Meet The Person Who Hilariously Live Tweets 'Independence Day' In Modern Times

For many people this Fourth of July weekend, they'll be delving into the hot dogs and the hamburgers while anxiously awaiting to see if their over/under bet on the number of hot dogs Joey Chesnut devours will hit.

I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be doing the same thing. However, in recent years, I, and many others on social media, have added a new Independence Day ritual that actually starts on July 2nd, where we actively follow the @1996ID4 X account, which live tweets the "Independence Day" movie as if it was happening in modern times. 

I had the chance to talk to the person behind the hilariously brilliant and witty account that has been doing the annual live tweeting story since 2019, while continuing to incorporate current events. In one tweet, for example, the account references New York City's congestion pricing debate, which has become extremely divisive throughout the past year.

INDEPENDENCE DAY… AS IF IT HAPPENED TODAY!

In a bit of irony, Michael, who runs the @1996ID4 account, told me that "Independence Day" wasn't even one of his favorite films and the whole idea came unexpectedly after a car ride with his wife. 

"My wife and I used to drive past a restaurant along I-20 in Ruston, Louisiana named El Toro. One of these times we drove past, I quoted Robert Loggia from the movie. "Hasn't anyone told you? El Toro has been completely destroyed!" 

What was a chuckle at the time turned into the now-viral tweet storm about the cult-classic film that still crosses over into the pop culture realm. Michael explained to me that in 2019, while referencing an X account to his wife that tweeted out "World War II" happening in real time, his wife brought up El Toro and said, "Imagine how the Internet would react if El Toro had suddenly been destroyed?"

That's when the light bulb went off in Michael's head, and the creative juices began flowing.

"As I started jotting down notes while watching the movie, I realized that some things in the movie [if it happened today] would be reported immediately, while others wouldn't be known to the public until later. So, I started crafting a narrative that would work as live ‘reporting,' and added additional context, filler and jokes for the times when time would skip in the movie."

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Earlier on Thursday, Michael even included me in it, referencing myself cohosting Mike and the Mad Dog with Mike Francesa on radio sports talk station WFAN in New York City. Our topic? Discussing the Yankees trying to acquire Darryl Strawberry and Cecil Fielder!

"When I started in 2019, it took me three weeks to get the ‘script’ together, but now I do it in about a week. I keep a running notepad going of the new content I can swap in for current event references however throughout the year," Michael continued. 

He went on to talk about the various times he has gone viral, even thanking college football fans for being the first ones to really make the account break out. "There's usually some Big Ten / SEC reference in there somewhere [as a way to say thanks]" to the original backers. 

"It's neat that SO MANY people have made this a tradition for July 4th," Michael continued, saying that he loves it when people tweet him things like, "It's the best time of the year!" or it's "Time to turn notifications back on" to keep updated with the alien invasion that even some conspiracy theorists have jumped onboard with since the film references Area 51.

SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE SOME OF THE TWEETS ARE REAL!

Amidst the humor and chuckles that Michael and the @1996ID4 account give to film fanatics every year, are those on social media that show just how clueless they are. The number of people that don't realize that the account is a parody, or that it's referencing fictitious characters made famous by Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum, is quite hilarious. The rise in AI, deepfakes, and bots has made people already skeptical (or on the contrary, those that will believe anything and everything) of what they read on social media.

If you want a good sense of just how screwed we'd be if we were in fact invaded by aliens? Just check out the @1996ID4 account and the reactions to it!

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