Dril

About

Dril is a novelty Twitter account which gained a large fan following through its seemingly nonsensical tweets, similar to the Horse_ebooks Twitter account.

Origin

The Twitter account @dril posted its first tweet on September 15th, 2008, with a simple message only reading "No" (shown below). At the time, the identity of Dril was unknown, leaving followers with nothing other than a blurry photograph of actor Jack Nicholson as the profile picture and the profile description a link to the website Wint.co.^[5]

As of March 2014, the account has posted over 4,000 tweets and managed to garner nearly 95,000 followers. The mostly random tweets by the account often rack up hundreds of retweets and favorites, and screen captures of the tweets are often shared on other platforms such as Tumblr.^[19][20]

Spread

While the account already gained popularity and attention on Twitter and other platforms, one of the first websites to pick up on the novelty Twitter account was the entertainment website Head of Rothchild^[3][4] on October 19th, 2011, where he became their first and eventually only inductee to their Twitter hall of fame, and was again mentioned in a tribute on February 5th, 2013. Throughout 2012, the Twitter handle gained more attention and was mentioned in various top Twitter account rankings, such as on Mashable,^[8] Bite.ca,^[9] The Daily Dot^[10] and Complex.^[7] That same year, @dril was also mentioned on the IGN forums^[11] and in a Something Awful Twitter Tuesday post.^[6] Tweets attributed to the account have been featured on the Twitter: The Comic Tumblr blog on at least two occasions, the first on December 26th, 2012 (shown below, left),^[12] and the second on June 13th, 2013 (shown below, right).^[13] The comics managed to gather 250 and 5,800 notes respectively, as of March 2014.

Starting in 2013, the total number of @Dril's followers began to grow exponentially, as shown in a The Daily Dot article^[10] in October 2012, at the time of which the Twitter still had only 23,000 followers. @Dril also managed to gain various awards on Favstar.fm^[14] and belongs to the top 0.5% of social media users on Twtrland.^[15] The most popular tweet by the account was made on July 28th, 2013,^[16] with over 6,800 favorites and 6,200 retweets as of March 2014 (shown below).

Dril tweets have also shown usage as exploitable quotes. Various single topic blogs on the image sharing site Tumblr use the tweets as a source for parodies. The blog Dril Pencils^[24] quotes dril quotes into various comic panels. Drilcomics^[25] and Metal Dril Solid^[26] respectively focus on Plebcomics and Metal Gear Solid as their source material.

Identity

Not much is known about the identity of the Twitter handle. It is known that dril used to be a user on the Something Awful forums who went by the nickname gigantic drill, whose used flags^[23] on the FYAD section of the forums show similar humor (shown below).

Following the revelation^[17] of the owner of the Horse_ebooks Twitter handle being Buzzfeed employee Jacob Bakkila on September 24th, 2013, Bakkila claimed to know the identity behind dril. Bakkila shared that he was hired by dril in the past for a project, that dril was possibly a graphic designer and lived in the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut). Bakkila also connected Buzzfeed to dril where they got him to participate in an oral history of Weird Twitter accounts,^[18] in which dril attempted to dispel various myths surrounding the account.

Ok, I was considering sending a response “in character”, but I thought that this would probably be a good opportunity to let people know who I am and what exactly I’m trying to do. People seem to have the idea that I’m this really “wacky” guy who behaves rather similarly to his offbeat twitter persona in real life, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Please allow me to dispel some of the myths out there and let people know what I’m all about.

Twitter, as I understand it, is a sort of “Hell” that I was banished to upon death in my previous life. In this abstract realm, the only thing I am certain of is that my cries are awarded “Favs” or “RTs” when they are particularly miserable or profane. These ethereal merits do nothing to ease my suffering, but I have deliriously convinced myself that gathering enough of them will impress my unseen superiors and grant me a promotion to a higher plane of existence. This is my sole motivation.

As for this “Weird Twitter” phenomenon, I believe it’s simply a label that many people in social media loosely attach to a movement of ironic, satirical posts pioneered by the account “@kfc_colonel”. Nobody knows who operates this account, but for years he has been impersonating a dead fast food mogul and asking his followers bizarre personal questions, usually regarding their consumption of KFC products. His influence inspired comedians to further the movement by creating accounts of a similar vein, such as “@Pepsi”, “@Pizzahut”, and “@mtn_dew”, to name a few. I would suggest checking these guys out if you’re into some real subversive social commentary.

Thank you for this opportutnity, and good luck with your article. I give you full permission to post this on every blog and forum that exists on the web. Please send a check for $400 to “Dirty Ass” at Crimetown, NJ . Piss Piss Piss PIss 69 Piss Ass Shit . Bye

Patreon

On January 19th, 2017, Dril announced on Twitter^[27] he had launched a Patreon page^[28] devoted to his artwork, saying he was hoping to pursue media, long-form, and illustrated content, and that he'd made significant progress on several books filled with art and "Boy's wisdom".

greeting's… to my friends, followers, and yes, even the Trolls…
it is my One Desire to be able to create massive amounts of content for all of you to enjoy. however, lately I have pursued a wider variety of media, including video, illustration, and long-form writing. these larger-scale projects eat up a shit load of time and resources, and while I will continue posting bull shit on twitter regardless, it's becoming necessary for me to seek some sort of funding in order to produce work of the Quality you deserve…

as of right now, I have made significant progress on several books which will be filled with hundreds of pages of Boy's wisdom and artwork that you will absolutely love. I hope to have these finished sometime before the upcoming 10th anniversary of my vile twitter account, around late 2018.

Doxxing

On September 15th, 2017, Reddit user Fraven^[31] posted to the /r/homestuck subreddit that Dril was credited as having done additional writing on on Hiveswap, a Homestuck themed adventure game, underlining Paul Dochney in a screenshot of the game's credits, claiming it was dril. The post gained 135 upvotes. The identity did not become a major story until November of that year, however. On November 16th, 2017, Tumblr user eudaemaniacal^[29] posted a text post that read "Dril is homestuck. I am shaken to my core." Over a series of reblogs added to the post, Tumblr users recounted how they discovered Dochney's name in the credits of Hiveswap. Tumblr user not-terezi-pyrope^[30] provided the evidence of Dril's identity. First, not-terezi-pyrope connected the Jacob Bakkila comment that dril contributed to the Horse_ebooks sequel, Bear Stearns Bravo. Dochney evidently had a LinkedIn page where he wrote that he contributed to the project. They also noted that one of the accounts Dril follows is Cohen Edenfield, the lead writer of Hiveswap.

As the news spread through Twitter, many users said they did not know or care about dril's identity and preferred to not know. Twitter user @sung_minkim expressed that sentiment, gaining over 30 retweets and 80 likes (shown below, left). Twitter user @lovemyfriendz69 tweeted a passage with the phrase "nothing gold can stay" in memoriam of the dril mystery (shown below, right).

Mr. Ten Years Book

On Augsut 23rd, 2018, @dril announced the release of a book entitled Mr. Ten Years, a collection of tweets, comments and work. He tweeted,^[32] "availble now… Dril Official "Mr. Ten Years" Anniversary Collection the real deal." Within 24 hours, the post (shown below) received more than 1,900 retweets and 10,000 likes.

The description on dril's website reads, "after 10 years, of posting, the Book has arrived at last. Containing over 1500 'Cream of the Crop' tweets, hand picked by The Boss, sorted categorically and accompanied by over 70 stunning Illustrations, this book is a Must Have for all admirers of Prestige Content."

Several media outlets coverd the book, including The Verge,^[33] Vice, ^[34] The Daily Dot ^[35] and more.

Notable Tweets

Search Interest

External References