#280characters: The joke’s on Twitter now
Twitterati flooded the microblogging site with jokes — on Twitter itself — as the social network’s founder Jack Dorsey announced yesterday the company’s “small change” but a “big move”: each tweet could now be of 280 characters, instead of the previous 140. However, for now the increased character count is available only to a small group of users; who is in the select group, and why, wasn’t immediately clear.
Certain traditions on Twitter are still intact — as always, Tweeple were quick to air their opinion on this.
Some of them couldn’t help but poke fun at it. “now only 90’s kids will know how tough it was to express your thoughts in 140 character limit.. #280characters”, wrote one user, Shailja.
“Good morning. Twitter changing to #280characters then? Still less characters than a Marvel Avengers movie!” wrote another user, Mitchell Dunkley.
Perhaps the best joke was that of comedian Akshar Pathak, who welcomed the change Bollywood-style. “Twitter (140 characters): “Hey guys, I’m Vijay” Twitter (280 characters): “Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, poora naam. Baap ka naam Dinanath Chauhan. Maa ka naam Suhasini Chauhan. Gaon Mandwa. Umar 36 saal, 9 mahina, 8 din, aye aur yeh solva ghanta chaalu hai,” he joked, referencing Amitabh Bachchan’s famous dialogue from Agneepath (1990).
US President Donald Trump, a relentless poster on Twitter, also became the butt of some jokes.