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Shit My Dad Says Gets a TV Deal after 72 tweets
- Mongoose 17y agoPoor 1001 Rules for My Unborn Son. 406 updates and all I got was this lousy book deal. http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/ http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/
- rick888 17y agoGreat site! I just checked it out and couldn't stop reading.
- unalone 17y agoIf you need to break the addiction, read a few pages looking for misogyny, bigotry, and casual discrimination against various sorts of people. Your habit'll break by sun-up.
- Mongoose 17y agoThey should make a Don Draper spinoff version.
- izaidi 17y agohttp://whatwoulddondraperdo.tumblr.com/ http://whatwoulddondraperdo.tumblr.com/
- nazgulnarsil 17y agowhat are you the joke police?
- unalone 17y agoAm I not allowed to state a dissenting opinion online anymore? Shitmydadsays is a brilliant Internet source, and Rules For My Unborn Son strikes me as bigoted and outdated.
- wooster 17y agoOpinions, sure. Libel and threats, not so much. "misogyny, bigotry, and casual discrimination" "I'll go Communications major on your ass"
- unalone 17y agoI'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to become as serious a thread as it was. I meant my response lightheartedly, as in: "Hey, you could look at it like that and you'll find it." It's got a very 1950s mindset, and I was saying that if you get hooked that's what I realized that made me stop reading it. Libel? It's an Internet comment, and it's not one taking itself that seriously. It's not like I'm launching a massive anti-Rules campaign. It's my opinion, and I was trying not to be a douche about it. Sorry if I came across as douchey. But, seriously, "I'll go Communications major on your ass" is a threat? I was implying that if he wanted to be an asshole, I'd devote some major time to explaining what makes Shitmydadsays such a compelling read for me, from the perspective of somebody who's career is going to be focused on the written word.
- ErrantX 17y agoIt looked good until... 388. If you don't know what a knob does, don't fool with it. I couldn't bring myself ever to give such bad advice to anyone :( ;)
- MicahWedemeyer 17y agoOnly 72, but they are hilarious as hell. Quality, not quantity.
- unalone 17y agoShitmydadsays has become one of the best parts of my weekly routine. It's not just how funny they are: There's a poetry to how he speaks that's as good as any one-liners I've ever read.
- mynameishere 17y agoI looked through them all and found not the slightest bit of "quality". Not sure what you mean by "quality". Cheap, fake crap? ED: Quit downmodding me and read the god damned things, people: "When I used to live in Los Angeles, I used to step in human feces a lot." It's absolute garbage. Raise your standards a bit. You only get one life and one brain.
- unalone 17y agoThe meter is beautiful, the phrasing is eloquent, and the concept is hilarious. You don't know shit, and you're not shit. Don't take that the wrong way, that was meant to cheer you up. Sometimes life leaves a hundred dollar bill on your dresser, and you don't realize until later that it's because it fucked you. We didn't have a prom. Dancing wasn't allowed...What's Footloose?...That's the plot of the movie? That sounds like a pile of shit. It's identifiable, it's beautiful, and it's poetic. These are the sorts of phrasings that can only come out of an old and wise and hilarious person. The confidence in forming his thoughts that way; the lazy beat of the language. I spend an inordinate amount of time learning to write dialogue, and let me tell you: If Justin's writing that himself, he's got a career as a screenwriter ahead of him. That's some brilliance right there. Hopefully the examples I've picked do justice without my having to say too much. If you'd like to press your luck, and feel like spreading your smug cockery online without warrant, then I'll go Communications major on your ass and comprehensively make you look stupid in front of people on a web forum that you won't ever know in real life, but I think that would be a waste of both our times.
- adamhowell 17y agoIt's a great story -- especially since Shit My Dad Says is hilarious -- but this does more to prove how desperate the networks are for hits in the 18-34 demographic and how poor their judgement has become (see 'Cavemen') than it does to prove anything about Twitter talent shining through, etc.
- mechanical_fish 17y agoThis doesn't look especially "desperate" to me. They gave the guy "a deal". The article doesn't mention the price. It doesn't mention a pilot, let alone an order of six episodes. It says there's a writer, a co-writer, a producer, and a press release. That's all just paper, and precious little paper so far. The sunk cost of this for the network could literally range all the way down to: The cost of printing out that press release. (Because, believe me, if you're an aspiring screenwriter and a studio calls and offers to read your spec script, put out a press release, introduce you to a producer whose name you've actually heard, and pay you as little as one nickel, you take that call. Because having a studio on the other end of a phone line may be all you need to get an agent, who will not only help you negotiate your way up to fifty whole bucks above union scale, but will also probably shop your next script or two around. Which is where the value is. Many aspiring screenwriters never get this far.)
- ivankirigin 17y ago"Son, it doesn't take a fucking genius to make up bullshit people agree with, add 'fuck', then slap on an old-man icon." ~ Dad, saying shit http://twitter.com/hotdogsladies/statuses/5427392585 http://twitter.com/hotdogsladies/statuses/5427392585
- unalone 17y agoMerlin bugs me when he gets cynical about stuff. He spends most of his career looking at how things are deeper and more meaningful than they seem, and then on occasion he dismisses something with a line or two that's got more to it. He does the same thing when he writes about the Beatles, because he always implies that a) the only reason they broke up was Yoko Ono, and b) Yoko was a stupid woman who couldn't write good music, and c) she seduced John. It's annoying that somebody so smart is occasionally so willing to get snippy without contributing to the conversation.
