About

James Breakwell is a professional comedian known for maintaining the Twitter account XplodingUnicorn, which has amassed upwards of 1.1 million followers. Breakwell is best known for his family-related humor, often featuring references to parenting his four daughters.

Online History

In April 2016, the comedian's Twitter^[1] account was widely publicized by multiple outlets who highlighted many of his comical tweets. Among them included a BuzzFeed post titled "This Guy With Four Daughters Just Might Be The Funniest Dad on Twitter."

Books

In October 2017, the comedian published his debut book Only Dead on the Inside: A Parent’s Guide for Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse.^[2] On November 6th, 2018, Breakwell released the book Bare Minimum Parenting: The Ultimate Guide to Not Quite Ruining Your Child.^[2]

Interview With Know Your Meme

Q: What made you first decide to tweet the conversations / daily life experiences you have with your children?

A: I write about what’s around me. Currently, my house is overrun by children. It seemed like an obvious choice.

Q: How did you initially react to internet fame?

A: I’d been trying to make it as a comedy writer for ten years before I went viral. I felt vindicated when it finally happened. It turns out you really can fail your way to the top.

Q: What gave you the idea to write your two books Only Dead on the Inside: A Parent’s Guide to Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse and Bare Minimum Parenting: The Ultimate Guide to Not Quite Ruining Your Child.

A: For Only Dead on the Inside, I wanted to write the most non-traditional parenting guide possible, so I took regular parenting advice and set it in the zombie apocalypse. It turns out raising a kid is kind of a disaster, regardless of whether or not the world has ended, so parents might not notice much of a change.

For Bare Minimum Parenting, I wanted to contradict all the parenting books out there that convince people to become overbearing helicopter parents. If most kids grow up to be mediocre adults anyway, why not get them there in the easiest way possible? It started out as a joke, but I accidentally proved a point: Being a laid back, carefree parent is actually better for your kid than being a stressed-out, overachieving one.

Q: You’ve been accused of making tweets up. How did you respond to these claims?

A: My tweets are a mix. Some are real, some are exaggerated, and some are made up, but they’re all inspired by my kids. These are the kinds of things my daughters say and do, even if they didn’t literally say or do them that day. That’s why my jokes ring true to so many parents. The people who have a problem with my comedy tend to be childless.

Q: Is it possible to make a living just tweeting? If so how can somebody make it happen?

A: I don’t know of anyone who is making a living just off Twitter, but I suppose anything is possible. I support myself with a mix of book deals, paid social media ads, and freelance writing gigs. That’s pretty common these days. It’s hard to make a living as just an author or just a social media influencer. You need multiple revenue streams.

This interview was conducted via email by the Know Your Meme staff in October 2018.

Search Interest

External References