"I'm a fan. I'm a sports fan, I'm a music fan, I'm a Star Trek fan, all of 'em. But here's what I don't do. Tell me if any of this sounds familiar: Let's list our ten favorite episodes. Let's list our least favorite episodes. Let's list our favorite galaxies. Let's make a chart to see how often they appear in our favorite episodes. What Romulan would you like to see coupled with a Cardassian, and why? Let's spend the weekend talking about Romulans falling in love with Cardassians, and then let's do it again. That's not being a fan; that's having a fetish.
Is your
Fandom serious business? Be careful, because you may fall into the underbelly of every fan community: Fan Dumb. These are the fans that claim to be the
watchdogs of their fandom, but in reality they are more like dogs in the manger.
Good fandom occurs from having a diverse community who respect and tolerate differences of opinion. For the most part,
they actually are.
Fan Dumb, conversely, is the (often inflated) stereotype of fandoms based on the loudest monkeywrenches stuck in the gears. These fans possess obsessive and
defensive viewpoints along with other irrational qualities. Sadly, most members of
Fan Dumb actually develop from normal fans embittered by (the perception of) being taken for granted, insulted, or
feeling condescended to. Many of them also have ultimately genuine and relatable opinions. The only reason they lack support or sympathy from other fans is the tendency to sublimate it into
combative opinions, where another
person is disliked directly for their opinion, rather than disliking the opinion.
- Purists often originate as victims of Adaptation Decay and Merchandise Driven effects who eventually become suspicious of seemingly arbitrary changes. A sufficiently old purist often has a Nostalgia Filter and holds a cynical view towards newer derivations and the fans associated with it, blaming them for the superfluous changes made in stories. Purists often dislike mixing fandoms or outright crossovers, and hold mixed opinions on Derivative Works. Other fans complain they lack any ability to enjoy new spins on things without constant comparison to How It Used To Be; sufficiently younger fans see Purists as obsessing about stories which are obscure and mostly inaccessible to them. A sufficiently old purist may even predate the internet, and often dislikes its presence there.
- A subtype of this seen mostly in the shipping community, which tends to have a disproportionate amount of Fan Dumb, they throw a hissy fit whenever anyone ships a non-Canon couple. "OMG, u gaiz, look, its not canon. We nau no dat its (insert random couple) so just stop lieking that udder couple, u stoopid hoe-bagz or iz gunna go over der and crie!!!21!!." They may also take up in arms whenever anyone offers a literary interpretation that differs from the creator's. They have apparently never had a decent literature teacher. Also known as a Canon Nazi.
- To be fair, it sounds like all fangirls never had an education at all.
- Elitists tend to spring up when the object of the fandom increases the size of its mainstream fanbase, going from being a cult favourite to being a widely-popular property; as these fans were around when the property was obscure, they tend to resent the influx of 'plebs' and 'Johnny-come-latelys' who expand the size of their previously exclusive, niche little club. These fans may attempt to stroke their egos by setting themselves up as some kind of fandom elite because of the length of time they've been involved in the fandom. Oddly enough, they may acquire an army of Lickspittles and Internet Mimics who hang on their every word. Alternatively, or if the former strategy doesn't work, then they may take their frustration out on the property, claiming that the increase in popularity has seen a marked decrease in quality; expect criticisms along the lines of 'selling out' or 'becoming too commercial' to be heard, fairly or not.
- The Culture Alien is completely objective about the subject matter, which makes them victims of squick and Necessary Weasels, and generally treated as combative members of the Periphery Demographic. Fandom sees this person as being totally unaware or unfamiliar with the source material's genre, direction or tropes, and is surprised when they complain about things the other fans already expected, suggesting they lack the appropriate Willing Suspension Of Disbelief, and don't so much dislike a convention as refuse to accept it at all.
