Snark often functions as an enforcer of mediocrity and conformity. In its cozy knowingness, snark flatters you by assuming that you get the contemptuous joke. You've been admitted, or readmitted, to a club, though it may be the club of the second-rate.
David Denby, Snark: A Polemic in Seven Fits
conformity, manners, mediocrity, sarcasm, snark