Abstract
This chapter reins together a range of avian voices on Twitter and analyzes the conceptual and comedic output of accounts claiming to be run by birds themselves. It makes sense for birds to flock to this platform, named for the chatter of birds. From the Latvian @Hungry_Birds to the Australian @ChickenTreat, to Bird @ProBirdRights (the small European robin with big opinions on American politics), to Sesame Street’s Big Bird (whose Twitter handle is @BigBird), and more, I ask: what rhetorical and satirical sensibilities are conveyed in these mimetic attempts? What do so-called avian influencers provide to human followers in virtual and physical worlds?
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Notes
- 1.
Doll, Why Twitter.
- 2.
Rehak, Who made.
- 3.
Bowman, Taking flight.
- 4.
I am alluding to Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message” idea introduced in Understanding Media, and his mosaic approach to writing.
- 5.
The definition used in Bilton’s Hatching Twitter matches the one in American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language “twitter”. See also Bilton, All is fair.
- 6.
Sarno, Twitter creator.
- 7.
Pfister, A short burst, 130.
- 8.
Pfister, A short burst.
- 9.
Ngai, Theory of the Gimmick.
- 10.
See Raboteau, Spark bird, for a memorable discussion of this term.
- 11.
See Jargon, OED; and Jones, Jargon.
- 12.
Magpie, Online Etymology Dictionary.
- 13.
Satire, OED.
- 14.
Haraway, Staying with the Trouble, 29.
- 15.
Dudums’s Birds on Twitter (https://www.birdsontwitter.com), where the project was livestreamed, is now defunct, but the 2011–2012 records are accessible through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine (https://archive.org/web/).
- 16.
Jobson, Birds on Twitter.
- 17.
Solon, Bacon-fat keyboard.
- 18.
Hungry Birds, “/1//1/////1/1/1////2////////////////2/1///2//////////”“/////’//...........88 @irLV”.
- 19.
Elbein’s title—When is a bird a “Birb”?—raises another question of colloquialisms that Audubon has enlightened us on.
- 20.
Rozakis, “I” before “E” except after “C” defines “sensational spelling” as “intentionally misspelling a word to create a special effect most often in advertising” (24). An early post by Anil Dash in the blog post, “Cats Can Has grammar”, mentions “kitty pidgin”, and linguists such as Mark Liberman in Language Log and Gretchen McCulloch, who mentions @ProBirdRights in a write-up for The Toast, have extended this inquiry.
- 21.
The Webby Awards description for Birds on Twitter. Dudums is included in a list of all @Hungry_Birds awards and nominations in Starr, When real birds tweet.
- 22.
The Shorty Awards, Pro Bird Rights.
- 23.
The Shorty Awards, BirdsRightsActivist: Finalist in non-human.
- 24.
Goldin (@ProBirdRights), How about a pipeline.
- 25.
Alter, “Birdie Sanders” gets a standing ovation.
- 26.
Goldin (@ProBirdRights), Birdie 2020 Bumper Stickers.
- 27.
Goldin (@ProBirdRights), debat questins.
- 28.
Ost, Does a bird.
- 29.
Goldin (@ProBirdRights), Twitter.
- 30.
National Audubon Society, Trump administration.
- 31.
Ngai, Our Aesthetic Categories.
- 32.
Franco, Betty the Tweeting Chicken.
- 33.
Jenkins, Australian Chicken Treat Restaurant.
- 34.
Chicken Treat (@ChickenTreat), 1 SQDE3WH7 SEËCQYU CXSVVS . 67.
- 35.
Chicken Treat (@ChickenTreat), #chickentweet—Betty’s Magic Moments.
- 36.
Goldman, Campaign watch.
- 37.
Chicken Treat (@ChickenTreat), #chickentweet—Betty’s Magic Moments.
- 38.
Shaw, #ChickenTweet.
- 39.
Jenkins, Australian Chicken Treat Restaurant.
- 40.
Guff, This cluckin’ chicken tweets.
- 41.
Ibid.
- 42.
Chicken Treat (@ChickenTreat), qtd. in Pearson, Chicken Restaurant.
- 43.
Ibid.
- 44.
Drohojowska-Philp, Jeffrey Vallance and Blinky, The Friendly Hen. Thanks to Robert McKay for noting this connection.
- 45.
ChickenTreatAU, Betty the First Tweeting Chicken’s Training Video.
- 46.
Chicken Treat (@ChickenTreat), Twitter.
- 47.
Mallet, Alectryomancy.
- 48.
Squier, Poultry Science, 20. With thanks to Susan McHugh for reminding me to add this important citation, among other apt suggestions.
- 49.
Chicken scratch, OED Online.
- 50.
Chicken feed, OED Online.
- 51.
Cacography, OED Online.
- 52.
Lamott, Bird by Bird.
- 53.
Big Bird (@BigBird), I heard my friends on Twitter.
- 54.
Blake, Big Bird’s fans tweet.
- 55.
Katz, Debated makes Big Bird.
- 56.
Big Bird Romney (@BigBirdRomney), Obama will provide.
- 57.
Mourão et al., I love Big Bird.
- 58.
Big Bird (@BigBird), I got the COVID-19 vaccine today!
- 59.
The story was covered by various news sources including Treisman, Big Bird got “vaccinated”.
- 60.
Clinton (@HillaryClinton), It’s a bird that teaches children things.
- 61.
Goldin (@ProBirdRights), the goverment experiment.
- 62.
Lorenz, Birds Aren’t Real.
- 63.
Birds Aren’t Real (@birdsarentreal), Twitter.
- 64.
Birds Aren’t Real (@birdsarentreal), Hugely successful protest.
- 65.
Dorsey (@jack), not sure anyone has heard.
- 66.
Carson titled Silent Spring (1962) based on a repeated line from John Keats’s 1819 poem “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” that reads, “And no birds sing”.
- 67.
Reynolds (@EffinBirds), Today I met @ravenmaster1.
- 68.
Winged Geographies (@WGeographies), Do you want to know.
- 69.
Clayton, Centuries of crafted bird lines.
- 70.
Sirocco Kākāpō (@Spokesbird), Twitter.
- 71.
Carwardine and Fry, Last Chance To See—BBC.
- 72.
#BlackBirdersWeek is organized by Black AF in STEM (https://www.blackafinstem.com/).
- 73.
Newsome (@hood_naturalist), Twitter.
- 74.
J. Drew Lanham has been writing on the challenges of birding while Black for years before the case, and became one of the most quoted commentators on the issue. See Lanham, I’ve spent.
- 75.
Cooper (@melodyMcooper), Twitter.
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Then read our most recent piece from Susan Clayton (Université Paris VII, France) on centuries of crafted bird. Twitter, December 10. Author information
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Yang, M.T. (2023). The Satirical Rhetorics of [Re]Tweeting Birds. In: McKay, R., McHugh, S. (eds) Animal Satire. Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24872-6_22
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