In case you didn’t notice, Lorne Michaels isn’t on social media. Of course, that isn’t all that surprising considering that he’s an 80-year-old TV producer who seems to be single-handedly keeping the colored index card industry alive.
We do know that he owns a cell phone, at least, according to Sarah Sherman, who once revealed that the Saturday Night Live cast texts with Michaels during show nights, much to the shock of David Spade.
But there is at least one social media account bearing the SNL creator’s name: “Official Lorne Michaels,” which boasts the Twitter/X handle “@forlornmichaels.” Recently, the “official” account went viral for a post touting one of Michaels’ accomplishments — sort of.
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Following a police siren emoji, indicating a major news alert we should all pay attention to, the post describes how “Lorne Michaels officially has is now one Saturday Night Live two ratings NBC of on broadcast television!” And there’s also a candid photo of Michaels working in the SNL offices accompanying the nonsensical sentence.
The post, which has been viewed more than 2.6 million times, attracted a lot of attention from folks who were baffled by the statement. Nearly a thousand users shared the tweet/x-eet, with many of them expressing their sheer and utter bafflement. Others questioned their own cognitive faculties.
And at least one person pointed out that this is exactly the kind of gobbledygook that Tracy Jordan would confidently declare.
While it wouldn’t be too unusual for an A.I.-powered Lorne Michaels bot to vomit out inane grammatical nightmares, “Official Lorne Michaels” is clearly a joke account. Exhibit A: the time Michaels begged for help after getting trapped underneath a cardboard box that had been baited with popcorn.
Another time, Michaels reached out to Jimmy Fallon to try and rescue him from the abject indignity of starring in iPhone game commercials.
Clearly the only way to clear all of this up is for the real Lorne Michaels to join social media, but that probably is never going to happen. Back in 2014, Michaels told Vulture that “I don’t tweet for a very simple reason, which is that I drink.”
Okay, given that information, now we kind of think that “Official Lorne Michaels” actually is the real Lorne Michaels.
