Why We Need Snark

I’m just thrilled to introduce you all to Vinny C. I’ve been enjoying his personal blog for about a year now and more recently came across his shenanigans at Sprockit Ink which “brings you the news and events of the day in the snarkiest of ways” so I just knew I just had to have him chime in for snark week. Amazingly he agreed!

Take it away Vinny…

Back when I was a new blogger, just fumbling my way into this virtual world, a lot of people told me I was pretty snarky. They still do. Actually, they said I was a really snarky little so-and-so. I think one or two of them were kinda mad when they said it… At first, I didn’t know what to make of this (Mostly because I didn’t know what “snarky” meant), but I came to find out being told I was “snarky” was actually a good thing

Usually…

Outside of cyberspace (do people still call it that? I don’t keep up with trends) I try to be a nice guy, though I’ve found that snark can often be misunderstood for being mean and hurtful. Often enough, snark doesn’t go over too well with some people. This is something I’ve experienced, firsthand when a former supervisor decided I was too cynical to work with and made it her mission to have me removed from the company. By the time she realized I was actually not a bad guy, it was too late and her initial complaints to management set off a chain of events which landed me out on the street a few months later. My supervisor was fired too. Apparently they started to think her constant complaining about coworkers who weren’t as obsessed with politeness as she was getting annoying.

While it is true that snark can sometimes be used to cause pain to others, I like to tell myself believe I use my snark for good. Besides, could you imagine a world without snark? A world with no cynicism, no sarcasm, no witty banter, dry wit, wicked grins or even sexual innuendo? We’d all have to pretend not to notice Donald Trump’s “hair” and accept the Kardashians’ antics without question. Simply be shocked and appalled when a politician accidentally posts a picture of his-um- hoo-ha on a social networking site and not joke it. Not to mention, Beiber would go unpunished.

Memes wouldn’t exist! Grumpy cat would be out of a job! Do you really want to be responsible for taking away that cat’s primary source of income? I know I don’t.

We need to laugh at the stupid. We need to cleverly express our frustration at seeing that thousandth duck-face selfie gracing our timelines. We need satire and stand-up comedy. We need to let stupid know that we think it’s stupid and that we can see it for what it really is. We need to be able to laugh at ourselves and our situations. We need snark! Without it, we’d all be polite, phony and miserable. You can’t always control who gets offended by what you say or do, but you can’t let that completely stifle you either.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Vinny C spends his days locked away in a cold, air-conditioned office trying to keep the company he works for from imploding. Since he lives in sunny, tropical, Trinidad Tobago, it’s a given that he’d rather be on the beach. He’s a student, writer, coffee addict and aspiring journalist. While he’s doing all this, he also plays the role of husband to one extremely patient wife you has to endure his shenanigans on a daily basis. When he’s not making wisecracks and drawing stick-toons with large boobs on his blog, As Vinny C’s It, he’s basically doing the same thing as a contributor on Sprocket Ink (Only there he writes about stuff in the news).