Twitter's Silent Star

Dan Gillmor is a BoingBoing guest-blogger.

Following this guy?

UPDATE: Read the comments -- they're hilarious.

[#1 posted by Duffong, March 9, 2009 6:30 PM]

A mime! Kill it! Kill it with fire!

[#2 posted by justin, March 9, 2009 6:33 PM]

Hopefully now that this person has gotten their 15 seconds of fame, they can go back to doing something actually productive.

[#3 posted by Anonymous, March 9, 2009 6:33 PM]

my favorite is common_squirrel
run run run run run run run run

I fed him a peanut once!

[#4 posted by Oskar, March 9, 2009 6:37 PM]

To quote the great philospher St. Hubbins: "There's a thin line between clever and stupid"

(or maybe it was Tufnel, can't quite remember...)

[#5 posted by dougrogers, March 9, 2009 6:37 PM]

Hilarious

[#6 posted by treetop, March 9, 2009 6:42 PM]

I'm sorry, I just don't see it.

[#7 posted by bugmaker, March 9, 2009 6:45 PM]

methinks twas Tufnel

[#8 posted by michaelocc, March 9, 2009 6:53 PM]

  

[#9 posted by Jack, March 9, 2009 6:55 PM]

Mock him now, but in a few hours when his lifeless corpse is found slumped inside of an invisible box, who will laugh? NO ONE!

[#10 posted by Paul Coleman, March 9, 2009 7:03 PM]

I'm speechless.

[#11 posted by dculberson, March 9, 2009 7:04 PM]

[#12 posted by Arrakiv, March 9, 2009 7:10 PM]

Clearly proving that Twitter really is designed for everyone - even the mute!

[#13 posted by thuja, March 9, 2009 7:14 PM]

[@ jack]
I'll be giggling... silently

[#14 posted by Brainspore, March 9, 2009 7:29 PM]

Does he tweet from a MacBook "Air?"

[#15 posted by nanuq, March 9, 2009 8:03 PM]

It's a pity we don't live in a civilized city like Ankh-Morpork. There's a scorpion pit there waiting for mimes like this.

[#16 posted by dross1260, March 9, 2009 8:04 PM]

@ #8
Was that wind or the box?

[#17 posted by leonjacobs, March 9, 2009 9:00 PM]

As ingenious as it seems, I am stupefied that over 5000 people are following the string of ellipses. What, are they waiting for?

[#18 posted by shutz, March 9, 2009 9:14 PM]

What are they waiting for? The Second Coming of Marcel Marceau! (This is even funnier if you've ever seen Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie".)

Methinks that soon, we shall hear the silent scream of a thousand mimes, as they mime their own deaths, when that particular Twitter is followed by so many people it takes Twitter down. (Again.)

[#19 posted by hschroy, March 9, 2009 9:14 PM]

A much more worth Twit here: http://twitter.com/pooptag

[#20 posted by Anonymous, March 9, 2009 9:49 PM]

you silent mother fuckers!

[#21 posted by TroofSeeker, March 9, 2009 10:01 PM]

Youse guys will hate mimes less if you ever have an apartment next to someone learning trumpet!

[#22 posted by Doran, March 9, 2009 10:14 PM]

I just retweet him. Saves keystrokes.

[#23 posted by allenbukoff, March 9, 2009 10:32 PM]

Back in 1994 or 5 I ran a chat room on AOL called "Room for One Person" every evening for several weeks. If anyone showed up in the room, I would ask them to leave claiming that they were screwing my project up. Most people immediately did so and apologized for their intrusion. A couple of times I had people who refused to leave so I would leave and create a new room. I maintained a chat room with no conversation for hours and hours and fancied that it was "early" performance art on the information highway. What does this have to do with the mime on Twitter?

[#24 posted by Dante, March 9, 2009 10:57 PM]

That speaks to me. But, may I humbly submit that nobody says nothing like I do:I Have Nothing to Say

[#25 posted by Anonymous, March 9, 2009 11:20 PM]

..!

[#26 posted by FoetusNail, March 10, 2009 12:49 AM]

?
...
.
...
!
...
!?!
...
...
.

