = https://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2014/01/the-100-best-twitter-accounts-of-2013.html?p=2 |
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|title = The 60 Best Twitter Accounts of 2013 |
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|page = 2 |
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|last = Jackson |
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|first = Josh |
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|date = January 2, 2014 |
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|website = [[Paste (magazine)|Paste]] |
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|access-date = June 18, 2018 |
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|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140130042654/http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2014/01/the-100-best-twitter-accounts-of-2013.html?p=2 |
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|archive-date = January 30, 2014 |
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|url-status = live |
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}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |
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|url = https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/01/the-75-best-twitter-accounts-of-2015.html?p=4 |
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|title = The 75 Best Twitter Accounts of 2015 |
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|page = 4 |
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|author = ''Paste'' staff |
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|date = January 6, 2016 |
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|website = [[Paste (magazine)|Paste]] |
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|access-date = June 18, 2018 |
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|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160509181457/http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/01/the-75-best-twitter-accounts-of-2015.html?p=4 |
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|archive-date = May 9, 2016 |
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|url-status = live |
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}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/01/the-75-best-twitter-accounts-of-2016-1.html?p=4 |
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|title=The 75 Best Twitter Accounts of 2016 |
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|page=4 |
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|author=''Paste'' staff |
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|date=January 16, 2017 |
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|website=[[Paste (magazine)|Paste]] |
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|access-date=June 18, 2018 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618184251/https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/01/the-75-best-twitter-accounts-of-2016-1.html?p=4 |
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|archive-date=June 18, 2018 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> and the comedy site ''Splitsider'' (later merged into ''Vulture'') named dril one of the funniest accounts of 2017.<ref name="splitsider">{{cite web |
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|url=http://splitsider.com/2017/12/the-15-funniest-twitter-accounts-of-2017/ |
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|title= The 15 Funniest Twitter Accounts of 2017 |
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|last=Abriss |
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|first=Erik |
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|date=December 26, 2017 |
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|website=Splitsider |
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|publisher=[[New York (magazine)|New York Media]] |
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|access-date=May 21, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180117014245/http://splitsider.com/2017/12/the-15-funniest-twitter-accounts-of-2017/ |
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|archive-date=January 17, 2018 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Pen & Pencil Club]], a Philadelphia-based journalism association, nominated dril for an award honoring the best "Non-Traditional News Provider" of 2017; he lost.<ref name="Jones 2019" /> For a March 2019 feature commemorating the 30th anniversary of [[Tim Berners-Lee]]'s invention of the [[World Wide Web]], ''The Verge'' listed @dril among the greatest websites, people, and technologies in [[History of the World Wide Web|web history]].<ref>{{cite web |
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|author=''Verge'' staff |
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|url=https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/12/18259700/world-wide-wide-turns-30-www-anniversary-favorite-sites |
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|title=The World Wide Web Turns 30: Our Favorite Memories from A to Z |
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|date=March 12, 2019 |
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|website=[[The Verge]] |
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|access-date=April 1, 2019 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190312195509/https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/12/18259700/world-wide-wide-turns-30-www-anniversary-favorite-sites |
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|archive-date=March 12, 2019 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> Later that year, ''The A.V. Club'' ranked dril sixth on its list of the "best, worst, and weirdest things" on the Internet in the 2010s.<ref>{{cite web |
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|last=Colburn |
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|first=Randall |
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|url=https://aux.avclub.com/the-100-best-worst-and-weirdest-things-we-saw-on-the-1839566367 |
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|title=The 100 best, worst, and weirdest things we saw on the internet in the 2010s: 6. @Dril ''is'' the internet |
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|date=November 8, 2019 |
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|website=[[The A.V. Club]] |
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|access-date=November 20, 2019 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191114222222/https://aux.avclub.com/the-100-best-worst-and-weirdest-things-we-saw-on-the-1839566367 |
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|archive-date=November 14, 2019 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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=== Acclaim for individual tweets === |
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At the occasion of Twitter's tenth anniversary, both ''[[GQ]]'' and ''[[Newsweek]]'' named this dril tweet among the best or funniest tweets of all time:<ref>{{cite web |
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Individual dril tweets have also been lauded by the press. At the occasion of Twitter's tenth anniversary, both ''[[GQ]]'' and ''[[Newsweek]]'' named this dril tweet among the best and/or funniest tweets of all time:<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://www.gq.com/story/twitter-100-funniest-jokes |
|url=https://www.gq.com/story/twitter-100-funniest-jokes |
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|title=The 100 Funniest Jokes in the History of Twitter |
|title=The 100 Funniest Jokes in the History of Twitter |
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|first=Freddie |
|first=Freddie |
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|date=March 24, 2016 |
|date=March 24, 2016 |
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|website=[[GQ]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826033011/https://www.gq.com/story/twitter-100-funniest-jokes |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |
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|url=http://www.newsweek.com/twitters-10th-birthday-lets-look-back-10-best-tweets-all-time-438697 |
|url=http://www.newsweek.com/twitters-10th-birthday-lets-look-back-10-best-tweets-all-time-438697 |
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|title= On Twitter's 10th Birthday, Let's Look at the 10 Best Tweets of All Time |
|title= On Twitter's 10th Birthday, Let's Look at the 10 Best Tweets of All Time |
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|first3=Ryan |
|first3=Ryan |
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|date=March 21, 2016 |
|date=March 21, 2016 |
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|website=[[Newsweek]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819112050/http://www.newsweek.com/twitters-10th-birthday-lets-look-back-10-best-tweets-all-time-438697 |
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|archive-date=August 19, 2017 |
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{{Quote box |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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|quote = [[File:Disc Plain cyan.svg|border|left|32px]]{{float|left=4px|{{font|😎|size=200%}}}}<poem> |
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'''wint''' |
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@dril |
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{{tweet |
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Food $200 |
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|image = Dril self-portrait.jpg |
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Data $150 |
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|name = wint |
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Rent $800 |
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|username = dril |
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Candles $3,600 |
