One Irishman's Twitter humor was no joke to U.S. Homeland Security, which deported the bar manager and his travel companion pronto last week in Los Angeles after he tweeted about coming here to "destroy America" and "diggin' Marilyn Monroe up," according to British newspaper reports making the rounds.

Leigh Van Bryan, 26, told The Sun and the Daily Mail that he tried in vain to convince DHS and Customs and Border Patrol agents that he was no terrorist. He said he told agents that "destroy" was British slang for getting drunk and that "diggin' Marilyn Monroe up" was a quote from the U.S. animated comedy show Family Guy.

Here's what the offending tweets said:

"3 weeks today, we're totally in LA p*ssing people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin' Marilyn Monroe up!" (posted Jan. 3) "Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America?" (posted Jan. 16)

Federal agents weren't amused, Bryan said.

After passing through passport control at LAX last Monday, he and Emily Bunting, 24, of Birmingham, were detained by armed guards, questioned for five hours, handcuffed and locked up overnight with illegal immigrants and then put on a plane back to Britain.

They said agents even searched their suitcases looking for spades and shovels.

"I almost burst out laughing when they asked me if I was going to be Leigh's lookout while he dug up Marilyn Monroe," Bunting told the Daily Mail.

Said Bryan: "It's just so ridiculous it's almost funny but at the time it was really scary. The Homeland Security agents were treating me like some kind of terrorist."

No comment from DHS, the papers said.

A Gizmodo UK writer calls the episode "a fun convergence of dumb social media behavior and bureaucratic ineptitude," concluding:

Everything about this is hugely stupid and annoying, and I'm totally okay with refusing entry to the US based on idiotic Twitter parlance. But still, it's a little amazing and a lot disconcerting that the DHS mess up your holiday because it never learned its context clues.