To some people, there is only one thing worse than anything they consider horrible — people
liking it.
In a nutshell, a Fan Hater is someone in a
Hatedom, who hates the
fans of a particular work.
The thing is that to these people, art is
Serious Business, and they treat their enjoyment of art the way
some people take to
competitive gaming. If you like anything not up to their standards, they will either mock you, mock that thing in front of your face, or just go on a diatribe about why you shouldn't like that thing. They also seem to stereotype fans, to make matters worse, such as (anybody who likes comic books is an obese loser; anyone who likes anime is some annoying, anti-American, over-obsessive wannabe Japan-fetishizing freak; people who like cartoons are
Man Children;
boys who watch girls' cartoons are gay; anyone who likes metal/punk is a wannabe tough guy or a pretentious hipster jackass; people who like rap are wangsters; etc.), and not fitting any of these stereotypes will induce either a
No True Scotsman or they'll still find at least one thing they find negative and stereotype other fans of the work in with said negative thing. Fan Haters tend to refer to the targets of their hatred as the "
Lowest Common Denominator" or "unwashed masses".
As a work becomes more popular, the probability of such a group appearing approaches one. Today's media landscape seems to encourage this somewhat, because
In a World where
executives and producers seem to believe in
Quality By Popular Vote, and because
Ratings are so important in determining what keeps getting made and what gets
canceled, it's easy for fans of one thing that might be on the verge of getting canned to resent the people who are making another work so popular (and thus keeping it on the air), as they blame those fans for their own favorite work's misfortune.
But others seem to just want to rail against fans simply because they think it makes them superior. This group is comparable to
Moral Guardians, only it's their own subjective tastes they are trying to guard. They really love to make up fake stories about how fans are
Complaining about People Not Liking the Show. These kinds of people are a big reason for some people's mentality of
He Panned It, Now He Sucks: Fan Haters are always waiting for an opportunity to pounce, and even a single negative critical opinion of something is usually enough to "justify" their "this thing is bad and you should feel bad for liking it" rants. It also contributes to
Complaining about People Not Liking the Show: because there are quite a few
Fan Haters out there, some fans mistake an honest criticism of a work for Fan Hating and get
very defensive.
It is a very odd phenomenon, because after all, different people enjoy different things. And maybe they just enjoy it for one reason or another, not because of their sexual orientation, not because of their intelligence, not because they're old or inexperienced, they just happen to like it. But chances are if you like something that's subject to fan haters, expect one of those comments to be thrown at you. It's incredibly rare (at least,
on the internet) to see someone who actually acknowledges that maybe you like different things not because you're mentally ill or homosexual or "haven't seen a 'true' something".
Of course
actually being familiar with the works people aren't supposed to like is entirely optional.
Keep in mind that it's also not required to hate the work in order to hate the fans. It's quite possible to hold indifference to or even
like a work, and still resent the fandom. Usually this occurs with fandoms that are known for being
quite rabid or
split down the middle, which can understandably grate on more
level headed fans or non-fans. In the case of non-fans, frustration with the fans is a common cause for
Hype Aversion and, when the work in question doesn't live up to the hype it was given,
Hype Backlash. More often than not, however, Fan Haters will hate both.
Contrast the inverse,
Complaining about People Not Liking the Show, where fans of a show will lambaste you for
not liking it. This activity has also been known to spawn Fan Haters, though in that case, the hate starts with the fans and spreads to the work. Also, when a fan likes the show, but is a Fan Hater toward a certain character on the show, it's a specific type of
Fan Dumb known as The Hate Monger.
Be warned some may pretend to be fan haters, but are in fact
Trolls, which some find to be worse, depending on who you are.
A
Sub Trope of
Hatedom,
Hate Dumb, and
Opinion Myopia.
Due to past messes, please avoid
Take That statements, flame bait, "This Troper" blurbs, redundancy and
redundancy.
Websites featuring lots of Fan Hating (and Hatedom):
Common forms of this trope:
open/close all folders
Anime and Manga
- Love Lucky has an in-universe example with Erika, the female lead singer of the rock band "M.I.T.", who is a self-professed hater of "normal people". This apparently arose from the way she was treated by the band's fans after she replaced the previous lead.