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|unverified = y |
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Utility $150 |
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|date = September 29, 2013 |
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someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying</poem> |
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|text = Food $200<br> |
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|source = 4:54 PM - 13 Oct 2011<ref>{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=384408932061417472 |date = September 29, 2013 |title=Food $200 Data $150 Rent $800 Candles $3,600 Utility $150 someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying}}</ref> |
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Data $150<br> |
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|width = 50% |
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Rent $800<br> |
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|align = center |
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Candles $3,600<br> |
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|bgcolor= #FFFFFF |
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Utility $150<br> |
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someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying |
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|reference =<ref name="budget" group="dril">{{Cite tweet |user=dril |number=384408932061417472 |date = September 29, 2013 |title=Food $200 Data $150 Rent $800 Candles $3,600 Utility $150 someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dying |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170723033940/https:/twitter.com/dril/status/384408932061417472 |archive-date=July 23, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> |
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|block = yes |
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}} |
}} |
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The same tweet |
The same tweet had also been listed among the site's funniest by ''BuzzFeed'' in 2014.<ref>{{cite web |
||
|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/tweet-game-strong |
|url = https://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/tweet-game-strong |
||
|title=The 85 Funniest Tweets of All Time |
|title = The 85 Funniest Tweets of All Time |
||
|last=Greenring |
|last = Greenring |
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|first=Tanner |
|first = Tanner |
||
|date=October 30, 2014 |
|date = October 30, 2014 |
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|website = [[BuzzFeed]] |
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|access-date = August 24, 2017 |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> The "corncob" tweet was listed as the 8th most "[[Western canon|canonical]]" tweet of all time in 2017 by ''[[Mic (media company)|Mic]]'', whose Miles Klee wrote it was "categorically impossible" to select the single best dril tweet,<ref>{{cite web |
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|archive-url = https://archive.today/20141122184152/http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/tweet-game-strong |
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|url=https://mic.com/articles/176822/101-canonical-tweets-these-are-the-most-influential-tweets-in-twitter-history |
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|archive-date = November 22, 2014 |
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|title=101 Canonical Tweets: The best, most influential tweets in Twitter history |
|||
|url-status = live}}</ref> The "corncob" tweet was listed as the 8th most "canonical" tweet of all time in 2017 by ''[[Mic (media company)|Mic]]'', whose Miles Klee wrote it was "categorically impossible" to select the single best dril tweet.<ref>{{cite web |
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|last=Klee |
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|url = https://mic.com/articles/176822/101-canonical-tweets-these-are-the-most-influential-tweets-in-twitter-history |
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|first=Miles |
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|title = 101 Canonical Tweets: The best, most influential tweets in Twitter history |
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|date=June 8, 2017 |
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|last = Klee |
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|website=[[Mic (media company)|Mic]] |
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|first = Miles |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017}}</ref> and another dril tweet was ranked among the site's "greatest" by ''[[Thought Catalog]]'' in 2013.<ref>{{cite web |
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|date = June 8, 2017 |
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|website = [[Mic (media company)|Mic]] |
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|access-date = August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url = https://archive.today/20170911173519/https://mic.com/articles/176822/101-canonical-tweets-these-are-the-most-influential-tweets-in-twitter-history |
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|archive-date = September 11, 2017 |
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|url-status = live}}</ref> Another dril tweet—"IF THE ZOO BANS ME FOR HOLLERING AT THE ANIMALS I WILL FACE GOD AND WALK BACKWARDS INTO HELL"—was ranked among the site's "greatest" by ''[[Thought Catalog]]'' in 2013.<ref>{{cite web |
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|url=https://thoughtcatalog.com/stephen-tully-dierks/2013/04/the-50-greatest-tweets-of-all-time/ |
|url=https://thoughtcatalog.com/stephen-tully-dierks/2013/04/the-50-greatest-tweets-of-all-time/ |
||
|title=The 50 Greatest Tweets of All Time |
|title=The 50 Greatest Tweets of All Time |
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Line 480: | Line 1,113: | ||
|first=Stephen Tully |
|first=Stephen Tully |
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|date=April 5, 2013 |
|date=April 5, 2013 |
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|website=[[Thought Catalog]] |
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|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
|access-date=August 24, 2017 |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826071356/https://thoughtcatalog.com/stephen-tully-dierks/2013/04/the-50-greatest-tweets-of-all-time/ |
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|quote=IF THE ZOO BANS ME FOR HOLLERING AT THE ANIMALS I WILL FACE GOD AND WALK BACKWARDS INTO HELL}}</ref> |
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|archive-date=August 26, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> ''Slate'' counted one of his tweets among the best sentences written in 2017, ranking dril alongside such writers as [[Umberto Eco]], [[Ta-Nehisi Coates]], [[Anne Carson]], [[Mohsin Hamid]], [[Jennifer Egan]], [[Durga Chew-Bose]], [[John Darnielle]], and [[Daniel Dennett]].<ref>{{cite web |
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== References == |
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|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2017/12/the_19_best_sentences_of_2017.html |
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{{reflist|30em}} |
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|title=The 19 Best Sentences of 2017 |
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|last=Brogan |
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|first=Jacob |
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|date=December 14, 2017 |
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|website=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |
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|access-date=December 18, 2017 |
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|quote=im afraid i must say that i do not find the mysteries featured on "scooby-doo" challenging enough . |
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|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171217113403/http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2017/12/the_19_best_sentences_of_2017.html |
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|archive-date=December 17, 2017 |
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|url-status=live}}</ref> |
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== See also == |
== See also == |
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* [[Twitterature]] |
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* [[Horse ebooks]] |
* [[Horse ebooks]] |
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* [[da share z0ne]] |
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* [[Ken M]] |
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* [[Extremely Online]] |
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{{clear right}} |
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==Notes== |
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{{notefoot|35em}} |
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== References == |
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{{Primary sources references section|group=dril|35em}} |
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===Secondary sources=== |
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{{Reflist|20em}} |
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== External links == |
== External links == |
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{{wikiquote|Dril|dril}} |
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;dril |
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* [https://twitter.com/dril @dril] on [[Twitter]] |
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* [http://www.wint.co/ wint.co], dril's homepage |
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* [https://www.patreon.com/dril dril] on [[Patreon]] |
