Fan Convention

Fan conventions: Where the line between reality and fiction becomes blurry. And very long.

Rupert: Hobbits will be mustering under Gandalf as usual in the Ops Room. Esoterica with the Master Mage is in a dimension yet to be fixed... Filking will be in Home Universe this year... Stan, who are these people?
Stan: Ordinary people having fun, I expect.

— Deep Secret

Or just Convention or Con. This is where fans of a particular franchise, creator or genre all meet together, discuss it and ask questions to the stars. A number turn up in costume.

Frequently parodied in the case of a Show Within a Show. The fans will often be portrayed as being geeky immature Man Children who are so obsessed with a certain franchise that they seem to be out of touch with reality. Usually they will be seen gawking over rare valuable collector items that they buy to make them part of their unhealthy large collection of junk. They crowd together at Q&A panels to see their favorite stars and ask them the most in(s)ane questions, usually about continuity errors or scenes in the franchise that destroyed their Suspension of Disbelief. Also common is fans rejoicing because the stars said or shouted a meme or a catchphrase, especially if they requested it themselves.

Most of the time the unique experience of having several creators or cast members together in one place will be wasted because the fans keep asking questions in which they shoehorn every possible meme, running gag, catchphrase or pop culture reference they can think of and want to show off their extensive knowledge of every issue, record, episode, game and/or film in the franchise. Some Loony Fans take pride in announcing themselves to be "the stars' biggest fan." A crazy fan theory will be uttered to which the stars answer: "No that's not true", leaving the fan disappointed because he believed in it so much. Hardly any questions about the stars' creative process will be asked. Most of the time it just involves In-Universe questions, as if the franchise is a collection of true, historic events. Many audience members have a tendency to make remarks that show off their own lack of imagination, for instance: "Where do you guys get all your ideas?" or "If that character from that franchise fought that particular character from this franchise: who would win?". Also expect one star to get infuriated with some of the fans and tell them to get a life!

One particular convention which is frequently featured in Japanese works (or at least a version of it with the name slightly changed) is Comiket, a biannual doujinshi fair in Tokyo which is easily the largest fan convention in the world. In North America, the annual San Diego Comic-Con is the largest and most famous convention (like many American comic conventions, it has evolved to cover "nerdy" entertainment in general at this point), particularly from The New '10s onward.

Much of the above can be Truth in Television, as anyone who's been to a convention can confirm. Contrast and compare trade shows for the entertainment industries like the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Sister Trope of Con Recap, when a work's in-Real Life creator devotes an episode to recounting their experiences in a fan gathering.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Dramacon is set at the fictional anime convention "Yatta!con". The timeframe of each volume takes place during the three days the convention is held for.
• The cast of YuruYuri go to Comuket twice, during which the girls cosplay as Mirakurun characters and Kyouko is revealed as a popular Doujinshi writer.
• Seiji from Midori Days ends up crowned an "otaku god" after he helps his Secret-Keeper sell minidolls (of Midori) at a convention and refusing to sell his extremely advanced prototype (y'know... the girl whose body has been transferred to his hand).
• In Lucky Star Konata visits Comiket in the first half of Episode 12, bringing Kagami and Tsukasa along with her. She takes it very seriously (which is lampshaded by Kagami), having mapped out the best routes and determined which lineups are crucial to get into before copies of their doujinshi sell out. While Konata is able to navigate the event easily, poor Tsukasa gets hopelessly lost and Kagami runs across some Full Metal Panic! Yaoi doujinshi which she finds a bit "too much" for her.
• Genshiken makes a major deal out of the club's (both current and past members) visits to "ComiFest", which is a clear reference to Comiket. Similarly to Lucky Star, their visits involve elaborate plans requiring multiple people, maps of the convention, and carefully laid timetables to get in line for and obtain a variety of promotional items and limited-edition releases by doujinshi authors (who sell primarily at these conventions) before the supply is sold out.
• The cast of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid attend Comiket 90. Tohru and Kobayashi are both helping Makoto sell his doujin, but Tohru later attracts lots of attention from cosplay photographers with her meido outfit and wings and tail showing. Lucoa, on the other hand, is removed from site because her outfit was too skimpy. Fafnir tries his hand at selling a doujin full of actual working curses, but walks away without selling even a single copy. Makoto and Fafnir later attend Comiket 91, but no attention is focused since they point out that it's the middle of winter. Fafnir once again fails to sell even a single copy.
• Episode 11 of Wasteful Days of High School Girls mainly involves a fan convention of Vocaloid producers.
• Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku has several chapters that take place at Comiket, since Narumi draws doujinshi to sell there.
• Otaku no Video features Comiket and other fan gatherings, it being about Otaku taking on the industry themselves, after all.
• Little Witch Academia (2017): In "Night Fall", Akko, Sucy, and Lotte go to a fan gathering for Lotte's favorite author, with signings, trivia, and cosplay well featured.
• Ah... and Mm... Are All She Says has an arc focusing on Toda and several other mangaka creating a doujinshi compilation to sell at Comiket. She and Tanaka cosplay the characters to advertise their booth, and Toda also sells some of her own work.
• Aoi House has an arc where everyone goes to Hatsu-Con, and meets the rival Uri House.
• In The Unpopular Mangaka and the Helpful Onryo-san, Senai and Onryo-san go to Comiket, where they sell out to various ghosts (not a single human buys his book).

