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"You fucking idiot! Admire me?!! You shit!!! I'm the villain in this fucking story!"
The writer has set up a satirical character. He took controversial turns and annoyed the Media Watchdog. It was worth it for the "Vision".
Then, in the writer's eyes, the loudest part of the fandom completely missed the point. They saw subtext where there was none, or else they didn't see the subtext, but only the text-text. They liked the text-text.
This is the time when the author learns about how strange a fandom can be, and sometimes starts to actively hate it.
There are many avenues to misaimed fandom. Sometimes the author's intentions seem clear to a large majority of the audience, but some group of fans doesn't "get it." Sometimes it's the other way around--the author has created a satire that most of the audience takes at face value. Sometimes the fans simply do not agree on how they want to interpret a piece, even if they aware of both "readings." And sometimes the fans will prefer a particular interpretation, even if the author is actively discouraging it (especially if the fans feel that it's done with enough style).
The less cynical among you may wish to scratch some of these up to a love of self-deprecation, as the best satire is often said to come from people who enjoy the material. After all, some people can appreciate being mocked if they're mocked cleverly; these people are simply good sports. However, those who actually like something because they don't realise that they're being mocked have become a Misaimed Fandom.
Some writers will then have said character Rape The Dog to make fandom dislike them. In addition to losing whatever subtle point the writer was originally trying to make, fans will often retaliate by pretending this moment was non-existant.
Of course fans often know what the author intended, but choose their own interpretation anyway. An author, according to this view, may unwittingly make a point or character quite at odds with their intention. The situation is somewhat similar to So Bad Its Good in that, in the final analysis, the aim of the author may not truly matter. People love Don Quixote because they see something in him that moves them; Cervantes may not have liked it, but too bad: he ceased to have total ownership over the character as soon as the stranger read his work. This is related to the idea of the ' death of the author '; the idea that the author's position as the creator of the text doesn't mean that the only interpretations of a text with merit are those belonging to the author. Similarly, the Misaimed Fandom may result as part of deficiencies of the original work: if an author writes a satire that no one realizes is a satire... well, that's not a very good satire, then, is it? Anyone who becomes a fan of the work, then, will obviously like it for different (and in the eyes of the author, wrong) reasons.
Of course, some interpretations -- and the Misaimed Fandoms that they create -- are merely just missing the point, reading too much into it or are so way out there as to be highly unlikely or even near-lunacy.
See also Draco In Leather Pants, Ensemble Darkhorse, Finagles Law. Compare Isnt It Ironic for more musical examples. Misaimed Fandom is also a frequent cause of Creator Backlash.
Examples:
Live Action TV
- Alf Garnett and Archie Bunker often got flak for this. The characters' bigotry was used to demonstrate why prejudice is bad; unfortunately, the people who needed to learn this most didn't understand it. The writers, especially on All In The Family, weren't eager to court controversy by making their main characters genuinely bigoted -- and so Archie came across as merely stubborn and ignorant instead of vicious and hateful, and the audience's sympathies turned against annoying author-proxy Meathead.
- Essentially the same applies to Al Bundy, with the added bonus of him being a supposedly Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist.
- Nathan Barley was intended as a satire of surrealism-loving internet trendies, but in the end that was the group that most enjoyed the show.
- Gene Hunt is, as Sam Tyler puts it -- "An overweight, over-the-hill, nicotine-stained, borderline-alcoholic homophobe with a superiority complex and an unhealthy obsession with male bonding" ("You make that sound like a bad thing"). Oh, and he's racist, sexist, and ableist to boot. This doesn't stop fans gravitating toward him though, perhaps because he gets the best one-liners.
- It's ironic how this quotation contains Unfortunate Implications and prejudice against overweight people, smokers, and older people.
- Part of the premise of Jimmy Mcdonald's Canada was the within-show application of this trope. Between segments, we'd see clips of either 'ordinary Canadians' or Canadian icons like then-Prime Minister Paul Martin, Don Cherry, Joe Clarke, or Paul Henderson discussing how erudite, politically savvy and influential Jimmy was, in keeping with the Mockumentary tone. Then we'd return to the actual show, where Jimmy would be spewing hatred against Automatic Teller Machines, The Beatles, or whatever it was this time.