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* [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dril dril] on ''[[Know Your Meme]]'' |
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;Lists of dril's best tweets: |
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* "[http://www.somethingawful.com/twitter-tuesday/tt08-14-12/1/ @dril's Greatest Hits]" — a 2012 list at [[Something Awful]] |
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* "[http://www.papermag.com/twitters-biggest-weirdest-mystery-man-on-how-to-actually-break-the-int-1427451072.html Twitter's Biggest, Weirdest Mystery Man on How to Actually Break the Internet]" – a 2014 article by dril in ''[[Paper (magazine)|Paper]]'' that includes the magazine's five favorite dril tweets |
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* "[http://www.thethings.com/15-hilarious-tweets-that-will-make-you-want-to-follow-dril-on-twitter/ 15 Hilarious Tweets That Will Make You Want To Follow Dril On Twitter]" — a 2017 list at ''The Things'' |
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dril online: |
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[[Category:Twitter accounts]] |
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* {{Twitter|id=dril}} |
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[[Category:Internet humor]] |
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* [https://bsky.app/profile/dril.bsky.social dril] on [[Bluesky (social network)|Bluesky]] |
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* [http://www.wint.co/ wint.co] – dril's homepage |
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* [https://www.patreon.com/dril Patreon] |
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Collections of dril's best tweets: |
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* "[https://www.somethingawful.com/twitter-tuesday/tt08-14-12/1/ @dril's Greatest Hits]" — a 2012 list at [[Something Awful]] |
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* "[http://www.collegehumor.com/post/7053042/the-15-most-important-dril-tweets-of-all-time The 15 Most Important @dril Tweets of All-Time]" — a 2017 list at [[CollegeHumor]] |
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* "[http://www.thethings.com/15-hilarious-tweets-that-will-make-you-want-to-follow-dril-on-twitter/ 15 Hilarious Tweets That Will Make You Want to Follow Dril on Twitter]" — a 2017 list at ''The Things'' |
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* "[https://www.geek.com/culture/dril-tweet-bracket-is-the-internets-criterion-collection-1733856/ Dril Tweet Bracket is the Internet's Criterion Collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180826044053/https://www.geek.com/culture/dril-tweet-bracket-is-the-internets-criterion-collection-1733856/ |date=2018-08-26 }}" – 2018 article at [[Geek.com]] about a [[Bracket (tournament)|tournament bracket]] of dril's 64 best tweets curated by Twitter user @VT_Ben |
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** [https://twitter.com/VT_Ben/status/976067672373972992 @VT_Ben's completed bracket] on Twitter, with results based on polls |
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{{Twitter navbox|state=collapsed}} |
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{{authority control}} |
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[[Category:Living people]] |
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[[Category:1987 births]] |
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[[Category:Pseudonymous writers]] |
[[Category:Pseudonymous writers]] |
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[[Category:Writers from New Jersey]] |
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[[Category:Comedians from New Jersey]] |
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[[Category:21st-century American comedians]] |
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[[Category:American satirists]] |
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[[Category:Internet properties established in 2008]] |
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[[Category:American Internet celebrities]] |
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[[Category:Internet humor]] |
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[[Category:Internet slang]] |
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[[Category:Electronic literature writers]] |
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[[Category:American illustrators]] |
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[[Category:American animators]] |
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[[Category:American animated film directors]] |
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[[Category:American surrealist artists]] |
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[[Category:Aphorists]] |
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[[Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing]] |
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[[Category:Absurdist fiction]] |
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[[Category:Black comedy]] |
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[[Category:Weird Twitter]] |
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[[Category:Haddonfield Memorial High School alumni]] |
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[[Category:Wilmington University alumni]] |
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[[Category:Shitposters]] |
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[[Category:Twitter accounts]] |
Revision as of 11:52, 16 August 2024
dril | |
---|---|
Other names | wint (intermittent Twitter display name), Paul Dochney (creator) |
Years active | 2008–present |
Known for | Absurdist tweets |
Notable work | Dril Official "Mr. Ten Years" Anniversary Collection |
Website | |
Signature | |
@dril is a pseudonymous Twitter user best known for his idiosyncratic style of absurdist humor and non-sequiturs. The account and the character associated with the tweets are all commonly referred to as dril (the account's username on Twitter) or wint (the account's intermittent display name), both rendered lowercase but often capitalized by others. Since his first tweet in 2008, dril has become a popular and influential Twitter user with more than 1.8 million followers.[1]
Dril is one of the most notable accounts associated with "Weird Twitter", a subculture on the site that shares a surreal, ironic sense of humor. The character associated with dril is highly distinctive, often described as a bizarre reflection of a typical male American Internet user. Other social media users have repurposed dril's tweets for humorous or satiric effect in a variety of political and cultural contexts. Many of dril's tweets, phrases, and tropes have become familiar parts of Internet slang.
The few available details about his life fueled speculation about his identity, though a large contingent of his fanbase insisted that others respect his choice to maintain his privacy. In 2017, following a doxing incident, a piece from New York suggested the author's identity.[2] Dril was identified as Paul Dochney (born 1987). Dochney typically responded to press inquiries "in-character". Dochney confirmed his identity on several occasions thereafter, and in 2023 he participated in his first interview under his own name at The Ringer.[3]
Beyond tweeting, Dochney funds his work through Patreon, has created animated short films and contributed illustrations and writing to other artists' collaborative projects. His first book, Dril Official "Mr. Ten Years" Anniversary Collection (2018), is a compilation of the account's "greatest hits" alongside new illustrations. In 2019 he announced the launch of a streaming web series called Truthpoint: Darkweb Rising, an InfoWars parody co-created with comedian Derek Estevez-Olsen for Adult Swim. Writers have praised dril for his originality and humor; for example, poet Patricia Lockwood said of him: "he is a master of tone, he is a master of character".[4]
Biography
Dochney was born in June 1987.[5] He grew up in New Jersey, raised by working-class parents: his father worked as a manager at FedEx while his mother, a homemaker, sought out odd jobs for additional income.[3] He graduated from Haddonfield Memorial High School.[6] After dropping out of college on his first attempt, he restarted at Wilmington University in Delaware and attained a BA in media design (i.e., graphic and web design).[3] He moved to Philadelphia in the late 2010s.[7] By the early 2020s, Dochney resided in Greater Los Angeles.[3][8]
wint @drilno
September 15, 2008[dril 1]
Dochney was an avid Internet user from early childhood.[3] By the 2000s, he was posting at the Something Awful forums under the name "gigantic drill".[9][10] He spent most of his time posting artwork to the site's "Fuck You and Die" (FYAD) forum.[3] According to David Thorpe, a former Something Awful admin, gigantic drill was known as "just a guy who was posting funny stuff on there", but never one of the site's featured front page writers.[11] Dril joined Twitter about two years after its launch, adopting the handle "@dril" because the correctly spelled "@drill" had already been taken.[3] Dril sent his first tweet, the single word "no", on September 15, 2008.[12]
Later, when reflecting on the state of Twitter at the time of his first tweet, dril said "everyone was just posting bullshit like, 'Oh, this is what I had for lunch.' It was just, like, tech guys posting inane details about their lives. I posted 'no' because I didn't care for it at the time. I still really don't care for it."[3] The @dril account then remained silent on Twitter for nine months before his second tweet—"how do i get cowboy paint off a dog ."[dril 2]—and has posted regularly in the years since.[10][12]
Identity
I mean, my name is already out there. It's in my Wikipedia article. Maybe people need to grow up. Just accept that I'm not like Santa Claus. I'm not a magic elf who posts.
