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Text from this Twitter thread.
Okay, turns out I’m more irritated about this than I thought. If you are an RPF fandom writer considering collaborating with Ch 4:
I understand that it can feel fun, interesting, or flattering that they asked you to participate. It can feel like validation that your writing is good, that it’s legitimate. Notwithstanding that what makes fandom good is its “illegitimate” nature, I hate to break it to you: they’re not interested in your writing as a craft or as art.
They’re here to make money. It’s not like you and your friends working together on a chatfic. They are not interested in “collaborating” with you because they want a true creative partnership or because they’re interested in your writing in any meaningful way, even just as fun in the way you think it’s fun.
They HAVE to get you to make new material to limit their legal liability. That’s it. If they could just steal your work without violating copyright law, they would. AO3 hosts your work and acts as a publisher, but you own the copyright over your own work by default.
Any “collaboration” would necessarily cede editorial control to Ch 4 since you’re making it “for” them. And what are they interested in? I can only speculate, but am pretty confident that it’ll be whatever will elicit the best reactions during the show.
Whatever will be the funniest, most embarrassing, or shocking. It’s not going to be a roundtable where you talk about your writing. At the end of the show, they will ask for “a round of applause for our dedicated writers!” after spending 30 minutes laughing at your work.
People will clap because it’s rude not to, and then they’ll cut to the title card and they’ll keep laughing at you.
I don’t mean to say that everyone involved in this show is hellbent on cruelty, or actively wants to humiliate people just for kicks, but that the very nature of the show prohibits it from having any other end result.
Even the most game, open-minded, well-intentioned comedian has one goal: to make people laugh. It's hard enough when celebrities are randomly confronted with RPF on late-night talk shows. But to make "re-enact fanfiction with puppets" the plan for every episode?
They are asking you to make a spectacle of yourself. Even if your fic is “just a bit of fun,” are you truly comfortable with that? If they really wanted to “celebrate” fic they could have these comedians write their own and bring it in. They could write it themselves.
Instead, they’re going to use the fig leaf of your “weirdness” to protect them from the brunt of the criticism, as a third party that offers them plausible deniability.
You will only get paid if they use your work, and as I understand it, works will all be edited together, so if you’re tempted by the notion of “exposure,” a) your work will not be distinct from anyone else’s, at best you could say you “contributed.”
Also, this is your business, but I am curious as to what kind of professional benefits you think you'll reap from "I contributed to a puppet re-enactment of Jimmy Carr omegaverse porn" or whatever
Speaking of being paid: you will have to sign a contract. It’s not going to be like P@treon or getting tips. You’re going to have to sign a contract with your legal name. So, if you’re ready to doxx yourself, have at it, I guess.
Finally, there are all the fandom-related intangibles. We’re not in fandom just because we like something a lot, or because we love to write or make art. We’re in fandom because we wanted to do all of those things together. We wanted to make and be in a community.
In my experience, this community has welcomed those in need of it the most: the queer, the curious, the disabled, the closeted. Those of us who are too loud, who love things too much for the people around us. Those of us who have been mocked for the strength of our love.
Those of us who were too loud, who loved too much; those of us who burned with a feeling of difference that we didn’t, maybe still don’t, have a name for, but that illuminates our days with its flickering cast.
Those of us who are just plain lonely.
The point is not only that this community is comprised largely of people who are marginalized in some way or another, although that is, of course, significant, but that you don’t have to pay money or take a test or any of the other reductionist quotidian bullshit we deal with.
It doesn't try to take our human qualities and make metrics of them; means-test our worthiness, the way our schools, our jobs, our healthcare; almost everything else in life does. The barrier to entry is: do you love this thing? If so, welcome home.
This kind of generous community is what I have known fandom to be at its very best. I know it doesn’t always live up to its ideals, but that’s no reason not to try. It’s no reason to kick down the door to this rare and beloved alcove.
Whatever profit or fame or other material temptations this opportunity may present you, I promise you, you will never be able to buy back our privacy.