Comic Books

• In The Sandman (1989), a hotel puts on just such a convention... for serial killers. It's billed as a "Cereal Convention".
• Captain Carrot and the Final Arc opens at the Sandy Eggo Comic Con, a parody of the San Diego Comic Con which gives the writer the chance to use every single Punny Name for an Animal Superhero he's ever come up with.
• In one Angel: After the Fall arc ("Boys and Their Toys"), Angel and Spike go to Sci-Fi Fest San Diego, where people start turning into the characters they're cosplaying as.
• Ziggy Pig - Silly Seal Comics: Desperate for money, Ziggy Pig agrees to appear at the Alley Behind A Closed-Down Laundromat Comic Con.

Comic Strips

• One It's Grim Up North London strip in Private Eye has Quinn and Jez talking about how much they're looking forward to cosplaying at a convention. Poppy asks what the theme is, suggesting Doctor Who, Anime or Steampunk. It turns out to be a Bloomsbury Group con, and they're dressed as E. M. Forster and Lytton Strachey.
• The summer 2018 storyline in Sally Forth (Howard) involves the Forths going to a science fiction convention, because the voice actress who played the main character in Sally's favourite childhood cartoon, which she recently rediscovered, is one of the guests.
• A 2017 Dick Tracy storyline involved a convention called Cosplay Con being run by three women named Margie as part of a complicated insurance scam that didn't entirely make sense.

Fan Works

• Crazy Irken and ? (Invader Zim-based crossover fic anthology by D_rissing and nightmaster000. ^note Unable to link due to violating Content Policy, but it can be found on their Archive of Our Own pages.): In the The Proud Family chapter, Zim attends Comic Con, because Dib was interested in going, which convinced Zim that it must be a gathering of alien hunters. And when seeing the various cosplayers, many of whom happened by coincidence to be dressed as actual aliens, he ups the misunderstanding to thinking it’s a meeting for an anti-Irken alliance.
• The New Adventures of Invader Zim has had a few examples:
  • Episode 12 of Season 1 features a convention for Sunset, a parody of the Twilight franchise, while Episode 18 has Gamer Con (a generic convention for video games in general).
  • Episode 9 of Season 2 has Fantasy Con, a convention for the fantasy genre as a whole.
• Pokémon Crossing has Crossing Rider Con, a convention celebrating the Toku Show Within a Show Crossing Rider. The boys go to said convention in one chapter and have a fun time.
• In the Skyhold Academy Yearbook series, it's established that Solas is the secret identity of popular Lets Player "The Dread Wolf." In the twelfth installment, Love is a Mystery, he gets invited to be a speaker at one of these in Denerim, prompting the eponymous school's staff to host a sort of miniature convention for its students so they can all experience some of the fun.

