Shortlist ready for Nobel Tweet Prize
Re: “Nobel Foundation says literature prize may be delayed again,” World, May 27.
This year’s Nobel Prize for Literature is being delayed, and Donald Trump has been mentioned (mainly by himself) as a candidate for the Peace Prize. Putting these two disparate bits of data together, would it not be possible to cancel this year’s prizes for peace and literature and replace them with a newly created Nobel Tweet Prize?
The Nobel Tweet Prize would be awarded to the person who has made the most widely read contributions to the Twitterverse. Note that we are not talking about the quality of the tweets – only how widely read they were. Since Trump is president of the United States, his tweets undoubtedly have more readers than anyone else’s.
In one bold stroke, the establishment of a Nobel Tweet Prize would solve two awkward problems: not offering a prize for literature this year (tweeting can actually be considered a subcategory of literature); and the possibility of the Nobel Foundation being pressured into awarding Trump the peace prize, which he certainly does not deserve.
In addition, it might alleviate the embarrassment the foundation suffered in awarding Barack Obama the Peace Prize before he’d actually done anything. Finally, it might help to satiate the appetite of Trump’s enormous ego, although I would not care to bet the farm on this last proposition.
Call Me Tweety
