JAMES LILEKS ON THE SOCIAL MEDIA VIRUS:

The great thing about Twitter is the way it allows corporations and nobodies to auto-clown in public in the same forum. Imagine picking up Saturday Evening Post in 1935, and there’s a big beautiful ad for a car, or a cigarette, or a bus trip. The height of the advertising craft, with a gorgeous illustration, elegant typefaces unique to the ad, attractive people engaged in the joy of the moment, all cares set aside. Directly across from the ad is a 27-word manifesto from Bob0323423 about how all pencils should be registered with the State.

“That’s impossible,” you say. “Bob couldn’t afford to buy the space.” True. Bob had to write a letter, and get it through the gatekeepers. Thus the magazine appealed to the widest possible audience, at least within the parameters it set, and Bob was resigned to writing his ideas on postcards and mailing them to everyone in the House of Representatives, where they were tossed, unread.

Twitter, let us agree, is not the Saturday Evening Post. Herewith some fun from the last week.

Read the whole thing.

(Classical reference in headline.)