When I stumbled across this hilarious parody account on Twitter, I lost 30 minutes of my workday to laughter. It’s called @movie_goofs, and it tweets joke criticisms of movie “mistakes.”
Back to the Future (1985)
AnachronismMarty McFly drives a DeLorean DMC-12 in 1955, but the DeLorean was first manufactured in 1981. (inspired by @citizen_sane)
— movie_goofs (@movie_goofs) July 28, 2018
(by @rygorous)
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
Revealing mistakesWhen Gonzo is thrown out of a production company's office during "You Can't Take No for an Answer", his arms flop around in anatomically-impossible ways, revealing the shot was filmed using a lifeless dummy.
— movie_goofs (@movie_goofs) July 29, 2018
The fellow behind the tweets, Sean, plays the role of a daft movie critic pointing out inaccuracies in films that, as you may have guessed from the above tweets, aren’t actually “goofs.” The best part about the account isn’t actually the jokes, funny as they may be, it’s the comments. A shocking number of people have replied to Sean’s parody tweets by fansplaining to him why his criticisms are invalid – invariably to the delight of everyone else.
Love this account but this is not a mistake. He is on vacation in LA and is forced to take down the terrorists himself even though his jurisdiction is in NY.
— Nicholas d (@nickdefudge) August 1, 2018
Take this tweet, the account’s first, for example:
Star Wars (1977)
ContinuityBen Kenobi says that Luke's father is dead. Throughout the rest of the movie we see that Luke's father is alive and well.
— movie_goofs (@movie_goofs) July 25, 2018
It has 42 comments and it seems like most of them are people rolling their eyes at some silly movie critic who doesn’t understand what he or she is talking about – which, of course, means they don’t get the joke.
It’s difficult, sometimes, to discern what’s earnest and what’s satire on the internet. Unless, of course, the account has the word “parody” in its description like @movie_goofs does. Which, if you think about it, makes it even funnier when people express their indignation at Sean’s haughty criticisms.
TNW asked Sean, whose last name is unpronounceable by humans (not really, he asked us to leave it out), whether he was a professional comedian or just a regular funny person, he told us:
No background in comedy. I have a background in pedantry, though. I imagine there are other people who could pull off @movie_goofs, but I’m very sure there is no other twitter comedy account I could pull off.
Perhaps one reason the account seems to resonate with people is its incredible dryness. The only tweets it sends are criticisms. Throughout its two week history, whenever someone criticizes his criticisms, Sean merely responds with another criticism of the same movie. It’s a brilliant way to tip your hand to the audience while staying in character, and another example of the subtle genius of the account.
Completely disagree that this is a continuity error. When you photograph something, it may show up in a different size depending on how it is projected.
— ?Laurie M DefendtheConstitution! (@lauriedtmann) July 30, 2018
I think that's also a stretch…
— ?Laurie M DefendtheConstitution! (@lauriedtmann) July 31, 2018
Star Wars (1977)
AnachronismHan Solo claims the Millennium Falcon made the Yellow Brick Road in twelve choruses of "We're Off to See the Wizard". However, the opening titles indicate that Star Wars is set "a long time ago", decades before the song was written.
— movie_goofs (@movie_goofs) July 31, 2018
Another reason? Maybe it’s relevant to what’s happening around the world, especially online. Twitter is often called the most toxic of the social media platforms, with far more than its fair share of fake news, gaslighting, and trolling. And its arguable that by playing an oblivious character Sean is, in a way, pranking his audience when he responds without explicit clarification.
But, Sean says:
I can see interpreting it that way. I mean, not breaking character is a choice on my part. But my reason for not breaking character isn’t to troll, but because it helps suspend disbelief that the movie_goofs critic is sufficiently unable to understand moviemaking that he can express Nigel Tufnel levels of incomprehension. And I just find it more aesthetically appealing. The accidental trolling that comes with it is really just Poe’s Law writ large – writ large all over movie_goofs notifications tab.
As far as we can tell, @movie_goofs is a safe-for-work parody account that’s full of good clean fun. You can DM your ideas to it and, if the joke works, Sean will tweet it out on the account with credit to the author – essentially crowdsourcing laughter while turning criticism into comedy.
Here’s my favorite (so much subtlety!):
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Production errorThe credits for Thor: Ragnarok incorrectly state that the character of Odin is played by Anthony Hopkins. In reality, Odin is played by Loki Odinson (Tom Hiddleston).
— movie_goofs (@movie_goofs) August 4, 2018
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