I admit that I try to be funny on Twitter.  I like making people LOL, but sometimes I hesitate before I hit send because I don’t want to offend.

Heidi Moore of NPR retweeted this from Courtney Lilly last night after reading tweets about Whitney Houston’s untimely passing, and it was really insightful.

@moorehn If twitter’s good for anything it’s showing us how very few people are actually funny.

— Courtney Lilly (@courtneylilly) February 12, 2012

Lately, people have gotten into hot water because they have tweeted something offensive, rude, tasteless, racist, sexist, homophobic or just plain mean. Most often, the tweet was meant to be a  joke.  Somehow, the 140 characters that Twitter allows seems to be a perfect online outlet for a punchline. The expression, “Brevity is the soul of wit” comes to mind. However, comedy is not easy. There is a set-up. There is context. There is subtext.  Comedians write loads of jokes that fall flat.  The smart thing that many comedians do is write them in a notebook, and later try them out in front of an audience.  The audience for the comedy is niche compared to the internet where an inoffensive joke can cause  a lot of damage.  A dumb tweet can lead to ridicule or worse–, getting suspended or losing a job.

Buzzfeed and Dumbest Tweets are great for aggregating for shameful tweets.  That’s not where you want your tweet to be.

Think twice before you tweet. You are not as funny as you think.