- One word: Fonzie....
- Gul Dukat from Star Trek Deep Space Nine was built up to be sympathetic starting in about season 2 and especially in season 4, going from a cardboard cut out villain to a well-rounded character with a large family and a half-Bajoran daughter whom he brought back to Cardassia and gave up his high rank and social standing to acknowledge. However when he negotiates for Cardassia to join the Dominion in season 5, becoming truly evil again a lot of DS 9 fans felt the character was being given short shrift. Never mind that he'd always been depicted as the Star Trek equivalent of a Nazi, who had presided over a brutal occupation that featured slave labour and genocide amongst its horrific crimes against the Bajoran people
Western Animation
- Reportedly, Cartman of South Park was designed under the idea that you couldn't have an Archie Bunker character on TV now... unless he was a ludicrous little kid cartoon character. Naturally, there's dispute over why Cartman is one of the most popular kids. (Then again, Parker and Stone aren't huge fans of either the far left or the far right.)
- Similarly, Beavis And Butthead and King Of The Hill are animated satires of certain subcultures (dimwitted rock and roll loving teenagers and suburban Texans) done by Mike Judge. Both of the groups they target vocally enjoyed the very show that mocked them.
- As Patrick Stewart once aptly put it: Both the very smart and very stupid are fans of Beavis And Butthead, for very different reasons.
- In the series The Maxx, Mr. Gone is often quoted for saying "Of course I have a problem with women. Everybody has a problem with women. Because women taunt, and tease, and are attractive, and punish you for being attracted," which some fans find to be insightful and accurate. In fact, Mr. Gone is a rapist, and this attitude was intended as a representation of how a rapist thinks.
- David Slack, writer/producer of the Teen Titans animated series, has said of the character Terra, "....she's just lost. Something inside her hurts so bad, right and wrong don't matter anymore." However, rather than accept that the character was an Anti Villain of the Dark Magical Girl variety, most of the fandom divided into two opposing camps: those who saw Terra as a blameless martyr who deserved a titan's funeral, and those who saw her as a scheming sociopath who deserved to die. (Admittedly, the latter was how the original comic-book version was portrayed initially; however, the animated version is a radically different character.) When the series finale revealed that Terra was apparently alive and happily living as a normal schoolgirl with no interest in pursuing her former life, both sides of the fandom imploded (to this editor's unabashed glee), responding by writing either Fix Fic in which Terra chooses to acknowledge her former life and return to the team, or continuing to write Hate Fic featuring Terra dying in brutal fashion.
- An episode of The Powerpuff Girls called "The City of Clipsville" was a Take That to PPG fanfiction cliches Craig McCracken hated, including Powerpuff Girls/Rowdyruff Boys shipper fics. The fake Flashback showed the characters as dumb airheaded teenagers. Fandom embraced that scene and even made fanart of it.
- Many Transformers fans, especially female ones, see the relationship between Megatron and Starscream as reminiscent of a marital relationship--more specifically, an abusive marital relationship. From this perspective, Starscream is a mere victim that constantly craves Megatron's affection and admiration and constantly tries to take over the Decepticons merely to earn his respect. While it is true that Megatron repeatedly beats or mangles Starscream throughout the series, this is usually because Starscream attempted to kill him five minutes earlier and Megatron isn't exactly happy about it.
- Wall E is having this happen to it in reverse: the mass obsession over the environmental subtext seems to be drowning out the love story upon which the movie is built.
Comedian Characters
- The comedy career of Andrew Dice Clay was largely based on this; Clay had created what he thought was an obviously satirical stage persona as part of a larger act, but he started using the character of Dice exclusively when he realized that his fans were taking the character's obnoxious jokes at face value. This led to a great deal of controversy when he was asked to host Saturday Night Live -- two female cast members, neither of whom understood that the Diceman was a character, refused to work with him, and walked out on the episode.
- Sacha Baron Cohen relies extensively on this phenomenon when performing in the character of Borat -- he presents what can only be described as an over-the-top, wholly unbelievable portrayal of a backwards, anti-Semitic Central Asian reporter, expressing opinions that most people would find intolerable, and in so doing gets people to agree with those opinions.
