2 Grams For $40
Background
On April 24th, 2013, Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder[1] tweeted a proposal for an experiment instructing his followers to text message their parents “got 2 grams for $40," immediately follow up with a second text asking them to ignore it and tweet a screnshot of their response. The comedian later explained that he devised the idea with the help of Michael Koman[7], the co-creator of Fielder’s Comedy Central television show Nathan For You. Within two days, the tweet had been retweeted more than 4,100 times and favorited more than 2,000 times.
Experiment: text your parents "got 2 grams for $40" then right after "Sorry ignore that txt. Not for you" Then tweet pic of their response.
— nathan fielder (@nathanfielder) April 24, 2013
Fielder's Twitter Experiments
In the weeks leading up to the "2 grams for $40" experiment, Fielder attempted to launch similar pranks on parents via Twitter on at least two occasions; his first idea[13], tweeted on April 13th, 2013, instructed his followers to simply e-mail the word "help" to their parents, followed by another proposal,[14] tweeted on April 20th, asking people to message their fathers inquiring about the quality of condoms purchased at a dollar store. Both of Fielder's prior experiments were met by at least a dozen responses. (shown below)
Notable Developments
April 24th: Twitter Responses
Five minutes after Fielder’s tweet, a follower by the name of Levi Carstensen responded with a screenshot of the text message he had sent to his mom, noting that his father called him immediately afterwards.
@ nathanfielder this was followed by a phone call from my father. twitter.com/levicarstensen…
— Levi Carstensen (@levicarstensen) April 24, 2013
In the following hours, Fielder retweeted dozens of responses from his followers' parents. Also on the 24th, a thread discussing the experiment and its results was posted to the IGNforums[8], but none of the posters actually completed the action.
April 25th: Blog Coverage
On April 25th, Buzzfeed[3] reported on Fielder's Twitter experiment with a compilation of screenshot responses. Throughout the day, the experiment was featured on Deadspin[5], Dangerous Minds[9], the Daily Mail[10], Gawker[4], Uproxx[12], and Splitsider.[11] Additionally, Comedy Central[6] posted a collection of the screenshot responses on its Tumblr blog, where they gained nearly 224,000 notes within a day.
Notable Responses
Search Interest
External References
[1] Twitter – Nathan Fielder
[2] Twitter – Jimmy Kimmel
[3] Buzzfeed – what happens if you text your parents pretending to be a drug dealer
[4] Gawker – comedian gets kids to play evil drug deal-prank
[5] Deadspin – ingenious-prank-sends-parents-into-weed-panic
[6] Tumblr – Comedy Central
[7] Twitter – @MichaelKoman
[8] IGN Boards – Experiment: text your parents "got 2 grams for $40" then right after "Sorry ignore that txt.
[9] Dangerous Minds – TEXT PRANK TO PARENTS ‘GOT 2 GRAMS FOR $ 40,’ HILARITY ENSUES
[10] Daily Mail – 'Two grams for $40': The hilarious texts between students and their parents after comedian urges them to fake being a drug dealer
[11] Splitsider – 'Nathan for You's Nathan Fielder Has Kids Play a Fun Drug Deal Prank on Their Parents
[12] Uproxx – Nathan ‘For You’ Fielder Asks Twitter Followers To Play Hilarious Drug Dealing Prank On Their Parents
[13] Twitter – @nathanfielder: Experiment: email your parents just the word "help"
[14] Twitter – @nathanfielder: Experiment: text your dad "Will dollar-store condoms work the same as regular brands?"
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Top Comments
Izzy
Apr 26, 2013 at 03:16AM EDT
Lone K. (Echoid)
Apr 26, 2013 at 02:24AM EDT