Kevern write a book: The best of @Rudd2000

Scott Bridges · Stephen Owen

Oct 2014 · Editia

About this ebook

Buzzfeed described it as “the parody account that captured the imagination (imagenation?) of Australian politics fans” and said it “provided the clearest and most consistently funny commentary on Australian politics in recent times”. It “set the political Twittersphere alight with sharp political satire delivered through savvy internet speak”, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

On 13 November, 2013, after two stints as Prime Minister and a recent election loss, Kevin Rudd announced his resignation from the Australian parliament.

The next morning, inspired by @Seinfeld2000 which asks, “What if Sinefeld still on TV today?” Twitter user @Rudd2000 borrowed a hashtag and invited followers to “#imagen Kevin Rudd never fired and still PM today?”

Using the mangled spelling and syntax appropriate to certain timely internet memes, @Rudd2000 painted caricatures of federal politicians and other members of the media/political class.

In addition to “Kevern”, @Rudd2000 chronicled the lives of figures such “Ablo” who has a seemingly insatiable appetite, “Crag Thomsen” who is down on his luck but loves to party, “Scot Moronsen” who takes delight in others’ misery, “Toney Abert” who is a world expert in lying, and the ever-loveable “Emmo”.

Nine months and over 3,000 tweets later, @Rudd2000 called it quits after reaching the completely arbitrary target of 5,000 followers.

Now you can read the best of the tweets plus commentary from creators Scott Bridges and Stephen Owen in Kevern write a book.

After covering production and distribution costs, all proceeds from the sale of this title will be donated to the UNHCR under the name ‘Scot Morensen’.

About the author

Scott Bridges really shouldn’t have enjoyed @Rudd2000 as much as he did, and will miss the opportunity to use the account as an outlet for his political feels. But on the upside, now that it’s gone he will have a lot more time to focus on actually important things like teaching and doing a PhD. Also, the absence of constant Twitter notifications will do wonders for his phone battery life.

Stephen Owen stares blankly at his various screens wondering what to do with all his extra time now that @Rudd2000 has been retired. Perhaps he will begin looking for a real job, having recently earned a PhD in Political Science. One thing’s for sure, though: he will henceforth need to Google politicians’ names in order to spell them correctly.

Scott and Stephen would like to acknowledge the third author of @Rudd2000 who, despite contributing only a few dozen tweets over the nine months, was responsible for introducing the character “Mark Latam”. This person would like to remain anonymous, although we can reveal that they are taller than both Stephen and Scott.