This morning I made a “social media statement”-style joke image as if it had come from Olive Garden, and I want to talk about why I made it and why I deleted it.

Just so I’m abundantly clear: it’s not a real statement.

Two days ago, Anderson Cooper said those who attacked the Capitol would be returning to Olive Garden and Holiday Inn.

And then, Sean Hannity spent time on his show talking about how much he loves Olive Garden.

These things actually happened. It’s ridiculous.

There is a very low bar for what companies and individuals feel like they need to make public statements about.

Example: the fact that AXE felt like they should make a genuine statement about a can of body spray left inside the Capitol building is absurd. https://twitter.com/AXE/status/1347325351668682752

When thinking about the absurdity of Olive Garden being dragged into this current event (and accounting for the fact that I have very little actual work to do these days), I wrote a fictional statement from Olive Garden... revoking Sean Hannity’s “Lifetime Pasta Pass.”

I intentionally sprinkled in references to Anderson Cooper’s jab such as “Holiday Inn” that should’ve made this an obvious joke to anyone who read it. However, people thought Sean Hannity really lost his Pasta Pass (which, as we all know, has not been sold since 2019).

What I didn’t write intentionally was the typo many people have since pointed out: “viscous” instead of “vicious”

People latched onto that really quick, mentioning “alfredo” enough times for me to crave it. I think this typo contributed to this tweet being shared.

Posting to your own timeline for an audience that is familiar with you is one thing. However, when it leaves your network through retweets and quote tweets, the context is lost instantly. People were retweeting and quote tweeting faster than I could keep up with.

People joke that social media managers have a rough time when something like this happens. I know that to be true, and I didn’t consider that aspect seriously enough. Nor did I consider that my verified badge on Twitter would lend credence to something as stupid as this.

When my dumb joke about revoking Pasta Passes is believed to be true by *actual journalists* and causes *actual stress* for people who now have to deal with my joke, I think it becomes not *just* a joke.

So, I deleted the original tweet.