Little did he know when he sent a tweet on Tuesday, he was well on his way to make history. He just unleashed the whole potential of social network and what it could do to mobilize people.
Meet Joko Anwar (@jokoanwar). On a quiet Tuesday afternoon, he tweeted this:
If I got my 3000th follower today, I’ll go into a Circle K naked (1:56 pm)
(Circle K is a chain of 24-hour convenience store that is quite ubiquitous in Jakarta.) I was not sure what got into him that afternoon tweeting that. Whether he is serious or not, I didn’t know either. At the time, I think he had something like 1,000 followers. But what follows was hilarious, to say the least. Iwet Ramadhan (@iwetramadhan), a Hard Rock FM announcer, retweeted Joko’s tweet, encouraging his followers (by now amounting about 7,000) to follow him to get the desired number of followers.
Let’s follow him!!! RT@jokoanwar: If I got my 3000th follower today, I’ll go into a Circle K naked.
Almost immediately, Iwet’s tweet and those that followed spread globally, may be worse that the worst epidemy. The retweets spread virally and it might give Joko a cold feet. Indeed, he would need to swallow his words if he could get that many followers that night.
Please God, I’ll be a good moslem, christian, buddhist, scientologist, whatever. Just don’t let me flash my flabby flesh in Circle K (2:54 pm)
By then Joko might be sweating like mad. Soon enough, a couple of tweets came in from him, sounding desperate and hopeless.
Ok. It looks like it’s gonna happen. Damn youuuu…!!! I’ll do it at night, ok?? Happy????? (2:56 pm)
Have mercy. Let me do it at night. You’ll get the pics when you wake up tomorrow. Promise. *crying while doing push-up*
I hope you all will puke to see the pics tomorrow.
)) (2:57 pm)
That’s when he and everyone else were convinced that he reached (or would reach in no time) 3,000 followers as he desired. He got the desired additional followers in exactly one hour (1:56 – 2:56).
* * *
Thirty-years young, Joko Anwar has already been an extremely well-accomplished film maker. Born on January 3, 1976, he went to engineering school “because his family couldn’t afford to send him to a film school,” as cited in his Wikipedia page. His filmography includes Indonesian box offices such as “Janji Joni” (Joni’s Promise, 2005, writer / director), Arisan (2003, writer), Jakarta Undercover (2007, writer), Kala (2007, writer / director), Quickie Express (2007, writer), and Fiksi (Fiction, 2008, writer), and Pintu Terlarang (the Forbidden Door, 2009, writer / director). His films have been screened in various international film festivals, and they won raves from critics. He also has witty sense of humor, as he tweeted on like this.
Damn. It’s so hard to get people to watch my movies, yet it’s so easy to make people want to see me naked. Just wait for pics tonight. (3:13 pm)
So later in the afternoon, he gathered his friends, among others Nitta Noer (@tigerlilybubu). They devised a plan, which includes finding the right Circle K to go naked to. They visited a number of them. Rumor had it that he would do it at the Circle K on Jalan Panglima Polim in Kebayoran, Jakarta. He ended up eventually in Bintaro.
Meeting @zekekhaseli @tigerlilybubu and @leonardoringo tonight for the execution. *damn damn damn* (3:37 pm)
It’s gonna happen you tweeps. No worry. (4:19 pm)
Be patient. Looking for the right Circle K. (6:17 pm)
With @zekekhaseli @tigerlilybubu @leonardoringo making a battle plan. (7:49 pm)
Please guys, I’m otw to a Circle K now. Be patient. Live reports from @tigerlilybubu @culapo @leonardoringo @zekekhaseli @molskee @ramaadi (9:55 pm)
From here on, very few tweets actually came from Joko. The live-tweeting was taken over by Nitta. Joko ensured everybody that, yes, he was going to do it. He was going to walk into a Circle K naked.
By then, Circle K was already number one trending topic on Twitter (it went to number two long after, i.e., when active twitteratis from the rest of the world woke up. Not bad for an Indonesian topic, given the number of Twitter users in the country), and his and Nitta’s tweets were among the most retweeted in the world (Joko’s number one, and Nitta’s number five).
Nitta and other eye-witness then reported the proceeding blow-by-blow. The suspense and the emotions were reported. Hundreds, maybe thousands, observed their Twitter timelines without blinking. I had to write a report and instead of writing it, I actually observed my Twitter timeline and tweeted some comments. My friend Amir Sidharta (@senirupa) even said, at 0:23 pm on his tweet, “Video killed the radio star. Twitter killed the TV star. Who would have guessed?” At the time, indeed, TV felt so last-era. Tweeteratis observed diligently. All the suspense. With many ROTFLs and LOLs.
For a while the tweets stopped, and everyone started sending comments asking what happened next. Nitta might have her battery died because she eventually emerged “fully charged.” Then, the time comes.
We’re here. I’m going in… (0:07 am, Wednesday already)
In he went, buck naked. A tweet mentioned something about two police cars passing by. And the Circle K guy were so shocked that he dropped his coffee, but Joko went in calmly. He did his dues.
* * *
He came out of the Circle K probably as a new guy. A new guy? Yes. A hero to many of his new and old followers for “walking his talk.” For being responsible for what he said he would do. My favorite among his last tweets was this one. And I believe this was also the one most retweeted afterwards. The tweet came with a photograph of himself, buck naked inside the Circle K. This was my favorite tweet because he mocked the politicians for not walking their talks. (Context: the country just went through two general elections this year where apparently the elected politicians didn’t keep their promises.)
A promise is a promise, Mr. Politicians! .
By now, at 3:45 am on Wednesday morning, Joko Anwar has more than 16,000 followers. At least three articles including in detik.com and the Examiner were written of this saga. I certainly look forward to the promised YouTube “behind the scene” uploads, and not to the long nights and days I had to keep awake for finishing my reports that didn’t get finished because I was too busy following my timeline and writing this article. Oh well.
