The tweeter @shitmydaysays garnered a flood of publicity recently when his wildly popular tweets earned him a TV deal. Twitter has been derided by some for lacking substance but tweeters such as  Justin Halpern  are proving that a rolling twitter persona can tell a story that people hook into each day and grow to love:

@shitmydadsays “You worry too much. Eat some bacon … What? No, I got no idea if it’ll make you feel better, I just made too much bacon.”

@shitmydadsays “I need to change clothes? Wow. That’s big talk coming from someone who looks like they robbed a Mervyn’s.”

@shitmydadsays “The baby will talk when he talks, relax. It ain’t like he knows the cure for cancer and he just ain’t spitting it out.”

@shitmydadsays “You sure do like to tailgate people … Right, because it’s real important you show up to the nothing you have to do on time.”

@shitmydadsays “Just pay the parking ticket. Don’t be so outraged. You’re not a freedom fighter in the civil rights movement. You double parked.”

As Wired reported at the time, Halpern’s Twitter feed (based on quotes from his 73-year-old father) attracted 700,000 followers and CBS now plans to produce a sitcom pilot based on the tweets, with Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick producing.

Back home, we have a few of our own local heroes. Everyone knows about @fakestevefielding, but there are many fans of a little lady called @mammaspaghetti:

@mammaspaghetti Every morning mia little dog wake a mia witha little a kiss. HELLO MIA LITTLE DOG!!

@mammaspaghetti Brunella just call and a say she isa going to a see Lisa Minelli. I thinka she isa beautiful sing but her a husband isa face with a ham!

@mammaspaghetti Pappa, where isa the fresh a tomato? OH ITSA THERE! I LIKE THE FRESHA TASTE!! Roma

@mammaspaghetti Todai Tony isa say the china invent a the pasta. How they eata the pasta with the chop a stick Tony?! He isa silly a boi!

@mammaspaghetti Opah isa leave a mia televish! I NO LIKE A THIS!! Ellen isa nice but you kno she is not a so smart!

Mamma’s wisdom even landed her an advice column on Defamer.

But yesterday, fans were thrilled/dismayed to learn that mammaspaghetti had outed herself.

“She” is Matt Banham, from Adelaide. Crikey asked him the hard questions.

Who’s she based on ?

That’s a hard question, I guess I based her on all the funny little old Italian ladies I have met in my life, and all the other stereotypes that people use in jokes.  There is also a character on a show called “Home Movies” who is an Italian dad who speaks in the most non-sensical broken English that cracks me up a lot.  I was also inspired by the English from fatchicksinpartyhats.com, which is a classical site.

Why did you start?

Bored at work. That’s pretty much the whole reason right there.  And I felt that it was something that needed to be done.  I was doing my part for perpetuating stereotypes.

What were the most surprising things to come out of it?

Probably the amount of people who immediately realised it was me and the amount of people who had no idea.  I found myself stopping saying things in a funny accent around my friends in case they would realise it was me.  But a lot of people guessed it was me straight away.  Maybe my dumb sense of humour is well known.

Where were your followers mainly from?

It seemed like a lot of them were from Sydney and Melbourne, which was strange cause I’m from Adelaide. Maybe those east coasters have a more lowbrow sense of humour than my home town.

Anyone hate her?

Not that I know of.  How could you hate a woman as lovely as that! I’m not sure if Tom the baker’s wife hates her but she sure NO A LIKE HIS WIFE!!

How’s her little dog?

He’s a good little dog. Always up to something.  Probably scaring Pappa’s chickens right now!

Why’d you out yourself?

I kinda ran out of things for her to say. She might pop up now and then if she gets up to a new adventure but we shall see.  I also wanted people to start following my twitter (@mattbanham), which is hilarious,  believe me!

No book deal?

I’m sure they will start flooding in soon enough, but I’m gonna hang out for a TV sitcom deal.  It will be huge, big fat Greek wedding, huge, wait, that got cancelled pretty quickly didn’t it?

What’s the secret to a truly great meatball, according to mama?

Well as mama always says, “YOU NEED A THE FRESH A INGREDIENTS … ROMA!”