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How the Cast of Veep's Social Media Skills Reveal the Show's Strengths

Photo of Sam Adams By Sam Adams | Criticwire April 9, 2014 at 4:20PM

Everyone's on the Internet, but no other show's cast can make you want to watch their show just by Tweeting at each other.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus

There's pretty much no way to be a famous person, especially one who works in the ratings-driven atmosphere of television, without having some sort of social-media presence. But many stars approach Twitter and Instagram the way "2001's" apes treat the monolith, inching anxiously up to various platforms and then skittering nervously away. Worst of all, or at least most disappointing, are the fakers, the feeds that clearly aren't even manned by the people whose names they bear. After joining the site with no small amount of fanfare, Connie Britton, or rather whatever assistant has her Twitter password, managed all of three vaguely personable tweets before it started referring to "Connie" in the third person.


The cast of "Veep," however, is different. It's not just that Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tony HaleMatt WalshAnna Chlumsky, Reid Scott, Timothy Simons, Sufe Bradshaw and creator Armando Iannucci are all on Twitter, but their interaction with each other demonstrates the chemistry and quick-wittedness that has made "Veep" one of the funniest and sharpest shows on TV. This also serves as promotion for the show, of course; their Twitter personas seem like people you'd want to hang out with, and watching HBO is as close as you're going to get, unless you're well-connected or some kind of a creep. But even when they're reminding viewers to watch tonight's episode or sending out links to deleted scenes, they don't treat it like a tedious promotional obligation.

Here's a great example: Yesterday, Rolling Stone tweeted a picture of its forthcoming cover, on which Louis-Dreyfus appears nude with the Constitution inked on her back. Some sharp-eyed scholar at the National Constitution Center, having worked his or her way down the curve of Louis-Dreyfus' spine, noted that the small of her back featured the oversize signature of John Hancock -- who didn't actually sign the Constitution. So after already having informed her Twitter followers that she did the photoshoot "in a drunken stupor," Louis-Dreyfus slipped into the character of Selina Meyer and blamed the error on her press secretary:

Short, sharp and to the point -- and it still includes the all-important Twitter handle for "Veep." Of course, the Constitutional kerfuffle isn't going to add much to the awareness generated by Louis-Dreyfus' nude photo, but considering that the closest Selina Meyer has come to showing some skin is clomping around an Iowa hotel room with her dress unzipped, it's a much better advertisement for the show.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

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