/mlp/ Fanfic Reviews

The Fuck Word

FimFiction Link - Short ID: 456797/the-fuck-word

Published: Dec '19

Review in No. 38386845
'The Fuck Word' is a two thousand and one hundred-word AiE comedy oneshot. Anon is sick of ponies using the word "buck" as a swear and decides to intervene.
Now, I personally have little to no interest in Anon stories and second-person literature isn't particularly my cup of tea either, but - to my own biggest surprise - the story was funny enough for me to put these issues aside. As it might be evident from the title and the description, this is really just a shitpost in fic form, so I won't question things too much from a logical perspective. This is very much a "turn your brain off and laugh"-type of story. And, for what it's worth, the fic fulfills that purpose quite well.
What I originally expected was Anon teaching the bad word to a bunch of ponies and then getting (figuratively and perhaps literally) scorched by Celestia or perhaps Twilight for being a little shit, but I have to admit, the way the story instead doubled down and turned Anon's "helpful" comment into a quasi-monkey's paw wish was not only unexpected, but also pretty clever and funny. The way things slowly backfire into Anon's face without anyone else even realizing that something is wrong. As for the rest of the jokes " AJ, boy AJ, and small AJ " cracked me up.
The only thing the author could have done better is to go even further or drag things out a little bit more. The "slow" descent into chaos was funny, but it regardless happened very quickly, even though the joke still felt like it could be explored more to me. Perhaps Twilight could have popped up and, in her scholarly zeal, ask Anon to explain the etymology of the word, causing him to become stuck between a rock and a hard place, whether he truthfully reveals what a verbal catastrophe he has caused or lie risking Bookhorse figuring it out by herself, likely leading to even more dire consequences.
Overall: 7/10 Look, it's a story about the funny green man teaching ponies a swear and it firing right back into his own face. If that premise sounds funny to you and you don't mind the character in question, I can easily recommend it to you. Otherwise it likely won't make you a sudden proponent of the genre (it sure didn't make me,) but you might still find it funny.