The Misty Gomer Fisk

A bit of interesting meta-commentary in NRO's Corner, on a method of text argument known as "fisking." A fisking is supposed to be a point-by-point refutation of someone's written work. Some of the Corner gang has taken the view that the term and method is over-used, and that people substitute the method for sound reading of their opponent and genuine refutation. They may have a point.


Fisking is closely related to MiSTing, which comes to us from Mystery Science Theater 3000, the only show that I have copies of on tape. On certain Star Wars-related boards such as The Jedi Council, the same process is known as "Gomering," after the screen name of one of its practitioners. I have used the method myself, under all names, and I think there's another thread that holds them together.


MST3K worked because they picked the ultimate dregs of the film world as their targets, movies like Manos: The Hand of Fate. The show was haughtily, hilariously superior to it's subject matter, a cascade of irony and quips, but not much in the way of what anyone would call serious film criticism. On the boards I frequent, the "Gomer bomb" is reserved for someone who persists in not getting it, a spammer or a troll who issues diatribes that deserve attention only for the purpose of underlining their poor writing, poor reasoning, and ill wit. This is done as much for the amusement of onlookers as for the edification of the recipient (which is usually considered a quixotic hope, at best). Likewise, "fisking" got it's name from Robert Fisk, an apparently bad journalist who invited such scorched-earth criticism. The method seems to suggest that you are peeing on someone from a great height.


The problem is that such a tone isn't always warranted or helpful. Sullivan isn't always a bad practictioner of this; he's usually restrained (althought he should know better than to call others "wobbly"). But I think we should all follow the rule of deserts and save the cut n'pasting for those that truly merit it.