The Origin of “BriWi”

And that is basically it. BriWi hosted SNL which lent itself to nicknamey coverage; Media people started joining Twitter, and abridging things accordingly; as fellow ETP alum Glynnis MacNicol pointed out, Jon Stewart used “BriWi” in an interview which basically put a fork in it. Politico, Daily Intel, CJR, Salon. When Jimmy Fallon used it I was delighted, of course, but also relieved that he wasn’t mounting a direct challenge with “Bwilliams” which I had to admit was pretty bwilliant.

The upshot of this little meander down memory lane – sorry kids, but I bet I’m not the only Romenesko-monger who rosily recalls the lost innocence of 2007! – is that I came up with a goofy nickname for Brian Williams that stuck, and it’s “BriWi,” and I am stupidly proud of it the way I am proud of “The Fishies” from when I was at FishbowlNY or how my photo of Dan Abrams in Harry Potter glasses with a scar drawn
on his forehead from 2005 still comes up in a Google image search. As any blogger will tell you, it’s the little things.

So anyway, I hope New York mag makes that correction because John Swanbourg’s article just became the go-to piece on BriWi’s comedy stylings, and, just like a real news story during the Royal Wedding, my little contribution could easily get lost in the shuffle. But I guess it doesn’t really matter, anyway – “BriWi” now belongs to the world. Fly free, little bird, fly free.

BriWi and KaCo on PaHi: An Exegesis [ETP]
Brian Williams Drops Yiddish, Loves His Nickname [ETP]
Jon Stewart to BriWi: “Which Candidate Are You Biased Against?” [ETP]
BriWi’s Love Letter To Canada [Mediaite]
BriWi tag page [Huffington Post]

Origin of BriWi – The Transcript

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Caroline and Jason
Date: Fri, Jun 8, 2007 at 5:42 PM
Subject: Chat with Caroline and Jason
To: sklarra@gmail.com

(NB: Jason shared an email account with his wife. Awwww. So I would usually IM with him under “Caroline.” See below.)

me: hey. so tell me what you are writing?
4:35 PM
Caroline: okay.
using Paris as a jump off, I wrote two pieces.
4:36 PM
one: breaks down the style of coverage deployed yesterday, the second specifically deals with the comparison of CBS to NBC.
4:37 PM
I just sent a better revision of each to you via email.
me: it’s great
post that sucka
Caroline: both of them?
4:38 PM
me: the second one, while timely with the gerald ford ref, was metnioned in your first one!
the first one already ref’d bri wi and kaco
Caroline: not by name, tho!
4:39 PM
me: yes
Caroline: rly.
sheet.
me: if you want to post ’em both
post the second one first
call it The Paris Hilton Dilemma, With Brian Williams And Katie Couric In The Self-Appointed Role of Hamlet
or something
4:40 PM
Or Forget Paris? Bri Wi Does, KaCo doesn’t.
Caroline: okay!
me: or
or BriWi and KaCo on PaHi: An Exegesis
bring it down reallly small
Caroline: HAA!
me: to fine print
then reference post 1 in post 2 so you can take the loftier position

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.