The wry wit of Twitter feed @FakeAPStylebook has turned it into an overnight online success story. Digitaljournal.com spoke to the writers behind this humourous feed that's attracted 45,000 followers within two weeks.
If there is any Twitter account that has been the most discussed and praised in recent weeks, it's
@FakeAPStylebook. Satirizing the AP Stylebook for a journalism class, this Twitter feed pumps out witty jokes riffing on the boring rules writers learned in school. So instead of a venerable rule about pronouns, this feed will tweet: "Robots should only be referred to by gender-neutral pronouns, no matter how sexy they may be."
Other rib-ticklers include "'Furiously masturbating' is redundant, as all masturbation is furious" and "Avoid using question marks as they remind people of hook-handed serial killers."
If content on Twitter is king, then the founders of @FakeAPStylebook have become the latest crown princes. Within two weeks of launching, they already have nearly 45,000 people following, and all with just 324 updates (at the time of this writing). As a point of comparison, the popular political blog
Politico has 23,243 followers and BBC's
twitter feed has won over 27,000 followers.
Digitaljournal.com (
@digitaljournal on Twitter) spoke to two of the account's founders to learn what prompted the writers to get @FakeAPStylebook off the ground. Also, they revealed some updated news on what the feed's success has sparked.
Ken Lowery, from Dallas, has played around with other jokey Twitter accounts before, including
@ZombieHorde about zombies tweeting on their daily thoughts (or un-thoughts?). When Lowery and some friends decided to satirize the very real
@APStylebook feed on Twitter (25,300 followers), they had no idea it would take off like it has.
"We thought only a few hundred people, mainly journalists, would care," Lowery tells Digitaljournal.com.
Without knowing why, Lowery and his team of writers (19 in all, now) were suddenly flooded with follow requests (Twitter users who want to keep updated on their feed) and messages congratulating them on creating a funny well-written feed. What was the catalyst that got them viral? Lowery isn't sure, but credit the humour inherent in every fake rule.
"We play with language humour and I know so many writers on Twitter, it only makes sense we'd be followed by tons of writers," Lowery says. "We aren't doing the exact same thing done on
The Onion or on
Jon Stewart, so maybe that helps us stand out."
It helps when you are surrounded by journalism, too. Lowery works as a copy editor at the
United Methodist Reporter, and the majority of the @APStylebook either work in writing, communications or marketing. But one of the co-founders is unemployed, and he'd like to see some revenue coming in from this massively successful Twitter feed.
Courtesy Ken Lowery
Mark Hale, an editor of @APFakeStylebook
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"If there's any sort of money to be had from this idea, I'm all for it," says Mark Hale, 31, of Louisville, Kentucky. The writers aren't sitting on their hands -- they have a book proposal in the works, and their agent has suggested some money-making ideas, such as a page-a-day calendar and T-shirts.
Could you picture a T-shirt emblazoned with "In medical stories, the opinions of doctors should be secondary to those of celebrities"?
For now, the feed runs Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET, but the team rests on the weekend. "We need to recharge our batteries, do things we need to do," explains Lowery. "It's draining to create and edit jokes all week."
Lowery says their writers follow only three basic rules: don't get too political, don't attack anyone maliciously and keep the swear words to a PG13 level. Otherwise, everything else is fair game (and the humour can vary from intelligent to crude to nonsensical).
Lowery and Hale will continue to curate the jokes written by their team of writers, no matter what happens with the book or other money-making ideas. They enjoy the medium delivering their pithy messages to the world.
"Twitter doesn't have to be boring, it doesn't always have to tell you what people are doing right this minute," says Hale. "It's a great way to get short bursts of jokes to people."
Below are several more examples of tweets by @FakeAPStylebook:
• "Do not use Latin names of plants and insects. Use their American names, such as "viney grower" and "shit bug."
• "Jon and Kate" for first mention, "Jesus, ENOUGH" afterwards.
• Do not use "Whoomp! There it is!" unless it actually is there
• To make extra money, subtly insert paid advertisements into your work and always drink Pepsi.
• A "cougar" is a large cat native to North America. An older woman who pursues a younger man is "embarrassing herself."