Dochney, The Ringer (April 12, 2023)[3]
Dochney initially maintained anonymity; for many years, little was known about the author behind the @dril account. When asked about the account's longtime anonymity during a private Q&A in 2017, he responded "i am an almost 30 year old man and i could not really care less about the Authenticity of the platform i use to convey dick jokes."[12] Jacob Bakkila, one of the writers behind the @Horse_ebooks Twitter account, hinted in 2013 that the person behind dril had once hired him for a project.[13] Bakkila told BuzzFeed that dril's author was a graphic designer living somewhere in the New York metropolitan tri-state area.[13] BuzzFeed's John Herrman and Katie Notopoulos speculated that the account might be a collaborative project or that Bakkila himself was behind it.[13] Bakkila denied the rumor that he was dril, adding that dril was "a friend" who had contributed to the @Horse_ebooks sequel, Bear Stearns Bravo.[14]
On November 16, 2017, a Tumblr post identifying dril's author as Paul Dochney went viral.[15] Other posts identifying Dochney existed as early as 2014 on Tumblr, Twitter, and Reddit, but these earlier posts had not gone viral or been publicized in the media.[note 1][2][16] The 2017 post unmasked dril through "informed guesswork" founded on other clues, including a LinkedIn page associated with Bear Stearns Bravo and a writing credit on Hiveswap, an adventure game set in the universe of Andrew Hussie's long-running webcomic Homestuck.[2]
The Tumblr post was described by the press as a "doxing": an unwelcome broadcasting of private personal information online.[16][17] The post was met with backlash and dismay among Twitter users, many of whom voiced a preference for keeping dril's personal identity a mystery and preserving the author's privacy.[2][15][16][17] According to Jozefien Wouters, writing for the Belgian news magazine Knack:
The strange thing is that the unmasking caused only a relatively small shockwave. Everyone decided to pretend that nothing had happened. "I will not let you guys ruin the last good thing on this website. Protect dril, respect dril, leave dril alone", a fan tweeted. Nobody really wants to know who is making compulsive nonsense from his keyboard on the other side of the computer screen.[18]
Dril addressed the doxing on his Patreon page, writing "everything's normal. i guess im [sic] 'doxxed' now. sorry. it's fine. i donr [sic] really give a shit."[dril 4] In a Reddit "ask us anything" interview, dril confirmed that he had worked on Hiveswap.[dril 5][dril 6] He said the personal impact of the doxing had been minimal, adding that people had been "surprisingly normal" and he had no "sordid past" to hide,[dril 7] but also described being outed as "my Cross to bear"[dril 8] and said "theres nothing scandalous enough there to make it worth publicizing and looking like an ass hole while doing so."[dril 3]
In August 2018, the Twitter account announced that dril was transferring the publishing rights of his tweets to Paul Dochney, whom he called his "Agent And Master", for the purpose of publishing his first book.[dril 9] Some reporters subsequently identified dril as Dochney.[19][20] In a 2020 Reddit AMA, dril commented, "i doxxed myself so amazon would give me permission to publish my other book last year. im some guy named paul dochney who cares big whoop."[dril 10] Dochney gave his first fully "out-of-character" interview under his own name in April 2023, when he was profiled at The Ringer.[3] The latter interview solidified his intent to be publicly identified under his personal name.[21][22]
Character and writing style
Dochney writes dril tweets in character, using an avatar of a blurry image of Jack Nicholson smiling and wearing sunglasses. Although there is no consistent narrative,[23][24] the "voice" or "character" is considered highly distinctive. Writer Alexander McDonough called dril a "grinning Jack Nicholson with severe persecution and self-esteem issues, poor physical health, and a bizarre love/hate relationship with cops."[12] Bijan Stephen at The Verge likened dril to an online version of the "wise fool" stock character.[20]
Critics have described dril's voice as an amalgamation of ordinary Internet users, most of all those who are arrogant, obsessive, ignorant, or hapless. Professor of English literature Roger Bellin describes the character of dril as "generally a recognizable type: a self-important buffoon who's often raging out (show yourself, coward), or other times preening (buddy, they won't even let me), over some bit of nonsense that we're all meant to realize is absurdly unimportant."[23] Vice reviewer Rachel Pick describes dril as "a bumbling, maladapted fool ... a pudgy, oily man, frequently in a state of undress, who doesn't go through life as much as he is spilled across it."[19] According to The A.V. Club's Clayton Purdom, dril is a sort of patron saint of Internet users, or "your uncle's search history come to life and filtered through a scabrous comic sensibility, and ... possibly the most popular, beloved man on the entire internet (after, maybe, The Rock)."[10] Christine Erickson at Mashable said dril's character was like "a spambot equivalent to the kind of crazy that Clint Eastwood portrays".[25] At Kotaku, Gita Jackson called dril a "joke account that also inadvertently catalogues ... every way to be mad online".[26]
In a lecture given at the University of Pennsylvania, American poet Patricia Lockwood described dril as a literary alter ego of Twitter users and the Internet in general. Comparing the account's persona to Ignatius J. Reilly, the protagonist of John Kennedy Toole's novel A Confederacy of Dunces (1980), Lockwood cited dril as an example of new possibilities in first-person narrative that could be explored online. Lockwood said of dril:
He is a master of tone, he is a master of character; his accidents are not accidents and his spelling mistakes are not mistakes. His character is the anonymous psycho of the comments box. He has been banned from every forum. He is all-present and nothing-knowing. He is the corn syrup addiction of America and he is an expired Applebee's coupon. We worship him in a big, nude church while the police blast Kenny Loggins and wait for us to come out. We will never come out. We like Kenny Loggins.[4]
Dril's tweets are, in the words of Jordan Sargent at Gawker, a series of "quietly seething and unhinged avant-garde scribblings".[27] His tweets are deliberately peppered with odd typos like misspelled words, grammatical mistakes, punctuation errors, and eggcorns.[28] Yohann Koshy in Vice said dril's writing "reads like obscene nonsense verse—the syntax mutilated, the humour irredeemable".[29] In the preface to his first book, dril called his writing style "Prestige Short Prose".[19] Pick suggested that the phrase was likely "meant to make fun of the snobby lit theory types who want to make Dril out to be some highbrow art project", but she concluded it was an apt term to describe dril's style of "part art form, part jokes to read on the toilet".[19] Pick also compared dril's writing to the surreal one-liner jokes of Jack Handey and the flash fiction short story "For sale: baby shoes, never worn".[19] Jonah Engel Bromwich, in The New York Times, said dril was a major influence on the spread of dialogue, written in the same method as screenwriting, as a comedic writing style on Twitter.[30]
Dril has been identified as one of the "most revered"[13] and "quintessential"[31] accounts associated with the "Weird Twitter" scene, a loose subculture of associated users who share a surreal, ironic, subversive sense of humor.[32][33][34][35] dril was one of many Weird Twitter personalities who migrated to Twitter from Something Awful's FYAD board and carried over the forum's in-jokes and tone.[10][36] Like others on Weird Twitter, dril's tweets have been described as having a dadaist sensibility.[37] Writing for Complex, Brenden Gallagher compared dril to a musician who refuses to sell out or an auteurist indie filmmaker, as Twitter's version of "the enigmatic figure that even [an art form's] best known practitioners look to with reverence".[9] Sean T. Collins described dril's humor as a "blend of fist-on-the-table bluster, abject confusion and burned-toast syntax", noting the influence of surreal humor found in Monty Python (especially the sketches from their show Monty Python's Flying Circus and Terry Gilliam's animations) and Adult Swim shows like Space Ghost Coast to Coast and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job![38] Collins called dril's tweets "a new way to be funny, with a rhythm and vocabulary all their own. I love it."[38]
