J.K. Rowling Tweet Parodies

About

J.K. Rowling Tweet Parodies refers to a series of mocking social media posts that accuse Harry Potter-author J.K. Rowling of retconning facts about the Harry Potter series of fantasy novels. The tweets generally follow the phrasal template of a mock conversation of an unprompted Rowling revealing an absurd fact about the books. The format grew in popularity following the backlash to a tweet from the official Potter Twitter account regarding the digestion and plumbing practices of wizards.

Origin

On November 17th, 2018, Twitter ^[1] user @depressionne posted the earliest known parody by way of a Don't Say It. The post received one retweet and 17 likes in less than three months (shown below).

Spread

On January 4th, 2019, the Pottermore Twitter^[2] account tweeted "Hogwarts didn't always have bathrooms. Before adopting Muggle plumbing methods in the eighteenth century, witches and wizards simply relieved themselves wherever they stood, and vanished the evidence." The tweet received more than 19,000 retweets and 75,000 likes (shown below).

That day, Twitter^[3] user @twosonyeo tweeted a screenshot of the fact with the caption, "no one: / jk rowling" (shown below, left).

Several weeks later, on January 21st, 2019, Twitter^[4] user @twoalmonds tweeted the format with the fact: "jk rowling: the sorting hat’s penis rests on ur forehead when u wear it." The tweet received more than 175 retweets and 650 likes in less than two weeks (shown below, center).

On January 24th, Twitter^[5] user @iNabberTV tweeted the fact "dobby has a 10-inch cock." The tweet received more than 34,000 retweets and 100,000 likes in less than one week (shown below, right).

On January 28th, The Daily Dot ^[6] covered the meme.

Dumbledore and Grindelwald Sexual Relationship Reveal

On March 13th, 2019, RadioTimes^[7] reported on a commentary track included in the Blu-ray and DVD releases of the 2018 film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. In her commentary, J.K. Rowling revealed that the relationship between the characters was "intense and passionate" and had a "sexual dimension to it", adding that she was more interested in its emotional rather than sexual aspects.

Their relationship was incredibly intense, it was passionate and it was a love relationship. But as happens in any relationship – gay or straight or whatever label we want to put on it – one never knows what really the other person is feeling. You can't know. You can believe you know. So I'm less interested in the sexual side, though I believe there's a sexual dimension to this relationship, than I am in a sense of the emotions they felt for each other, which ultimately is the most fascinating thing in all human relationships.

In the following days, J.K. Rowling's commentary was covered by several notable media outlets, including Complex,^[8] The Daily Dot^[9] and Vanity Fair^[10], with a misleading tweet posted by Complex on March 14th gaining over 4,900 upvotes and 13,100 likes in five days (shown below).^[11]

The reports sparked a surge in the number of parody tweets and memes or Reddit, Twitter and other online platforms, including tweets utilizing the Nobody: format (examples shown below).

On March 17, Redditor plump-n-juicy posted an inquiry about "sexual J.K. Rowling memes" in /r/OutOfTheLoop subreddit.^[12] The post gained over 9,200 upvotes in one day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References