What Would Twitter Do?

Welcome to Week 8 of What Would Twitter Do? where I interview ten of my favourite people on Twitter about their Twitter philosophies, behaviour, and what they make of the medium in general. This week features the magnificent @crylenol/sadvil, who has among the most funny, entertaining and bizarre feeds I’ve ever read. Nothing personal, nothing political, no links. The tweets are often structured like mini-plays, and there is an undertone of misery to the whole entire thing, which gives the humour some of its meaning and gravity.

Some days, I retweet five of C/S’s tweets in a row, no doubt annoying everyone (and pleasing everyone else). Part of the enjoyment I take in this feed, unlike with the celebrities or friends I follow, comes from knowing absolutely nothing about @crylenol/sadvil—what’s this user’s age? What else does C/S do with his or her life? I chose not to ask questions that would puncture the mystery—and in fact C/S indicated to me that his or her preference (though I’ve always assumed C/S is a he) was for anonymity, too. Here is our conversation, conducted over email.

SHEILA HETI: What made you join Twitter in August 2009?

CRYLENOL/SADVIL: I joined Twitter thanks to peer pressure haha. My close friends had joined. The @crylenol account started under a different, more personal username.

SHEILA HETI: Did you take to it right away, or did it take some time to find your “voice”?

C/S: So I didn’t start making jokes on my Twitter account until January 2013. It was at that point I had come home from college and was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. You’ll notice my avatar is the cartoon blob from the Zoloft commercials—this came before I even though of “sadvil,” “crylenol,” or being funny. I was just sad. I don’t know what’s left of my tweets from before this point. I recall deleting some; others I think have been archived. And while they weren’t depressing in themselves, I figured that Twitter could become a more positive influence in my life, so I began following comedy accounts. My account went public in February of that year, and I think for the first month it was mostly observations about my daily life. After that, I began to follow the “Twitter comedian” accounts, those whose comedy work—though many wouldn’t call it that—consists mainly of tweets, and began to make jokes along formulas. I still joke along with formulas, but I don’t think it was until April that I felt like I could make a tweet that was original enough to stand on its own.

All that being said, I’m happy to not have a “voice” like some people do....