September West is a born and bred New Yorker, 22-year-old student, and theater major. She loves Liz Phair, volleyball, and meat. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram under septembawest. This week West spoke to me about three of her favorite tweets, plus Drake, Charlie’s Angels, and tweeting about what really happened to her.
West: I mean at the end of the day…
How would you say your sense of humor has changed over your time on Twitter, and has any of that been because of Twitter?
I don’t think it has. Well, actually, my headspace is the same but what I do and do not deem funny to tweet has definitely changed for sure. Which to an extent answers your question? This sounds stupid I apologize.
Do you have any favorite formats for tweeting, or series of tweets that you’ve done?
I lived with someone in college whose dream was to screenwrite and through them I realized how effective dialogue formats were! Especially considering the character limit. A ton of bang for your buck. That and quoting something, I think those shits are hilarious. Now, in regards to series of tweets I don’t think so? I’ve run a few topics into the ground I’m sure but series, I don’t know. I tweet about Charlie’s Angels a ton if that counts. It probably counts.
Oh man, I love this one. A friend and I were making breakfast and the dude would very literally not shut up about Blaxploitation films. Swear on my eyes. A totally well adjusted dude who assumed that I, a black woman, wanted to hear him discuss the many faults of the genre. “September, they were awful films with zero technical merit. Pam Grier was beautiful, yes, but she nev-†was the moment when I decided to throw them strawberries & kiwi fruit in the blender and continue about with the making of the breakfast. Cut him right the fuck off. Unrivaled satisfaction, let me TELL you.
I like that this isn’t just a tweet but something that actually happened! How often would you say a tweet like this is based on something that really happened?
When I first got into Twitter I was really into absurdist humor that was rarely based on anything even moderately real, but until I got older and became more aware of for lack of better words, my surroundings, there was so much more material to comment on/consider.
How similar do you think your voice on Twitter is to your voice IRL?
The line that perpetually gets thrown at me is, “You’re a lot nicer in person than I thought you’d be†(directly translates to “you seemed cunty†FYI) which is like “what?†You didn’t think I was nice? It wasn’t until I really t h o u g h t about how I presented/said things that everything started making sense. A rude awakening about realizing how rude I was, indeed. IRL I’m sweet as pie which is another reason why that shit cracks me up.
Aubrey ‘Drake’ Graham sucks. I think he’s a dweeb, but my girlfriends *do not* which makes the distaste even worse. Imagine severely disliking something yet perpetually having to deal with it day in day out for 60 years straight and/or until you die. Anyway. I wrote the tweet while “pregaming†with friends (as a college sophomore does) but couldn’t drink at the time so I was already miffed. Then, CUT TO: best friend switching up the tunes (specifically to the Take Care album) and it was a wrap. I was fucking outta there. Sober AND Drake? Kiss my ass, I will be tweeting about your poor lyricism, sir. So I did, and people liked it! Solidarity is my favorite.
Is there a tweet of yours that you’re especially surprised people responded positively to? Also vice versa – one that you’re surprised was not well-received?
Yeah, the blender one was funny because never before had I seen such a divided opinion within a demographic. White guys were exhaustingly 50/50 with this one. Obviously I was going to receive a lotta white guy dissent, I’m not an idiot, but what truly surprised me is the AMOUNT of dissent. I considered that tweet, while circumstantially appropriate, super cartoonish and silly; and to see how angry men became for being interrupted by a hypothetical blender was bonkers. But on the flipside, that is hands down my ‘white dude’ friend’s favorite tweet of mine which makes the hateration worth it. White men laughing at themselves is ideal.
Jenny Nelson lives and writes in Brooklyn and works at Funny Or Die.