Aspiring Comedian's Viral Tweet Over Financial Aid Gets Bridgewater State's Attention

BRIDGEWATER (CBS) -- James Onuigbo has always had a knack for jokes and a quick wit--so he thought he might be a good pick to perform comedy at Bridgewater State's upcoming Springfest.

He sent the school a tweet, telling them not to spend money on a standup comedian because he would do it.

"Everybody knows me at my school to be a class clown and whatnot," Onuigbo said. "But I wasn't expecting the school to respond, and to respond within ten minutes."

The school responded with, "Okay, tell me a joke."

And then came Onuigbo's two-word response, which has caught fire in the last week--"Financial Aid."

"I was like, crying laughing when I tweeted it," Onuigbo said. "I didn't think it would catch heat as much as it did."

As of Saturday morning, the tweet had 1,200 retweets and 2,700 favorites.

"I was shocked how much it caught fire, to be honest," he said. "I mean, I took a nap and I was at like, 1,000 favorites. I was like, what? Really?"

So did James get the comedy gig?

"What they told me is, I can't do Springfest because they already booked somebody, they booked a comedian probably like three or four months ago, and that's really what I wanted to do," he said. "I offered to do like, an opening act or something like that."

Bridgewater State told WBZ-TV they are definitely interested.

James is also hoping they got the joke.

"I'm taking my time before I walk in the Financial Aid office," he said. "I'm expecting tomatoes thrown at me or something."

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