trollfic

English

Etymology

troll +‎ fic

Noun

trollfic (countable and uncountable, plural trollfics)

1. (countable, fandom slang) A fanfic deliberately written to troll or annoy readers.
   • 2000 November 25, pam, “Shaggy Dog Stories Re: use your keywords people!!”, in alt.tv.x-files.creative‎^[1] (Usenet):

     But any more unlabeled Scully/Doggett stories that seem to have *only* been written for the <yawn> "shock" value <yawn> may find themselves joining the trollfics in the trash bin -- even though I normally save *everything*. ;-(

   • 2014 February 11, Adrian J. McClure, “Re: LNH: JUST ANOTHER MULTI-WRITER CASCADE THAT WILL PROBABLY NEVER HAVE AN ENDING #1.NOW (#4) part B”, in rec.arts.comics.creative‎^[2] (Usenet):

     Merissa's current persona is based on Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way of the legendary Harry Potter Mary Sue trollfic My Immortal.

   • 2020, Jessica Doble, "Reading Fandom: Fandom as Reception and Creative Authority", dissertation submitted the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, pages 147-148:

     In this way, sincerity enables the practice of sporking the fic [My Immortal] since a trollfic is already self-aware and it thus diminishes the power of criticism leveled at it.

2. (uncountable, fandom slang) Such fan fiction collectively.
   • 1999 April 3, ACMCE [username], “Re: I Just Can't Stop Watching You...”, in rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc‎^[3] (Usenet):

     Hmm. I always seem to be late to these threads... perhaps too much trollfic.. I mean, traffic?

   • 1999 July 5, lee burwasser, “Re: Muldertorture, Scullytorture, Krycektorture, Skinnertorture, and Character Attacks”, in alt.tv.x-files.creative‎^[4] (Usenet):

     Or it may be trollfic, designed to gross out the newsgroup.

   • 2017, Whitney Phillips, "'You're terrible, don't ever change!': How Identity, Rule Following, and Research Roadblocks Lend Meaning to Ambivalent Fan Engagement", in The Routledge Companion to Media Fandom (Melissa A. Click & Suzanne Scott), page 134:

     The fact that “My Immortal” is so poorly written and so (apparently, possibly?) meta about its story-within-a-story frame, and furthermore features so many (apparently, possibly?) self-reflexive, self-implicating jokes (at one point in the narrative, Ebony pulls out a “Hot Topic Loyalty card”) (ibid), suggests that, perhaps, “My Immortal” isn’t “real” fan fiction at all, but instead is “trollfic” or “badfic”—deliberately and excruciatingly bad fan fiction created for the explicit purpose of messing with a given fan community, even if a person happens to be a member of that community.

See also

• badfic