As all performance art pieces must, the ongoing multimedia "Chris Brown" installation took a turn for the scatological this weekend, when Brown found himself engaged in a Twitter feud with comedian Jenny Johnson—an online dust-up that ended with Brown deleting his account, to the dismay of all who enjoy provocative explorations of fame's validation of execrable behavior and Instagram photos of hats. It all started when Johnson (who has a history of taunting Brown), called him a "worthless piece of shit," opening the door for a torrent of scat-play that included Brown saying, "I should fart while ur giving me top," as well as offering Johnson this heartwarming holiday message: "Mom says hello… She told me not to shart in your mouth, wanted me to shit right on the retina." The symbolism of all ongoing discussion of Brown and his contributions to the pop-culture conversation thus firmly established, Brown also shored up his overall thesis by telling Johnson to "take them teeth out when u Sucking my dick HOE."
Of course, unlike the students of semiotics who will recognize all of this as part of a continuing dialectic on the nature of celebrity and its fostering and sanctioning of huge fucking assholes, Johnson didn't seem to get much out of it, saying, "All I got from that exchange with Chris Brown is that he wants to shit and fart on me." That's not entirely true; she also got scores of rape and murder threats from Chris Brown fans who clearly dislike her associating of Brown with violence and misogyny. For Brown, this only strengthens his project's themes: "To teambreezy… Know that I'm not upset. Just felt like entertaining the ignorance. These bitches crazy.. Further proved my point of how immature society is," Brown said of this latest act of trenchant, deeply ironic social commentary, underscored by his previous tweet, "Just ask Rihanna if she mad??????"
That clearly rhetorical question—nevertheless answered by this photo of a shirtless Brown recently tweeted by Rihanna, suggesting she is not mad—may prove to be Brown's last for a while, at least until he restores his Twitter account and its ongoing Socratic dialogue. You'll simply have to ponder on your own for a while.