Humblebrag

Something immediately annoyed writer Harris Wittels about Twitter. All of a sudden it was OK to brag, so long as those brags were ever-so-thinly masked in crappy, transparent humility. Once Harris identified this widespread issue, he decided to take action by naming this phenomenon and creating the twitter account called Humblebrag–solely dedicated to retweeting the humblebrags of others.

Started less than a year ago, the Twitter feed is literally adding thousands of subscribers every day. A humblebrag, as defined by Harris, is a specific type of boast that allows the offender to broadcast their achievements without the necessary shame and guilt that should normally accompany such claims. Here are two examples:

@JoshHighland tweets: “Just filed my taxes. Biggie was right, mo money mo problems.”

@glowyjoeybunny tweets: “I hate when I go into a store to get something to eat and the male staff are too busy hitting on me to get my order right 🙁 so annoying!“

Harris also shows us what humblebrags might look like from some of history’s most notable names, as well as devoting an entire chapter to @TotesMcGotes, the greatest humblebraggart of them all.