Motivation and satirical elements
Most of dril's writing is understood to be absurd, surreal, ironic, or nonsensical.[39] An article about dril in The Oxford Student singled out this 2011 dril tweet as the account's guiding "manifesto":[40]
wint @drilfuck "jokes". everything i tweet is real. raw insight without the horse shit. no, i will NOT follow trolls. twitter dot com. i live for this
October 13, 2011[dril 11]
Providing an ostensibly out-of-character statement to BuzzFeed for an oral history on "Weird Twitter" in 2013, dril commented on the nature of his work and motivation:
Twitter, as I understand it, is a sort of "Hell" that I was banished to upon death in my previous life. In this abstract realm, the only thing I am certain of is that my cries are awarded "Favs" or "RTs" when they are particularly miserable or profane. These ethereal merits do nothing to ease my suffering, but I have deliriously convinced myself that gathering enough of them will impress my unseen superiors and grant me a promotion to a higher plane of existence. This is my sole motivation.[32]
In a 2017 Reddit AMA, he commented:
my friend told me to join twitter ten years ago and i thought it looked dumb as shit so i tried posting the worst things i could think of to destroy it and it didnt work[dril 12]
Dan Hitchens at Christian journal First Things noted, in an article about the use of irony on social media, that "[m]uch of the art of Twitter consists in appearing to put forward a position while giving the impression that you might be kidding", citing American author David Foster Wallace's warnings about the pervasiveness of irony in modern culture.[41] According to Hitchens, dril is the "cult account that towers above the rest" in his mastery of irony, and dril's "inspired errors in spelling, logic, and decorum can only be produced by a clever creator, but the creator never lets the mask slip. Half the joke is our joint awareness of @dril's lack of self-awareness."[41]
Although dril's content is typically absurd or nonsensical, some have noted an undercurrent of satire or social commentary in dril's tweets.[40][33] Surveying Weird Twitter for Complex, Gallagher commented that dril's "vicious satire of conservatives, gamers, conspiracy theorists, and other less savory aspects of the Internet is always on point, always hilarious, always in character."[9] Fellow Weird Twitter user @rare_basement said dril's "trolling [of] Penn State fans during the molestation scandal was so brilliant, always on the right side of the issue, but super funny and subtle about it."[32] Although dril does not avow an explicit political identity, the account's politics are generally identified as leftist, an alignment common among Weird Twitter users.[10] However, the abstraction and vagueness of dril's tweets have allowed them to be spread and repurposed by people of varying ideologies across the political spectrum.[10][42] Celebrities, journalists, and former members of both Republican and Democratic presidential administrations follow dril,[42] and even the far-right Breitbart News has quoted dril on its Twitter feed.[10]
Influence
Impact on Internet slang
Like Dante or Shakespeare, Dril is a creator of vernacular: If you've ever tweeted about the boys being back in town,[dril 13] or bemoaned some group of people being at it again,[dril 14] or ruminated on things "they" won't even let you do,[dril 15] or asked for budgeting help because your family is dying,[dril 16] you're quoting Dril, maybe without even consciously realizing it by now ... [T]hrough sheer force of genius, his sense of humor has become everyone else's as well.
References to dril's tweets have become part of the vernacular of Internet slang. Some of dril's distinctive phrases have become so ubiquitous that they are used even by those who are unaware of the phrases' origin.[2][42][43] Although dril's biggest influence is on Twitter, his tweets are also popular on other social media platforms—for example, meme-aggregating groups on Facebook commonly share his content,[44] and several Tumblr users and trends have referenced and been influenced by dril.[45][46][47] There was a Know Your Meme guide to dril in 2014, at a time when KYM pages for individual Twitter users were comparatively rare.[9]
A common piece of conventional wisdom on Twitter holds that it is possible to find a dril Tweet that corresponds to virtually any situation or statement,[10][48][49] leading to the saying "There's always a dril Tweet."[50][51][52] As an example, the dril Tweet below has been widely referenced after a person apologizes for making a dramatically offensive and obviously incorrect statement:[53]
wint @drilissuing correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the terror group ISIL. you do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to them"
February 15, 2017[dril 17]
As described by Purdom, finding the dril tweet that matches an event or statement has become an online parlor game, made possible because dril had "rendered a tightly written comedic exaggeration of every daily outrage and conflict from the news cycle in which we find ourselves trapped."[10] Purdom also found that dril's early preoccupations and sensibility had an outsized, "Velvet Underground-like influence on the tenor of the internet to come."[10] By the end of 2017, the staff of Deadspin declared that "comparing everything to @dril" was a trend that "should die" in 2018, asserting that dril himself remained funny but dril comparisons had become an overused, lazy trope, because too many Twitter users were relying on dril references "as a substitute for an actual joke."[49] Until 2021, dril's first tweet, "no", was used by dril as his "pinned tweet", a feature of Twitter that allows one tweet the user considers to be particularly important to be "pinned" out of chronological order at the top of a Twitter feed. Despite, or because of, its lack of context, it has amassed thousands of likes and retweets. According to Will Oremus at Slate, the popularity of the "no" tweet is an example of how "The metadata is the message" on social media, as metrics like retweets provide important context and carry independent meaning, akin to a laugh track on TV.[54][55]
Satirical recontextualization
Other social media users frequently quote, recontextualize, or remix dril tweets for their own satirical purposes, and some accounts are even exclusively dedicated to this purpose.[40] One such account, @EveryoneIsDril, shares screenshots of tweets by other people that look like dril's typing mannerisms.[40] Another, "wint MP" or @parliawint, attaches dril tweets styled like teletext closed captions to images from BBC News of British politicians and journalists speaking.[29] Although seemingly niche, the wint MP account garnered 14,000 followers by May 2017. Tom dissonance, the creator of wint MP, attributed the account's success to its functioning as a joke on multiple levels, and for multiple audiences: "there are people who get the in-jokey references; there's a broader level of people who get politics and dril, and understand the significance of one commenting on another; and beyond that there are people who just appreciate an official figure in a suit saying something ridiculous. It's an onion of silliness."[29] Koshy commented that wint MP "stands out from traditional forms of satire because it has no normative force. It recommends nothing about the way things should be. The political field it presents is slack-jawed, demented, putrid and amoral – there is no value beyond the scope of its image."[29]
