As our posts about Aurora theater shooting jokes by comedians Dane Cook and Jeffrey Ross make clear, using the massacre to get laughs is dodgy business right now.
But that hasn't stopped the person or persons behind James Holmes Dies, a Twitter account with more than 39,000 followers.
Unlike the first rush of James Holmes tribute pages, the salutes that continue to linger on Facebook and Tumblr sites said to have been created by admirers who call themselves Holmies, James Holmes Dies has a name that implies disapproval for his actions. Moreover, the humor follows the model of popular memes that show a photo of a dweeby looking student said to have tried something either commonplace or trendy and then died in the process.
Here's one example....
Calls shotgun in the car. Gets shot.
— James Holmes Dies ™ (@JamesHolmesDies) August 6, 2012
...and another....
Crosses road. Gets hit by a chicken.
— James Holmes Dies ™ (@JamesHolmesDies) August 5, 2012
There's no scale on which to rate a given Aurora theater shooting gag's offensiveness, or lack thereof. But most people are likely to find these attempted zingers to be less disturbing than some of the other gags floating around out there, including on Twitter. Note, however, that there are only a relative handful of fake accounts on the service, with a surprising number of them (like this one) in Spanish or other languages. Moreover, the popularity of James Holmes Dies appears to be on the wane. When we checked the account late last week, it had more than 40,000 followers, but that's dipped to 39,305 at this writing.
Could the joke be wearing thin? Judge for yourself by checking out more of these samples from the account.
Wins raffle. Hunger games.
— James Holmes Dies ™ (@JamesHolmesDies) August 6, 2012
Gets in car. Rebecca Black chooses the seat next to him.
— James Holmes Dies ™ (@JamesHolmesDies) August 6, 2012
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Gets scared half to death. Twice.
— James Holmes Dies ™ (@JamesHolmesDies) August 6, 2012
Sweat drops down his balls. No bitches crawl.
— James Holmes Dies ™ (@JamesHolmesDies) August 5, 2012
Gets invited to play a game, SAW.
— James Holmes Dies ™ (@JamesHolmesDies) August 5, 2012
Page down to read more James Holmes Dies tweets.
Caught in fire. Stop, drop, roll. Into a puddle of oil.
— James Holmes Dies ™ (@JamesHolmesDies) August 5, 2012
Goes big. Goes home.
— James Holmes Dies ™ (@JamesHolmesDies) August 5, 2012
Rides bumper cars. Killed by drunk driver.
— James Holmes Dies ™ (@JamesHolmesDies) August 5, 2012
Smokes candy cigarette. Cancer.
— James Holmes Dies ™ (@JamesHolmesDies) August 5, 2012
Tries to impress girls by lifting something heavy. Sharts.
— James Holmes Dies ™ (@JamesHolmesDies) August 4, 2012
More from our Television & Film archive: "Jeffrey Ross offers no apologies for Aurora theater shooting joke at Roseanne roast."
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