What’s up with all of the new satirical Twitter accounts?

The Twitter "fail whale"

South Carolina’s unique culture — especially its politics — has always seemed particularly ripe for parody, as we pointed out on the anniversary of U.S. Rep. Preston Brooks’ famous beating of Sen. Charles Sumner on the Senate floor. Perhaps that’s why we have so many Palmetto State-centric parody Twitter accounts, with a new one popping up every few months whenever a story like Ken Ard’s legal troubles or Phil Bailey’s ill-advised “Sikh Jesus” comment captures the public attention.

Often a parody account is the transparent creation of political rivals, such as in the cases of @NotDickHarpo as well as multiple Jake Knotts parody accounts. Many remain active for a short period before going dormant as people lose interest in a story (R.I.P. @ShandonWanker), or a campaign ends and the anonymous political operative behind the account stops getting paid.

But as with our favorite political neologisms, sometimes a parody account breaks free of its ephemeral constructs and enters the South Carolina zeitgeist, such as preeminent Palmetto State satirist @SCLegislator. After all, it’s not like there’s any shortage of jokes to be made about the comedy of errors commonly referred to as the General Assembly.

Recently there have been quite a few new parody accounts such as @MidlandsMamba and @SikhJesus, and even a Twitter for Richland Co. House candidate Kirkman Finlay’s beard. To celebrate, we’ve collected a Twitter list of some of our favorite South Carolina parody accounts as well as some of their choice tweets from the last few years. Let us know if we’ve missed any in the comments section.