Not all satirical riffing on dril is political in nature; for example, the account @drilmagic attracted thousands of followers presenting mashups of dril tweets and cards from the game Magic: The Gathering.[56] Ben Wilinofsky, a card player who contributed to @drilmagic, said the account and its format became a success because "Magic has a very self-serious lore that is great foil for an account that so often has the self-serious in its crosshairs."[56] Several attempts have been made to create AI text generators (often manually curated) that create messages in the style of dril tweets.[57][58][59][60]
Comparisons to Donald Trump
There are several people whose voices on social media are often compared to dril's—the musician and actor Ice-T is one[61][62]—but Donald Trump is likely the most common comparison. Commentators have frequently compared dril to Trump (and vice versa), particularly Trump's voice on Twitter and other social media platforms.[10] According to Purdom, "Both are aging, endlessly aggrieved white men who seemingly do not understand core components of the internet, yet they perfectly embody its anonymous rage, its ability to turn people into lunatics being swarmed and eaten alive by enemies and trolls."[10]
In a 2016 article for New York magazine, Brian Feldman argued that Trump should choose dril as his vice-presidential running mate because the writer perceived commonalities between dril's "incoherent, libidinous, authoritarian comment-spam" and Trump's own campaign tweeting.[63] In a joke about Trump's use of social media, journalist and MSNBC host Chris Hayes said that protestors should yell at Trump to log off to "see if they can get him to recreate that @dril Tweet",[64] a reference to the following:
wint @drilwho the fuck is scraeming 'LOG OFF' at my house. show yourself, coward. i will never log off
September 15, 2012[dril 18]
Eve Peyser, in a Gizmodo article declaring the 2016 presidential election was "the Weird Twitter election", had earlier compared the same dril tweet to the "tone, structure and message" of a Trump tweet.[65] David Covucci at The Daily Dot coined "Dril's Law", an adage stating that "[f]or every single thing Donald Trump has tweeted, Dril did it earlier and better."[66] Covucci also asked: "What if Donald Trump is @dril? Would it be any stranger than Donald Trump being president of the United States?"[66] Responding to Covucci's question, Anna North wrote in The New York Times that "another explanation" for the similarity between dril and Trump "seems more likely: Donald Trump's Twitter presence isn't absurdist, it's just absurd."[67]
"Corncob"
In 2011, dril tweeted the following:
wint @dril"im not owned! im not owned!!', i continue to insist as i slowly shrink and transform into a corn cob
November 10, 2011[dril 19]
The tweet describes an argument or similar situation in which one participant has clearly been "owned" but refuses to acknowledge it or to take a break, instead doubling down and insisting beyond any credibility that they have not been owned.[69]
Shortly after it was posted, Twitter users began to use screenshots of the corncob tweet to point out when a person refused to acknowledge losing an argument or suffering some other humiliation.[70] By 2017, the word "corncob" by itself had become common slang on Twitter for this purpose.[70] The Ringer's Kate Knibbs observed that, while "corncob" as slang remained limited to communities on Twitter, the "corncob" archetype is universal and identifiable throughout contemporary culture.[71] According to Knibbs, "the condition of being a corn cob—of allowing yourself to be defined by and reduced to a piercing insistence that a perceived slight has not diminished you—[has] spread far beyond a small corner of Twitter."[71] Among public figures whose behavior was described as fitting the "corncob" archetype, Knibbs listed Donald Trump, Julian Assange, actress Louise Linton, Kim Kardashian's friend Jonathan Cheban, Kanye West (noting his numerous outbursts and 2016 song "Famous"), and Taylor Swift (noting her 2017 song "Look What You Made Me Do").[71]
The term "corncob" became controversial after the reference was used in a meme with leftist criticisms of then-Senator (and later Vice President) Kamala Harris. The political commentator Al Giordano asserted, citing a dated Urban Dictionary definition of "corncobbed", that "[e]very cretin who has spread this meme needs to reckon with how it uses 'corncob', a rape culture and homophobic term popular among dudebros",[68][72][70] confusing the word with the slang term cornhole. Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress and an advisor on Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, called on a Twitter user—an Ohio State student—to "denounce" the corncob meme.[69] Various news publications reported on the story, and noted that the fast pace of Twitter discourse and unusual slang and in-jokes meant that a misunderstanding risked embarrassment and mocking.[68][69][72] Amelia Tait, writer of an "internet dictionary" column in the New Statesman, even wrote that Giordano had "exposed [himself] as ignorant of online culture" and had, himself, been corncobbed.[70]
The term resurfaced in March 2019, when the official campaign account for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell used it to ridicule Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by superimposing an image of a corncob onto Ocasio-Cortez's face.[73]
Family and other characters
Dril tweets often refer to his relationships with family members—particularly an unnamed wife/ex-wife, and numerous sons—in a manner reminiscent of father figures in American sitcoms like Married... with Children.[10] Tom Whyman for The Outline described dril as "at once married and divorced (from the same essential 'wife')".[24] Jia Tolentino, a staff writer for The New Yorker, credited dril as an originator of the "large adult son" trope.[74] The trope, which Tolentino described as commonplace across social media and especially online sports journalism, involves particular observations of hapless male behavior that is "endlessly excusable: though [the large adult son] does nothing right, he can do no wrong."[74] The character of dril repeatedly refers to his "sons", who are usually involved in the kind of "classic large-adult-son behavior" Tolentino describes as "alarming, with a whiff of the surreal".[74] The sons are compared to Trump's sons, particularly Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as Mike Huckabee's sons.[74][75] dril's regular posts about his disastrous marriage have also been compared to the wife guy stereotype that became popular in the late 2010s, of a man who gains attention on social media for posting about his wife, although dril's posts on the subject predate the emergence of this stereotype.[76][77]
Besides the character's family, other fictitious recurring characters in dril's tweets are an internet user named 'digimonotis', with whom dril is locked in a flame war after a prior falling-out,[10] and "the boys", a group of friends with similarly bizarre personality characteristics to dril.[38]
"(((Keebler Elves)))" controversy
In June 2016, dril drew controversy for a tweet that used triple parentheses around the name of the corporate mascots of the cookie company Keebler:[78]
wint @drili refuse to consume any product that has been created by, or is claimed to have been created by, the (((Keebler Elves)))
June 28, 2016[dril 20]
Triple parentheses, or "echoes", are used online by the alt-right as an antisemitic symbol to highlight the names of Jews. Journalist Jay Hathaway wrote that most of dril's followers understood the tweet to be an ironic joke exploring the uncertain "etiquette around this very 2016 expression of bigotry ... Can a non-Jew apply the (((echoes))) to his own name as a show of allyship? Is it OK to use the parentheses in a joke at the white supremacists' expense? There's no clear consensus."[78]
