Tweet success

If you're still not sure what Twitter's good for, maybe you could take a tweet out of comedy writer Justin Halpern's em, book. Halpern found that his 74-year-old father's succinct, often rude outbursts were a perfect fit for the 140-character micro-blogging format.

After being dumped by his girlfriend, 28-year-old Justin Halpern had gone home to San Diego to live with his dad, Sam Halpern, whom Justin describes as "like Socrates, but angrier, and with worse hair."

Justin began to record his father's pithy pearls of wisdom on the Twitter page Shit My Dad Says.

Here are six of my favourites:

Keeping it real:
"Son, no one gives a shit about all the things your cell phone does. You didn't invent it; you just bought it. Anybody can do that."

"Can we talk later? The news is on. ... Well, if you have tuberculosis, it's not gonna get any worse in the next 30 minutes. Jesus!"

Parental guidance:
"Don't focus on the one guy who hates you. You don't go to the park and set your picnic down next to the only pile of dog shit."

Just being honest:
"I don't want your advice: you're 27 fucking years old. ... Fine. I don't want your advice: you're 29 fucking years old."

"I didn't say you were ugly. I said your girlfriend is better-looking than you, and standing next to her, you look ugly."

On life:
"No, I'm not a pessimist. At some point the world shits on everybody. Pretending it ain't shit makes you an idiot, not an optimist."

What began as a site meant for friends who knew his father, soon became hugely popular with a wider audience. Within nine months, Shit My Dad Says had over a million followers.

Halpern now has a book out and a sitcom (the first twitcom!) starring Star Trek legend William Shatner as the curmudgeonly Sam.