The first time I noticed that Colin Quinn was doing something different on Twitter, he was attacking his former employer.

It was late 2011, and “Saturday Night Live,” where he had been a cast member for five years, had broadcast a sketch about the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case. Mr. Quinn tweeted: “Yeah, real appropriate. Real classy. I’m ashamed I was ever associated with that show.”

As those who have followed his career know, Mr. Quinn (whose account is @iamcolinquinn) has never seemed like a stand-up with delicate sensibilities. But so convincing was his indignation that The Daily News ran an article on this ginned-up conflict.

It was not the first time the media had taken the bait. A few months earlier, when he made snide comments about Will Ferrell, The Hollywood Reporter wondered what Mr. Quinn’s “agenda may be,” and the comedy Web site Splitsider asked, “Has Colin Quinn’s Twitter been hacked?” Mr. Quinn regularly retweets people who criticize or mock him on everything from race to online piracy. Just as Stephen Colbert uses a fake character to satirize politics, Mr. Quinn’s Twitter feed, the only one that Louis C. K. follows, deftly manipulates an easily outraged online world.