Snarky vs mockery
Published: Tue, 06/22/21
“Why elBenbo is slowly turning the planet into Mordor”
It was mocking a news story about how emails supposedly contribute to so-called climate change.
And a reader was none too happy with me:
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I subscribed after seeing your list touted as brilliant copywriting, only to find that you actually write unpleasant snark. Snark I kept reading, admittedly. I guess I was trying to figure out your talent for making me want to open your emails, even though they're horrid. Then I realised there was no magic and no secret skill. I was just bored, and garbage is just garbage. All told, the experience of trying to learn from your emails is like eating rotten steak to figure out how it makes you shit yourself. So long, and thanks for all the ruined carpet.
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I must be better than I thought at this email & engagement thing.
Apparently, I have the power to bore people into engaging with me!
Besides that, he's confused about something else.
Snark is something trolls, haters, and cancel culture fluffers who cannot handle differing opinions do — and is neither entertaining or persuasive. It is pointless drive-by insults, abusive ad hominem attacks, and desperate shyt talking that pretends to be clever to disguise how whatever makes the snarker feel insulted, angry, shamed, or butt-hurt really affects them - often peppered with "LOL!" to try to further hide their inner angsting.
It's all based on feels, bitterness, and dishonesty.
Thus, the bitter reply to my email dedicated to hamster-spinning about how bored he was, etc.
Which was, ironically, snarky in and of itself.
My Mordor email that gave him acid reflux, on the other hand?
It was simply lighthearted mockery about some blatant hypocritical virtue signaling embedded in a yahoo article about the environment that was funny to most people not drinking the political new green deal kool-aid.
It is the exact opposite of snark.
That's why it made a lot of sales, why it got lots of engagement, and why it bothered him.
More:
Mockery like that is inherently funny & persuasive to everyone.
Except maybe to those being mocked, of course.
While snark, on the other hand, is inherently nasty and not-at-all persuasive, not even very often to the people who do agree with it, I have noticed. That’s why nobody except maybe other bitter & snarky people likes or buys from snark, while mockery has been used for centuries by all the most influential & talented orators, prophets, politicians, evangelists, and gifted teachers to persuade and influence. Whether it’s the prophet Elijah mocking the 450 priests of Baal by asking if Baal is pinching a loaf somewhere when he doesn't show up to light a fire... or Earl Nightingale mocking the proles watching TV all day by saying, “This is not an indictment of television. I have a couple television sets at home myself. I have a couple cars, too, but I don’t drive them around the block for 8 hours each night.”
Which brings me to the punchline:
Mockery is extremely powerful in marketing.
It’s also something email lets you play like a fiddle.
More on my “Email Players” newsletter here:
https://www.EmailPlayers.com
Ben Settle