[#27 posted by mdh, March 10, 2009 1:21 AM]

Godotdotdot?

[#28 posted by Big Ed Dunkel, March 10, 2009 2:27 AM]

Shoot that mime. But use a silencer, please.

[#29 posted by Frank W, March 10, 2009 2:50 AM]

This has gone from funny to lame already. Enough is enough. Now, will the one who hid the invisible key to the poor guy's invisible box please step up?

[#30 posted by z7q2, March 10, 2009 3:18 AM]

[expletive muted]

[#31 posted by planettom, March 10, 2009 3:52 AM]

You mime-loving sons of guns!

[#32 posted by Ryan Waddell, March 10, 2009 6:08 AM]

Ahhh... I love clever little things like this. Funny for a minute or two. However, why would you follow him? I have enough clutter in my twitter following stream as it is.

[#33 posted by Carlton Hibbert, March 10, 2009 6:10 AM]

All the living statues are now green with envy (or pigeon poo).

[#34 posted by jackm, March 10, 2009 6:16 AM]

Being a true believer in freedom of speech, if this man wants to speak his mime, I feel he has every right to!

I may not agree with what you don't say, but I will defend to the death your right to not say it.

After all, a mime is a terrible thing to waste.

[#35 posted by joelfreeman, March 10, 2009 6:28 AM]

There is lots of drama in TheMime's tweets, albeit extremely subtle. Look a little closer before writing him off.

[#36 posted by Bloo, March 10, 2009 6:55 AM]

Ellipsis is not-quite-circular reasoning

[#37 posted by Bloo, March 10, 2009 6:55 AM]

Correct that!

Ellipsis _are_ not-quite-circular reasoning

[#38 posted by Brad, March 10, 2009 9:36 AM]

@bloo you had it right the first time. Unless you meant _Ellipses_ are not-quite-circular reasoning

[#39 posted by vlbrown, March 10, 2009 9:49 AM]

Yeah, it was funny for about an hour. Unfortunately, it's Following 6,358 with 6,000 Followers and updating roughly once a day.

I can't help but wish it wasn't using twitter server resources. :-(

[#40 posted by MollyMaguire, March 10, 2009 9:55 AM]

Must not be a true mime, because, after all, they don't actually ever hold or touch anything, which precludes the use of a networked device.

[#41 posted by UncommonSense, March 10, 2009 10:46 AM]

^^^^
Using advanced Miming-recognition software..."Dragon Naturally Miming 9"

[#42 posted by jahknow, March 10, 2009 11:08 AM]

mime meme?

[#43 posted by Guffy, March 10, 2009 11:14 AM]

What if TheMime is actually a snake that has learned Morse Code? Then what the hell would we do?

[#44 posted by Nephilim, March 10, 2009 11:36 AM]

I think it'd be more logical if he/she/it used ascii art for its tweets instead. After all, mime is a visual art....but the crossing of visual art and textural communications is pretty funny, for about 5 minutes.

[#45 posted by Anonymous, March 10, 2009 1:24 PM]

I thought it was rather amusing, but yes, it's only funny for about five minutes.

Now I can't help but think of the mime scenes from Little Britain.

PS: Nanuq - Lord Vetinari would be proud.

[#46 posted by Anonymous, March 10, 2009 5:13 PM]

check out this twitter!
http://twitter.com/grey

[#47 posted by michaelocc, March 10, 2009 7:40 PM]

@ #16 Good of you to notice. Actually, I was doing "sits at cafe table, drinks cup of tea".

[#48 posted by Factran, March 10, 2009 8:52 PM]

Ok, I recapitulate the link of this post :
http://twitter.com/TheMime
http://twitter.com/common_squirrel
http://twitter.com/pooptag
http://twitter.com/grey
I found one more :
http://twitter.com/FluffyTheCat

and I just did this one, updated automatically upon a quantic webpage. (see "web")
http://twitter.com/SrodingerTheCat

[#49 posted by fritz from london, March 11, 2009 4:54 AM]

There's also
http://twitter.com/a_tumbleweed