Background
On April 24th, 2013, Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder[1] tweeted a proposal for an experiment instructing his followers to text message their parents “got 2 grams for $40," immediately follow up with a second text asking them to ignore it and tweet a screnshot of their response. The comedian later explained that he devised the idea with the help of Michael Koman[7], the co-creator of Fielder’s Comedy Central television show Nathan For You. Within two days, the tweet had been retweeted more than 4,100 times and favorited more than 2,000 times.
Fielder's Twitter Experiments
In the weeks leading up to the "2 grams for $40" experiment, Fielder attempted to launch similar pranks on parents via Twitter on at least two occasions; his first idea[13], tweeted on April 13th, 2013, instructed his followers to simply e-mail the word "help" to their parents, followed by another proposal,[14] tweeted on April 20th, asking people to message their fathers inquiring about the quality of condoms purchased at a dollar store. Both of Fielder's prior experiments were met by at least a dozen responses. (shown below)
Notable Developments
April 24th: Twitter Responses
Five minutes after Fielder’s tweet, a follower by the name of Levi Carstensen responded with a screenshot of the text message he had sent to his mom, noting that his father called him immediately afterwards.
In the following hours, Fielder retweeted dozens of responses from his followers' parents. Also on the 24th, a thread discussing the experiment and its results was posted to the IGNforums[8], but none of the posters actually completed the action.
April 25th: Blog Coverage
On April 25th, Buzzfeed[3] reported on Fielder's Twitter experiment with a compilation of screenshot responses. Throughout the day, the experiment was featured on Deadspin[5], Dangerous Minds[9], the Daily Mail[10], Gawker[4], Uproxx[12], and Splitsider.[11] Additionally, Comedy Central[6] posted a collection of the screenshot responses on its Tumblr blog, where they gained nearly 224,000 notes within a day.
Notable Responses
Search Interest
External References
[1] Twitter – Nathan Fielder
[2] Twitter – Jimmy Kimmel
[3] Buzzfeed – what happens if you text your parents pretending to be a drug dealer
[4] Gawker – comedian gets kids to play evil drug deal-prank
[5] Deadspin – ingenious-prank-sends-parents-into-weed-panic
[6] Tumblr – Comedy Central
[7] Twitter – @MichaelKoman
[8] IGN Boards – Experiment: text your parents "got 2 grams for $40" then right after "Sorry ignore that txt.
[9] Dangerous Minds – TEXT PRANK TO PARENTS ‘GOT 2 GRAMS FOR $ 40,’ HILARITY ENSUES
[10] Daily Mail – 'Two grams for $40': The hilarious texts between students and their parents after comedian urges them to fake being a drug dealer
[11] Splitsider – 'Nathan for You's Nathan Fielder Has Kids Play a Fun Drug Deal Prank on Their Parents
[12] Uproxx – Nathan ‘For You’ Fielder Asks Twitter Followers To Play Hilarious Drug Dealing Prank On Their Parents
[13] Twitter – @nathanfielder: Experiment: email your parents just the word "help"
[14] Twitter – @nathanfielder: Experiment: text your dad "Will dollar-store condoms work the same as regular brands?"
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