- A subspecies, the Toxic Critic, claims upfront to dislike the entire genre. Fandom is confused to why they expect anyone to listen to him or why they would involve themselves in fandom except as an ego-stroking exercise. Individuals genuinely holding these opinions tend to have ulterior motives for talking about them or are extremely jaded, but are otherwise usually assumed to be trolls unless they have known positive opinions about other content.
- The Toxic Genius is a fan who tends to believe that the fact that people are disagreeing with him is not because they have different opinions about the show, but because he's just so much smarter than they are that he is able to see all of the flaws that they cannot. This is regardless of whether the people he's arguing with acknowledge those flaws, acknowledge them as flaws, or whether those flaws even exist. Oddly enough, his "vaunted" intelligence rarely extends to seeing any positive attributes that the show possesses.
- The Toxic Visionary: Arguably the purest distillation of fan stupidity, the Toxic Visionary resembles the Toxic Genius in that he uses his perceived intelligence as a weapon, but the difference is that the Visionary believes he's smarter than creators. The operative phrase here is "I could've written it better" said without irony. Also expect heavy use of the phrase, "I don't like the way <the creator> is taking <insert series here>." Telltale signs include picking over the work for Subtext that doesn't exist , overestimating the significance of 'hard' fandom as a whole, and continually praising the author until he/she does something the fan disagrees with/didn't predict, at which point the author becomes the worst person on Earth and all their previously-lauded good points become moot. Thankfully, they usually keep to themselves.
- The Strawstuffer is a fan whose expresses what could be a healthy amount of criticism, but ignores the chain of decay, middle management and all those who contribute to decision-making as an explanation to why things go poorly. They prefer an easily-named target regardless of their involvement in deciding particular content, such as an actor or the 'public face' of a company. This target then becomes the subject of blame for all of the things that go wrong with the show, regardless of whether they can reasonably be blamed for it or not. Furthermore, any failings or missteps are subsequently treated not as human error or the kind of slip-ups that any creative may encounter from time to time, but evidence that their target is out to spite them personally (which can lead to some overlap with the Tinfoiler below).
- The Tinfoiler is a more paranoid and tragic stereotype, stemming from a feeling of genuine betrayal. Like the Strawstuffer who ignores Creative Differences or apathy to figure out why things occur, they imagine negative slights are a direct response to fandom even if these are obviously intentional deconstructions or a symptom of Creator Breakdown. This stretches to instances where even side-fandoms begin to demonize creators who have no actual vitrol. This is especially common if they heavily identify with a character who is later portrayed as less than ideal or in an unconventional way. Furthermore, any missteps or failings that the creators make are intentional. Tinfoilers are usually involved in Periphery Demographics and, more tellingly, Misaimed Fandoms. The Chicken Little has a slightly less vitriolic neurosis, who simply believes things will get worse because this occurs in all fandoms.
- The Mad Bride is more about being a fan of a specific character, with the series largely being a vehicle to enjoy them. The lack of this character's involvement in the series or characterization going off in another direction than expected often turns this fan into a more personalized version of the Tinfoiler. Tellingly, the fan often has a rather idealized, if not distorted, view of the character. Shippers are heavily associated with these sorts of fans; this can become doubly worrisome if the character they like is involved with another character the fan actually identifies directly with.
- The Extreme Hater (name is subject to change) is a new breed of Fan Dumb and quite possibly the opposite of The Mad Bride, only equally annoying. Instead of being a fan, this is about a hater. They will hate a certain character, and consider the character something like the second coming of Devil. While that sounds normal, what makes them dumb is that they will never allow the character to have fans. So off they go in a crusade of trying to dissuade other people to like the said hated character. They are also prone to Double Standard, if they hate male characters, they will diss those who like that character only because the character is ruggishly handsome, and if they hate female characters, those who like the character will be considered to like the character only because she's sexy or cute. In short, this kind of Fan Dumb likes labelling other fans as shallow fanboys if those fans like a character this Fan Dumb hate.
Interestingly, there are some that go to the opposite extreme yet achieve largely the same results by adopting the
exact same tactics.
