The clickbait and rapid content generating landscape of today’s online media creates its share of discontent. Capitalizing on said discontent with ironic jabs and biting satire is Nardcity Winnipeg.

“Make Me ‘Favourite Social Media Presence’ Or I Swear To God I’ll Make Your Life A Waking Nightmare,” the Nardcity Winnipeg (@NardcityWpg) account tweeted out to The Uniter on Oct. 26. Lo and behold, their threat-supported dream came true.

“It’s fun to make fun of shareable, clickworthy content, because it’s a weird combination of lazy and desperate, and it’s everywhere,” Nardcity Winnipeg’s writer, who wishes to remain anonymous, says. They insist, contrary to what some fans of The Rebel Media say, that they are not Wab Kinew.

“I thought it would be fun to explore the absurdity of creating that kind of over-enthusiastic content for a city as boring as Winnipeg,” the writer says.

Some top tweets of Nardcity include:

“True WPGers Shout ‘True North’ During O Canada - If There’s Anything Better Than Militaristic Nationalism In Sports, It’s Corporate Branding”

“Thoughts And Prayers - After Suffering A Serious Fall, @Brian_Pallister Is Stuck Face To Face With His Nemesis: Hospital Staff”

While poking fun at the seeming dullness of Winnipeg and inanity of clickbait, Nardcity Winnipeg also has a not-insignificant political side. The account has retweeted leftist group Solidarity Winnipeg and a criticism of a nurse layoff attributed to Pallister government decisions.

“I like to rope folks in with broad ‘Winnipeg is cold and small’ humour, then sneak radical progressive politics in the back door. My followers come for the ‘There’s Nothing To Do Here’ jokes and stay for the ‘There’s A Massive Racism Problem Here’ content,” Nardcity says.

“My most successful content has always been work that points towards a real problem with this city,” they add.

Published in Volume 72, Number 12 of The Uniter (November 30, 2017)