Snark is dead. The era of snideness and rudeness is over. I am calling the bottom.
Here is how I see it. Can you name me one business based on snarkiness that has been successful? Can you name me one person that you know that is snarky and rude that is happy? Has great relationships? Has life success? Can you name me one blogger that is relentless in his snideness that is successful with readers and advertisers? How about one anonymous negative message board poster that is self actualized; takes initiative; and is a winner? I know why. It is because snark is so 2004, so pre the new reality.
It is hard to find the upside in downside thinking and activity, isn’t it?
The era of Snark is over. It was all tangled up in an era of empty financial success calories where you were either in or out with the mainstream media and it was easy to be snarky sort of like a comedian that drops F bombs and curse words in a stand-up act to be considered hip and funny. Snark is for the intellectually lazy.
Snark, the animal species in Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark are not positive role models.
Snark is dead. Bury it and move on. We are all in this together. Onward.
Tags: Rudeness, Snark, Ted Leonsis, Ted's Take
I think the continuing success of Kornheiser disproves your theory.
Pensblog is very snarky and has quite a few readers. That might just be pittsburgh though
I would like to agree with you but alas- Wonkette IS nothing but snarky- and the founder played the popular website into a gig for Time for goodness sakes! So snark wins there (note it still wins as the site is still up and still does only that). More winners? Perez hilton, TMZ (which expanded its media empire to syndicated tv now). Finally- Rotten Tomatoes may claim to be breaking movie news and reviews but really its the snark people come back for. I wish your prounouncement was true… i just fear it is not.
“Can you name me one person that you know that is snarky and rude that is happy? Has great relationships? Has life success? Can you name me one blogger that is relentless in his snideness that is successful with readers and advertisers?”
Yes. Just about everyone I know. And our lives are terrific.
p.s. Get bent.
Well that’s a completely preposterous blanket statement.
How are you supposed to know if an anonymous poster is “self actualized” if they are, by definition, anonymous?
Apparently changing the subject and resorting to personal attacks are timeless.
Ted,
Good will get you ahead, snark won’t.
As the lines between online and offline life continue to blur, so is day is near where the way we treat people online and offline will be indistinguishable.
[...] one-time MYFO benefactor and Caps owner Ted Leonsis wrote an article detailing what he called the “Death of Snark”. Being the resident MYFO purveyor of [...]
Off the top of my head:
“Can you name me one business based on snarkiness that has been successful?”
Uhhh, yes, Gawker Media.
“Can you name me one blogger that is relentless in his snideness that is successful with readers and advertisers?”
Yes, almost every blogger who has ever blogged for Gawker Media over the last 7 years as the millions have poured in.
Those bloggers in those 10 or so blogs under Gawker Media seem to be pretty bright, so your point about intellect really doesn’t make sense.
Oh, and IvyGateBlog was a success until a bunch of kids who didn’t know how to do snark right took it over.
And can’t forget SomethingAwful.com either with its 63 million user posts.
By millions I meant in both dollars and page hits.
But my snark is the only thing that keeps me from attacking people at sporting events.
Amanda, are you basing your opinion on a city off of one hockey blog?
Dan Steinberg is snarky, so DC and Northern Va. are, too.
D.C. has an AIDs problem, so do you have AIDs Amanda?
(Obviously, I don’t mean any of those comments. Just trying to make a point of how ridiculous it is to use thepensblog to judge all Pittsburghers.)
I appreciate the optimism, and I respect what you are trying to do … I guess I am unclear is about snarkiness as an ideal?
Some of the questions are clearly rhetorical/unanswerable, but here’s a few folks who come to mind that seem to fit in your general area of description and have been pretty successful in the process …
Howard Stern
The PerezHilton.com Guy
Joel McHale
Steve Colbert
Jon Stewart
You people bum me out. Mr. Leonsis is reaching for a better world and you tear it down. Quite smug and quite ugly. Are his ideas idealistic rather than realistic in today’s world? Yes. But how often do things improve in this world by focusing on the negative? Very seldom if ever. Pessimism is rampant enough already-go watch a hockey game or talk to your loved ones. Leave the idealists to their efforts and ya know what? Good things happen some of the time. Ted Leonsis beats me hands down in what he has done for our community and our world, and I am willing to go out on a limb and bet he surpasses all of you too. Put together. Times a thousand. And for those of you with you heads stuck in a hole, I am not talking about the Capitals hockey team. Though the Caps do make me smile.
I meant watch a hockey game or talk to your loved ones instead of dwelling in pessimism-not to prove pessimism worthy (though family members can occasionally put up a good argument for it
Entries like this are what make Ted Leonsis the brightest, most well-grounded owner in sports. To have achieved the kind of success that he has and maintain such an excellent perspective not only says a lot about the man we have in the owner’s box, but it also makes me even that more proud to be a huge Caps fan. THIS is ultimately why we have multiple Stanley Cups in our near future.
The Onion