Irony alert: The anonymous parody Twitter account "Devin Nunes' cow" now has significantly more followers—about 541,000 at press time, up from 1,204 a few days ago—than the real Devin Nunes, who has 395,000.

I'm starting to think that maybe—just maybe—it wasn't such a hot idea for the Republican Congressman from California to sue a fictional cow for defamation.

As you may recall, Nunes in a suit filed Monday in Virginia state court named Twitter, @DevinCow and another anonymous parody account, "Devin Nunes' Mom" (@DevinNunesMom), plus a political consultant.

Claiming defamation, negligence and conspiracy, he wants $250 million in compensatory and punitive damages for what he calls "an orchestrated defamation campaign of stunning breadth and scope, one that no human being should ever have to bear and suffer in their whole life."

The 40-page complaint cites tweets from the mom account including "@DevinNunes your district is looking for you? Are you trying to obstruct a federal investigation again? You come home right this instant or no more Minecraft!" and from the cow account calling him a "treasonous cowpoke."

As my colleague Leigh Jones noted in a Q&A with defamation expert Libby Locke of Clare Locke, the suit does raise some valid questions about social media, parody and immunity that may be ripe for legal review.

But it's also subjected Nunes to a tremendous amount of ridicule—the very thing the suit was supposed to stop.

"Ooh how can the people on the Twitter say the bad things to me?" The Daily Show Host Trevor Noah said in a mock baby voice. "What a snowflake. Look man, I think it's terrible when kids are bullied online, but as a grown man, this should not be a problem for you. Don't click on your mentions."

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert joked that Nunes and his lawyer came up with the $250 million in damages "using a simple legal formula. You take the value of Devin Nunes' reputation and you add $250 million."

Colbert continued, "In the lawsuit, Nunes claims Twitter is biased against conservatives. Oh come on. Twitter is biased against everyone. It's like the Mars of the internet. It is inhospitable to human life."

He then touted a new Late Show Twitter account, Devin Nunes' Skin (@DevinNunesSkin), with tweets such as "Still thin."

Meanwhile, Jimmy Kimmel imagined slights such as "Devin's mom refused to cut the crust off Devin's peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which made Devin cry in front of the whole cafeteria."

Kimmel noted that the mom account has been suspended, but that the cow remains active.

"We can't have livestock insulting our elected officials," Kimmel said. "This Devin cow account obviously really bothers Devin Nunes, and it's affecting his ability to work. So please, in the interests of civility, I'm asking you please, don't follow @DevinCow."

On the screen behind Kimmel, the Twitter handle appeared in giant letters. "That's Devin @DevinCow on Twitter," Kimmel said slowly and with exaggerated clarity.

Indeed, it seems that the main result of the suit so far has been to amplify the voices Nunes ostensibly wanted to suppress.

Here at the Lit Daily, my question—as always—is 'Who is the lawyer behind all this?'

Nunes is represented by Steven S. Biss, a Charlottesville, Virginia-based solo practitioner who did not respond to a request for comment.

Virginia bar records show that Biss had his law license suspended for one year and one day, effective January 1, 2009. According to the bar, "In a corporate and securities matter, he violated professional rules that govern competence, scope of representation, and misconduct that involves deliberately wrongful acts that reflect adversely on his fitness to practice."

The Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board later imposed an additional 30-day suspension. "During a previous suspension of his law license, Mr. Biss continued to negotiate with an insurance company on behalf of a client in a personal injury matter," the bar said.

In his LinkedIn profile, Biss writes that "A primary focus of my practice is the litigation and trial of Defamation, Business Disparagement, Libel, Slander and Insulting Words claims. I represent both private individuals and public figures."

According to Pacer records, Biss currently represents Dallas-based investor Ed Butowsky, who is suing NPR and reporter David Folkenflik for $57 million for defamation. The suit stems from coverage of the murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, including NPR's story about Butowsky headlined The Man Behind The Scenes In Fox News' Discredited Seth Rich Story.

Court records show he also represents Robert David Steele and Earth Intelligence Network in a $15.35 million defamation suit in the Eastern District of Virginia against defendants who allegedly attacked them on social media. Steele made news in 2017 when he went on Alex Jones' Infowars channel and said "We actually believe that there is a colony on Mars that is populated by children who were kidnapped and sent into space on a 20-year ride, so that once they get to Mars, they have no alternative but to be slaves on the Mars colony."

Biss also represented Hanover County, Virginia Supervisor Sean Davis in a defamation suit against a local paper. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Stafford County Circuit Court Judge Michael Levy in 2017 threw out the case, telling Biss' client, "You're required to have a thicker skin."

It's a message that he might want to pass on to Devin Nunes as well.