At the "How to be Funny in 140 Characters or Less" panel Wednesday, I watched the full life cycle of a humorous trending topic on Twitter -- from its creation, to peak, then death -- all within less than an hour.
The event was part of Social Media Week NYC, and was led by Lizz Winstead, writer and political satirist for The Daily Show; Jon Friedman, writer, comedian and producer; and Julieanne Smolinski, writer and editor.
"How to be funny on Twitter is always tricky, because no one can make you funny. But people can make what you think is funny a little more accessible," says Winstead.
Hashtag games on Twitter have become a new form of entertainment, and a great exercise for comedians. The topic given at the panel was #RejectedGroupons. From just a 168-seat theater, the topic trended in second place, worldwide within twenty minutes. By the end of the hour-long panel, the topic was no longer trending.
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Twitter has no doubt changed comedy, and humorists say it's even created a new "genre" that's different from traditional standup.
"Comedians are getting attention in a way they haven't in a long time -- it's a new outlet," says Friedman.
Attention on the social network has often led to opportunity for comedians and writers as well -- Smolinski says "every job I have right now, I got because of Twitter."
The panelists also discussed the formalities of being a comedian on Twitter. Although Winstead claims to hate using the word "brand," she admits there is a certain entertainment to marketing ratio that every comedian should be aware of on Twitter. For her, it's one pitch for every ten comedy tweets.
"You don't want to tweet any type of self-promotion too much because then people will get irritated and then they won't follow you," says Smolinski.
Overall, the three panelists say that even with the rapid, viral nature of comedy on Twitter (as proved with #RejectedGroupons), this form of social entertainment is supposed to be casual.
"If I do standup, I get a little stressed out," says Friedman, speaking of the copious amount of preparation that live performance entails. "But with Twitter, it's different. I like to just calm down and not take it so seriously. Otherwise when it's not fun, I'm not going to want to do it anymore."
So how do you become a comedian in 140 characters or less?