As the "(((Keebler Elves)))" tweet spread, some far-right accounts praised dril, interpreting the tweet as a covert signal of genuine antisemitic views.[78] Others criticized the tweet as bigoted, even if the intent was ironic, or at least in poor taste.[12][78] In response to the controversy, dril alternated between dismissing those who believed he was an antisemite and making sarcastic promises to become "less racist" with the help of donations.[12][dril 21] Writer Alexander McDonough said dril's "refusal to clarify his views speaks to his trust in his audience to 'get' his jokes" and to dril's confidence in his privacy.[12] "Likewise," McDonough wrote, "[dril's] audience trusts him to make pointed satire that crosses boundaries but is never hateful. The joke is always on himself or an entrenched elite, dril never punches down."[12] According to McDonough, the controversy did not seem to have any long-term impact on dril's popularity.[12] In the Jewish magazine Tablet, Armin Rosen called the tweet "an obviously satirical performance of anti-Jewish bigotry" and "the only funny anti-Semitism meta-controversy in the history of the internet."[42]
Criticism of Elon Musk
Dril has been outspoken in his criticism of Elon Musk's stewardship as CEO of Twitter, particularly Musk's changes to the Twitter verification system. On November 9, 2022, after Twitter began attaching blue checkmarks to paid Twitter Blue subscribers, dril said he would "absolutely block on sight" anyone with a paid blue checkmark and he started a #BlockTheBlue hashtag.[79]
wint @drilyou just paid $8 to eat my ass stupid #BlockTheBlue
November 9, 2022[dril 22]
Dril revived his #BlockTheBlue campaign in late April 2023, when Twitter removed checkmarks from legacy verified accounts, telling journalist Matt Binder, "I am actively rooting for the downfall of twitter. I hope to sabotage their efforts to become profitable, no matter how futile, in the hopes that they will eventually close up shop and release us all from this toilet."[80] He described the users paying for Twitter Blue as "dead-eyed cretins who are usually trying to sell you something stupid"[80] and "the most dog shit accounts on here."[dril 23]
On April 22, Twitter gave dril and Binder blue checks on their accounts, even though they had not subscribed to Twitter Blue.[81] Dril then repeatedly changed his display name in an effort to remove the blue checkmark, which in turn was reinstated several times.[81] His display name settled on "slave to Woke". Afterward, when numerous other legacy verified accounts were appended with involuntary blue checkmarks despite not paying for Twitter Blue, dril reposted a suggestion that the practice may violate the federal Lanham Act's prohibitions on false endorsements and quipped "its ok [Musk] fired the people in charge of telling him its illegal."[82]
A few days later, dril created an account on Bluesky—a decentralized social network presented as an alternative to Twitter—during the app's invite-only early access phase.[83]
Other projects
In addition to his tweets, Dochney has many visual art side projects and collaborations with other artists. He has made several animations, including a short film titled COW-BOY[dril 24][dril 25] and a fictional series about the attempts of South Park co-creator Trey Parker and Green Day drummer Tré Cool to rename the month of April "Treypril/Trépril" and "one policeman's mission to stop them at any cost."[13] Dochney has expressed interest in creating further animated films,[note 2] but said he would prefer to work on projects separate from his "dril" identity.[dril 25]
Dochney worked on Bear Stearns Bravo, an interactive video series that was the sequel to the Horse ebooks Twitter account.[14] He designed the cover of the 2016 vaporwave/funk album Cyber-Vision by Drew Fairweather ("Drew Toothpaste"), best known for the webcomics Toothpaste for Dinner and Married to the Sea.[84] Dochney wrote for Hiveswap, a 2017 video game based on the webcomic Homestuck.[dril 5][dril 6] Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff and the Quest for the Missing Spoon, a book based on a story within a story in Homestuck,[85] lists dril as a contributing author and artist alongside Homestuck creator Andrew Hussie and Gunshow author KC Green.[2][86] Dril was one of several artists who contributed illustrations for the card game The Devil's Level, based on the Twitter account da share z0ne.[87]
In October 2019, dril announced that he and comedian Derek Estevez-Olsen were launching a web series called Truthpoint: Darkweb Rising for Adult Swim.[88] The show, a parody of InfoWars, streams from Adult Swim's website on Wednesdays at midnight.[dril 28] In the series, Dochney performs as dril wearing a rubber mask of an old man's face.[89] In February 2021, dril, Estevez-Olsen, and collaborator Pierce Campion released the short Virtual Prison as a pilot for a potential series on Adult Swim.[90]
In February 2021, dril announced that he had begun developing a side-scrolling video game in his spare time, having done all the coding and artwork by himself until that point. With the working title copgame, the project "follows the quest of a silent protagonist who stumbles upon the gift of immortality in a dangerous future where Top Influencers and corrupt hollywood guys maintain a cruel grip on society."[91]
Patreon account and books
In January 2017, dril opened a Patreon account for fans to make monthly payments in support of his tweets and various future projects, including "video, illustration, and long-form writing."[92][33] On the Patreon, dril described his plans for two book projects: an elaborate art book "with a narrative adjacent to the 'Mythos' surrounding my posts" and a "best of"-style compilation of tweets as a coffee table book with bonus content.[dril 29] The account's monthly revenue was $2,200 as of October 2017[10] and $1,468 as of April 2023.[3] Dochney said he earned "as much money as a Kmart manager or something" from his Patreon and other dril-related endeavors, which are his primary source of income.[3]
Dril published his first book, Dril Official "Mr. Ten Years" Anniversary Collection, in August 2018.[93] The book compiles the account's best tweets from its first ten years, as selected by the author, along with new original illustrations.[93] A second book, The Get Rich and Become God Method, was published in 2020.[94][95][8] His third, The Dril Archives, was published in December 2022. It contains 10,000 posts and was released simultaneously in four editions, each being a different ordering: chronologically (titled Eternal), alphabetically (Refined), by most likes (Beloved) and randomly (Chaotic).[dril 30] Dril revealed he had written another book, titled How to Cheat at Casino Games by Being a Bitch, at a Truthpoint live performance in January 2023, when a supposed raffle to give a single copy of the book to an audience member instead ended with dril ripping up the printed manuscript in a performative rage. The pages were thrown to the crowd; based on recovered portions of the text, How to Cheat at Casino Games by Being a Bitch did appear to be a new original comedic narrative, not just a stage prop for the show.[3]
Reception and following
Over time, dril has grown from a relatively obscure Twitter account with a small cult following to a widely followed, well-known account on the site. In October 2012, dril had only 23,000 followers.[96] That number had grown to 166,000 by December 2014,[97] and then 567,000 by May 2017.[12] As of January 2021, dril had reached 1.6 million followers.[98] Unlike most comedians with large Twitter followings, dril became popular without a public reputation or career outside of the platform.[43] In March 2023, a report from the media outlet Platformer revealed that Twitter had included dril on a secret list of 35 "VIP" accounts whose reach was amplified by its algorithms, alongside such users as Twitter CEO Elon Musk, President Joe Biden, and basketball star LeBron James.[99]
Following dril has often been described—sometimes in a half-serious or tongue-in-cheek manner, other times sincerely—as one of the few good uses of Twitter.[100][101][102] In November 2017, shortly after the doxing incident, dril was called "arguably the most iconic Twitter account in the history of social media [and] practically internet royalty" in The A.V. Club[103] and "one of the internet's most unlikely treasures" in Slate.[15] In December 2019, Katie Notopoulos of BuzzFeed News called dril "Without a doubt [...] the most important person on Twitter of the 2010s."[104]
We can thank Twitter for mobilizing dissent, humanizing celebrities, and @dril.
