The competition for the worst thing ever tweeted is incredibly fierce and ever-evolving. Each day, the world’s micro-blogging platform of choice is overrun with absolute garbage. It is a miracle of our species, a cup of written ipecac that, no matter how deeply you drink, remains full of noxious liquid day in and day out.
One Twitter account, working deep behind enemy lines, is carrying out the important task of sifting through this ocean of trash to collect and judge the most wretched examples. A celebration of sorts, WorstTweetofAllTime is currently assembling these pearls of the deep into a bracket to, as the account name implies, finally declare once and for all what is, in fact, the worst tweet of all time.
From each of these carefully determined categories, heavyweight champions of their respective genres have emerged. Consider some of the rancid cream that’s floated to the top of the “Extremely Online” grouping:
... or some entrants to the surprisingly strong “UK” showing:
We also have another head-to-head from the bustling “Shitlib” group, which shows just how contentious this competition can be.
And who can forget hits like this from Celebrityland?
Mel Magazine’s Miles Klee spoke to Sam Sacks and Sam Knight, the two trash-divers responsible for the account, in order to learn how the pair decided on the glistening nuggets under consideration for Twitter user’s voting. Klee learns that, unsurprisingly, the most worthy tweets had to do with politics and come from people notable (and clueless) enough to have their missives noticed by the internet at large.
“A dumb tweet from, say, J.K. Rowling, is far more aggravating than the same dumb tweet from some anonymous schmuck because you know there are tons of idiots out there liking and retweeting it. You can actually see those numbers.”
Reading the entire article provides some solid background on the tournament and explains the usually nebulous process of how certain tweets transcend the run-of-the-mill garbage heap of the service to become legendary icons. It should also get you primed and ready to consider the merits, and then cast your votes, for some of the worst sentences ever sent out for the world to enjoy. Our money’s on the Kevin Smith one.
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