Jimmy Kimmel Calls for "National Unfriend Day"
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel
/ Charley Gallay"On November 17, please, pull some weeds out of your life," said Kimmel, who urged his viewers of his show "Jimmy Kimmel Live" to celebrate "National Unfriend Day," by whittling down the number of contacts in their Facebook friend list.
"Friendship is a sacred thing and I believe Facebook is cheapening it," Kimmel said. "I go on this Facebook, I see people with thousands of what they call 'friends' - which is impossible. You can't have 1,000 friends.
"Here's how you can tell who on Facebook is really your friend. Let's say on Friday, post a status update that says, 'I'm moving this weekend and I need help.' The people that respond - those are your friends. Everyone else isn't. I would like people to start whittling this down."
After mocking the mind-numbing musings of one serial Facebook poster, Kimmel made the case for a collective time out.
"I encourage you to cut out some of the friend fat in your life. A friend is someone you have a special relationship with. It's not someone who has a 'Which Harry Potter character are you?' Do you remember five years ago when no one was on Facebook and you didn't know what the guy in high school biology was having for lunch? Remember how that was fine? Let's go back to that. National Unfriend Day."
Kimmel's monologue was another testament to Facebook's extraordinary emergence as a cultural touchstone. Last month, Zuckerberg got pulled onto center stage when David Fincher's movie "The Social Network" debuted to a rave reception.
Despite the momentary PR stir caused by the movie's unflattering portrayal of Facebook's founder, Zuckerberg now envisions 1 billion people using the service before long.
Though not if Kimmel gets his wish. In a statement emailed to CBSNews.com, Facebook said "Jimmy Kimmel's Facebook campaign is clever so we're keeping him on our friend list for now. Come Nov. 17, just remember Jimmy, it's one thing to be the "unfriender", but it's a whole different story if you're the "unfriended."
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I actually cried. Yep. I cried. These connections are real, especially if the person was someone from your real life. It's a good idea in general to thin the crowd, but pretty funny that I never watched Jimmy Kimmel Live until I found out I used to know one of the writers. After I'm unfriended, I may just switch the channel and stop promoting the show on Twitter and Facebook. I have already slowed down with the mere mention of unfriend day. If you have a business or a TV show, etc., it's social media suicide to start breaking the connections you worked so hard to build.
So dear Jimmy, Your idea is so not original and for you to actually make the news with this is utterly ridiculous. Do you actually READ the news? So much more important things going on in the world for your idea to be newsworthy and oh, by the way, it ISN'T newsworthy.
Looking askance at social networking.
Ponder... what would Sherlock Holmes say about Jimmy Kimmel's need for us to break all but degree one connections??? or Sigmund Freud???? or Carl Jung??? Perhaps any sci fy author that passed em the 6th grade may write...." Puzzles in his mind distracting him with their dance from the light of life!!!",....or "Jimi has almost caught up with his inner "Gollum" ...only another moment or 2- let the wisdom conquer". Yeah good luck celebrity seeker!
ACTUALLY THE TRUTH IS Jimmy only likes what benefits ABC....,like His alleged fandom of LOST....now since ratings fall possibly due to Facebook..... Jimmy the Abc puppet- must trash it-, or risk becoming a Disney park trash-picker till his contracts end!!!!