Oops. Just deleted my last Tweet. & would like to apologize to seniors & sufferers of Lyme disease. I was out of bounds.
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) May 7, 2014Twitter is an incredibly useful publishing medium. It lets you instantly shout across the world any poorly-considered thought that can bridge the gap between your brain and your computer keyboard. Are you angry? Drunk? Twitter is definitely the medium for you if your judgment is even slightly impaired.
We all say terrible things sometimes. But if you're a celebrity on Twitter, you can be sure that a lot of people will know about those terrible things.
You can't edit a tweet. You can only delete it. So if you've been caught with an offensive tweet, it may be a good idea to apologize in a subsequent tweet.
Yesterday, comedian and actor Patton Oswalt showed his skill with the medium by tweeting out apologies for deleted, horrifically offensive tweets. Except those deleted tweets never existed.
Yikes. Had to delete another Tweet. I crossed a line on that one. Also, I thought 12 YEARS A SLAVE and THE BUTLER were brilliant.
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) May 7, 2014PLEASE disregard last Tweet. Already deleted. Transphobia is hurtful, and I'm a big fan of HEDWIG & THE ANGRY INCH.
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) May 7, 2014Previous Tweet very hurtful. Already deleted. @KimKardashian & @JoeBiden are national treasures. As are our Native American friends.
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) May 7, 2014Some of his followers expressed great outrage as they attempted to reverse-engineer his jokes from the apologies. Oswalt was, of course, just trolling them.
Anyone else witnessing @pattonoswalt troll out everyone's inner demons? There needs to be a word for this. #Twitception maybe?
— Kevin Fenix(-Dy) (@FenixDy) May 7, 2014