- Similarly, Baron Cohen's Ali G character was intended as a satire of white guys trying to be black, but was ultimately worshipped by the very people it criticized.
- Not even Stephen Colbert is immune to the trope. The Tom DeLay Legal Defense Fund used a Colbert Report interview to prove that an opponent of DeLay was unable to defend the arguments -- when the interview consisted of questions like, "Who hates America more: you or Michael Moore?"
- Mark Smith hired Colbert for the White House Correspondents' Dinner without knowing much about his act, and what followed was George Bush and the media being humiliated. Colbert made fun of everything from Bush's press ops moments to his stance on global warming. He made fun of the media for not actually criticizing the Bush administrations for the lack of WMDs or its environmental concerns. The media were further criticized for glossing over Colbert's act and concentrating on only the less controversial acts.
- Harry Enfield's sketch character "Loadsamoney" was intended to be a biting parody of smug, narcissistic possessions-obsessed yuppies. Guess who became the character's biggest fans.
Anime
- Like many aspects of the show, Rei in Neon Genesis Evangelion was a Deconstruction: in her case, of the stereotypical Creepy Emotionless Girl. The result? Three words: "ZOMGF TEH REI!!!!11!1". Director Hideaki Anno took personal issue that Rei was fetishized among otaku for that exact same reason.
- Likewise in the same series, the enigmatic single-episode character Kaworu became popular, to the surprise of writers who admitted they were writing him to be unsettling to other characters. The manga (made after the anime) greatly compensates for this; for example the anvilicious scene where he puts a starving kitten out of its misery without blinking an eye, just to make his character creepier. (This has not, however, affected his much sooner planned appearance in the future remake of the show.)
- The ending of the Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch manga was supposed to insinuate that love wasn't as important as personal fulfillment, as Hanon and Rina know they will eventually have to choose to rule their kingdoms instead of stay on the surface. (This is actually analogous to the original The Little Mermaid story, except Lucia gets to keep Kaito.) Fans generally ignore this and give them future children with Nagisa and Hamasaki (Masahiro).
- Kujibiki Unbalance was a Show Within A Show in the anime Genshiken made to parody nearly every romance anime by following all of the tropes. Kujibiki Unbalance was obviously too spot on; it became a highly successful spinoff while Genshiken itself almost didn't get a second season (it was delayed almost a year). Rather than a new season of "Kujian", there has recently been announced a second Genshiken spinoff, Ramen Tenshi Pretty Menma, based on a computer game briefly mentioned in the manga -- a game criticized by the club members for not being pornographic enough.
- Some Mobile Suit Gundam fans support Zeon on the grounds that they were fighting for independence (and that they have cool uniforms), ignoring the fascist ideology that they advocated. Of course, the Federation aren't all that great, either. (Yoshiyuki Tomino hoped viewers would reject both sides' ideologies.)
- To be fair, a lot of Zeon fans are Zeon fans because it's ironic. Fans are frequently a subversive lot, and many people love a good villain with style -- like Char Aznable. That still does not excuse people from screaming "Sieg Zeon" which is based off of the rallying cry of the Nazis.
- Light Yagami of Death Note is a megalomaniac with delusions of godhood: armed with the eponymous notebook, which allows him to kill anyone as long as he has their name and face, he intends to change the world into a utopia by systematically executing society's worst offenders, figuring that eventually humanity will realize that someone is "passing judgement upon the wicked". A disturbing number of people agree with Light's ideology, conveniently ignoring his intention to eventually establish a draconian state where even being lazy marks you for death, as well as his numerous Rape The Dog moments involving the betrayal and murder of people who committed no crime apart from inconveniencing his scheme. He does at one point mention he's willing to kill an entire stadium of people just to protect himself. Did we mention that he killed his father without any guilt? So Yeah.
- This exact behavior is also exhibited by many characters in the series itself, and the Kira soon becomes a national sensation with hundreds of websites and such devoted to him. One site seemed to take suggestions for Kira, and a high-school girl asked him to "kill everyone."