Films — Animation

• Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon takes place at an Expy for Comic-Con, where the trailer for a Darker and Edgier feature-film adaptation of Blue Falcon is set to premiere.

Films — Live-Action

• Much of the plot of The Gamers: Hands of Fate takes place at GenCon, a Real Life gaming convention.
• Galaxy Quest had a major, mostly affectionate, parody of this.
• The documentary Trekkies touched on the subject.
• The Bag Witch Project, a Blair Witch parody short film by Toxic Bag Productions, tells the sorry tale of three attendees at GenCon, who get hopelessly lost in the hallways of the Milwaukee convention center.
• Fanboys: In Las Vegas, the protagonists — dedicated Star Wars fans who have trolled Trekkies earlier in the film — end up running into a Star Trek convention out of all possible events.

Literature

• Bimbos of the Death Sun sets a murder mystery at a con, where a popular but volatile author is murdered while writing his latest novel.
• Deep Secret: Most of the story takes place at a sci-fi/fantasy convention. Of course, there are real wizards there.
• Night of the Living Trekkies is a book about a zombie outbreak at a Star Trek convention; there is a trailer for the book here.
• The Once Upon A Con series sets three different stories with Fairy Tale Motifs around the fictional Starfield franchise and its fan convention, ExcelsiCon.
• Lost At The Con is about a Gonzo Journalist sent to cover Griffin*Con, a thinly-veiled Expy of Dragon Con. As very much a not-geek, his articles (which punctuate the act breaks) start out being very disparaging of the fans, the guests and the con itself, but eventually he winds up defending them against the kind of Jerk Jocks who pick on people that just want to have fun and be themselves.
• Geek Tragedy, the first of Nev Fountain's whodunnits about former Vixens From the Void script editor Mervyn Stone, is set at Vixcon 15.
• Alternate Worldcons and Again, Alternate Worldcons, two anthologies of Alternate History stories edited by Mike Resnick, all set at that history's version of the World Science Fiction Convention.
• Shatnerquake is a bizarro novel set at a William Shatner convention where, due to a fight between Shatner fans and Bruce Campbell fans, all of Shatner's characters are accidentally summoned into the real world, hellbent on killing the real Shatner attending the con.
• Proven Guilty: Much of the action takes place at SplatterCon!!!, a horror movie convention with a focus on slasher films. It gets invaded by shapeshifting fae who feed on fear.
• The Vampire Con Series by Kate Paulk takes place in a world where the supernatural is real. Where do they go to hang out/meet up? Sci-Fi/Fantasy Cons of course. Sadly, adventure gets in the way of their plans to just have a good time.
• "Northwestward": Mr. Wayne isn’t feeling well enough to attend as a guest for a convention in Minneapolis, so he sends his trusty butler Mr Pennyworth, instead.
• Leverage: One tie-in novel, The Con Job, involves the team's hacker and resident geek Hardison taking the lead on infiltrating Comic-Con International after a client is fleeced out of thousands of dollars in valuable comic books.
• "Quezalcon" by Kim Newman is a short story in the style of the events programme for the eponymous sf convention, organised by Derek Leech, which is strongly implied to be some kind of ritual in which the guest of honour is sacrificed so another writer can gain his abilities. All we're told is that dinner is "healthy heart", but has no vegetarian option.
• John Ringo's Special Circumstances does this twice: In "Princess of Wants" they visit a small literature convention to find the demon who has been killing fans, and in "Queen of Wands" they visit what is explicitly Dragon Con, along with dozens of thinly disguised historical figures and both major and minor deities.
• Donald A Wollheim's "The Man From The Future": The two protagonists are fans of Science Fiction, and convince a dwarf they meet to go to a convention and pretend to be a Time Traveller from the far future. During their panel, a heckler interrupts the game and the dwarf shoots him with a flashlight to quiet him so that they can resume the panel.
• Stranger Than Fanfiction begins with people waiting for the opening of WizCon, a convention in Santa Clara, California devoted to Wiz Kids.
• InCryptid: The short story "Singing the Comic-Con Blues" features Antimony, Sarah, Artie, and Verity (the lone non-nerd) going to Emerald City Comic-Con in Seattle to find a siren who's been causing deaths at other conventions.
• We'll Always Have Parrots, an entry in Meg Langslow Mysteries, takes place at a convention for "Porphyria, Queen of The Jungle," a cult classic TV series Michael has starred in (as the sexy Evil Sorcerer Mephisto). Not pretty, but it pays the bills!
• Xanadu (Storyverse): The core premise of the setting is that a large fan convention, called Kublai Con, is held at the fictional Xanadu Convention Center in Orlando, Florida; a particular emphasis is placed on cosplay due to a costume contest held by the convention's very rich host, which inspires both a large number of people to come in costume and some very elaborate costumes being made to win the prize. Then, during the judging for the contest, a magical event causes everyone on the premises to be transformed into what they're dressed as.
• Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd: The first story "Once You’re A Jedi, You’re A Jedi All The Way" takes place at an unnamed multi fandom convention. Conflict ensues when two members of the rival Star Wars and Star Trek fandoms hook up during a party.

