“Mom, somebody got their snark all over my happy place!” or When Snark Goes Too Far

[heidicullinan]

by Heidi Cullinan and Marie Sexton
We came up for the idea of this post in chat as we were both were feeling frustrated by different kinds of snark. Political snark, social snark, snark against other writers, against our spouses, against the world in general. Sometimes it seems like nine out of ten tweets are nothing but snark. And then there’s

Comments

[inkgrrl]

I'd argue that the IQ comment is just plain insult in a broad sweeping generalization sort of way, not snark.

Other than that, y'all rock like a hurricane!

[jordan_c_price]

My old boss used to walk around declaring how much she LOVED snark...and it came as no surprise to me, because she was so bitter and hateful, it gave that evil in her some sort of direction to flow where she could imagine she was being witty.

I wonder sometimes if people are snarky because they feel defensive, and they're not in tune enough with themselves to write from somewhere genuine. Not that the nasty tenor of the internet really invites anyone to dig deep and expose their vulnerability.

Lovely discussion. Thank you for sharing it! (I'm also confused as to where Jon Stewart and The Onion fit in. Many of The Onion things I enjoy are just the dumb things, like Area Man Tolerates Cats.)

[josephine_myles]

I think the problem arises from people confusing snark with cleverness. It's actually very easy to be snarky. Genuinely clever satire, such as Terry Pratchett has a gift for, is much more difficult and always has at its core a love of humanity and a belief that we can be better.

Well, that's what I reckon, anyway...