We’ve all talked a lot today about the impact Roger Ebert had on film and film criticism throughout his years in the spotlight. But one thing in particular he will be remembered for, perhaps even more, with younger generations is how extensively he embraced social media in his later years to give him a new voice online after he lost his own, physically.
There are far too many to recount all of the best ones, but here are a handful of Ebert’s more memorable tweets and topics he frequently addressed on Twitter.
On love and marriage:
“Never marry someone who doesn’t love the movies you love. Sooner or later, that person will not love you.” (Roger Ebert)
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) August 29, 2011
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On his illness:
This is Feeding Tube Awareness Week. It’s the G-string that keeps on giving.
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) February 10, 2013
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On Sarah Palin:
Sarah Palin rummages online frantically erasing her rabble-rousing Tweets like a Stalinist trimming non-persons out of photos.
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) January 9, 2011
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On Charlie Sheen:
I could get a million followers like Charlie Sheen did, but my wife would leave me and I’d be a poor lonely sap like he is.
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) March 3, 2011
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On gay marriage:
Somehow it’s appropriate that people opposed to gay marriage would rally at a fast-food chicken chain.
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) August 2, 2012
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On religion:
I am informed by a comment on my blog: “Religion is to spirituality what porn is to sex.”
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) August 14, 2010
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On friendship:
To a friend uncertain about moving: Every city you move to already contains friends of a lifetime you have not yet met.
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) August 7, 2012
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On 3-D and how it’s ruining modern cinema–a frequent subject of discussion for Ebert:
3D is an annoying distraction, diminishing a film’s emotional appeal by introducing cognitive dissonance.
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) June 20, 2010
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On video games:
A reader tells me “video games are not a sport.” Nope, I’m not goin’ there.
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) July 11, 2010
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Ebert has taken a lot of heat over the years for going on the attack against video games, particularly when he wrote a blog post that April called “Video games can never be art.”
On Sandy Hook:
My op-ed for The New York Times about the shootings. We’ve seen this movie before: nyti.ms/Qa5DcP
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) July 20, 2012
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His series of #SteelyDanMoment tweets:
#SteelyDanMoment I cannot love anyone who loves Nicholas Sparks.
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) March 28, 2010
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The Ryan Dunn tweet:
Friends don’t let jackasses drink and drive.
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) June 20, 2011
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Remember how much he hated former Sun-Times sportswriter Jay Mariotti?
Jay Mariotti’s arrest makes me fondly remember my farewell column after the rat left the Sun-Times: http://j.mp/cFWDNF
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) August 21, 2010
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Sportswriter Jay Mariotti, our least favorite former Chicago Sun-Times writer, faces felony charges: http://bit.ly/iZ2QKK
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) May 12, 2011
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He tweeted memories of his cohort Gene Siskel every hour on Siskel’s birthday:
On Gene Siskel’s birthday, I’m hash-tagging good links every hour on the hour. #SiskelBirthday. All tweets so far: dld.bz/cbFFV
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) January 26, 2013
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And we especially appreciated this–he was occasionally kind of curmudgeonly about social media, specifically Twitter and Facebook, despite how active he was on both:
What? I can’t log into Twitter??? This is a test. đ
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) February 23, 2013
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Darwinism is the basis for Facebook’s current reinvention of the Emoticon. * (c0c)*!
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) February 10, 2013
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I’m (*this close*) to passing 800,000 followers. Thank you! Signed, the Webby Awards Man of the Year.
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) February 3, 2013
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I have been forced to unfollow a few twits I like because they tweet too dang much. Nothing personal. (I space mine 45 minutes apart.)
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) July 8, 2012
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This damned internet. I’ve become a fan of cat films.
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) February 2, 2013
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