Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Celebrity for a Day

Well, my article went viral.
Great. Now I can check that off my list.

The reporter from the New York Post nearly orgasmed when I assured him it was true. The reporter from Metro NY said, "I wish 100,000 people saw something I wrote." My article was discussed on Inhabitat and Gothamist. Mayor Bloomberg and Ray Kelly both publicly dismissed my article, and even the New York City Department of Transportation had to make a statement on their Facebook page (below) to clear up any confusion. Over 250,000 saw it. It was really a wild couple of days.

... but nothing in my life has changed. I did not make any money off of this. I did not get a gig writing for the Onion. Edward Snowden did not call me. I will not be on Letterman tonight. Yet it feels good that so many people reacted to an idea that I came up with. It wasn't a hoax. It was a not-so-far-fetched story based on an exaggeration of reality. It was a clever idea and feasible enough that quite a few people thought it was real. I now know the secret of going viral. Where do I go from here? Hopefully someone will realize that social media prowess is powerful and find a way to turn one of the hardest-working comedians in New York City into a media cash cow. At the very least I will laugh anytime I see a Citi Bike. I'll always have this moment in time to look back on and feel good about the fact that what I wrote had an impact on people.

I was talking about it with a friend on the bus and a woman turned around and said, "are you guys talking about the cameras on the CitiBikes? My friend in Albuquerque told me about that..." I laughed for about an hour.

Here are a few of my favorite posts...

New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) on Comic John Powers' CitiBike Hoax

Comic John Powers compared to Edward Snowden (NSA)

CitiBike poles definitely has cameras