Home Alone 2: Lost In The Live Tweet

Many if not most of you will have already seen this, but I decided to mark Festivus Eve (22nd December) by live-tweeting a festive favourite, Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, and doing my muddled best to analyse it through the lens of English and Welsh criminal law (a lens somewhat fuzzed by a few mulled wines). The first tweet is below; click to be taken to the full thread.

*** HOME ALONE 2 LIVE-TWEET: THE RULES***

This lecture explores the Christmas classic ‘Home Alone 2’ through the lens of English and Welsh law.

Contributions and observations are welcome, but I’m perfectly prepared to tweet the entire film to a wall of embarrassed silence.

— The Secret Barrister (@BarristerSecret) December 22, 2018

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From there things got a bit mad, as reporters desperate for copy and merry on leftover Asti from the Christmas party stumbled across the thread and mistook it for something newsworthy. By Christmas Day, the “story” had caught the attention of MailOnline:

Well this wasn’t how I expected Christmas Eve to go. https://t.co/T4kRprLYGG

— The Secret Barrister (@BarristerSecret) December 24, 2018

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And some of their greatest below-the-line comments:

Ha the comments. pic.twitter.com/tsAZCAAPuZ

— Tristan Beer (@TristanBeer) December 24, 2018

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Then the the Evening Standard got wind.

Barrister's hilarious tweets reveal every law broken in Home Alone 2 https://t.co/yNT1YWJOOp

— Evening Standard (@standardnews) December 24, 2018

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The Metro wasn’t far behind.

The Secret Barrister has basically changed the way we watch Home Alone https://t.co/gi6Jr77Ban

— Metro Entertainment (@Metro_Ents) December 24, 2018

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Yahoo Celebrity News got in on the act.

The Secret Barrister strikes again with this hilarious #HomeAlone2 analysis. https://t.co/TFSvdPZJt7

— Yahoo Celebrity UK (@YahooCelebUK) December 24, 2018

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The Sun managed to misunderstand the point entirely:

Home Alone 2 fans shocked by legal errors as Macaulay Culkin’s character could have faced 4 YEARS in jail https://t.co/rAUDQPJLQV

— The Sun (@TheSun) December 25, 2018

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The story hit Ireland:

The Wet Bandits would be looking at 30 years to life after ‘Home Alone 2’ https://t.co/hzvzi9lxWl

— entertainment.ie (@entertainmentIE) December 24, 2018

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We trended in New Zealand:

The Secret Barrister live tweets every law broken in Home Alone 2 and reveals … – https://t.co/Gyu9SSgAJY #HomeAlone2 pic.twitter.com/mpliXlfZ1j

— TrendWiki New Zealand (@TrendWikiNZ) December 25, 2018

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Somehow Bangladesh found it worth reporting:

The Secret Barrister live tweets every law broken in Home Alone 2 and reveals Macaulay Culkin’s character could face up to four years behind bars: A lawyer has revealed every law broken in iconic Christmas movie Home Alone 2 in a hilarious running… https://t.co/Vrnc0Qlj8e pic.twitter.com/bNaj48bRIi

— #BangladeshNews24 – BreakingNews24™ (@bdnews24) December 24, 2018

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and even Putin’s propaganda sheet Sputnik News were running the “story”.

.@BarristerSecret analyses ‘Home Alone 2’ on Twitter through the lens of English law https://t.co/miRzn4ImYm pic.twitter.com/9CZKrAvVzz

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) December 26, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Perhaps most barking of all, when Home Alone 2 was screened on Channel 4 on Christmas Day, the continuity announcer referenced the live tweet.

The Channel 4 continuity announcer just mentioned your live tweeting as well, in introducing Home Alone 2. Fame at last…

— Phil Corrigan (@PhilC2010) December 25, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Overall, the thread has now apparently had over a million impressions on Twitter. I don’t know what this says, either about me or society. But nevertheless, Merry Christmas to you all, and thank you for your support. This has been a memorable one.