Twitter is home to some odd characters, from tough-as-nails 19th-century baseballer @OldHossRadbourne, to scruffy-looking cornball @DadJokeHanSolo, to @YouAreDogNow, which finds dog photos that resemble people. One of the oddest and most endearing is @EpcotCentre, a parody account that purports to speak for the Magic Kingdom’s less-loved sister theme park.
Since 2013, the anonymous person behind @EpcotCentre has been tweeting missives every few days, ranging from vaguely non-compelling marketing copy:
…to tips about enjoying the park…
…to mildly troubling looks behind the scenes…
…to the weirdly specific…
For almost three years, the mind behind @EpcotCentre’s low-key absurdism has toiled away anonymously, but in an interview with The Daily Dot, the feed’s creator, Chris Murphy, talks a bit about what inspired him. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he cites Twitter’s greatest muse: boredom. As he puts it, “I thought it would be funny to parody a corporate account and make it seem earnest but inept.”
Murphy says that his feed blew up when Patton Oswalt retweeted a few of his messages, and that since his feed got popular, he gets a lot of responses from people who think he legitimately represents Epcot Center, and admits, “it would be a lie to say I don’t get a kick out of causing confusion.”
While the feed sounds like it was started on a lark, Murphy has put enough thought into it that he can get into character as the Epcot representative behind the tweets. “She’s originally from southeastern Missouri and has worked at Epcot for over 25 years… she doesn’t know much about public relations, social media, or professionalism, but is somehow running this account.”
Thankfully, Murphy seems to have no aims to monetize or otherwise expand his feed, treating it as an entertaining hobby. “I’m thrilled so many people are on board with it. The world is weird.”