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Thus his tweet could be characterized as a humblebrag, a wonderful neologism that has gained currency this year thanks to the comedian Harris Wittels, who created the Humblebrag Twitter feed to compile flagrant examples of "bragging that masks the brag in a faux-humble guise."

By the way, though Wheaton here is properly abashed in the face of a blunder, note that his purpose is to draw attention to his guest appearance on The Big Bang Theory.

(That's snark as in "snide commentary," not the imaginary animal of Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem "The Hunting of the Snark.")

But the function of the hashtag has morphed significantly since Chris Messina and his colleagues began using it in 2007 as a method of indexing topics of interest.

The hashtag has played a big role in popularizing the "First World Problems" Internet meme, which has generated its own Tumblr blog, a section on the user-generated site Reddit, and not one but two rap parodies: one by the Brooklyn "nerdcore" hiphop artist MC Frontalot and one more recently by Zach Katz, a.k.a.

Marcus Hunter, a sociology major at Columbia University, recently said in a Tumblr post that while he often finds hashtags like "#whitegirlproblems" funny, he is troubled that "calling attention to the privileged mindsets and behaviors of whites is only able to happen in a jokingly meta or ironic way."

And then there's the "#whitegirlproblems" hashtag, which has its own following; the creators of the "White Girl Problems" Twitter feed will soon publish a pseudo-memoir from the perspective of their laughably privileged protagonist, Babe Walker.

Thus in a single hashtag Kanye managed to poke fun at his own foibles with his typical mixture of bravado and self-skewering.

When every statement you make is open to sarcastic rebuttals, sometimes the best policy is to ridicule yourself before someone else has the chance.

One ironic hashtag that has been particularly successful is "#firstworldproblems," appended to a complaint that is obviously frivolous in the grand scheme of things.

Wheaton uses the self-effacing "#lessonsinhumility" hashtag, followed by "#facepalm" ("the act of bringing one's palm to one's face to indicate embarrassment, exasperation, or despair," says Wordspy), capped off by a meta-ironic touch, a "#hashtag" hashtag.

Take a look at how a pro does it: the tech-savvy actor Wil Wheaton (who began earning geek cred back when he played Ensign Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation) recently tried to link to pictures of himself on the set of The Big Bang Theory.

Hunter hopes that such privileges can be critiqued and analyzed with "the same verve and enthusiasm" as when they are ridiculed.

Thus in a single hashtag Kanye managed to poke fun at his own foibles with his typical mixture of bravado and self-skewering.

Meanwhile, on the blog "White Whine," the comedian Streeter Seidell mines this vein of humor one silly grievance at a time.

Thus his tweet could be characterized as a humblebrag, a wonderful neologism that has gained currency this year thanks to the comedian Harris Wittels, who created the Humblebrag Twitter feed to compile flagrant examples of "bragging that masks the brag in a faux-humble guise."

When every statement you make is open to sarcastic rebuttals, sometimes the best policy is to ridicule yourself before someone else has the chance.

After he gave the wrong link, he tweeted, "I love that I'm trying to be all clever, and then I epic fail at basic linking. #lessonsinhumility #facepalm #hashtag."

And then there's the "#whitegirlproblems" hashtag, which has its own following; the creators of the "White Girl Problems" Twitter feed will soon publish a pseudo-memoir from the perspective of their laughably privileged protagonist, Babe Walker.

By the way, though Wheaton here is properly abashed in the face of a blunder, note that his purpose is to draw attention to his guest appearance on The Big Bang Theory.

Take a look at how a pro does it: the tech-savvy actor Wil Wheaton (who began earning geek cred back when he played Ensign Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation) recently tried to link to pictures of himself on the set of The Big Bang Theory.

In this Sunday's Boston Globe, I take a look at how hashtagging has become the perfect vehicle for self-directed sarcasm, used by celebrities and common folk alike.

To an outsider, the hashtag might seem like pure arrogance, but anyone following the rap star's career would have recognized it as a tongue-in-cheek callback to his interruption of Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards with the message that Beyonce had made "one of the best videos of all time!"

One ironic hashtag that has been particularly successful is "#firstworldproblems," appended to a complaint that is obviously frivolous in the grand scheme of things.

(That's snark as in "snide commentary," not the imaginary animal of Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem "The Hunting of the Snark.")

It's fair to say that when it comes to online discourse we live in the Golden Age of Snark.

Hunter hopes that such privileges can be critiqued and analyzed with "the same verve and enthusiasm" as when they are ridiculed.