An Etiology of Snark

Description: Kurt Andersen discusses an etiology of snark. He talks about the impact of "Spy Magazine", which he founded with Graydon Carter, on current media.

Transcript:

I would say that the impact in the 15 to 20 year retrospect that Spy magazine had is not insignificant; but it was part of a wave of . . . of kind of irony and satire that __________ sort of generational wave of baby boomers growing up that sort of softened the ground for all kinds of things; from _________ to the daily show that you see today in a kind of general satirical impulse online and elsewhere. So I think there was some . . . I can’t quantify it, and I can’t say Spy exactly led to this. But it seems clear to me that there was . . . that we were one of the entities that sort of, as I said, it softened up the ground for what became a kind of “satire explosion”, if you will, these days.

I think Spy magazine, not singlehandedly, but helped changed journalism. We were doing Spy the same time that ______, as a reporter at the Times, was starting to do political reporting with a real sharp edge and sense of humor. And other people were doing that as well. The . . . The David Letterman Show was brand new, and that sensibility began morphing into journalism as well. So I think to the degree that a kind of . . . to a lesser or a greater degree a bit of satirical sensibility.

Recorded On: 7/5/07