2013 was a momentous year for Ed Balls. The inaugaural Ed Balls Day celebrated two years since the fateful day that Ed Balls made himself famous by tweeting his own name.
First, Ed Balls joined in.
Then Ed Balls' political advisor had a go.
And eventually Ed Balls' wife joined the party.
For one afternoon the nation celebrated Ed Balls, together, as one.
All of this heralded a new era in Ed Balls. Here's a timeline of his miraculous year.
1. March: Ed Balls spurns George Osborne's advances on the Andrew Marr Show sofa.
2. April: Ed Balls fan fiction starts to appear on Mumsnet, then spreads onto the wider internet.
3. April: The Ed Balls translation tool makes its way around the world.
4. April: Ed Balls makes it onto railway signs.
5. April: Ed Balls completes the London Marathon.
6. April: Ed Balls auditions to be in Carly Rae Jepsen's backing band.
The phenomenon started at an Asda store in the Castleford constituency of his wife and fellow MP Yvette Cooper. An aide had urged Ed to search Twitter for an article mentioning him before hitting the aisles. He was busy tracking down ingredients for a 12 hour pulled pork BBQ to celebrate the Royal Wedding when another panicked staff member rang.The MP had accidentally hit one of the keys on the Blackberry phone he had slipped into his pocket and the Twitter app he was using tweeted the search.