- Dragon Ball Z has an in-universe case of this. In one of the episodes during the Buu arc before the World Martial Arts Tournament begins, Krillin comments on how he's unsure of who is more annoying: Mr. Satan or his fans.
- During the Cell saga Krillin also admited to cheering for Cell during Cell's "fight" with Satan.
Fan Fiction
- My Immortal is basically set in a world with this as its hat. There are but three sorts of people in My Immortal-land; "goffs", "posers" and "preps". Being a "goff", which entails wearing black clothes from Hot Topic and listening to the emo bands the author likes, is the One True Path and everyone else sucks for existing. "Preps" are the unwashed masses who shop at Abercrombie & Fitch and worship Britney Spears. "Posers" are "preps" who try to be "goffic" but listen to the "wrong" music and are thus evil.
Film
- Rock fans vs. disco fans in Detroit Rock City.
- This one is based in reality. During the late 1970s there was a very real rivalry between rock fans and disco fans. The rivalry came to a head on July 12, 1979 (sometimes referred to as "the night disco died") during a baseball promotion called Disco Demolition Night
, which resulted in thousands of rock fans storming the field at Chicago's Comiskey Park to express their hatred of disco. The event made news worldwide and less than a year later disco was effectively dead in the United States and Canada (although it would remain popular in Europe for another few years). See also: Deader than Disco
- Even Roger Ebert did this once, saying: "Those who think "Transformers" (Revenge Of The Fallen) is a great or even a good film are, may I tactfully suggest, not sufficiently evolved. Film by film, I hope they climb a personal ladder into the realm of better films, until their standards improve. Those people contain multitudes. They deserve films that refresh the parts others do not reach. They don't need to spend a lifetime with the water only up to their toes."
Literature
- There's a line in American Psycho where Patrick mentions that no one should feel sympathy for the woman he's forcing into getting an abortion due to the fact that her favorite movie is Pretty In Pink and "she thinks Sting is cool."
- Rob Fleming from High Fidelity (Rob Gordon in The Movie) questions how one can be friends with people whose favorite band are Simple Minds. One of the reasons why he dislikes Ian is because of that weird ethno music he listens to. And Barry chases a potential customer out of Rob's record store because he wanted to acquire I Just Called To Say I Love You, a song from Stevie Wonder's 80s pop period.
Live-Action TV
- If you like Final Fantasy or any JRPGs, then there is a 100% chance you will be hated by Adam and Morgan of X-Play. They're also not fond of anyone who likes anime—which they in particular love to trash, most of their Fullmetal Alchemist and Dragon Ball Z game reviews are trashing the people who will flame them.
- Adam and Morgan (less and less as of late, as we might get two reviews in a week now) flame them because, as they've stated repeatedly, they get hate mail every time they review a JRPG or anime-licensed game, regardless of the actual score they give.
- This is because they don't take criticism well. Look at the fights that erupted over the Mass Effect ending. Dealing with a divisive, popular topic is going to get you some measure of hate. Hurling insults back isn't going to make it go away. Because, at the end of the day, you aren't going to remember that they gave your favorite game a 4/5, you're going to remember that they made 3 jokes about you being an obsessive cosplaying otaku virgin in the space of 2 minutes.
- In Friends, it's mentioned that Chandler once broke up with a girl because she didn't hate Yanni.
- Some random Fox affiliate (not Fox News) does not like bronies, stating they're a bunch of manchildren who quit their jobs just to watch the show.
- In Big Brother's 11th American Season, four previous players were invited as "guests" to give their insight on the current game being played. Danielle stated that she wanted Natalie to win, and held up her hand to silence the audience, who begun to boo.
- Players have taken potshots at the fans of other players (or even previous seasons) but these have never made the feeds. There was also controversy in Season 13 where Jeff had gone off on a rant, not only insulting the premise of Harry Potter but also taking a few potshots at the fans.
- In one episode of Community, Abed calls Shirley a terrible person for liking Brett Ratner's movies.
Music
Professional Wrestling
- This was Michael Cole's gimmick when he became a heel on NXT and commentary. If the fans and the IWC loved it he would hate it (such as Daniel Bryan,) and if they hated wrestling characters like Vicky Guererro he would absolutely love them, to piss off the fans.
