The notion of celebrity authenticity has been an increasingly hotly debated topic in the past few years. With the increasing presence of social media, our lives are increasingly exposed to and intertwined with celebrities. Twitter in particular allows fans to have a constant stream of interaction with and exposure to notable individuals on a seemingly personal basis. But it is important that the performative nature of this medium is examined when considering the interactions that celebrities broadcast to their followers. For this case study, I chose to examine the twitter feed of TV and Podcast celebrity Paul Scheer. His mid-range, somewhat niche celebrity status made his twitter and the interactions on it very interesting to analyze. Overall, his twitter interactions can be viewed and analyzed through the categories of Affiliation, Intimacy, and Authenticity & Sincerity.
Paul Scheer is an actor and comedian famous in particular for his television show The League, and his film podcast How Did This Get Made? Being known primarily as an improv and sketch comedian, his twitter is populated with lots of short, culturally relevant comedic quips.
With these tweets, Scheer is both establishing credibility as an up-to-date member of society and popular culture, while staying true to his talents and identity as a comedian. He brings Affiliation into play. Affiliation is "the process of publicly performing a connection between practitioners and fans using
language, words, cultural symbols, and conventions." (Marwick 147). Here we see Scheer mimicking the comedic overtures of his contemporaries while appealing to liberal sensibilities and sharing links from sites like POLITICO. Scheer performs the role of socially conscious joker, making public jokes that clearly illustrate his social and political views, while making sure to stay clear of any serious, assertive commentary that might cause him to have to engage in genuine political discourse.
This lackadaisical, entirely unserious nature is reflected further in his interactions with fans. This somewhat niche celebrity leads to a fan following that, though not huge, is highly attentive, passionate, and interactive. As such, Scheer’s fan interactions tend to be less conversational. His reply tweets are very similar to his standalone tweets, creating a consistent message and performative identity.
We see him validate his fans and make it clear that he pays attention, while simultaneously keeping up his performance of “not caring too much.” Nothing is too serious, thus keeping his fans at a distance while simultaneously acknowledging and interacting with them. When we look at his interactions with other celebrities, we get a much more conversational feel.
The consistency with which he replies to these other mid-level celebrities, as well as the nature and subjects of their conversations, portrays a very genuine friendship. Rather than just passively performing a friendship with these people in highly visible short bursts, he maintains the conversation and replies constantly. This consistent tone contributes to his performance of Authenticity and Sincerity, lending to the idea that he is truly the one writing every tweet. We get a genuine, personable performance which extends to and is indeed aided by his displays of and comments on his family life.
His wife, June-Diane Raphael is also a mid-level television and podcasting celebrity. The fact that he does not seem to treat her tweets with any more gravity or seriousness than his other tweets and interactions is in keeping with his unified, consistent performance. It further lends a small measure of Intimacy, or "a sense of closeness and familiarity between
[celebrities] and their followers." (Marwick 147) He is strategically revealing certain aspects of his genuine personal life while still keeping his audience somewhat at a distance.
Thus far, we have seen consistency and unification of message and persona across all of Paul Scheer's interactions. However, we can see places where he falters, where he is somewhat inconsistent. We will now examine the only times he seems to take things slightly more seriously; when he is promoting materials or announcements related to his projects, particularly How Did This Get Made?
These tweets come off as slightly less genuine in this context. They lack his typical display of “not caring” or any of his clever quips that are almost entirely unified across all other interactions. This drop in consistency creates a feeling of falseness and disingenuousness about these tweets, giving them a more corporate, promotional feeling. There is no intimacy, no clues to suggest sincerity. There is only affiliation, in this case to products or services, such as his Podcasting network, Earwolf. Overall, aside from these somewhat inconsistent tweets, for Paul Scheer, Twitter is a platform to push a performance of affiliation, accessibility and sincerity.
Marwick, Alice, and boyd, Danah, “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter,” Convergence May 2011 vol. 17 no. 2 139-158, http://www.tiara.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/marwick_boyd_to_see_and_be_seen.pdf
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