Talking to Me?

Published



Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, now much in the news as the president’s legal counsel, recently gained attention (as if he needed more) by tweeting a single word: You

That’s it. Not even a period. We assume it was what’s colloquially known as a “butt-tweet,” similar to Trump’s famous pronouncement “Despite the constant negative press covfefe” or then-White House spokesman Sean Spicer’s cryptic messages “n9y25ah7” and “Aqenbpuu”; or, more recently, British home secretary Sajid Javid’s tweet of the single letter “I.”

Twitter went to work on Giuliani’s monosyllable, some finishing the mayor’s message (“. . . make me feel brand new”), others offering acid commentary. The account @PopeHat, for instance, noted that Giuliani had finally made a public statement without making things worse for his client.

It’s either a sign of our society’s insanity or a reminder that things aren’t so bad that we can all laugh at these meaningless electronic belches. Perhaps it’s both.