MSTing/Snarking

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DawnsEarlyLight

Active Member
Years ago, I used to see a lot of MSTs (sometimes called “snarks”) on different RP and chat websites of certain fanfics and published works from the time. For those of you who don’t know, yes, MST in this context does stand for “Mystery Science Theater”, referring to how MSTs satirize the target work by peppering it with snarky/humorous comments the same way that MST3K did to films. MSTing as a whole seems to have practically died out over the years, which is a shame because there have been some genuinely funny MSTs in the past and there’s still tons of potential MSTing material out there even to this day.

A history of MSTing along with some past MSTs

Some questions for discussion:
  • What are your thoughts on MSTing/snarking?
  • What are some of your favorite MSTs, if any?
  • Have you ever written or wanted to write a MST?
  • What works/fanfics/etc., if any, would you like to see a MST of someday?
 
I may be confused, but isn't snarking ridiculizing the work its about and being mean about it?
 
Is it? I may have gotten it mixed up because I only saw the term “snarking” being used once in this kind of context. The kind of MSTing that I was referring to was not usually mean-spirited or malicious as far as I can remember, but my own experience with it has been relatively limited, so I could be wrong.
 
I mean, from what you're explaining up there I'm super glad It's died down. Imagine being an amateur author, or writing a fic for fun and being made fun of by a bunch of strangers somewhere public and probably without your knowledge... No thanks.
 
That makes sense. I hadn’t thought of it that way before, but now that you mention it, I can see how a scenario like that could be very discouraging for an amateur writer, especially for younger amateurs who haven’t had enough experience to know how to deal with real criticism, let alone jokes about their work. NGL, I wrote my fair share of bad fics as a teenager, and I honestly don’t know how younger me would’ve reacted to someone making fun of my writing like that.

TL;DR: Thanks for the insightful points; those really made my day.
 
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