Do YOU watch 'The Mentalist'…?

…because on April Fools Day, more than 11,000 people started following the ‘Mentalist Writers’ on Twitter. Without consent.

How did this happen? Two Words:

Jason. Berger.

Ok.. Technically that’s a name…

As brought out in our introduction blog, Jason is the former assistant to Steve Franks (The Creator of Psych). He still loves us Psych-os, and continues to help out with the psychwrites twitter page. (We love you too Berger! Wow- Did I just actually say that?) Somehow, though it doesn’t surprise me, he came up with the idea to turn @psychwrites into @mentalistwrites as an April Fools Day prank.

Pure. Genius.

So, at 10:13am EST/ 7:13am PST (Wow, Berger. Really? You are up THAT early?), @mentalistwrites made its first tweet: “FUN FACT: Simon Baker's hair takes 7 days to prepare. We call it ‘Baking’”

I, unfortunately, did not wake up until about an hour later. Rolling over to grab my phone off my dresser, I noticed it was flashing... clearly an indication I had a new message. This doesn’t happen often because a: I have no life, and b: I have no life. So I, of course, *had* to see who this message was from. Turning it on (while still half asleep I might add), I wasn’t shocked to see it was a message from Twitter. I was, however, utterly confused to see the name ‘mentalistwrites’ flashing across my screen. This lasted all of three seconds. The following exited my mouth as soon as I’d read the actual tweet:

“Berger.”

Yup. It had his name written all over it. All. Over. It. So, I ran… er… walked patiently… to my laptop in order to see what was going on. What I read didn’t come as a surprise, but it DID make me literally L.O.L.

After the 1st tweet, came a series of others:

#2: “FAKE SPOILER: Next season's premiere will center around finding a new partner. One who taps.”

#3: “Simon Baker's hair can predict: 1. the weather 2. the ncaa tourney (we doubted it too until it picked northern iowa over kansas.) 3. flavor”

And my personal favorite:

#4: “We changed our theme song! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M11SvDtPBhA”

You might remember that we've mentioned our fascination with Party in the USA. So that post alone made my day. (A blog entry to explain this to those of you who don’t know about/understand it, is coming soon! I promise!)

The prank wasn’t noticed by just us Psych-os, either. Even network executives noticed! Ted Linhart, (VP of Program Research at USA Network) tweeted: “I'm not the only one noticing psych writers posing as mentalist writers today, right?” Of course, he received his answer with a resounding ‘NO!’. His favorite tweet made by ‘mentalistwrites’? “RT @mentalistwrites: http://twitpic.com/1cfszm - Shh... Don't tell anyone, this is what we use to come up with our best ideas…” I have to agree. It’s one of my personal faves as well.

Most of the official USA Network show twitters such as Psych_USA, and BurnNotice_USA also joined in on the fun, by posting prank spoilers on their feeds. One of my favorites? “Psych_USA: Psych Season Five will feature our first completely silent episode, paying homage to the great silent films of yesteryear.” We all know, of course, how much Shawn likes his sound effects (not to mention how much he LOVES hearing himself talk), so this would never happen. But it was funnier than a pig in a blanket, rollin’ in a mud puddle. (Ok… Sorry… My country-fied just slipped out. No more of that. Scout’s honor!)

But did it stop there? HECK NO! ‘Mentalistwrites’ continued for EIGHT hours. But joining for a MAJOR bout of prank tweeting on 'mentalistwrites', was Brittney Hilgers (Steve Franks’ current assistant), and Ray Utarnachitt (script coordinator). Apparently, Tim Meltreger (Writer/Story Editor) joined in on the fun as well. And yes, they all totally ROCKED it.

They even went so far as to use the dummy ‘psychwrites’ account Berger created as yet an even funnier plotline to the story. (They *are* writers you know!) The tweets that came off the dummy account had me LMBO (And yes, that stands for ‘Laughing My Butt Off’, despite what Britt tries to tell you. ;) You know what I’m talking about Brittney!) I honestly have no idea who came up with this, but whoever did it deserves a raise. It went a little something like this:


mentalistwrites: We listen to this song at least 5 times a day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr0Wv5DJhuk

mentalistwrites: Ment-o's are big Selena Gomez fans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_YR4dKArgo

mentalistwrites: #TeamSelena

psychwrites: HELLO???? CAN ANYONE HEAR ME? I AM STUCK IN SIMON BAKER'S BASEMENT! PLEASE GET HELP!!!

psychwrites: I KEEP HEARING SELENA GOMEZ!!!! THIS IS LIKE 'RANSOM' BUT LESS LAME!

psychwrites: THERE'S TONS OF HAIR PRODUCT DOWN HERE! I'M TIED TO A BARREL OF DEP! DYNAMITE STRAPPED TO IT TOO! THIS IS LIKE THE DARK KNIGHT. Aw, Cool.

mentalistwrites: @psychwrites SHUT UP.

mentalistwrites: @PsychWrites At least @KenTucker likes us.

psychwrites: THE DOOR IS OPENING...IT'S....IT'S...Ken Tucker? HE HAS A CAN! HELP ME KEN! OH...OH GOD NO...HE'S POURING GASOLINE ON ME!!!

psychwrites: KEN TUCKER'S 'BURN NOTICE' LIGHTER DIDN'T WORK...GLAD USA NETWORK GIVES OUT CRAPPY SWAG!

psychwrites: I FELL OVER! THIS IS BAD FOR TWO REASONS. 1. MY KEYS ARE DIGGING INTO MY LEG. 2: I CANT FEED MY TOMAGOTCHI! :(

psychwrites: I WRANGLED AN ARM FREE! WHEW. TAMAGOTCHI? FED.

psychwrites: I'M FREEEEEEEE! I PUNCHED SIMON BAKER'S DOG "TUNNEY" AND BOLTED. SHARPEE'S MAKE POOR GUARD DOGS...



Aaaaaaand… cue mentalistwrites becoming psychwrites again.

First off… I’d like to know how psychwrites managed to keep their Tomagotchi alive this long? Mine died YEARS ago. (I was SO not cleaning up virtual dog poo. Don't ask.) Second… Thank goodness for crappy swag! We almost lost them! That darn Ken Tucker! I totally almost went all Jaden Smith on him and mentalistwrites. HOW DARE THEY!?

The funniest part? ‘Mentalistwrites’ lost approximately 400 followers during all of this. FOUR. HUNDRED! So, apparently, there are a lot of gullible people out there who are still trying to figure out what horribly evil person hacked their accounts and had them following ‘The Mentalist’. If you are one of these people, no worries… It’s safe to come back… I promise. ;)

So, to end this, I’m going to leave you with a quote posted on a particular someone’s twitter account:

“Genius is a word that gets thrown around all too often, but yeah, it was genius. ”- Jason Berger.


Well, Mr. Berger, it may get thrown around a lot, but its true. Well done, Jason. Well done.

 
PS: Be sure to check out the psychwrites Twitter feed for the full list of tweets from April 1st.
 
<3

~Suzanne
 
Undercover Characters is not in any way affiliated with USA Network or NBC Universal. No copyright infringement is intended.