Twitter Hashtag Game-Playing - a Novice's Guide
If you have a strong aversion to Twitter Hashtag games, please do not read further (although by now you would not be reading anyway).
This could have been captioned as a guide from a novice, as I’ve only been active on Twitter for six months or so, and only after a while did I become aware of this diversion.
The game is simple. Someone starts it by choosing a first subject (say, films) and links it with a random subject that has a decent number of versions of it (say, cake).
The person starting it then suggests a phrase that combines those two elements, usually by adapting the first subject to incorporate the second, and tweets it with the hashtag in front (so it is easily searchable).
That may sound complicated. But it is truly simple. So out of the two elements above we could get: “The Madeiraness of King George #cakefilms”.
There are no prescribed limits on the first category, but popular ones are films, plays, books, songs, singers and celebs. To work, the subject has to have enough subjects that fall within it.
Recent examples include:
- Doss Stone #lazycelebs
- Flush Gordon #toiletfilms
- Cod Only Knows #aquaticsongs
- When Harrods Met Sally #sponsoredsongs
- Cyd Cheroot #smokingcelebs
- Spardiscus #Olympicfilms
If you are new to this, you will now be getting the picture.
There can be variations. For example, to make it more challenging, the film category could be limited to the horror genre eg “The Vicar Man”.
How do you know if your effort has amused others? You can’t be certain, but if someone retweets you (you can check this on your Interactions) then that is good. All of the above ones have been re-tweeted, though I stress that I am a novice on this. The professionals play prolifically, but without expressing favouritism I often watch the products from Sian is Me @Lynsm7 and Catherine Kelliher @kitty_kelliher.
I imagine that everyone has their own way of working out a tweet in the game. If you are going to play, especially with a more specialist first category, it is helpful to know some subjects within the category. To take an extreme example, if the challenge were #vegetableverdioperas, then going for Madam Butterbean might be considered as naff.
At this point I started to write a methodology for at least one way of composing the effort, but gave up because I found it too difficult to express. Instead, here is a recent challenge and my response:
#supermarkefilms. Good topic as films is a broad subject and there are plenty of relevant words. Pick on a word, maybe just watching early efforts from others and trying not to duplicate. I thought of aisle, and started mentally to run through the alphabet – bile, dial, file, guile, mile, Nile. And we were there: “Death on the Aisle”.
If it works at all, it works because it brings together two disparate elements in an unusual way. I am no expert on the art of comedy writing, but the tweets are fun often when they present an absurd image in our minds, the character of one of our monarchs being expressed in cake form, or (good old toilet humour) our sci-fi hero being re-named within an action to dispose of waste.
What I find great about the games is that they ebb and flow. A challenge is thrown out, various responses are given, and this goes on until people tire of the topic.
One would not be so bold as to call any of this the epitome of wit, but aficionados might see comparisons with elements of “I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue”. And the quality is often superior to the painfully forced utterances of comedians on some of the panel shows that grace our television channels.
Now, must go – another well-known player, @CosyFanTootie, has just tweeted Honda Pressure @carlyrics....
The author is a City of London and City of Westminster Guide, who runs guided walks in the City and in Westminster (see tabs for details),...and who plays hashtag games from time to time.