- On a similar note, L is pretty much the anti-Bishonen: his black hair is shaggy and grossly unkempt, he dresses like a bum and is completely insensitive, laconic, emotionally comatose and devoid of social skills, and his eating habits would kill a man in a couple of years... in short, something the fangirls would absolutely goddamn hate. Guess who are the bulk of L's fandom...
- Ouran High School Host Club was intended to make fun of the school romance/bishounen harem genre, and it includes many common character and plot tropes; however, many fans don't seem to realize or care that the tropes are not being played straight. Then again, many fangirls are capable of autoderision. It's not like Ouran is too serious anyway.
- With Serial Experiments Lain, producer Yasuyuki Ueda hoped to stir a "cultural war" (seriously) between traditional Japanese and American values, due to the latter's perceived negative influence on post-WWII Japan, and was instead left disappointed when the Americans interpreted it the same as the Japanese.
- Here's an interesting example in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. Series director Mitsuo Fukuda insists that Shinn and Durandal were 'acting for the good of the world', despite the fact that the Destiny Plan is, in fact, a sugar-coated dictatorship in which people are forced to do what their genes say they're better at... and despite the fact that Durandal had a weapon of mass destruction he was going to wipe out an entire nation and its inhabitants with. Most fans, this troper included, keep being supportive of Kira, Lacus and Terminal, while admitting they're not completely blameless, and despite the fact Fukuda claims they have 'strayed from the path of justice'. Of course, when someone says that "the very structure of the world has to be changed in order for mankind to survive", it is hard to take him seriously.
- This troper doesn't have a copy of the interview available, but after asking around, it seems that what Fukuda actually said was that Kira had "somewhat strayed from the path of justice", and that Shin was intended to be the protagonist. It seems that some people have exaggerated this into him saying that Shin was the hero and Kira the villain.
- Oh, but it gets worse. I have seen some people claiming that Blue Cosmos were the good guys! Apparently, in their point of view, it was alright to slaughter all Coordinators because, since their genes had been tampered with, they were dangerous and not human.
- According to series creator Kazuki Takahashi, the main point of Yu-Gi-Oh! was intended to be friendship. Unfortunately, the children's card game element got out of control and is now the most dominant aspect of the franchise.
- Also, Anzu Mazaki is famous for her "friendship speeches" in the second series of the anime. Guess which character is the most bashed by the fangirls.
- Ironically, {{4 Kids TV}} in the case of dubbing Yu-Gi-Oh GX, when it started (intentionally or not) imitating the humor of the parody Yu-Gi-Oh The Abridged Series -- a series that fans watch because it makes fun of the Macekre 4 Kids is famous for.
Literature
- Professor Snape and Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter series of books and films have been held up as objects of romantic and sexual desire, much to the befuddlement of J.K. Rowling, who intended for both to be utterly repulsive. Likewise, the idea of "blood purity" has been mistreated, with fans reacting as though it was much better to be a "Pureblood" than "Muggle-born" or a "mudblood" (one recurring trope in fanfiction has the brilliant Muggle-born Hermione turning out to be adopted and "really a pureblood"), although it's clear from an even moderately attentive reading of the series that Rowling intended to show bigotry against Muggle-borns as directly analogous to racial prejudice, and coined "mudblood" as a slur on par with "nigger". (no Moral Guardians editing please)
- It can be argued that the movies are partly to blame for this. Before, people used their imagination to picture the characters and fully absorbed Rowling's vision of just how nasty Snape and Draco are. But then the movies came, and the characters were played charismatically by Alan Rickman and Tom Felton. Now even more fans love them, much to Rowling's chagrin.
- JKR herself isn't immune to this, as she has recently admitted her mental image of Snape altered from the greasy-haired, homely misanthrope of the earlier books until the Snape of the latter books more closely resembled Alan Rickman's Snape.
- Somewhat justified, as although mudblood status appears to have no impediment to one's morality or skill, being a straight up muggle makes you an evil, vile, cruel bastard. Even the Prime Minister is kind of an ass, but is too terrified to tell anyone about what he sees.
