Since they were originally introduced in 2009, Twitter’s blue checkmarks—which were mainly reserved for celebrities, brands, influencers, and other “important” people in their field—have become something of a social media status symbol. But ever since Elon Musk announced that users would have to start forking over money if they want to keep that tiny tick, they’ve become the tiny blue equivalent of a scarlet letter.
“Today was the Great De-Checkening on Twitter,” Jimmy Kimmel explained on Thursday night. “Basically, if you didn’t sign up for Elon’s $8 per month plan, you lost your blue verification mark. So some of the world’s best and brightest had their checks taken away this morning, including His Holiness, Pope Francis; Her Holiness, Oprah; and, somehow, I lost my blue check, but Jimmy Fallon got to keep his blue check. I guess it means he’s the only real Jimmy now, I don’t know.”
“Guess who else still has a checkmark,” Kimmel asked the audience. You ready for this? O.J. got to keep his. I guess you don’t want to make him mad though, right.”
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That the Great Blue Checkmark Purge began on Thursday seemed like rather suspicious timing. Earlier in the day, SpaceX—another one of Musk’s companies—launched its Starship spaceship… or at least tried to. According to Kimmel, “the most expensive penis overcompensation in American history” was in the air for just about four minutes before it experienced significant engine failure, and blew up.
The company dubbed the incident “a rapid, unscheduled disassembly,” which Kimmel described as “the same thing that happened to Twitter when Elon Musk took over it.”
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