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MST
MSTing is a process of eating fecal matter, regardless of it's origins. Bad fanfiction, or badfic, stylized after the show Mystery Science Theater 3000.
The term MST (an abbreviation for “Mystery Science Theater”), or, alternately, Mary Sue Torture. MST can be used as either a noun or a verb. MSTs are inherently hilarious, like the original series, and are never filled with monotonous humor that amounts to little more than giggling at spelling errors repeatedly.
Creating An MST
- buy it in a booster pack
Step One - Find Badfic
It is not difficult for an aspiring MSTer to find a truly horrible fanfic on the internets. Make one move and you're hit in the face with this crap. See "Badfic Dumps" below if you've managed to escape the lulz, and congratulations on having a life.
In some MST communities it is considered good manners to contact the original author by email beforehand to get their permission, but most MSTers think good manners are anti-lulz.
Step Two - The Riffers.
An integral part of an MST is choosing the cast of characters who will be "watching" the Badfic and mocking it. Traditionally, the robots Crow and Tom, and either Joel or Mike (depending on your season's preference) would do the riffing. Alternate choices include using characters from one particular show or game (ex: Cloud, Tifa, and Sephiroth), or just randomly picking your favorite characters from random places. Some people who are (or want to be) internet-famous use themselves and their friends as characters.
Many MSTs have long, detailed plots and stories to go along with them, explaining how their riffers are forced into reading bad fanfiction by their captors. A lot of MSTers just assume you'll fill in the details yourself.
There is also the option of not bothering with a plot or even characters, and just moving right along to the mocking, since that's what the real intention is anyway.
Step Three - The Riffing
Riffing is accomplished by inserting snarky comments into the text of the fiction itself. Riffing, while not particularly difficult to do, especially if one puts aside all normally-followed rules governing written humor, is the most time-consuming part of creating and MST. It takes time to think of dozens of witty one-liners, especially when badfics are burning you eyes. Luckily there are many preformatted techniques that a would-be riffer can use like Madd Libs.
- Type One - Confusion
- Mr. Spock opened the door after he opened the door.
Joel: Is that physically possible?
- Type Two - Sarcasm
- Scully was jumped by gang members that night in a dark alley.
Tom: Scully always was the smart one, walking alone at night in the dark.
- Type Three - Interruption
- Sailor Moon walked up to Sailor Mars and
Crow: -They had wild passionate sexersize!
- Type Four - Oh Noes
- Warnings: Yes, theres Rape(M/M/b/b/b/g/dog), plus Angst.
Tom: Did that just say M/M/b/b/b/g/dog? Save me!
- Type Five - Reassurance
- Joel: Stay frosty, guys.
- Type six - In-jokes that only the MSTer gets
- Batman returned to his Batcave.
Crow: Just like Bob at work on Friday! Hee hee!
Important things to make fun of: Poor spelling, poor grammar, poor characterization, ambiguity in descriptions, the author's sexual preference.
Important MST cliches to perpetuate: Joel saying "Keep Frosty", Tom's head exploding, Crow making all the pervy jokes, mentioning other more popular MSTs.
Speaking of other MSTs, a great way to fill in missing lines of riff is to take them from other MSTs written by other MSTers, because everyone knows that if a line was funny once, it can always be funny again.
Keep in mind that to have an effective MST, the riffs should slowly shift from insulting the Badfic itself at the beginning, to directly insulting the author hirself by the end.
Step Four - ePublishing
Time to post the MST to the WWWorld! Be sure to post it to as many forums, websites, and drama communities as possible, because the secondary goal of MSTing behind author-dissing is to get glowing reader feedback. Be sure to add the disclaimer that (a) you are not making a profit on your MST because it's "just for fun", and (b) you really, really, really are only doing it for the lulz, not to damage the target author so they'll never write Badfic again. At the very least, beg the reader to consider the MST as amusing constructive criticism, no matter if it is actually constructive or not.
Dramatic Aftereffects
- In Yu-Gi-Oh! You may suffer abrupt loss of all magic/trap cards on the field.
Author Arguments
"You Used My Work Without Permission!" Often when an author discovers their Badfic has been magically transformed into an MST, their first cry is "theft". The usual side-arguments of copyright infringement and harassment and damaged reputation are frequently brought into it. According to Internet Law, the author is entitled to bring the offending MSTer to Internet Court, which usually bubbles down to both sides declaring themselves the victor. Besides, parody is allowed when it comes to copyrights. But who cares about that?
"You Hurt My Feelings!" Despite the loud and proudly stated claims by the MSTer that insulting the author in a personal way was completely unintended, many "victims" of MSTing still hold fast to their belief that MSTers are just another form of Trolls, whose sole purpose is to cause flamewars and broken e-hearts to amuse their pathetic senses of humor. Contradictory statements are always the best retort for this, both conflicting with the author's statements and the other statements by the MSTer themselves.
"You MST Because You're Not Creative Enough To Write Fic Yourself!" At first this may seem like a valid argument based on truth and fact. However, can the author really infer that he/she/it is creative when he/she/it is writing cliche-crusted X-Files fanfiction? I didn't think so.
Internal Arguments
No comments! :( One of the common complaints among MSTers is the lack of reader feedback they receive. Usually they find out that the best solution is to whine and beg people in their communities to read it.
MST3K crew or Other? Another common argument in the MST community is the validity and "goodness" of an MST if the cast of riffers differs from the traditional. This stems from the fact that all MSTers are snobs.
Joel or Mike? Only ask this question when you are looking to incite over 9,000 pages of lulzy fans battling it out in capslock.
Places and Faces
- MST is placed in the spell/trap zone of the battle field.
Shuuichi's Vault of Anime Mistings - Known for having well-written MSTs and an elitist community. Formerly "Shinji's Vault of Anime Mistings", which was eventually destroyed from the inside out when one of the people running the site suffered a fatal case of Internet Asshole Disease (See Also: Lowtax Syndrome.) SvamCentral.org/svam/
Smartania - A group that does the ripping in bit of a different way, which they call "hacking". They think we shouldn't include them in this list of MST sites, but we are more persistent than they, and we shall have fun posting it anyway. :D Smartania.com
Project A.F.T.E.R. - Another alternative MST site that doesn't use a cast of characters or any bullshit back story for the riffing. For this reason it is commonly denounced by "real" MSTers who know that building a cohesive and detailed plotline is what really makes the MSTs funny. Project A.F.T.E.R.
FanFiction.Net - Drama ensued when this popular fanfiction website banned the posting of MSTs. Boogers. FanFiction.Net
AdultFanFiction.Net- MST refugees from FanFiction.Net sometimes post their shit on Adultfanfiction.net despite it sometimes lacking the pr0ns.
Oscar - Probably the most well-known victim of MSTing probably since his sexual preference is "cat". He also may be the most well-known hermaphrodite in the fanfiction world.
Daveykins - Best known for his terrible and often racist Sailor Moon and Sonic the Hedgehog self-insertion fanfictions, as well as for his god damn mullet.
Fandomination.net - Half dead, but weeaboos still post fictions here. Good luck finding the good ones. You have to join the site to actually read anything good. Fandomination.net
MST Music
There is a band called Mog Stunt Team "MST" for short.
