On Recycling Tweets & Reusing Joke Formats
Ok so if you’ve followed me on Twitter for more than a month you’ve probably noticed that I recycle a lot of tweets and reuse a lot of joke formats. In fact it gets pointed out to me almost every day, sometimes in ways that make me turn in to Chris BLOCK, and other times in ways that seem motivated by genuine concern. So why do I recycle tweets and repeat joke formats? Three reasons:
1. Growing audience. Probably the biggest reason I recycle tweets is that half of my followers have never heard it before. If it’s a joke I’m proud of, then it makes sense for me to tell it to as many people as possible. So a spike in followers typically means a spike in recycled tweets. If you’ve been following me for over a year, thank you, thank you, thank you. But when I recycle a tweet, before your eyes go all Kristen Stewart on me, please keep in mind the person who started following me last week.
2. Good shows need reruns. Another big reason is that life gets busy and I don’t have time to write any new jokes. So I put on an old one. There are different philosophies about this. Some people think it’s super lame to ever repeat a tweet. I get that. But I disagree. Even my favorite shows play reruns, both because of reason #1, and because they need a break but don’t want to leave their audience hanging. So to me a recycled tweet is like a rerun: if you’ve seen it, you don’t have to watch it again. Unless you loved that episode, and, well, then enjoy it one more time!
3. Anticipation + participation. Ok so what about the reused joke formats? Some people find it incredibly unoriginal, hacky, cheap, and lame. That’s fair. But I respectfully disagree. Whenever The Office (US) was at its peak, they reused a joke format over and over again. And it made me laugh nearly every single time. It was the “that’s what she said” joke. Why did we laugh instead of rolling our eyes? Because of anticipation and participation. It was an ongoing joke that we knew was coming, but we felt like a part of it. I can overdo certain formats for sure, but the heart behind it is always to create something people are waiting for, something they feel like a part of, which helps add an extra layer of laughter in my opinion.