Live-Action TV

• CSI: The season 4 episode "Fur and Loathing" involved a Furry convention.
  • Vanity Fair and MTV also had hilariously misinformed "documentaries" on the Furry fandom, complete with supposed explorations into a furry convention.
  • Conventions and CSI seem to go well together; aside from the Furry Convention, they also had episodes involving a convention for dwarves ("A Little Murder" from season 3) and one for Big Beautiful Women ("Big Middle" from season 5).
  • "A Space Oddity" from season 9 had one for Astro Quest, the Fictional Counterpart to Star Trek.
• Community has an episode set at an Inspector Spacetime (fictional Doctor Who-like show) convention.
• JAG: Harm, Mac and Bud stay at a motel in "Father's Day" where a Quantum Leap convention is held.
• Cruise of the Gods, a 2002 one-off BBC Two dramedy about a convention for a long-cancelled sci-fi show called Children of Castor taking place on an ocean liner (the obvious comparison being the annual "Who Cruise").
• In the Castle episode "The Final Frontier", the Body of the Week is found dead at a Nebula-9 experience (a fictional short-running Space Opera) in a convention that the title character is, coincidentally, doing a signing at. Later in the episode, he encounters Alexis in a very skimpy cosplay outfit, which they agree to never talk about. The episode is directed by Star Trek veteran Jonathan Frakes, who cameos as a fan getting Castle's Derrick Storm comic book signed.
• The pilot episode for Marvel's Ms. Marvel (2022), Kamala and Bruno visit a large fan convention together - Avenger Con; The first ever in-universe celebration of earth's mightiest heroes.
• The Outer Limits (1995): "Down to Earth" takes place at the 10th Annual North American UFO Convention in 2000.
• Schitt's Creek: In Season 5, Alexis convinces a reluctant Moira to spend an afternoon signing autographs at a soap opera fan convention. Moira eventually embraces the opportunity after talking to another former soap diva, who supports herself lavishly through convention appearances, even going so far as to sell pictures of her feet to fans at an exorbitant price.
• The Smallville episode "Warrior" opens at a comics convention, where Clark and Zatanna try to track down a magic comic book. With Lois in what's essentially a Xena: Warrior Princess costume in Wonder Woman colors.
• Supernatural: In one of the show's infamous meta episodes, Sam and Dean visit a fan convention for the In-Universe books about their lives. The merchandise, panels, games and rude fans all reflect actual Supernatural cons, but when Dean tries to out himself as the real Dean to a fan, he's not believed.
• Psych has had two episodes set at Comic-Con, and one where the con didn't actually appear but a Closet Geek explains that the weekend he said he was on a business trip it was really Comic-Con. (His wife was really pissed off at him...for not bringing her.)
• Wonder Woman, episode "Spaced Out": Rene Auberjonois plays a thief who steals three "crystal lenses", but has to hide them in a crate bound for a science fiction convention.
• In an episode of ICarly, Sam, Freddy, and Carly are guests at a convention and are the main attraction to an "ICarly" panel. Most of the time, fans continually try to ship either Carly with Freddy ("Creddy") or Sam with Freddy ("Seddy"). It gets so bad that when the boy Carly is dating shows up, Sam blames him for "Freddy and Carly not being happy together." The Creddy shippers proceed to beat him up and tie up with the microphone cord. (Interestingly, no one mentioned "Sarly".)
• Taken: In "Jacob and Jesse", Sally Clarke frequently brings her son Jacob to spacecraft conventions where Dr. Peter Quarrington talks about his multiple trips to Venus. The attendees of these conventions refer to themselves as contactees as they believe that they have made contact with aliens. It is unclear how many of them other than Sally herself have actually done so.
• An episode of Saturday Night Live in 1986, with William Shatner as the guest host, famously spoofed a Star Trek convention where after ever more inane questions, Shatner begs them all to "Get A Life!"
• The Season 5 episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, "Return to Skyfire", has Jake and Terry go to a fantasy convention where they help D.C. Parlov, the author of their favorite book series, The Skyfire Cycle, recover the stolen manuscript of his next book, and they bring Rosa with them.

