Ten People Who Are Funnier on Twitter Than They Are on TV

140 characters is all some people really need.

By Virginia Smith

In order to be a really good TV star, actors have to create an approachable yet enviable persona that makes viewers either want to date them or drink with them. Today, they have to do it on Twitter, too. Needless to say, not everyone is good at this. But, amid their peers’ streams of endless fan retweets and boring plants by well-meaning publicists, there’s a faction of TV personalities that manage to get it just right. Comedians understandably tend to have a corner on the market, but we’ve also been pleasantly surprised by some unexpectedly witty stars and reality TV personalities. Below, a sampling of the best, brightest, and weirdest.

Bob Saget

The cat’s been out of the bag for a long time that Saget isn’t the wholesome, clean-freak single dad we knew and loved on Full House so much as a pervy dude who won't hesitate to make sex jokes about actresses he knew when they were toddlers. Still, this fact gets no less entertaining with time, and since he mostly exists as a guest star these days, Twitter constitutes the most consistent possible source of Saget. Expect lots of joke Twitpics, references to his elderly mother, and nostalgia-inducing back-and-forths with @JohnStamos.

Jesse Camp

Some of you — and by “some” I mean “few, if any” — may remember Jesse Camp as the 1998 winner of MTV’s “wanna be a VJ” contest who could mostly be relied on to show up for VJ duty visibly stoned on a daily basis. Granted, he hasn’t been on TV since 2000 and is often assumed to be dead, but I’m willing to overlook it, because his Twitter feed is hands-down my favorite thing on the internet. A mix of gibberish, gross and explicit complaints about his love life, and the occasional startlingly on-point observation about the music industry, the total package is nothing short of mesmerizing and easily more entertaining than anything he ever did on TV, or anything that anyone else does on Twitter. Period.

Mindy Kaling


Granted, Mindy Kaling is incredible in every medium she touches, but The Office writer/actress’ crowning achievement thus far still might be her Twitter feed. Embodying every girl’s ultimate friend crush, she muses on romantic comedies, the color pink, and carbs she likes and dislikes. Her Tweets are, without fail, hilariously aware of their un-selfawareness (really).

Aziz Ansari

The lovably hyperactive comedian, Parks and Recreation actor, R. Kelly superfan, and sometime Ciroc spokesperson is just as manic yet on-point when he Tweets, and it’s kind of a sight to behold. A given day might offer a sampling of his (always vehement) feelings on food and hip-hop, links to YouTube videos you should probably avoid watching, and quotes from his little cousin Harris. It also comes with a hefty dose of self-promotion, but there’s something about him that makes it impossible to begrudge.

Conan O’Brien

Even if you still haven’t developed a big soft spot for his show on TBS, take heart in the fact that the creepy-funny Conan we all came to know and love still exists on his Twitter feed. Although he no longer needs it to launch himself out of unemployment, O’Brien keeps it updated with a steady stream of the bizarre and hilarious observations the world has come to expect from him, and in its own strange way, it’s comforting.