Five years ago, telling a friend that you interact regularly with a verbose orange traffic cone might earn you a pitying hug and a quick trip to the sanatorium.

But these days, your friend might respond that they trade barbs with Rick Santorum's sweater vest.

Welcome to the age of novelty Twitter accounts, where animals, inanimate objects and other nonhuman entities speak their mind regularly: A pigeon with a foul mouth and a fouler demeanor. San Francisco's famous fog. Even the universe. On the social-media platform, users can express themselves creatively and get laughs by giving voice to those things that can't speak for themselves.

Novelty nonhuman accounts have been a Twitter staple since Sockington, a Boston-area housecat, joined the service in March 2007 on his way to 1.4 million followers. But they've been in the news again recently after one user created @olympicseat, a tongue-in-cheek response to the curiously vacant seats at Olympic venues in London. In the span of a few days, it has amassed more than 21,000 followers.

Another Olympics-related feed celebrates the star-spangled towel that American gymnast Danell Leyva drapes over himself between events. It has more than 12,000 followers -- not bad, considering the average Twitter user has 126.

Most of the people in this group of noteworthy Twitterers say their primary motivation for tweeting is to have fun. For others, it's a chance to make their mark in the crowded world of the Web.

However, all agree that more thought goes into their 140-character musings than meets the eye.

Cat Food Breath

When the woman behind pet-centric account @CatFoodBreath began her novelty Twitter account in August 2010, she wasn't planning on sticking around.

"I figured the best way to test the waters was with a pseudonym," said the Burlington, Vermont, resident who asked that her name not be published to preserve the anonymity of her Twitter persona. "I wouldn't offend friends and colleagues if I didn't follow them, and I could make a polite exit from Twitter when I was done poking around."