Only 93 votes were cast in last month’s poll, which asked “Have you ever read M*A*S*H fan fiction?” That’s a huge drop from the 306 votes cast in April’s poll and the lowest turnout in roughly two years. However, April was an unusual month for MASH4077TV.com due to M*A*S*H being removed from Netflix, which drew thousands of people to my blog.
Anyway, just 31% of those voting said they have read M*A*S*H fan fiction while 69% said they haven’t. Here are the full results:
No (69%, 64 Votes)
Yes (31%, 29 Votes)Total Voters: 93
I’m sure there are plenty of people who have never even heard of fan fiction. It’s not something most casual TV viewers are likely familiar with. The number of M*A*S*H fans who are involved in fan fiction is probably quite small, although clearly there is some interest because FanFiction.net has more than 2,500 M*A*S*H stories. By comparison, there are 325 stories based on Cheers, 100 based on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and just nine based on F Troop.
At one point a long, long time ago an earlier version of my website hosted a handful of stories written by fans but it was never something I really encouraged or cared much about.
So, if you’re one of the 29 people who said you do read fan fiction, hit the comments with your thoughts. Are you an avid consumer of fan-written M*A*S*H stories?
I actually enjoy writing M*A*S*H* fan fiction. 🙂 There is just something about writing from the perspective of these characters that helps you get to know them even better. But I think you are right about the fact that there aren’t as many fans of M*A*S*H that know what fan fiction is (my M*A*S*H stories don’t usually have a whole lot of readers). Still, it is a fun way to enjoy M*A*S*H. For those of you who haven’t read M*A*S*H fan fiction, you should check it out! 🙂
I answered “yes”. Although it has been several years, I have read a few fan fiction stories.. The stories were ok, but not especially memorable to me.
I don’t remember the website I found them on but I do recall that my reading of them was around the same time that I discovered this website.
“I’m sure there are plenty of people who have never even heard of fan fiction. It’s not something most casual TV viewers are likely familiar with.” I’d disagree with you on that, RJ; lots of people know what fanfiction is, however, I’d say it’s a generational thing. People from previous generations who probably watched M*A*S*H when it was on are probably not as familiar with it, but people my age and younger certainly know what fanfiction is, and I used to be really actively involved in fanfiction myself – particularly when I was younger.
Unfortunately, fanfiction – like any other aspect of fan media – has gone really downhill in recent years, because there’s an influx in troll writers, who write absolutely awful fanfics that are devoid of any kind of comprehensible plots, and are usually written for no other reason than shock value. I won’t lie, I’ve read some fanfics out there that are so disturbing, I felt like I needed therapy afterwards. This is why I rarely get involved with fanfiction anymore myself, because of this pollution of troll writers churning out troll fics.
That being said, I’ve tried my hand at writing a few M*A*S*H fanfics myself, and seeing as how this month’s poll is about that, I’ll go into more details next month,
Never met a troll writer nor heard of troll fics. Thanks for the heads up.
I’ve read some. I’ve also read fan fiction for Quantum Leap and Twin Peaks as well as various British comedy series I enjoyed as a youngster.
In my experience I’d say 10% of fan fiction is excellent, 10% is abysmal /disturbing and the rest is fair to middling.
I did try to write some a while ago but didn’t get very far as I realised it wasn’t all that good.
With all due respect I never read fanfiction based on TV series, comic books, movies, etc. For MASH (or Star Trek, which has an entire subculture of fanfiction) …if it isn’t on the screen it isn’t pertinent.
I’ve not seen “fanfiction” using characters who survived Shakespeare’s plays, not any recycling Dickens’ characters.
Anyone can imagine any plotlines they desire for any literary/television/movie characters. But what does this say of creativity, or validity?
Hi. New here. I don’t read fan fiction, but I did write some to get me through school as a kid from the time I was 10. I updated these childhood stories a few times a year. One story even made my English teacher cry. I might see if I can find any of my old stuff just to find out what real M*A*S*H fans think of it.