Nate Silver / Drunk Nate Silver

Nate Silver / Drunk Nate Silver

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Updated Jan 09, 2013 at 01:52PM EST by Don.

Added Nov 09, 2012 at 03:15PM EST by amanda b..

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Kaitlyn Dowling ▼ y Follow OTER @kaitlyndowling Drunk Nate Silver knows exactly how long Drunk Nate Silver meme will be funny ← Reply 다 Retweet ★ Favorite Storify RETWEETS FAVORITE 2:10 PM-8 Nov 12 Embed this Tweet

About

Drunk Nate Silver refers to both a Twitter hashtag and novelty accounts that are associated with tweets describing what the New York Times statistician Nate Silver[1] would do under the influence of alcohol. The trend took off shortly after he correctly predicted the outcome of the 2012 Presidential Election in all fifty states.

Origin

Though the parody accounts @nateDRUNKsilver[4] and @DrunkNateSilverp[3] were registered in June and October respectively, the trend did not take off until November 7th, 2012, when campaign consultant Dan Levitan tweeted about Nate Silver getting drunk and predicting people’s deaths in the New York City subway. By November 9th, the tweet had 3,086 retweets and 1,043 favorites.




Spread

On November 7th, the phrase “Drunk Nate Silver” was mentioned on Twitter 9,163 times[7] and the corresponding hashtag was used 3045 times[8] in tweets jesting that the statistician was psychic and could predict the future. On November 8th, the trend was covered by several internet culture blogs and news sites including Gawker[9], the Huffington Post[10], CNN[11], Buzzfeed[12], the Inquisitr[13], the Washington Post[14], the Awl[15], the Atlantic[16], Wired[17] and MSN Now.[18] It was also discussed on message boards including MMO Champion[19] and the Democratic Underground.[20] The next day, more coverage of the trend appeared on The Week[21] and NPR affiliate Capital Public Radio.[22]

Nate Silver's Response

On November 12th, an interview with Silver was published in Chicago Magazine[23] where he said the tweets would make a good television show, but were kind of weird. He said when he does get drunk, he "[does] what everyone else does, which is argue about stupid things with my friends. I don’t become dark and ironically evil."

AMA Post

On January 8th, 2013, Silver submitted an "ask me anything" (AMA) post to the /r/IAmA[25] subreddit, specifically requesting queries related to his forecasts for the 2012 United States presidential election, evolution of polling practices, American budgetary politics and sports. In the comments, several Reddits began posting humorous Nate Silver “facts” (shown below) in the similar vein of #DrunkNateSilver tweets.


个:[-] 1twouldBeAnHonor . 321 points 20 hours ago (337167) Nate silver can recite pl. Backwards. Nate silver can divide by zero. Nate silver's numbers only have a median and mode. Because no numbers would be mean to Nate silver,. Han Solo lets Nate silver tell him the odds. permalink. source. parent. report save. give gold reply. H elbruce -52 points 15 hours ago" (5617) Nate Silver expected the Spanish Inquisition. Nate Silver sometimes he already knows how many sheep there are. Results ask Nate Silver if they're significant. permalink source parent report save give gold reply has trouble falling asleep, because

By the end of the day, Silver had answered a total of 30 questions, in which he revealed he uses the software programs Stata and Excel for data analysis, that he did not think Anonymous prevented Karl Rove from stealing the election and that he felt it is difficult to statistically prove that gun ownership rates are a cause of fatal crimes and accidents. Silver also disclosed that he gained his statistical insights and research know-hows through trying to win his fantasy baseball league and NCAA tournament pool. The highlights from Silver's AMA post were subsequently posted on the New York Times Five Thirty Eight[24] blog and the Internet news blog The Daily Dot.[26]

