michigan not

Sometimes my occasional preposterous deadpan lines get me a reputation such that I can’t people to take me seriously when I actually mean something – and sometimes my deadpans get me in trouble because people actually take them seriously.

This evening, after a ridiculous day of one football coach resigning hours after a nationally televised game to become the coach of a different team the next afternoon, and another coach repeatedly denying that he’s jumping to another school and now claims to be helping the other school to find a new coach instead, I decided to sum up my distaste for such nonsense in less than 140 characters on Twitter:

“I’m resigning as publisher of iProng Magazine and being announced as Michigan’s new head coach tomorrow. Keep an eye out for me on ESPN!”

Oops. Sure, most people following me on Twitter are at least vaguely aware that one way or another I’m about as likely to become Michigan’s next football coach (or anyone’s next anything coach) as I am to become the next CEO of Microsoft. But among those who don’t follow sports, don’t know much about me, or some combination thereof, I received actual notes of congratulation. And I’m not talking about those who pretending to play along, as there were plenty of them as well. I mean that there were some people on Twitter who actually believed that I was announcing the fact that I was about to become the next head coach of the Michigan football team.

And that’s pretty cool.