When tweets go wrong (part 3)

From time to time, the Charles Fudgemfuffin likes to take a look at occasions when ill-thought out tweets have back-fired. Here are a few more of those occasions...

1) CNN refer to women as 'individuals with a cervix'

Providing further proof that the world, and specifically the media, is going mad just to placate a few loonies, CNN tweeted about a report on cervical cancer screening aimed at 'individuals with a cervix'.

Or 'women', to use the terminology preferred by non-insane people.

CNN struggle to grasp reality.

Unsurprisingly, this led to well deserved mockery of CNN, and it also inspired the #IndividualWithACervixSongs hashtag. Here are some of my favourites...

"You’re once, twice, three times an individual with a cervix." 🎵

When tweets go wrong (part 2)

Social media can be a useful tool for sharing news and spreading information. It can also be a useful platform for media outlets to spread propaganda. However, as many celebrities, 'news' organisations and even regular people have discovered, on some occasions tweets can backfire on you.

All of which is just a long-winded way of saying that this week's blog post takes another look at when tweets go wrong.

1) Artistic masterpiece

Andrew Marr came in for ridicule when he tweeted an image of one of his drawings with the accompanying message, "I've been doing lockdown drawings and once this nightmare is over, I'd like to sell them to raise cash for NHS and care home charities."

"It's a masterpiece!"

Unsurprisingly, the response wasn't very positive...

Cool people to follow on twitter (part 1)

From time to time on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, I occasionally plug my twitter account which is @CFudgemuffin. However, this week I'm not plugging my own twitter account (which, in case you've forgotten, is @CFudgemuffin), but instead I'm plugging another really cool twitter account which is definitely worth a follow.

The twitter account in question belongs to James Fridman (@fjamie013), and basically how it works is that people send him requests to photoshop their photos for them. However, James never quite interprets their request the way it was specifically intended, with amusing results.

Here are a few examples...

1) "Take out the broom."

To start things off, here's a photo with a typically silly misunderstanding!

Sans broom.

When tweets go wrong...

Social media can be used by celebrities and corporations to help promote their brand. However, as many celebrities and corporations have learned the hard way, social media can also be a poisoned chalice.

Here are a few examples where celebrities and brands found that tweets can sometimes backfire...

1) Even edgier than the real thing

The Edge tweeted a photo of himself in front of the Eiffel Tower and asked U2's twitter followers, "Guess where I am?"

The Edge.
He didn't go to the top as he gets Vertigo.

As you can imagine, the replies probably weren't what The Edge was anticipating...

Commas are important

"Let's eat, guys!" has a very different meaning to, "Let's eat guys!"

Here are a few more examples which demonstrate the importance of commas....

1) "Cooking her family and her dog."

First up, here's a headline on the cover of Tails magazine, a magazine for dog lovers, which would definitely benefit from a comma...

"Rachael Ray finds inspiration in cooking her family and her dog."

Silly statuses

When links aren't quite what they seem...

A photo link from one of my recent silly statuses.

Anyone who follows me on facebook or twitter may have noticed that I'm often in a silly mood, so over the last few months I've been posting the occasional silly status.

Each of the following statuses makes a supposedly sensible claim, and is accompanied by a link providing further information. However, when you click the link you discover that although the original claims are true, they're nevertheless not always quite what you might expect...

1) First up is a status which will appeal to internet users looking for a foolproof method to get free wifi. However, it involves dubious methods ... or does it?

"A clever wifi hack that lets you use any password protected wifi connection:
http://smarturl.it/WifiConnect"

Pranks on facebook and twitter

A few examples of how to prank people on social media.

As I've mentioned before on my blog I'm a big fan of pranks, but the prank has to be good natured otherwise it ceases to be a funny prank and instead becomes a sly trick. So with that in mind, here's another batch or pranks (or sly tricks, depending on your point of view), but this time featuring pranks and tricks with a facebook and twitter theme...

1) My breath smells of farts!

Like this photo if you have camel breath.

This first example is a funny trick you can play on facebook which will make your friends feel a bit embarrassed. First of all post a status which is happy news or a positive comment or basically something which is likely to get as many likes as possible from your friends.

Then once a load of friends have liked your status, edit your status to say something completely different, such as:

"Like this status if your breath smells of farts!"

So then it will appear as if all the friends who liked your original comment have clicked 'like' to indicate that their breath smells of farts.

If you don't want to post something childish like this on your own facebook page then you can also do the same trick by replying to someone else's status with a comment which is designed to get lots of likes, and then later editing your comment to something embarrassing.

Funny prank or sly trick?

How I got thousands of followers on twitter … absolutely free! by Lady Gaga

One woman’s account of how she increased her twitter audience: A guest post by Lady Gaga.

Lady Gaga reveals her strategy for gaining
thousands of followers on twitter.

Our thanks go to Lady Gaga for writing this guest post…

“Thanks first of all Charles for giving me, Lady Gaga, this opportunity to write a guest post for your blog.

A few years ago in the early days of twitter, I used to look on enviously at some of the top twitter users like Stephen Fry and the massive twitter following they commanded and wonder to myself, ‘Will I ever be as popular as Stephen on twitter?’ One thing was sure, that popularity wasn’t going to come about if I just sat around twiddling my thumbs doing nothing about it, and so after considering several options I devised a clever plan in order to gain myself thousands of followers on twitter.

Sneeze page: Four of my favourite posts

Charles Fudgemuffin goes green!

Recycling old rubbish.

I’m a firm believer in recycling, so when I recently read a post on another blog discussing the concept of a ‘sneeze’ page, whereby you basically recycle your most popular old posts to create a fresh new compilation post, I was instantly intrigued. As well as the green aspect, my lazy side was also attracted by the thought of reusing old material, and so after reading the article I decided to compile my own sneeze page.

So on that note, here are five of my favourite posts to have previously appeared on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog:

1) 10 cool internet Easter eggs

This post features a selection of weird hidden features (known as Easter eggs) found on the internet, and at the time of writing it gets more page views via Google than any other post on my blog. It features some reasonably well-known Easter Eggs such as the YouTube snake and facebook hidden languages, but also showcases some less well-known internet Easter eggs such as an amusing website reporting on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and there’s also a mention for a little known trick found on wikipedia.