With the Georgia elections this week, everyone’s favorite map guy Steve Kornacki returned to our TV screens to explain things about DeKalb county in detail, once again. With his return to the center stage came the discovery of something truly amazing: Steve Kornacki fanfiction exists.
On Tuesday, Georgia voted to elect Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the U.S. Senate. It was a highly anticipated Congressional election, as the results would determine which party would control the Senate for the next two years. Over the course of election day, Steve Kornacki reprised his role analyzing maps on-air for MSNBC. His reappearance soothed nervous viewers and quickly reignited the public’s love for him.
Kornacki first came to be a household name with the presidential elections in November. He worked tirelessly around the clock, analyzing maps and breaking down the facts for viewers at home in the midst of a very stressful and very high-stakes election. Over the course of the election week, Kornacki spent hours in front of that map, rarely sleeping or changing clothes. In return for his troubles, he gained a passionate fan base.
People adored Kornacki for his work ethic and his pure, wholesome energy. For the NFL playoffs, MSNBC brought him back to break down the numbers. This week, with more maps to explain and votes to be counted, the nation is once again gripped by the pure magnetism of Kornacki.
Steve Kornacki Fanfiction
Fanfiction is basically fictional prose based on some existing person or character written by fans. There’s Harry Potter fanfiction, Twilight fanfiction, and now there’s Steve Kornacki fanfiction. People use fanfiction to take beloved things and expand on their universe. Fanfiction allows them to put these beloved characters into their own fantasies. It’s a way to reshape the story of a person or character in a way that fits the fan’s perfect imagined world. That’s why Steve Kornacki is fanfiction gold. He’s adorable, popular, good-looking, and gay.
Fanfiction has traditionally been a haven for LGBTQ+ stories. LGBTQ+ fanfiction stemmed from a serious lack of representation in mainstream storytelling. In the early 2000s, the LGBTQ+ community took matters into their own hands and started writing their own stories. Since there were no openly gay characters in the Harry Potter books, people wrote fanfiction that put Harry and Draco together. Creative fans took beloved, but overwhelmingly straight stories and tweaked them to make them more representative of their communities.
Now, LGBTQ+ representation is on the rise, but fanfiction isn’t fading. Instead, it’s changing to incorporate the stories of out gay folks, both fictional and real, in a fun and imaginative way, which leads us right back to Kornacki.
The Dan Levy Phenomenon
Much of the fanfiction surrounding Steve Kornacki places him with actor Dan Levy. Levy is also gay and played LGBTQ+ icon David Rose on the TV show Schitt’s Creek. Like Kornacki, he is widely beloved and an icon in the gay community and beyond. Levy is no stranger to memes and social media coverage idolizing him and his character, so it makes sense that he would be a perfect character to cast in fanfiction.
For some reason, several fans decided that these two are their perfect fantasy couple. There are multiple stories from multiple authors on the fanfiction platform that have Kornacki and Levy in romantic relationships. Some of the stories also pair Kornacki with Levy’s Schitt’s Creek character, David. It is delightfully strange, hilariously random, and perfectly encapsulates what fanfiction is all about.
Go To Sleep, Steve Kornacki
Another significant theme in the Steve Kornacki fanfiction is that, during election cycles, the man never seems to take time off to sleep. It’s something that fans picked up on and fixated on early in the November election week. It then became a defining feature of the Kornacki fandom discourse.
Now, there are several fanfiction stories on the internet all detailing elaborate stories involving trying to get Steve Kornacki to go to sleep. Some of them involve interventions from his coworkers at MSNBC. Others place the fan as the hero who finally gets Kornacki to leave his map. It is, in a word, hilarious.
In both categories of Steve Kornacki fanfiction, there are some stories that craft elaborate sexual narratives surrounding Kornacki. This is part of the fanfiction world. There is a lot of smut that circulates on fanfiction platforms, and now some of that smut stars and MSNBC analyst.
Much of this fanfiction was written in the midst of the November election, but as of January 6th, new entries are still coming in. The world of Steve Kornacki fanfiction is reinvigorated and revived. Although, with two years until the next election and four years until the next presidential election, Kornacki fanfiction may lay dormant for a good while after this. Enjoy it while it lasts.
The Fandom Extends
The cult of Kornacki extends beyond the world of fanfiction, which is still a semi-niche interest. It extends throughout the social media universe.
On Instagram, one fan made a whole spoof song to the tune of “Won’t Say I’m In Love” from Hercules all about Steve Kornacki. All over TikTok, Kornacki fans are creating videos admiring the map wizard and his now-famous signature khakis.
It’s unclear what’s collectively come over us to cause this Kornacki obsession. It is true that in times of crisis, folks can tend to fixate on those who deliver the news. Hopefully, in 2021, Kornacki will get some sleep and maybe he’ll even meet Dan Levy. Stranger things have happened.