Professional Wrestling

• Although it does have a championship trophy defended in title matches, GLORY is not known for running shows so much as trying to get wrestlers it deems worthy on shows established by other people. The one event it is known for running most closely resembles a women's pro wrestling fan convention and is appropriately dubbed "GLORY Con".
• The Women's Wrestling Convention is technically an amateur wrestling counterpart to GLORY, with most of the matches being of such a style or some variation of competitive submission grappling. But professional wrestlers(sometimes even male ones provided they have a woman wrestler partner) are still welcome and often steal the show if there is time for a "pro style" match (though don't expect many cheers if you're a guy).
• WrestleReunion, a reunion show for pro wrestlers started in 2005, which fans are also invited to attend, which also tends to host the shows of several independent promotions during its annual runs in various regions around the USA.
• WrestleCon, which too started in 2005 as a more straight forward convention that also features shows of several independent promotions from the USA and Mexico.
• The Missouri Wrestling Revival, which started in 2008, which doubles as an award show for Midwest USA wrestlers and promotions.
• Masters Of The Ring Entertainment hosts fan expos that double as tributes to various subjects relating to professional wrestling. They also host the shows of Just Cause Pro Wrestling, whose ticket sales go to charity.

Puppet Shows

• In Sesame Street episode 4504, the street hosts Numeric Con, the convention for fans of numbers which is strangely similar to Comic Con, making number-pun references to pop culture like Fiverine, Doctor Two, Princess Three-a and The Green Four-net, with Elmo cosplaying as The Dark Nine.
• "Cheesy Con" from Donkey Hodie focuses around Donkey Hodie and Purple Panda being excited about visiting said convention. However, a wrench is thrown into the plan when Donkey injures her hoof and can't walk. When Purple Panda asks what he can do to help, she asks him to help her get there without her having to walk. After this fails, they do the activities that would have been done at the convention inside Donkey's house.

Video Games

• In Metal Gear, Dr. Hal "Otacon" Emmerich's nickname comes from the real-life Otakon convention.
• Randal's Monday: One chapter takes place during a comic convention.
• In Fate/Grand Order, the 2018 summer event revolves around ServaFes, a very obvious parody of Comiket. Jeanne Alter's goal is to create a doujinshi that will outsell everyone else's.

