Twitter is fertile ground for parody, at the expense of some familiar brand names. Here are 10 accounts from the past several years that did it the best.
Transforming the very visual Pinterest into to a Twitter account makes for some ridiculous, though oddly plausible-sounding tweets that blend Pinterest’s DIY, aspirational vibes with absurdity: “Single serving carrot cake recipe you can make inside your mouth.”
For those acquainted with the real AP Stylebook, the humor comes in taking the book’s formal tone and splicing in funny, and mostly unnecessary style rulings, like how to refer to Papa Smurf on second reference.
Customer service dissatisfaction can breed high levels of snark on Twitter. AT&T Parody Relations, if anything, gives the impression that even they don’t want to be using AT&T.
Sports fans can snicker at Fake ESPN’s fake headlines, which lambast most major sports, and the city of Dallas with particular fervor.
You had your suspicions. Google Brain confirms that Google has become sentient, and for some reason, immediately turned to Twitter to issue commentary and sometimes even tweet interesting articles about tech.
The real Vice is fond of edgy, attention-grabbing headlines. The parody account is as well. If the stories were real, you’d never be able to leave the site because there’s always one more thing to click.
Though short-lived, Android PR cracked wise in 2011 about Android, Google, Apple and more from “Mountain of Cash, California.”
This parody of Facebook’s founder tweets with a certain obliviousness for Facebook’s role in the world, as well as with a good shot of arrogance, like in this tweet: “No, really. You don’t have to give me a gift for Facebook’s 10th birthday. We’ve already taken plenty from you. Trust me.”
The best part of Not Burlington Coats, might have been the brief moment in time when Twitter users wondered if the half intelligible, hyper coat-focused account was some brilliant product from Burlington Coat Factory. It was not.
There wasn’t much funny about the 2010 BP oil spill, but BP especially wasn’t happy when this parody account gained more followers than the company’s actual corporate account. Though the timeliness of the joke has passed, the parody account still boasts about 50 thousand more followers.
Erin Carson is a Staff Reporter for CNET and a former Multimedia Editor for TechRepublic.
