Twitter's best use, at this point, is as an instant joke-aggregator. A user hits on an idea; others pile on. As soon as the concept has legs, people attach a hashtag to it (the # mark, which automatically files the text following it into a thread on that topic: i.e., someone who writes about universal health care can add "#UHC," and their tweet joins a thread about universal healthcare that anyone can click on), and off it goes. While some people use hashtags for serious purposes, they're desperately misunderstanding what makes Twitter fun at all. Not random strangers getting together to solve anything — after all, who can solve or even explain shit in 140 characters? — but rather random strangers coming together to bust on anything.The inevitable list format works well for outrage, but it works even better for gags. An good example is "Failed NES Games." A Twitter user I don't really know named Mister Rabbit threw out one joke the other day about games that would have tanked if they were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and dozens of people ran with it. The results were predictable at times and very funny at others. Most people riffed off the names of old NES games they could remember, and others just made up absurd games that bore no resemblance to anything entertaining at all. The point, though, illustrated in just hours and with little effort, is that Twitter is a joy when funny and a boundless waste when even remotely serious.
And, since Twitter is ultimately ephemeral — not only because of the format but also because the site itself starts scrubbing tweets made under various hashtags — here's the best of the #FailedNESGames gags, with far too many of my own thrown in because I have no shame or perspective. All links go to the original posters' Twitter accounts, both for credit and so you can start following them, because they're awesome:
Rad Racist #failedNESgames
Hemorrhoid Prime #failedNESgames
Mega Mandingo #failedNESgames
Cuck Hunt #failedNESgames
Mike Tyson's Rape Out #failedNESgames
Excitekike! #failedNESgames
Super Gambino Family #failedNESgames
Shinobituary #failedNESgames
Golgo 1-12 #failedNESgames
The Legend of Zelda Fitzgerald #failedNESgames
Maniac Manson #failedNESgames
Kid Icarus: The Fall #failedNESgames
Labes of Steel #failedNESgames
Tecmo Super Bowel #failedNESgames
A Boy And His Tumour #failedNESgames
4 days ago from TwitterFon
Castlevanus #failedNESgames
Super Barrio Brothers #failedNESgames
The Assventures Of Bayou Billy #failedNESgames
4 days ago from TwitterFon
Sky SharkHitler #failedNESgames #SharkHitler
Skate or Die Properly #failedNESgames
OK Cupid #failedNESgames
Hogan's Back Alley #failedNESgames
4 days ago from TwitterFon
UTI Baseball #failedNESgames
Magic Johnson's Fast Outbreak Of AIDS Across Sub-Saharan Africa #failedNESgames
4 days ago from TwitterFon
Bi-Gar #failedNESgames
Battlechodes #failedNESgames
Guntlet #failedNESgames
Ninja Garden #failedNESgames
Jessica Marple Madness #failedNESgames
Credit-Default Swapper! #failedNESgames
Centipedo #failedNESgames
Race Wars #failedNESgames
#failedNESgames Double Drag-Queens
4 days ago from Tweetvisor
Clamato! #failedNESgames
Super Chess Leopard #failedNESgames
Dr Dracula: Eazy E Edition #failedNESgames
Romance Of The Three Yearolds #failednesgames
4 days ago from TwitterFon
Alan Greenspan's Raise That Rate! #failedNESgames
Prince of Serbia #failedNESgames
Bible Bobble #failedNESgames
Jane Austen's Uterine Breakout #failedNESgames
Fisting a Peter North Star #failedNESgames
Ninja Hospice #failedNESgames
Noam Chomsky Ate My Neighbors #failedNESgames
Dan Marino's Muff Dive 2010 #failedNESgames
Jacques Derrida's Plateutal Adventure #failedNESgames
Pay-Per-Boy #failedNESgames
Top Gunt #failedNESgames
Burgin Time #failedNESgames
Pie Hunter #failedNESgames