Okay, turns out I’m more irritated about this than I thought. If you are an RPF fandom writer considering collaborating with Ch 4:
I understand that it can feel fun, interesting, or flattering that they asked you to participate. It can feel like validation that your writing is good, that it’s legitimate. Notwithstanding that what makes fandom good is its “illegitimate” nature, I hate to break it to you: they’re not interested in your writing as a craft or as art.
They’re here to make money. It’s not like you and your friends working together on a chatfic. They are not interested in “collaborating” with you because they want a true creative partnership or because they’re interested in your writing in any meaningful way, even just as fun in the way you think it’s fun.
They HAVE to get you to make new material to limit their legal liability. That’s it. If they could just steal your work without violating copyright law, they would. AO3 hosts your work and acts as a publisher, but you own the copyright over your own work by default.
Any “collaboration” would necessarily cede editorial control to Ch 4 since you’re making it “for” them. And what are they interested in? I can only speculate, but am pretty confident that it’ll be whatever will elicit the best reactions during the show.
Whatever will be the funniest, most embarrassing, or shocking. It’s not going to be a roundtable where you talk about your writing. At the end of the show, they will ask for “a round of applause for our dedicated writers!” after spending 30 minutes laughing at your work.
People will clap because it’s rude not to, and then they’ll cut to the title card and they’ll keep laughing at you.
I don’t mean to say that everyone involved in this show is hellbent on cruelty, or actively wants to humiliate people just for kicks, but that the very nature of the show prohibits it from having any other end result.
Even the most game, open-minded, well-intentioned comedian has one goal: to make people laugh. It's hard enough when celebrities are randomly confronted with RPF on late-night talk shows. But to make "re-enact fanfiction with puppets" the plan for every episode?
They are asking you to make a spectacle of yourself. Even if your fic is “just a bit of fun,” are you truly comfortable with that? If they really wanted to “celebrate” fic they could have these comedians write their own and bring it in. They could write it themselves.
Instead, they’re going to use the fig leaf of your “weirdness” to protect them from the brunt of the criticism, as a third party that offers them plausible deniability.
You will only get paid if they use your work, and as I understand it, works will all be edited together, so if you’re tempted by the notion of “exposure,” a) your work will not be distinct from anyone else’s, at best you could say you “contributed.”
Also, this is your business, but I am curious as to what kind of professional benefits you think you'll reap from "I contributed to a puppet re-enactment of Jimmy Carr omegaverse porn" or whatever
Speaking of being paid: you will have to sign a contract. It’s not going to be like P@treon or getting tips. You’re going to have to sign a contract with your legal name. So, if you’re ready to doxx yourself, have at it, I guess.
Finally, there are all the fandom-related intangibles. We’re not in fandom just because we like something a lot, or because we love to write or make art. We’re in fandom because we wanted to do all of those things together. We wanted to make and be in a community.
In my experience, this community has welcomed those in need of it the most: the queer, the curious, the disabled, the closeted. Those of us who are too loud, who love things too much for the people around us. Those of us who have been mocked for the strength of our love.
Those of us who were too loud, who loved too much; those of us who burned with a feeling of difference that we didn’t, maybe still don’t, have a name for, but that illuminates our days with its flickering cast.
Those of us who are just plain lonely.
The point is not only that this community is comprised largely of people who are marginalized in some way or another, although that is, of course, significant, but that you don’t have to pay money or take a test or any of the other reductionist quotidian bullshit we deal with.
It doesn't try to take our human qualities and make metrics of them; means-test our worthiness, the way our schools, our jobs, our healthcare; almost everything else in life does. The barrier to entry is: do you love this thing? If so, welcome home.
This kind of generous community is what I have known fandom to be at its very best. I know it doesn’t always live up to its ideals, but that’s no reason not to try. It’s no reason to kick down the door to this rare and beloved alcove.
Whatever profit or fame or other material temptations this opportunity may present you, I promise you, you will never be able to buy back our privacy.
