27 Tweets That Perfectly Capture How Baffling Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize Win Is

Every year in the lead-up to the Nobel Prize announcements, a couple of names would circulate with particular feverishness for the prize in literature. Bob Dylan is among them, though many literati would laugh at the idea that a world-famous singer-songwriter would snag a prize typically awarded to novelists and poets. 

Well, who’s laughing now?

When the Nobel Prize in Literature was announced on Thursday morning , the committee awarded it to Dylan, citing his creation of “new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” Book Twitter promptly had a complete meltdown. 

Some, like Salman Rushdie and Lin Manuel Miranda, celebrated the Nobel’s stretching of literary boundaries to include music and lyrics:

Others weren’t quite so sure, poking fun at the Nobel for presenting perhaps the most prestigious literary prize in the world to a musician, rather than a dedicated writer. Some pointed out that, by recognizing Dylan, the Nobel missed an opportunity to elevate a gifted author less well-known than the world-famous rocker, including perhaps a woman or person of color. 

Nothing better captured our feelings of utter bemusement and befuddlement over this unexpected swerve by the Nobel committee than the outpouring of snark and lighthearted ribbing on Twitter Thursday morning. Here are 27 tweets that captured the bizarro-world-ness of Dylan’s win: