Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, has turned into a powerful tool in the hands of not only consumers but marketers of all stripes as well. Comcast, Paramount Pictures and a handful of others have all latched on to it as a way to communicate with customers, acting not only as a distribution platform but a conversation hub and customer service hub as well. Some of the biggest names in the social media marketing world are spending serious time brainstorming how to use Twitter for marketing, debating its usefulness and otherwise hashing out a series of best practices for utilizing the service.

Media outlets have also turned to Twitter for many of the same reasons. TV Guide, Fox News and even Spout have a presence there to, again, promote their content and, in some cases, even engage in a back-and-forth with readers.

But did you know that Darth Vader is twittering? How about Cobra Commander?

In one of the most widely-discussed instances of fictional characters with Twitter accounts, the staff of Sterling Cooper – the ad agency in the hit AMC series Mad Men – have all been posting 140 charcter status updates. Initially thought to be an official effort by the cable channel, it was later found that no, these were fan efforts that almost fell victim from what was later construed as “miscommunication“, but which at first apparently looked like a take-down notice filed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

With all these movie and TV characters expressing themselves, we thought it would be fun to see who our followers on Twitter thought should make their thoughts known in 140-characters or less. Here’s what we got back.

Characters played by Val Kilmer appeared twice in the feedback. @treobenny put in his vote for Doc Holiday from Tombstone and Ryan Budke nominated Gay Perry from Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

@sabine24 put forth a bunch of names, including Frank N. Furter, Stanley Kowalski and Jack Sparrow. The Big Lebowski‘s The Dude got the nod from @povertyjetset and @champura went deep into the well to bring out Daniel Plainview from There Will Be Blood. @tigershungry went even further for Pistachio Disguisey, Dana Carvey’s character from 2002’s Master of Disguise.

Finally, @ryananderson will be taken out back and horse-whipped for suggesting Jar Jar Binks.

In addition to this worthy list of nominations, here’s who we’d like to see on Twitter:

The Guru Pitka (The Love Guru): Yes, the movie might have bombed and forced Mike Myers back into re-evaluating Austin Powers 4, but the pithy Pitka’s bumper-sticker life lessons are made for the format.

Carl Dehham (King Kong): “Rough day. Locals speak of something we think translates to ‘big angry monkey.’ But filming continues. Ann seems wary, tho.”

Capt. Jeffrey T. Spaulding (Animal Crackers): Come on. I’m a little ashamed of everyone – and myself – that a Groucho Marx character wasn’t among the first ones I thought of. I’m going with Spaulding simply because I think he gets off some better one-liners than my other choice, Duck Soup’s Rufus T. Firefly.

Wolverine (X-Men): “Stabbed guy with claws. Had beer.” (repeat time and time again.)

Gypsy (Mystery Science Theater 3000): The robot in charge of the Satellite of Love’s operations would be the ideal candidate to report on how Joel, Crow and Servo are holding up, as well as throw the occassional “@drforrester: You suck.”

Master Control Program (Tron): Every post would conclude with “end of line.” Plus, he could brag about how easy it is to crack into Windows servers.

Isaac Davis (Manhattan): Imagine the possibilities of Woody Allen’s character obsessing over the minutia of his relationships as well as sending missive after missive about his love of New York City and Ingmar Bergman film to all his followers. (Side note: Mariel Hemingway’s character Tracy would, on the other hand, have a Tumblr blog.)

Peter Gibbons (Office Space): Maybe it’s a cop-out to think of Gibbons venting on his frustrations with his boss on Twitter (likely under a pseudonym to protect his shaky job) but it would still be pretty funny.

Matt Hooper (Jaws): “Got call from some hick sheriff with what’s probably just an over-active imagination. At least he’s paying for the trip.”

Chris Kelvin (Solaris): Just because every other post would be “Did I just see my dead wife? WTF!!!””

So who do you think would make a good presence on Twitter?

5 thoughts on “Movie Characters Who Should Use Twitter

  1. There used to be a Green Arrow blog. I wonder if the Arrow wouldn’t do better on Twitter: “The Martian Manhunter ate my Oreos. I caught Superman checking out Black Canary – making kryptonite trick arrow, just to be sure.”

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