Visual Novels

• Bachelorette Party has the Girl Scouts finding themselves at a "Pretty Panda Princess" convention while chasing after the Hi-tech Suitcase. While they're at the con, there's a premium option to have the group dress up in show appropriate cosplay to blend in with the fans.
• Comic Party is all about making fan doujins, thus a Comiket parody called "Comic Party" features heavily.
• In the DLC for Nekojishi Liao brings the three cat spirits (in outwardly human forms) to a furry convention. Unbeknownst to those in attendance Liao is smuggling three anthropomorphic animal spirits in plain sight.

Webcomics

• El Goonish Shive had a non-canon side story that took place at San Diego Comic Con.
• Insecticomics includes several instances of characters (actually, the author cosplaying) attending the real-life BotCon.
• Narbonic inspired both fictional and real-life examples.
  • Within the comic, Dave Davenport travels to Dave-Con, the annual convention of the Dave Conspiracy (every member wearing a badge that reads, "Hello, my name is DAVE").
  • A later storyline is set at the North American Mad Science Symposium.
  • In Real Life, the readers of the comic organized Narbonicon, an annual event celebrating the comic and its author, Shaenon Garrity. It was held during the six years of the comic's original run, but discontinued once the "Director's Cut" version (*cough*reruns*cough*) began.
• The first Umlaut House comic has Evil Con, for mad scientists.
• In The End, a landed alien spaceship passes for being All Part of the Show due to being parked right outside one of these.
• Roomies! managed to wander into "a transforming robot convention" during a Road Trip Plot storyline. BotCon is finally mentioned by name in Shortpacked!, which is far more bald-faced about its nerdiness and consistently has both related plotlines and real-life tales of convention mayhem from David Willis each year like clockwork.
• A storyline in Kevin & Kell is set at a Star Trek convention. Once Rudy's webcomic about "humans" becomes popular we get the opposite of a furry convention.
• The webcomic UnCONventional is about the staff of a small town fandom convention, and much of the comic takes place at both their con and others.
• General Protection Fault features a sci-fi fan convention at one point — a welcome opportunity for Fooker to pull off multiple tricks to get Nick and Ki to finally hook up.
• Since Hang in There, Kogasa-san is pretty much an embellished journal of a doujinshi artist and his friends, conventions are a common occurrence—as part of their job is to sell self-published comics at these. One of the recurring characters, drawn as Kyubey, is a convention organizer.
• Niels once snuck into a furry convention to take out a target. No one noticed he was dead for two hours because the victim wore a fursuit, and Niels couldn't be identified anyway because he was wearing a fursuit himself (a fox one, and considering there were around 200 foxes at the convention...).
  Wolf Girl: Now that I think about it, the person could also have been dressed as a wolf.
  Tiger Boy: Then make it 700.
  Niels: Easiest hit-job ever!
• The majority of the And Shine Heaven Now storyline 'Eurekon' takes place at the titular convention for Mad Scientists, where Doc presents his opening a hellmouth and summoning Sett, Nina, and Incognito to attack Tokyo to an unimpressed crowd. After it blows up in his face when they're all defeated by magical girls, Doc dies an unceremonious death when he trips on a cord and the tv falls on him.
• In the contemporary arc of Arthur, King of Time and Space, Arthur and his friends often attended conventions (especially once Morgan became a cult TV actress). On one occasion, their preperation for San Diego was compared to their baseline and space selves preparing for the Roman War.
• Frog Raccoon Strawberry: A few comics has her and friend January going to a cartoon fan convention where they encounter both a talented but extremely grumpy art historian and a narcissistic animator who Can't Take Criticism and who hits on January in spite of him being old enough to be her father.

Web Animation

• Manga Soprano: A Nerd Rescued a Beautiful Girl in Demon Slayer Costume at the Cosplay Festival.... (sic) is set in a Comiket, where the main cast cosplays as characters from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.

