Joyce Carol Oates: Twitter Rant About Steven Spielberg Was ‘A Joke’
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, author Joyce Carol Oates took to her Twitter account to rant about an old image of Steven Spielberg sitting in front of a Triceratops prop on the set of Jurassic Park. Oates’ post made it seem like she thought the image was real, and that Spielberg had actually killed a Triceratops.
So barbaric that this should still be allowed… No conservation laws in effect wherever this is? https://t.co/hgavm9IBaM
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) June 9, 2015
Oates’ comment was in response to a tweet from IGN movie editor Chris Tilly, who was also joking when he published the image. But Tilly was not sure if Oates’ response was serious, and he has since apologized for confusing her.
@JoyceCarolOates @YesThatsTheJoke Hi Joyce – photo was taken in Jurassic Park which doesn’t actually exist. Sorry for the confusion.
— Chris Tilly (@TillyTweets) June 9, 2015
Oates never responded to the people on Twitter to inform them if she was making a joke or if she thought the image was real. Several had reached out to Oates to let her know that the image wasn’t of Spielberg killing an actual dinosaur, and that it was actually from his 1993 blockbuster, Jurassic Park.
@JoyceCarolOates you know that’s from Jurassic Park, right?
— Tony (@tritone666) June 9, 2015
.@JoyceCarolOates joyce. honey. joyce dear. that’s a dinosaur. a fake dinosaur.
— isabel (@garbage_person) June 9, 2015
Conservative talk show host Dana Loesch also responded to Oates’ tweet with her own question.
. @JoyceCarolOates What conservation law would have prevented Spielberg from killing that fake dinosaur?
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) June 9, 2015
Salon also published an article and noted there are three possible outcomes to what Joyce Carol Oates could have meant in her post. One of those was that Oates was joking, which the article stated the likelihood was only “5 percent.” But Oates finally responded and said she actually was joking when she made that post.
Newsweek contacted Joyce Carol Oates via email to inform her that her tweet had gone viral, and there were many who thought she was being serious about Spielberg killing the Triceratops. Oates responded back by saying that she was, indeed, joking about the whole thing.
“it was meant as a joke….
many of my tweets are meant to be funny; but I guess that is not always a good idea. [all sic]”
Of course, Joyce Carol Oates is not the first person to respond to the image in such a way. Last year, comedian Jay Branscomb posted the same image and joked about Spielberg’s “disgraceful” act, according to BuzzFeed. Many Facebook users responded to the photo, condemning the two-time, Oscar-winning director, but it’s unclear how many of them were joking and how many were being serious.
[Images via BuzzFeed and Thos Robinson / Getty Images for the New Yorker]