- The Misplaced Champion "Fandom — love it or leave it!" This fan gets a bit too confrontational when it comes to criticism of the object of their fandom. Regardless of how mild or gentle the criticism. Regardless of how valid or reasonable the criticism. Regardless, in some cases, of how even the Word Of God may even agree with the criticism. As such, even saying that you really liked last night's episode but thought that this particular scene was a little bit lame will have him swooping down to berate you for your lack of loyalty and demanding to know why you don't just go and watch something else if you hate the show so much.
- A subspecies of Misplaced Champion could be referred to as The Litter-Bearer. This apparently self-loathing fan objects to criticism as much out of contempt for their fellow fans as for fandom of the object in question. They will say "It's perfect the way it is, and if we don't 'get it', that's our problem" with no trace of irony. This is particularly common in the Professional Wrestling fandom.
- Bizarro Chicken Little In the same fashion as the Chicken Little above, this fan sees doom in every raindrop; however, whereas the former thinks that even the slightest misstep on part of the production team will result in cancellation, this Chicken Little seems to operate on the assumption that even the smallest voice of criticism will reach the ears of the Powers That Be, who will immediately cancel the show in the belief that nobody likes it anymore. Ergo, all voices of criticism must be silenced without prejudice in order to keep the show on the air.
- The Willfully Blind This fan refuses to see any faults in the object of his love at all, even if they're staring him right in the face. Tends to go beyond merely liking something to an irrational state of mind where, because he likes something, that means that it cannot possibly have any faults at all. Is fond of the Quality By Popular Vote line of argument, often insistently referring to ratings or sales figures to support this assertion. If they encounter evidence of a flaw that even they cannot ignore, they are then prone to rationalize it away with the excuse that "it's still better than everything else."
- The Highbrow Elitist This fan attributes criticism of his or her fandom to a lack of sophistication and berates people who don't like what they like as just not getting it. "Well clearly, this show isn't meant for you," or even (if sometimes in a more oblique fashion) "You're just too stupid to understand it." Common in some Literature- or Film-based fandoms, as well as Anime and anything and everything with the word "indie" in it. Expect the Highbrow Elitist to overlap with the Purist and the Toxic Genius (see above).
Occasionally,
Fan Dumb grows from other
Fan Dumb-for example, a
Lost forum where a few people constantly attacked Lost during season five bred people who attacked anyone who gave even minor criticism-or even
pointed out a slight continuity error-and urged them to leave the forum and stop watching the show.
At its most basic level the joining factor is
Fan Dumb is always non-constructive to any meaningful discussion, while also putting a value judgment on another fan rather than the opinion they're espousing. One of the surest signs that you are dealing with Fan Dumb, optimistic or not, is when the phrase "
True Fans
" (or some variation thereof) is thrown around. In the end though, in each of the mentioned cases, the
Viewers really are Morons. While a jaded fan
keeps fandom in its proper perspective, Fan Dumb remains on its
insistent, neverending quest to talk about how bad something is.
Taking these fans too seriously is usually a mistake. Although they tend to be louder than the rest of the fanbase combined,
they are usually a decided minority in almost every fandom (though they often claim to be a majority).
Fan Dumb also tends to suffer from an extreme case of
Fan Myopia, regardless of what kind they are; in any variation, they are often intractably convinced that the views of 'the fans' (or perhaps more accurately,
them) are both more widespread and more mainstream than in fact they are. If you're a producer, then
pandering to them is usually a good way to make your show crash and burn. And to add insult to injury, they usually won't be very grateful that you were thinking about them, but will instead start whining about how you made the show crash and burn.
See also
Single Issue Wonk. A specific example is
Die For Our Ship. Contrast with
Fake Posting. And do visit
this JournalFen community, dedicated to collecting the most spectacular cases of Fan Dumb. This is the number one cause of
Artist Disillusionment and, curiously,
Fan Disillusionment.