Web Original

• The Nostalgia Critic runs into a convention (Nashville's Geek Media Expo, to be specific) in pursuit of Casper the Friendly Ghost during the Nostalgia Critic's review of the movie Casper. Variously-costumed conventiongoers help him with the chase.
  • Chester A. Bum and 90s Kid attended Youmacon once, where Chester discusses yaoi with a Chester cosplayer, 90s Kid has a 'Dude-off' with a 90s Kid cosplayer, and they interact with other con-goers.
  • In a later video, Chester and Lester A. Bum gather con-goers at Daisho Con 2010 to re-enact Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One.
  "RUN! AAAAAAAA!"
  • Nostalgia Critic also ties certain cons into his reviews. They usually end in either his fans going on a rampage against him, or vice versa.
• The Atop the Fourth Wall live shows are done from conventions.
• The Guild season five takes place entirely at the fictitious MegaGame-O-RamaCon. Codex playtests a future upgrade of The Game at its booth and unwittingly drives the creator to sell it with her complaints; Vork and Bladezz set up a booth for fans to get custom videos of Bladezz's internet-meme persona; Zaboo sets up a system that allows him to visit unlimited panels; Tink uses her cosplaying skills to evade her family; Clara tries to gain acceptance at a steampunk booth. Celebrity cameos and hijinks ensue.
• Fenspace combines this trope and an annual political summit where the leaders of all the important factions get together and hammer out treaties and international laws and other serious government-type stuff in between panels and screenings. It sounds ridiculous to most people back on Earth, but somehow it seems to work.

Web Videos

• From Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series:
  Florence: I activate Dark Sanctuary! Now the duel will take place in a twisted and horror-filled environment where only the bravest souls dare to venture.
  Yami Yugi: An anime convention?
• These are given a Take That! in Sonic F:
  Ella: Sweet Jesus — it smells like an anime convention in here.^note Guess where the episode originally premiered?