Videogames
- The Krunch radio station from the Saints Row series is a hard rock and metal station that will frequently air this between songs:
"Do you like pop music? Go fuck yourself! 10
6.66, Krunch!"
Webcomics
- The bug of Bug has a Grinch persona that is a fan hater.
- As part of its increasing meta-ness, Act 6 of Homestuck introduces undyingUmbrage, who is basically a personification of the comic's fan haters. This includes the people who complain about their friends talking about Homestuck and trying to get them interested in it.
- This character is revealed to be a younger version of Lord English, who in the second intermission of Act 6 murdered Homestuck author Andrew Hussie.
Web Originals
- See this article from The Onion: "Man Who Enjoys Thing Informed He Is Wrong"
- The Spoony One made a series of videos talking about his hatred for Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, and Final Fantasy X-2. This has caused Noah Antwiler (who plays Spoony) to take some real backlash, with him having to point out that Spoony is a character and not everything "he" says is Noah's real opinion.
- Then things got a little worse when Noah (not Spoony) disparaged Nintendonote Saying they needs to shut the doors on all of their primary franchises, especially Zelda, which he calls an unchanging series and TRON: Legacynote Calling the movie crap and one of the worst films of 2010 and insulting anyone who liked it by saying they have low standards and are easily entertained.
- He also said that if you like Final Fantasy XIII, you are lying to yourself.
- Random DCE was known for this, especially in his early years. While he softened up in recent years, he still thinks [liking anime is beneath him.
- Yahtzee is prone to doing this and he doesn't just hate one kind of gamer - he's hated on people who like Eastern RPGs, Western RPGs, Silent Hill fans (even he admits to doing so himself - he said his Silent Hill Origins review was mostly him crying) people who like Halo, people who played Psychonauts, people who didn't play Psychonauts, console gamers, PC gamers, fans of point and click adventure games, people who own a Wii, fans of MMORPGs, Korean gamers, fans of sprite comics, fans of Control Alt Delete, fans of The Sims, Retro gamers, Indie gamers, people who hate retro, people who hate indies, Joss Whedon, anyone who likes Joss Whedon, etc. In general, it's safe to assume that Yahtzee hates everyone, and the sensitive souls who take it to heart aren't in for a good time. Unfortunately, people on The Escapist have somehow taken this mindset seriously and adopted it, and will sadly probably never ever enjoy a video game again.
- The biggest example is his Super Smash Bros review. At least 60% of the review itself was saying "I do not like fighting games so I will not show any interest in it" or hating on fans, then the following up video was fan hatred.
- The Distressed Watcher made nine videos complaining about the Star Wars prequels; he often called the fans stupid.
- Ghost does NOT like bronies.
- Black Pawn Movement is made up of a group of fans and anti-fans of the series Twilight, dealing with the most obnoxious fans on Youtube. Since the Twilight hype has died down, they have been switching to music, such as Lady Gaga, Insane Clown Posse, and Justin Bieber.
- What The Fuck Is Wrong With You: Nash has quite the beef with Bronies.
- In the Plinkett Reviews of the Star Wars Prequels he says that if you thought the prequels were "betterer" or were less "boringer" than the original then you're wrong.
- Game Show Garbage, a Wrestle Crap-type site that focuses on Game Shows, recently featured the Price is Right fan site Golden-Road.net as one of their inductions. In the article, Robert Seidelman collectively dismisses the members of the community as Fan Dumb, accusing them of having overactive Nostalgia Filters and being too quick to cry They Changed It, Now It Sucks. He also takes a milder swipe at the GSN message boards. The article eventually was toned down to be a little less harsh and remove attacks on specific members.
- Encyclopedia Dramatica also has an article bashing Golden-Road.net.
- It's pretty clear in his Turn Up The Music review that Todd in the Shadows hates Chris Brown's "Team Breezy" fans as much as (or possibly even worse than) Chris Brown himself, citing all the instances in which they wrote off the Rihanna scandal (or even worse, accused her of instigating it) and even admit that they'd let Chris Brown beat them (though he admits that at least some of the latter posts/tweets/etc are more than likely Trolls.)
Western Animation
