Hacking Humor

A silly cite.

Thanks to some wonderful serendipity, I found myself at the Twitter HQ again on Sunday, my second visit there this week. Cultivated Wit presented their second Comedy Hack Day, “an overnight hackathon that brings together comedians and developers.”

The weekend was emceed by Baratunde Thurston, and featured a panel of judges that included W. Kamau Bell, Shanti Charan, DJ Patil, and Shannon Spanhake.

One of my favorite stage demos was for HipCrax, customized wallpapers and games made specifically for the unique pattern of crazing and cracks you created that time you dropped your smartphone and shattered the screen.

“A cracked iPhone will be the ripped jeans of our generation.”
Matt Klinman– HipCrax Comedy Hack Day Demo, 08 April 2013

But the winner, and honestly, the one I can’t wait to use, was Citation Needed. You’ll win every argument from now on—whether you’re actually right, or not. This mobile app allows you to add whatever fact you need to a copied Wikipedia page, just to prove you right. It’s brilliant.

Other fun demos included Magic Story Factory, Up In A GIF, and Reality Check. 

In addition to guffawing, lots, I spent a good deal of time between demos talking with Christian Bøgeberg, a recruiter for Twitter. The more we talked, the more I was convinced that Twitter continues to value its people as much as its product. 

It was great to be in the Twoffice again, and I hope similar opportunities continue to come up. If you can, I encourage you to visit. You can even use Comedy Hack Day participant Fraudio for an enlightening tour of the beautiful new space on Market Street. Tell me all about it when I see you on the ‘morrow, on the Web.