Martin Belam 

Twitter joke about Barry Gibb’s Glastonbury ‘covers’ descends into farce

Tweet claiming surviving Bee Gee was ripping off Take That, Boyzone and Steps went straight over the heads of ardent defenders of brothers’ songwriting
  
  

Barry Gibb imitates the shrug emoji while performing at Glastonbury
Barry Gibb imitates the shrug emoji while performing at Glastonbury Photograph: Harry Durrant/Getty Images

It was a joke so obvious that people on Twitter could not possibly take it literally – or could they?

The Bee Gees once regretfully sang “I started a joke”, and Twitter user Rachel Burns might be feeling the same way this morning after a quip about former Bee Gee Barry Gibb’s Glastonbury performance escalated quickly into a modern media tragedy in its own right.

Alluding to the array of Bee Gees hits that have been recorded by other artists over the years, Burns tweeted:

While plenty of people enjoyed the joke, not everybody got it, and some were at pains to explain just how wrong Rachel was.

Some wanted to argue about the joke at great length.

And Rachel showed the patience of a saint with some of them.

There are always people who can’t accept that maybe a joke has gone over their head.

Rachel seemed to have an apposite reply for each occasion.

Of course, eventually people started asking silly questions on purpose.

And Rachel got on a roll misattributing later examples of things that the Bee Gees did.

Gibb was visibly moved at the end of his solo set, having played songs written and recorded with his late brothers in a 45-year career as a trio. Maurice died in 2003 due to complications from a twisted intestine, while Robin died in 2012 after suffering from colon cancer.

In a nod to their disco years, during the course of his Glastonbury set, Gibb was persuaded to wear a sparkly fancy dress Bee Gees jacket handed to him from the crowd.

One of Glastonbury’s better banners this year was a play on a Bee Gees song and the notorious risk of muddy weather at the site.

Gibb’s set also had a treat for the crowd, as the security staff and stewards had prepared a dance routine at the front during Bee Gees anthem Stayin’ Alive.

But if that was the best organised dance routine of the Glastonbury weekend, there were people happy to hand the accolade of best tweet to Burns’ joke.

You win again, Rachel.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

CAPTCHA

*