Okay, now before we begin, I want to make it explicitly clear that I’m going to talk about the Twitter account of a banana. Heady intellectualism this ain’t. But something sort of unseemly happened on our fair internet 5 years ago and since it doesn’t seem that anyone else has noticed, I’m going to go ahead and talk about it.
First, a little personal back story. I’ve been vaguely aware of Nannerpuss, aka the Final Boss of the Internet (debatable) for a few years now. However, I was unaware of the origins of this googly-eyed cephalopod until a few days ago. I was reading the Know Your Meme article where I learned that Nannerpuss was part of a Superbowl ad campaign for American restaurant chain Denny’s. I haven’t ever actually watched the Superbowl but in American broadcast advertising, the commercial spots are kind of a big deal.
30 seconds can make or break your brand, leading to massive spikes in sales or nation-wide ridicule of the money wasted on high-profile advertising agencies. 2009 was one of the first years that a successful ad campaign would require a matching social media presence, and with a mascot as absurd and endearing as Nannerpuss, Twitter was the natural place for Denny’s to connect with the bemused public.
And connect they did, with viewers tweeting their admiration and Nannerpuss making strange, breakfast related comments like this one:
#BreakfastTip Tie you English muffin to your dog’s back and THEN try to put your blackberry jam on it! MY BEST TIME IS 3 MINUTES, 42 SEC!
— Nannerpuss! (@nannerpuss) February 2, 2009
Weird, but inoffensive. I’m not sure it would have gotten me in the doors of a Denny’s (only desperation and fatigue will do that these days, I have too much respect for food) but things quickly take a turn that has me scratching my head.
@stevenfazzio You ever mix Everclear with pancake mix? The pancakes don’t turn translucent, but I swear it makes me a better driver!
— Nannerpuss! (@nannerpuss) February 2, 2009
Yeah….no. Wildly inappropriate in this context. Perhaps a standup-comic could make this funny but here it’s not.
@pshhxitssteph I’d say you’re my hero too, but my PO says I can’t idolize 16yr old girls anymore! LETS EAT PANCAKES IN A COUPLE OF YEARS!!!
— Nannerpuss! (@nannerpuss) February 2, 2009
Wow, okay, now we have definitely crossed way out of brand-appropriate tweeting. I really don’t have anything to says about this one.
I’ll skip over the drug refereneces since they are neither witty nor funny but cocaine, PCP, LSD and oxycodone are all included. Then shit really goes off the rails with a tone-deaf attempt at political humor:
This new AZ law is going to severly reduced the immigration of breakfast burritos to my stomach. BOYCOT ARIZONA!!!
— Nannerpuss! (@nannerpuss) May 3, 2010
And finally, the last tweet from @nannerpuss, which I hope got this person sacked from ever attempting humor ever again: a facile, grade-school gay “joke”:
@ilikescience@jacobevans my pancakes just came out of the closet. SITTING DOWN IS SUPER AWKWARD NOW.
— Nannerpuss! (@nannerpuss) August 13, 2010
All of this leaves me terribly confused. What the fuck happened here? Is/was this what Denny’s had in mind? Now, I’m no prude – I love “fuck” as much as the next guy, even in a professional context, but these jokes are just so not funny and borderline offensive I think mostly I am just angry that someone got paid to make them – hopefully 5 years later either their humor has matured or they’ve given up jokes altogether.
In internet years, 2009 was ages ago – Twitter wasn’t even a “thing” yet for most of middle America, so I have to chalk some of this inanity up to the novelty of the platform and perhaps Denny’s not taking social media marketing for an octopus-shaped banana particularly seriously – and who could blame them? I mean, even I feel a little ridiculous expanding this much energy into talking about it. Still, I’m left with more questions than answers.
Who was @nannerpuss? Why couldn’t Denny’s hire someone funny and not tacky/borderline offensive? Does anyone give a fuck about this besides me? I only know the answer to the last one…