MSTied fanfic (long)
Mark Thompson
nobody has even mentioned the bit *I* noticed. I am a fan
of *both* the X-Files and MST. The only creative effort I've
ever posted, though, was a MSTing of our local motd, and I
posted it to our local .general group (it wouldn't have any relevance
to anybody outside the site). I say all this just to set the
stage for my comments below.
Basically, the point I'd like to point out is that *I* didn't
think there was any criticism of the writing going on at all
in that MSTed post. I didn't save it, and our news feed has a
1-week expiration, so it's gone from here. But as I recall,
there were no grammar flames, no spelling flames, no plotpoint
flames. It was just standard MSTing, which you can do to *anything*.
You could MST the Gettysburg Address, for Pete's Sake:
Lincoln: Four score
Crow: ... and the rest only get a kiss.
Lincoln: and seven years ago,
Tom: I was born.
Mike: [geezer voice] Ehhh, what's that you say, Sonny?
Lincoln: our forefathers...
Crow: Four fathers? Interesting genetic makeup you've got there,
Abe-boy!
Tom: Maybe he's from another planet.
Mike: Planet of the Abes?
I mean, you could MST the best piece of writing in the world. It has
*nothing to do with the quality of the writing*. You can MST Pulitzer
Prize winners. You could MST a movie as classic & fun as Forrest Gump.
It's just another form of comedy, and says nothing whatsoever about
the quality of the source material. Now, MST in reality chooses poor
movies because it gives you much more ammunition. For the Gettysburg
Address, for instance, it would be hard to make jokes about the
*content* of the speech, which the real MST people do to their movies.
I don't remember there being much MSTing of the content of Betty's
story, if there was any at all. Which to me means it was a *good*
story.
And as a final comment, from THE SUe's posting:
the...@delphi.com (THE SUe) writes:
> ... But IMO, it couldn't hurt for you to advocate that people
>in your group first ask permission. Not because it's =legally= correct,
>but because it's the =right= thing to do--after all, if it were =your=
>story being MiSTied, wouldn't you appreciate the courtesy of being asked?
>Who knows? The original author may surprise you and say yes. Perhaps
>there are some authors here who are also MST3K fans.
You mention they "may surprise you" and say yes.
In other words, you admit nobody realistically is ever going to allow
it. Extending that, you apparently think nobody should ever be allowed to make
fun of something, or (even worse?) use something as a backdrop to
make jokes about.
Does Jay Leno get permission from the authors of Forrest Gump when he
makes jokes in his monologues about the character? Do people who make
jokes about Carnegie's classic tome "How to Win Friends and Influence People"
ask the Carnegie estate if it would be all right? Does Dave Barry get
the permission of Marcia Clark when he writes parodies of her courtroom
behavior?
The answer in all of these cases is (probably; I don't know for sure) "no."
I don't know - the obvious parallel of the "get permission" line
anti-MSTies are spouting here is for me to insist that everyone who
posts an X-Files story here "get permission" from Chris Carter & Co.
Go ahead, do it. What's that? You say you won't do it, because
you think they'll turn you down (for legal reasons, of course)? So
you just go ahead without their permission and do it anyway?
Gee, what a concept.
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