Notable Examples


Ben Keegan ▼ y Follow BKTM Drunk Nate Silver crashing weddings, yelling out the number of years until divorce Reply Retweet ★ Favorite Storify 2 RETWEETS FAVORITE 2:10 PM-8 Nov 12 Embed this Tweet ▼ y Follow Aaron Walter dangerwalter Drunk Nate Silver vomiting a Fibonacci spiral on the floor of Taco Bell ← Reply Retweet ★ Favorite "Storify 31 RETWEETS 12 FAVORITES 10:57 AM-8 Nov 12 Embed this Tweet
▼ y Follow Harrison Mooney @HarrisonMooney #DrunkNateSilver goes to Africa, finds the butterfly, asks it not to flap its wings, prevents the hurricane. Reply Retweet ★ Favorite Storify 152 RETWEETSFAVORITES 45 1:31 PM-8 Nov 12 Embed this Tweet ▼ y Follow Sanjay Kairam @skairam OI VOTED many boys your milkshake will bring to the yard (spoiler: not all of them) Reply Retweet ★ Favorite "Storify 28 RETWEETS FAVORITES 4:15 PM-8 Nov 12 Embed this Tweet
Follow Dave Levitan @davelevitan Drunk Nate Silver stumbles through traffic on the Jersey Turnpike, screaming out what time each driver will get home. #DrunkNate Silver ← Reply Retweet ★ Favorite Storify 144 RETWEETS FAVORITES 11 :01 AM-8 Nov 12 . Embed this Tweet Sarah Pavis @spavis ▼ y Follow drunk nate silver doing a 3 am webinar for his ex with charts and graphs that should finally make it clear Reply Retweet ★ Favorite Ostorify 42 FAVORITES RETWEETS 10:46 AM-8 Nov 12 Embed this Tweet

Twitter Feeds






Search Interest

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External References

[1] Wikipedia – Nate Silver

[2] Twitter – Search for #drunknatesilver

[3] Twitter – @DrunkNateSilver | Registered October 8th, 2012

[4] Twitter – @nateDRUNKsilver | Registered June 30th, 2012

[5] Twitter – @DrunkNateSilv1 | Registered November 8th, 2012

[6] Twitter – Search for "drunk nate silver"

[7] Topsy – Statistics for "drunk nate silver"

[8] Topsy – Statistics for #drunknatesilver

[9] Gawker – Let’s Play ‘Drunk Nate Silver,’ the Hilarious New Twitter Game

[10] The Huffington Post – 'Drunk Nate Silver' Sweeps Twitter: Prognosticator Goes Mad With Power (TWEETS)

[11] CNN – Twitter commandeered by 'Drunk Nate Silver'

[12] Buzzfeed – Meet "Drunk Nate Silver"

[13] The Inquistr – ‘Drunk Nate Silver’ Trends On Twitter, Is Hilarious Commentary On Statistician’s Big Win

[14] Washington Post – Drunk Nate Silver rules the Internet

[15] The Awl – Play "Drunk Nate Silver"

[16] The Atlantic – Battle of the Nate Silver Twitter Memes

[17] Wired – Giddy Tweets Move From ‘Nate Silver Facts’ to ‘Drunk Nate Silver’

[18] MSN Now – Drunk Nate Silver counting out exactly five hundred and thirty-eight french fries at McDonalds, then slowly dipping 206 of them in ketchup

[19] MMO Champion Forums – Drunk Nate Silver

[20] Democratic Underground Forums – Drunk Nate Silver

[21] The Week – 'Drunk Nate Silver': The best tweets from the funniest post-election meme

[22] Capital Public Radio – 'Drunk Nate Silver' Parody Wakes Up After Real Nate Silver's Big Score

[23] Chicago Mag – Nate Silver on the Election, Pundits, and His Drunk Alter Ego

[24] New York Times – Transcript of Nate Silvers Ask Me Anything

[25] Reddit – IAmA Blogger for FiveThirtyEight At New York Times

[26] Daily Dot – Statistician Nate Silver Spills His Witch Secrets to Reddit

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