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Mirror, Mirror On the Wall, Who's the Snarkiest of Them All?

'Snarky' journalism is all the rage now, writes Jon Friedman at Marketwatch, unsnarkily. "Thanks largely to the advent of the Internet blogs, "snarky" commentaries are sweeping the craft of journalism." Really? Wow, that's big news!

Snarkiness, Friedman postulates, "can be loosely defined as demonstrations of criticism, particularly when the target is the establishment, either in the government, the military, corporate America or the dreaded media."

Friedman attributes snarkiness' origin to Mark Twain, (he certainly was a snarky type) the Marx Brothers (sarcastic, biting, quick! but snarky?) and Charlie Chaplin (I'd call that a maybe.) Then he calls Johnny Carson snarky. Nuh uh.

He takes the requisite swipe at bloggers v. journalists: "Once, way, way back during the 20th century, journalism was measured by such quaint qualities as dogged reporting and meticulous fact-checking."

Somehow, his article sounds more bitter than snarky. Snarky involves cleverness.

Wikipedia has a better definition: "Snark refers to a pejorative style of speech or writing. It could loosely be described as irritable or "snidely derisive"; hence, 'snarkish', 'snarky', 'to snark at somebody'. (The Urban Dictionary refers to it as a contraction of "snide remark".) It could less politely be described as 'bitchy'."

Categories: Blogging and Moblogging

BL Ochman | Jan 9 06 3:38 | TrackBack (0)

Comments

A few months ago I was thinking about developing a measurement tool called the curmudgeon meter. It was after a particularly frothy post by Jason Calacanis, and I was wondering if I could measure the amount of traffic and response depending upon Jason, and other’s level of curmudgeoness.

Posted by: John Cass at January 9, 2006 6:15 PM

"curmudgeoness" -- my new favorite word. I love it.

Posted by: BL Ochman at January 9, 2006 8:35 PM

I can - ahem - do "snark" with the best of them. However, I believe that smart, witty curmudgeons can serve a vital role in society, business and culture. They're the ones that point out the Emperor doesn't have any clothes (and do it in a way that makes you laugh)...while everyone else is still blinking and nodding to the majority beat. (Mark Twain was a wonderful curmudgeon - on everything from politics to religion. I highly recommend his "Letters from the Earth")

That said, snarky shouldn't be confused with bitter, mean, or obscene. Just as saying whatever comes into your little ol' head shouldn't be confused with insight and wit. (Ann Coulter, here's looking at you. Yawn.) And, yes, that was a bit snarky, wasn't it?

Posted by: Mary Schmidt at January 10, 2006 10:43 AM

Mary: I couldn't have said it better myself.
your snarksister

Posted by: BL Ochman at January 10, 2006 11:21 AM

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About BL Ochman

Blogger, social media strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and sought-after corporate speaker B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She also publishes the Ethics Crisis blog for SRF Global Translations

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