Chris Blackmon doesn’t think he’s an average guy. He’s married, owns two successful real estate businesses, and was featured in a “40 under 40” article in his local newspaper.
But on Twitter, he’s the unwilling spokesperson for @NormalTweetGuy, an innocuous parody account that chronicles the mundane thoughts of a stereotypical, suburban guy, tweets like “Chicken for dinner” and “I can’t believe I’m still at work!” The account’s gathered nearly 4,000 followers.
Blackmon, however, is not amused. He emailed the Daily Dot and called the use of his picture “off-putting” and wants it taken down. The 35-year-old Athens, Ga. resident first discovered his face was being used from a friend who emailed the account to him. He called the moment “bizarre.”
“Sure enough, there I am with a Twitter account, but the account is not mine,” wrote Blackmon, who doesn’t even use Twitter. “It is simply a picture of me.”
Although the account is harmless and safe for work, Blackmon said he has mixed emotions about his face being used. The photo, which came from the aforementioned newspaper article, pops up when someone searches for “normal guy” on Google Images.
“I was also confused as to why anyone would use my picture instead of their own and a little peeved that someone would do this without asking,” he said. “It is really odd to see so many pictures of yourself saying things you didn’t say.
“Suddenly I am that guy from idiocracy who is perfectly average.”
Reached for comment, the anonymous creator of @NormalTweetGuy said that he was disappointed by Blackmon’s response and had no plans to change the image.
“Not only is he completely harmless (and built so intentionally) but, with less than 4000 followers, he’s not even that popular on Twitter,” wrote @NormalTweetGuy’s creator. “At no time has NTG claimed to be Chris Blackmon, nor have I ever typed his name previous to this paragraph in my life.
“NTG is not malicious. He’s not offensive. He doesn’t curse. He doesn’t even hate things that aren’t Mondays. Bearing in mind that I’m not the only person who has access to photos of people on the internet, things could be a lot worse.”
It’s unclear at this time if Blackmon will take any additional measures to have his photo removed from the account.
“If something conflicts with my current life, I would hate to have to continually explain away that this is not me, when it appears that it is,” Blackmon said. “You can see how it could be an issue.”
That sounds like a pretty normal response, actually.
Update: @NormalTweetGuy changed his Twitter icon this morning and is no longer a picture of Chris Blackmon.
Photo via Chris Blackmon
