Monday, May 13, 2013

Joss Whedon Joins Twitter: What Does That Really Mean?


Like many fans of Joss Whedon, I woke up this morning, still excited about the first promo for the ABC show Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. Mostly, we were really stoked about what could be the catch phrase of the summer: "Don't touch Lola," uttered by the literally indestructible Agent Philip Coulson. How he's indestructible...well, that will be explained sometime, but let's enjoy it.

Then I find out on Facebook that Joss has finally made the plunge into Twitter, the 21st century equivalent of sending telegrams to friends, family or people who you think are just wrong.

According to his page @JossActual, he started his account sometime after 11 PM Pacific Time. His first words:

It's me! Joss! My own account! No more hiding under studio skirts! I'm FREE!

Then, his next tweet:

MY account! I got strong opinions! I'm gettin' POLITICAL! (Heads up, LEMURS.) And making wry observations about mundane stuff!

That sounded good to me. So, I followed his account and, just because I can't help it, I try to write something that's as quirky as he is...

Welcome! We Tweeters will follow you to the ends of the Earth, but not that tacky boutique over there, or that boring disco

OK, it isn't as quirky...or maybe it is. You decide. I follow that with something more intelligent:

Of course, congratulations on (is Luke Cage included?) and enjoy Seattle this week in

That's less quirky, but I had to say something about Much Ado About Nothing about to kick off the Seattle International Film Festival. Maybe it will get an award there, or it will rule the world (at least the indie film part).

He sent some tweets before when he used the @MuchAdoMovie Twitter feed just before the movie's premiere during South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. He also wrote a few after that. This may be why he decided to get his own account.

This does not mean I'll be tweeting Joss 7200 times a day. I can be quirky elsewhere, and often. I do think that Joss will get a mountain of thank-you tweets when Much Ado finally gets a regular run next month, and then Comic-Con, and then the TV show. Maybe he'll get comments from readers of his Dark Horse comics. They can do that now.

Joss finally joining Twitter is the nerdy equivalent of Miley Cyrus coming back to Twitter, but over-active Whedon fans should keep the tweeting at a minimum, and make those tweets count. After all, it's all about quality, not quantity. That goes for how many followers you have. He has 67 thousand followers as of Monday afternoon. That will get much bigger, but not in the Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber territory. It'll still be impressive though.

Meanwhile, much of the Whedonverse is already on Twitter, from David Boreanaz and Alyson Hannigan, to Seth Green, Nick Brendon, Tom Lenk, Fran Kranz, Morena Baccarin, Jewel Staite, Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Seam Maher, Alan Tudyk, Camden Toy, Doug Jones, Eliza Dushku, Felicia Day, David Fury, Jane Espenson, Charisma Carpenter, Kristy Swanson, Amber Benson, James Marsters, Tim Minear....nearly everyone.
Sarah Michelle Gellar isn't on Twitter, but that can always change.

As far as connecting with Joss through Twitter, we shouldn't go too far. One big Twitter-lanche, and he might be scared off. Just welcome him, and think of an impressive tweet you can use when the time is right. That's the best way.
When he has a thought that is longer than 140 characters, we head to Whedonesque, like we always do..

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