- ivankirigin 17y agoHe had a follow up. I kid 'em, but I truly am super-happy for "Shit My Dad Says." Seems disingenuous to front like YOU wouldn't be thrilled by the same offer. http://twitter.com/hotdogsladies/status/5590745881 http://twitter.com/hotdogsladies/status/5590745881 I think he is correct that the tweets are somewhat fabricated, but also right that this is cool to see a twitterer get a tv deal.
- unalone 17y agoAh, okay. That context makes it seem more nudge-and-wink. Thanks for following up!
- ivankirigin 17y agoMerlin is actually correct about the Beatles. Yoko's behavior is identical to someone who wanted the band to break up. She was obsessed with Lennon for years before they hooked up. And, her art is shit. Following his tumblr, I'd say he celebrates beatles awesomesauce at least as often as criticizing Yoko.
- patio11 17y agoShit My Dad Says is now more profitable than Twitter, despite being a flash in the pan sustained mostly by transient hype.
- iamelgringo 17y agoAre you really concerned if Twitter is going to find out how to make money. I have no doubt that Ev will do just fine. :)
- olefoo 17y agoTwitter gets payments from some telcos because it helps to drive text usage. It's not quite the furnace fed with hundred dollar bills that it's sometimes portrayed as.
- MicahWedemeyer 17y agoDo you have any further info on this? It seems like a likely story, but I've never heard anything about it.
- olefoo 17y agoI saw a story about it when they reenabled text for canadians and a couple of friends of mine were able to start using twitter from their phones again. I find this story http://www.thestar.com/article/592619 http://www.thestar.com/article/592619 but it doesn't mention any deal w/ twitter.
- axod 17y agoWait... which one is a flash in the pan sustained mostly by transient hype?
- joez 17y agoI hope this guy turns out to be a smashing success and inspires more quality content on Twitter.
- alttab 17y agoAlmost makes me wonder what we're doing busting our ass writing software. </sarcasm> I'm a little surprised at this - are they turning the blog into the idea for a show? Those 72 one liners would be burned up in as little as half a season (not that I even know how long that is because I don't watch TV). That said, a sit com that had cankerous old farts in it is nothing new. "There's Something about Raymond", "Seinfield", ... jeez the list goes on. Ok, I used to watch a lot of TV.
- davenaff 17y agoA great outcome for a truly hilarious collection of tweets. I've always wondered whether the 'dad' was real, but I ultimately decided it didn't matter - the tweets are simply hilarious.
- chrischen 17y agoI'm guessing the guy got hired to be a TV writer because those tweets were written by him and the tv producers liked his writing, and not because they randomly chose some guy who tweeted what his dad said.
- Scriptor 17y agoIt's probably more because the guy owns the rights to the tweets, so he added him being hired as part of the deal. He probably won't do much in the way of writing the actual show.
- smanek 17y agohttp://canyoucopyrightatweet.com/ http://canyoucopyrightatweet.com/ Lawyer Says: "I have read hundreds if not thousands of Tweets and have yet to read one I believe would be protectable, but the possibility exists."
- akamaka 17y agoMore likely reason is that he has 700,000 followers to promote the show to. I'm guessing that his creative control will be almost nil.
- BigDamnDeal 17y agoAnd because Justin is already a successful writer who edits Maxim.com. He founded the comedy site Holy Taco (now owned by Break Media) and for the show he's getting the help of the co-creators of "Will and Grace." "Shit My Dad Says" was just what turned him into a hot ticket and gave his creativity a specific character to explore.
- bartl 17y agoHere's an insightful interview with Justin before this happened: http://www.maxim.com/humor/stupid-fun/83977/interview-justin-from-twitters-shitmydadsays.html http://www.maxim.com/humor/stupid-fun/83977/interview-justin...
- nonrecursive 17y agoGood to know that he's actually a writer for Maxim. Makes the TV deal seem less bizarre.
- loupgarou21 17y agoI had a subscription to a magazine that went out of business. They sold the rest of my subscription to Maxim, and sent me a letter letting me know that I could get a check for the remainder of my money instead of getting Maxim. There were only a couple of issues left in the subscription anyway, so I figured it wasn't worth the trouble to get the check. I read through the first issue of Maxim that showed up and realized that it was 1.) basically porn for kids too young to get actual porn and 2.) actually insulting to the reader. I'm not saying that the writing quality was so poor that it was an insult to the reader, I'm saying that the writers actually insult the reader by calling the reader a loser, telling the reader that his penis is tiny, and calling into question the reader's sexuality. I don't know how they make any money by actually insulting the people that bother to buy the magazine. If I had to guess, I'd say that most of the people buying the magazine aren't doing it for the articles.
- ivenkys 17y agoSo there is some use for Twitter after all, isn't this just the "old media" attempting to get cool and "with it" by jumping onto what is a bona-fide internet hit ? Well good on you Justin.