On this day, September 2, in 2012, Piers Morgan, the then-CNN host, tweeted, simply, “I want to die.”
Morgan was, I think, upset about some sort of soccer thing. Or maybe he wasn’t. Maybe he just wanted to die. It doesn’t matter. This is not a history of that tweet, or an explanation. It is simply an appreciation. It is, perhaps, my favorite tweet.
If you haven’t retweeted it yet — and as of this writing, only 51,098 people have, so millions still have the opportunity to retweet it for the very first time — today is as good a day as any. But also, feel free to wait a while, and retweet it tomorrow, or next month, or on Christmas Eve. The beauty and joy of Piers Morgan’s tweet that says “I want to die” is that it is always appropriate and always welcome.
One can go months without being reminded of the existence of Piers Morgan’s Twitter message reading, in its entirety, “I want to die.” Then, suddenly and delightfully, there it is, back on that formerly dreary or enervating timeline, retweeted, probably not for the first time, by a friend or colleague. It is an unpredictable treat, like a call from an old friend, or a Fran Lebowitz interview.
As the French say, when you are tired of the Piers Morgan tweet that reads “I want to die,” you are tired of life.
Three years ago today, Piers Morgan gave the world a gift. Just about the only good thing Piers Morgan has ever done is compose and then post the words “I want to die” on a social networking and microblogging platform, and then not delete that post for three years. The best part of his gift is that each of us is capable of giving that gift, too.
This year, or next, give your friends and loved ones the gift of a tweet from Piers Morgan that says “I want to die.”