Western Animation

• The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" features Rainbow Dash attending a convention for her favorite book series, Daring Do. There, she meets a Fan Hater named Quibble Pants (voiced by Patton Oswalt) who hates the books (or at least the later, more action-packed ones) as much as Dash loves them. The convention itself is clearly modeled after the San Diego Comic-Con and fan conventions in general, complete with cosplayers of the books' characters, at least one food vendor, and various merchandise booths.
• In an American Dad! episode, the Villain of the Week is hiding in a convention, and the only way to get to him is using Steve's proficiency in elven language.
• Freakazoid! chased Caveman and was chased by Fanboy during a convention.
  • The Caveguy episode was notable, as Freakazoid talks to the fans in lieu of his creator, and scares Caveguy off by speaking Klingon to him.
  • In an earlier episode, while trying to escape from Fanboy (who was trying to become his sidekick), Freakazoid fell into a sci-fi convention. He then finally got Fanboy off his back by pointing out Mark Hamill and tempting Fanboy with the more glamorous prospect of Jedi Knighthood.
• Not to be outdone, Animaniacs also had a convention based episode in their later season. The Warner Trio found themselves being chased through the convention halls (singing while doing so) by rabid fans led by Elmyra of all people. It only stopped when Yakko made a call and invited/tricked Pinky and the Brain to the Con... and promptly threw the mice under the bus.
• The Simpsons:
  • "Mayored to the Mob" had Homer saving Mark Hamill from psychotic fans at Springfield's Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con (short for "Bimonthly Science Fiction Convention"). This particular convention is also featured in the later episodes "My Big Fat Geek Wedding" and "Springfield Splendor".
  • In "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", he attended an Itchy & Scratchy convention (set at the Comic Book Guy's shop) as the voice of Poochie.
  • "Treehouse of Horror X": The second segment, "Desperately Xeeking Xena", had Lucy Lawless voice herself answering obsessive nitpicky questions by nerdy fans about Xena: Warrior Princess, leading to the Trope Namer A Wizard Did It.
  • The Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con makes a return during the third act of "My Big Fat Geek Wedding" as the Comic Book Guy attempts to marry Edna Krabappel (who ultimately declines).
• The battle in Robot Chicken between Star Trek and Star Wars fans at a scifi convention.
• Phineas and Ferb has an episode set at a "Sci-Fi and Fantasy Convention" with Phineas being a Sci-Fi fan, Ferb being a Fantasy fan, and Candace being an Otaku for cutesy Japanese character Ducky Momo. The Sci-Fi and Fantasy sides actually get into a war, until Phineas and Ferb come up with a plan to remind them that that they're all nerds there, and that Hate Dumb is stupid.
• Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness had Po attend a kung fu festival (or, as they call it, "The Fest"), where fans act out famous battles and trade action figures. Shifu forbids him from going, but that's only because he's going there too and doesn't want Po to find out. Hilarity ensues when Po accidentally paralyzes Mantis and he gets mistaken for an action figure.
• On one episode of Dexter's Laboratory, Dex and his friends go to a Star Trek convention, but end up at a doll collectors convention instead.
• The Cleveland Show had an episode when Cleveland goes to San Diego Comic-Con with his family to promote his new comic. An earlier episode had Cleveland taking his son to a fan convention to show the horrors of not losing your virginity, only to come home with a bunch of merchandise.
• Bob's Burgers: Bob's daughter Tina is a big fan of "The Equestranauts", a My Little Pony parody, and gets her family to take her to a convention—where she's surprised to find the other fans are all middle-aged men. They're generally a decent bunch who are there for their love of the show and the community, but then there's the guy who's the self-appointed leader of his little crowd, who swindles Tina out of her beloved toy pony.
• Mission Hill: Andy scoffs at his geeky brother Kevin and his friend going to a sci-fi convention, until he meets the friend's cute sister who is also going.
• The Family Guy episode "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven" opens at a sci-fi convention where fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation ask cast members about...the most mundane things, without ever touching on anything about the series, much to Stewie's consternation. One such question was "Does this look like dry skin or a rash?"
• The premiere episode of Daria shows a UFO convention happening near Lawndale. Using her school-imposed self-esteem course and its "lessons" as fuel, Daria manages to drag the rest of her family to it just to annoy them.
• The Day My Butt Went Psycho!: In "Comic Butt Convention", Zack and Deuce attend a convention where Zack is given a comic that proclaims him to The Chosen One, but turns out to be part of a plot by the Great White Butt. Meanwhile, most the butts, including Deuce, are going crazy over a TV show about Vikings. This turns out to be a different plot by the Great White Butt.
• The Hero Elementary episode "AJ's Extra Superpower" has Sparks Crew getting ready to go to Citytown Hero Con. The second half of the episode emphasizes this more, with AJ trying to return an envelope to his hero Jetman Jones, which has his new comic book.
• Celebrity Deathmatch: The episode "Deathcon 2001" takes place at a sci-fi convention, and as such, all the fights are themed around science fiction. The first fight is a battle between Alien star Sigourney Weaver and Terminator star Linda Hamilton. The second fight is a conclusion of the season-long "Freak Fight" story arc, which involves scientifically-created Mix-And-Match Men called the Super Freaks (beings created by science being a common theme in sci-fi), and it pits the winners of the previous two Super Freak fights against each other to see who is truly the strongest of the Super Freaks. And the headline match is the "War of the Star Wars Stars": a showdown between original trilogy star Harrison Ford and prequel trilogy star Samuel L. Jackson. And since the episode takes place at a sci-fi convention, all the typical things that one might see at a fan convention can be seen: bespectacled, nasally-voiced geeks, Fan Boys demanding autographs from the fighters and crew, stands selling merchandise, scantily-clad Cosplay Otaku Girls, and, of course, lots of people in elaborate costumes (which allows an alien with a grudge against Nick Diamond to sneak in unnoticed).

Real Life

• The Shakespeare Jubilee might be the Ur-Example. It was held in September 6 through 8, 1769 in Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford Upon Avon. None of Shakespeare's plays were performed, but songs and poems about Shakespeare were performed and hundreds of attendees cosplayed as his characters. Thousands gathered in the Rotunda to hear convention organizer David Garrick deliver his "Ode to Shakespeare". Lodgings were completely full. Sound familiar?

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