MSTing

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MSTing or MiSTing is a method of mocking a show in the style of the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K)^[1] and, in particular, is a form of fan fiction in which writers mock other works by inserting humorous comments into the flow of dialog and events.^[2]

1 Style
2 History
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Style

In MSTing, the author picks a badly written piece of text — usually a Usenet post, web page, or another fan fiction — and inserts mocking comments from fictional readers of the text, essentially writing a script as if the MSTing was a movie. While "standard" MSTings attribute these comments to the three main characters of the MST3K cast, others might use characters from the universe of the story being mocked.^[3] Often a prologue, epilogue, and intermissions are added in which the characters discuss a topic on the same theme as the original text, although intermission segments are usually dropped if the original work is short. Over time, the term MST has also been used to describe general fan fiction mockeries, without the use of the MST3K character-based joke format.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] History

MSTing began in the early 1990s, as fans of the show, many of whom were involved in Usenet discussions in groups such as popular MST3K newsgroup rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc, began adding amusing or critical remarks to others' posts, attributing them to the show's characters (typically, Crow T. Robot, Tom Servo, Joel Robinson, and later Mike Nelson).

The MSTing Mine credits journalist Eric Alfred Burns as the writer of the first MSTings in February 1993, three short lambastings of Internet criticisms of MST3K itself.^[4] The "canonical" MSTing style mostly derives from these first three postings, including Usenet-style quoting of the original work and script-style lines for the riffers and characters outside the theater. Other authors followed suit with MSTings of other works. By the end of the year, at least 29 original MSTings had been posted.^[4]

As the phenomenon grew, it spread to other media and other forums. The newsgroup alt.tv.mst3k.mstings was established on Usenet for this fan writing.^[5] A discussion category on Yahoo!, "Entertainment > Humor, Jokes, and Fun > Parody > Usenet Parodies > MiSTings" (no longer active in 2007), was created for discussions there.^[6] MSTing for popular TV shows such as Star Trek: Voyager,^[7] other genres such as anime,^[8] Usenet postings, ^[9] and the MSTiers' own original works^[10] were fodder for this written mockery. Recently, technologies not present when MSTing was started, such as Wikis and Youtube have been used.^[11]