Snark
From Encyclopedia Dramatica
Snark is a popular internet term which refers to making fun of people in a theoretically witty manner, using a combination of sarcasm, cruelty, and clever wordplay. In practice, "snark" consists either of tl;dr rants with lots of swearing, or lame rewrites of insults that were originally used at least 100 years ago. Cattiness, which means being extremely nasty while using big words, is a type of snark pioneered by Oscar Wilde and used to this day by his sassy, finger-snapping drag queen descendants.
Contents |
[edit] Grammar
Snark can be used as a noun:
- I just posted a wicked snark on stupid free!
a verb:
- I'm going to snark that dumb bitch so hard, she'll cry for days.
or an adjective:
- That community is full of snarky posts.
The adverb snarkily is retarded and should be avoided under all circumstances.
[edit] Where to find it
LiveJournal is a popular destination for self-styled "snarky" people. There are srsly at least 100 snark comms on LJ, though most are the result of some moron saying "Hey, we should have a snark community for X!" without asking if anyone would actually post to it. A partial list follows:
- dot_cattiness
- atheist_snark
- anarcho_snark
- booju_snark
- c_suck_snark
- comedy_snark
- d_otherkin_snark
- domestic_snark
- domestics_narc
- dot_dot_snark
- dot_edu_snark
- dot_fat_snark
- dot_gimp_snark
- dot_pagan_snark
- dot_pet_snark
- dot_poly_snark
- dot_race_snark
- dot_sca_cat
- dot_sex_snark
- love_snark
- mts_snark
- sca_snark
- sex_snark
- snarkfem
Posting a "good snark" on these comms will merit a gushy outpouring of congratulations and offers of salmon or fresh cream (for being a "good cat," lolol so clever); posting a "bad snark" will get you torn apart with varying degrees of skill. At least 50% of the posts on any given snark community will eventually devolve into an argument over what snark actually is, and whether or not someone's attempt qualifies.
Spinoff communities are common, and usually occur when an unfunny person gets called out on his fail and starts a community where he will be free to ramble and whine as much as he wants, because it's totally reasonable to expect someone not to snark you in a snark community. (see sca_snark, spinoff of dot_sca_cat) The new community will have more members and more posts, but nothing worth reading.
The other, rarer type of spinoff happens when the original community is so overrun with stupid whining and old memes that the core members get fed up and start their own group (see domestics_narc, spinoff of domestic_snark). Nobody will ever post there, but the members will all feel special and superior for being in it.
[edit] Targets
Snark differs from trolling in that it's not necessary for the target to know that she has been snarked. In fact, most snark communities and boards frown upon running to tell a snark target about the honor she's received, since she will usually delete any lulzworthy material in a fit of butthurt. Many people use snark-specific groups as a way to vent their frustrations without getting b& from regular communities, or because they are cowards.
Snark groups sometimes get shut down for TOS violations, usually because some self-satisfied n00b decided he just had to troll someone's personal journal and gloat about the total pwnage that usually wasn't his work in the first place. This is why we can't have nice things.
[edit] See Also
- Zing
