Tweet Like Werner Herzog Day throws dark shroud over Twitter
Twitter embraces iconic German director Werner Herzog's cinematic heart of darkness with funny tweets filled with dread and despair.
Sept. 5 is a day dedicated to a man who once ate his own shoe on film. Welcome to Tweet Like Werner Herzog Day, an existential moment in time filled with grizzly bears, insanity, dark thoughts and the great struggle between humankind and nature, all playing out one tweet at a time.
Herzog is a German film director known for influential films including "Aguirre, the Wrath of God," "Fitzcarraldo," "Nosferatu the Vampyre" and the documentary "Grizzly Man."
Prepare. pic.twitter.com/BWSsIIxodV
— Werner Twertzog (@WernerTwertzog) August 24, 2017
Herzog himself isn't on Twitter. Tweet Like Werner Herzog Day stems from the Werner Twertzog account, which encourages participants to use the #Twertzog hashtag for their posts. It helps to be a Herzog fan, or at least be familiar with his work and his distinctive narrative voice, to pick up on the despairingly brilliant tweets written in tribute to the director's unique worldview:
No PBS, I do not want another tote bag. I want an urn to contain the indifferent ashes of western civilization. Also a calendar.#Twertzog
— Benn Steil (@BennSteil) September 5, 2017
Little girl, after you have hauled a ship over a mountain in the jungle, then berate me for not buying your box of "Do-si-dos." #Twertzog
— Richard Mills (@shinglest) September 5, 2017
Nature does not abhor a vacuum. Nature feels nothing. Yet it hates you. Personally. You know why. #Twertzog
— Diana Goodman 🎞👓 (@LeCineNerd) September 5, 2017
Tweet like Werner Herzog Day is timed for Herzog's birthday and first started in 2014. It's even funnier when you know Herzog isn't a big fan of technology or social media. He's even said he's particularly uncomfortable with cell phones. That won't stop Twitter from turning to the dark side for a day of celebration. Even children's books aren't immune from the power of #Twertzog:
The very hungry caterpillar is avaricious, self-absorbed, & utterly emblematic of our depersonalized consumerist economy. The end. #Twertzog
— leewah (@leewah) September 5, 2017
Today would be an excellent day to partake of an existential crisis questioning your place in the world, your battles with your inner demons, the inevitability of death and your quest to not be eaten by a bear.
Men do not climb mountains because "they are there."
— Werner Twertzog (@WernerTwertzog) September 5, 2017
They do so because life is meaningless.#Twertzog
Autumn is not a season. It is the one time we allow ourselves to admit our fondness of the smell of death. #Twertzog #TwertzogDay
— wdaddario (@wdaddario) September 5, 2017
Neapolitan is the most human ice cream, as it seeks to please all & yet pleases none. It is reviled for being a mirror to man. #Twertzog
— Rod vonFleischhammer (@Sexhammer) September 5, 2017
Are you feeling moved to join the Herzog Twitter madness? Here are a few out-of-context translated quotes from the 1972 movie "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" to get you in the mood:
"I was born a prince, and men were forbidden to look on me. Now I am in chains."
"I am the Wrath of God. The Earth I pass will see me and tremble."
"That is no arrow. We just imagine the arrows because we fear them."
Happy tweeting.
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