Clayton Purdom, The A.V. Club[100]
Dril's writing has been praised by a variety of public figures, including poet Patricia Lockwood;[4][32] actor-comedians Rob Delaney[32] and David Cross;[3] The New Yorker staff writer Adrian Chen;[105] and Reply All hosts PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman.[31] In 2019, British writer Tom Whyman argued (in earnest) that dril should be considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature as "the one true poet of the internet age"; in Whyman's view, recognizing dril's writing as literature would be equivalent to historical shifts in the definition of "art" prompted by avant-garde works by artists like Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol.[24]
Acclaim for the account generally
@dril is frequently listed among the funniest or best Twitter accounts. In 2012, The Daily Dot cited dril as one of the funniest accounts on Twitter and noted that reading dril's "[d]arkly funny ... odd, provocative, and clever" tweets "simultaneously brings a sense of head-scratching wonder and slightly uncomfortable chortles."[96] Max Read, then an editor of Gawker, named dril one of the publication's "heroes" of 2013 in a year-in-review piece.[106] According to Read, dril's writing stood out in a paranoid web landscape overrun by spambots and covert corporate marketing:
Dril is not a bot. Dril is not a human. Dril is a psychic Markov chain whose input is the American internet. Dril is an intestine swollen with gas and incoherent politics and obscure signifiers and video-game memes and bile. Dril will not lie to you. Dril will not fool you. Dril is not a hoax. Dril is not a put-on. Dril is the only writer on the internet you can trust.[106]
Paste included dril on its lists of best Twitter accounts every year between 2013 and 2016,[97][107][108][109] and the comedy site Splitsider (later merged into Vulture) named dril one of the funniest accounts of 2017.[110] The Pen & Pencil Club, a Philadelphia-based journalism association, nominated dril for an award honoring the best "Non-Traditional News Provider" of 2017; he lost.[7] For a March 2019 feature commemorating the 30th anniversary of Tim Berners-Lee's invention of the World Wide Web, The Verge listed @dril among the greatest websites, people, and technologies in web history.[111] Later that year, The A.V. Club ranked dril sixth on its list of the "best, worst, and weirdest things" on the Internet in the 2010s.[112]
Acclaim for individual tweets
Individual dril tweets have also been lauded by the press. At the occasion of Twitter's tenth anniversary, both GQ and Newsweek named this dril tweet among the best and/or funniest tweets of all time:[113][114]
wint @drilFood $200
Data $150
Rent $800
Candles $3,600
Utility $150
someone who is good at the economy please help me budget this. my family is dyingSeptember 29, 2013[dril 16]
The same tweet had also been listed among the site's funniest by BuzzFeed in 2014.[115] The "corncob" tweet was listed as the 8th most "canonical" tweet of all time in 2017 by Mic, whose Miles Klee wrote it was "categorically impossible" to select the single best dril tweet.[116] Another dril tweet—"IF THE ZOO BANS ME FOR HOLLERING AT THE ANIMALS I WILL FACE GOD AND WALK BACKWARDS INTO HELL"—was ranked among the site's "greatest" by Thought Catalog in 2013.[117] Slate counted one of his tweets among the best sentences written in 2017, ranking dril alongside such writers as Umberto Eco, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Anne Carson, Mohsin Hamid, Jennifer Egan, Durga Chew-Bose, John Darnielle, and Daniel Dennett.[118]
See also
Notes
- ^ Dochney confirmed that his identity had been uncovered "plenty of times" before the doxing, but these posts had not attracted significant attention or publicity.[dril 3]
- ^ When asked about the status of the "Treypril" series on his Tumblr in April 2014, dril responded that "the police won",[dril 26] implying that the series was finished. He then posted used and unused image assets from the series.[dril 27]
References
Primary sources
In the text these references are preceded by "dril":
- ^ @dril (September 15, 2008). "no" (Tweet). Archived from the original on May 15, 2017 – via Twitter.
- ^ @dril (June 23, 2009). "how do i get cowboy paint off a dog " (Tweet). Archived from the original on January 18, 2018 – via Twitter.
- ^ a b dril (as "dril_VERIFED") (December 1, 2017). "We're Dril and KC Green, and we're the good internet boys. Ask us anything about games theories and breakfast meals. • r/IAmA". Reddit. Archived from the original on January 9, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
i think people have uncovered it plenty of times, but theres nothing scandalous enough there to make it worth publicizing and looking like an ass hole while doing so
- ^ dril (November 30, 2017). "everything's normal". Patreon. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved December 21, 2017. (subscription required)
- ^ a b dril (as "dril_VERIFED") (December 1, 2017). "We're Dril and KC Green, and we're the good internet boys. Ask us anything about games theories and breakfast meals. • r/IAmA". Reddit. Archived from the original on January 9, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
everyone involved sorta knows each other through the common link of somethingawful that has existed for over a decade now. i was originally approached to work on the hiveswap game that just came out, but moved over to the book since i t seemed pretty apparent i was better suited to the filthy bro and jeff universe
- ^ a b dril (as "dril_VERIFED") (December 1, 2017). "We're Dril and KC Green, and we're the good internet boys. Ask us anything about games theories and breakfast meals. • r/IAmA". Reddit. Archived from the original on January 9, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
if its not him hes very good at lying
- ^ dril (as "dril_VERIFED") (December 1, 2017). "We're Dril and KC Green, and we're the good internet boys. Ask us anything about games theories and breakfast meals. • r/IAmA". Reddit. Archived from the original on December 4, 2017. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
people have been surprisingly normal about the whole thing. i think someone called my parents at like 1am once but that's about it. i dont really have a permanent address right now or a sordid past so theres not much to dox anyway
- ^ dril (as "dril_VERIFED") (December 1, 2017). "We're Dril and KC Green, and we're the good internet boys. Ask us anything about games theories and breakfast meals. • r/IAmA". Reddit. Archived from the original on January 9, 2018. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
there were a good 6 or 7 years where nobody knew about my internet shit but it's unavoidable now. this is my Cross to bear
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my friend told me to join twitter ten years ago and i thought it looked dumb as shit so i tried posting the worst things i could think of to destroy it and it didnt work
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- ^ @dril (February 15, 2017). "issuing correction on a previous post of mine, regarding the terror group ISIL. you do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to them"" (Tweet). Archived from the original on July 18, 2018 – via Twitter.
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- ^ @dril (July 2, 2016). "trying to heal..... please donate to my go fund me... $10 will make me less racist... $100 will make me extremely less racist...thank you..." (Tweet). Archived from the original on December 11, 2017 – via Twitter.
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i would love to return to animation in some form,.. although it wouldnt be a cow-boy or "dril" thing as i have a bunch of newer ideas im more excited to pursue
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- ^ Schonfeld, Zach; Drell, Cady; Bort, Ryan (March 21, 2016). "On Twitter's 10th Birthday, Let's Look at the 10 Best Tweets of All Time". Newsweek. Archived from the original on August 19, 2017. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Greenring, Tanner (October 30, 2014). "The 85 Funniest Tweets of All Time". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on November 22, 2014. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Klee, Miles (June 8, 2017). "101 Canonical Tweets: The best, most influential tweets in Twitter history". Mic. Archived from the original on September 11, 2017. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Dierks, Stephen Tully (April 5, 2013). "The 50 Greatest Tweets of All Time". Thought Catalog. Archived from the original on August 26, 2017. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
- ^ Brogan, Jacob (December 14, 2017). "The 19 Best Sentences of 2017". Slate. Archived from the original on December 17, 2017. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
im afraid i must say that i do not find the mysteries featured on "scooby-doo" challenging enough .
External links
dril online:
Collections of dril's best tweets:
- "@dril's Greatest Hits" — a 2012 list at Something Awful
- "The 15 Most Important @dril Tweets of All-Time" — a 2017 list at CollegeHumor
- "15 Hilarious Tweets That Will Make You Want to Follow Dril on Twitter" — a 2017 list at The Things
- "Dril Tweet Bracket is the Internet's Criterion Collection Archived 2018-08-26 at the Wayback Machine" – 2018 article at Geek.com about a tournament bracket of dril's 64 best tweets curated by Twitter user @VT_Ben
- @VT_Ben's completed bracket on Twitter, with results based on polls
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