When you're one of the richest people on earth, perhaps it simply doesn't matter whether or not your jokes are funny. It's the only possible explanation for Elon Musk's stubbornly unsuccessful attempts to spread joy on Twitter through a series of naff memes – presumably intended to distract from the litany of bugs that have plagued the platform since he took over and laid off nearly half the workforce.
In what appears to be a 3-day late April Fools' gag, the Twitter logo has today been changed to the canine mascot of comedy cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Perhaps designed to symbolise the website's final, ultimate loss of identity and descent into farce, the dog is all over Twitter right now. And the joke has landed about as well as a botched SpaceX test flight.
'What's happening' indeed (Image credit: Future)
Once again showcasing an impressive inability to read the room (for a while now, the general atmosphere on my own Twitter feed has been one of mourning the platform's lost soul), Musk punctuated the hilarious joke with a poorly Photoshopped meme (below).
Like so much of Musk's 'output' on Twitter, this feels like a joke designed for a very small audience – except this time, it's being directly placed in front of every user's eyes. One imagines that, apart from the subset of Twitter that is au fait with cryptocurrency, most users are probably just a bit confused. Which doesn't make for a great user experience.
this is so embarassing??? pic.twitter.com/ByS09li1Y4April 3, 2023
Doge for some reason is showing up on Twitter and I can only assume this was supposed to be an April Fools joke that took 3 days to roll out because no one knows how the site works anymore pic.twitter.com/dIlXiOLHoIApril 3, 2023
Apparently we have Doge as the new Twitter logo. I'll just quote my niece:Cringe. pic.twitter.com/I5hJoqC7sFApril 4, 2023
Like the awful Twitter Blue logo, this another design decision that seems to go for 'the lols' rather than, you know, usability. While it was hardly one of the best logos of all time, we're certainly missing that blue Twitter bird right now.
Daniel John is Senior News Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of art, design, branding and lifestyle tech (which often translates to tech made by Apple). He joined in 2020 after working in copywriting and digital marketing with brands including ITV, NBC, Channel 4 and more.