- Miguel de Cervantes, a Spanish satirist who took it upon himself to lampoon and ridicule heroic stories of knights-errant that were popular in his day, invented the character Don Quixote de la Mancha as a systematic deconstruction of the archetype, turning the valiant and noble Knight Errant into a pathetic laughingstock. One can only imagine his chagrin, were he to see how enduring, how widespread, and how devout the fandom for this character has grown. Many fans genuinely admire and respect Don Quixote, even treating him as a symbol of idealism unassailable, quite at odds with the derogatory flavor of the original stories. Quixote makes this trope one of The Oldest Ones In The Book.
- Arguably, this is less an effect of misinterpreting the character and more an effect of societal change over time; we've grown more attached to, well, quixotic heroes. The modern musical Man of La Mancha took this to the logical conclusion, portraying Quixote as not merely right but actively heroic in the face of a grey and unjust world.
- Cervantes became aware of it during his lifetime, which is why he wrote a second part to the work in which Quixote explicitly repudiates all his ideals of chivalry -- even as other characters start to accept them.
- Of course, the fact that a normal person today actually knows of Don Quixote but none of the stories it parodies has a pretty big effect, too...
- Another classic example: John Milton's portrayal of Satan in Paradise Lost was intended to show exactly how corrupt a heavenly being could become; to paraphrase Neil Gaiman, when an angel goes bad, he goes worse than any human being ever could. Unfortunately, in Milton's text, Lucifer can come off to the careless reader (one who misses the bit where Satan gets his daughter pregnant) as a Bad Ass Anti Hero swearing vengeance against an unjust Deity.
- Some scholars have theorized that this wasn't entirely unintentional; Milton worked for Oliver Cromwell and knew from experience what it felt like to be on the failed end of a rebellion. He clearly sympathizes with Satan, giving him a number of very eloquent inner monologues that express doubt over his actions, even if he doesn't intend him to be a true hero.
- It should also be noted that the whole Satan impregnating his daughter bit was meant to be extremely symbolic; his "daughter" was Sin and their "son" was Death. Both Sin and Death were present before Satan even knew that either existed, born out of his emotions (and the schemes of the less than sympathetic Almighty), rather than through the *ahem* traditional way. In whole, the main reason why Satan is the most sympathic character in the work is because he's the only character with any depth. Everybody else, God included, is a mere statist in the Devil's strife and fall.
- Considering how much debate there is over this subject in scholarly circles, it may be a bit harsh to call this type of fandom misaimed (especially when the likes of William Blake are among them). The misaimed ones are those who uncritically praise Milton's Satan as an antihero while ignoring his frequent Rape the Dog (or Rape His Own Daughter - why isn't that a wikiword yet?) moments.
- Point of order: Death raped Sin (repeatedly), but by her own account her sex with Satan was consensual.
- Lolita's Humbert Humbert, and, to a lesser extent, Clare Quilty, although most can't forgive their pedophilia, are usually seen as sympathetic characters due to Nabokov's three-dimensional characterizations. Nabokov himself didn't share this opinion. And then there are those who sympathize a little bit more...
- Nabokov did allow Humbert a very small sliver of sympathy, or at least pity-- comparing him with the murderous Hermann of Despair, he wrote, "Both are neurotic scoundrels, yet there is a green lane in Paradise where Humbert is permitted to wander at dusk once a year; but Hell shall never parole Hermann."
- Chance The Gardener, the main character of Being There, was subject to this. As Jerzy Kosinski explained to Time, he wrote Chance only as a victim/result of a style-over-substance world; "He is the creation of my concern, not my sympathy or empathy." But actor Peter Sellers identified with Chance's helpless fate to be only what others wanted him to be; he also saw his journey as a metaphorical triumph of the meek. His performance as Chance in the resultant film was so sympathetic and empathetic audiences were happy to see him rise to power and less concerned with the Unfortunate Implications of it, which bothered Kosinski - though he admitted that Sellers did brilliantly make Chance a "real" person. The good news is that with Kosinski's concerns becoming more relevant with time, his intended message arguably comes through clearer now, and Sellers' performance helps keep the film from coming across as an Author Filibuster. (This troper notes that Chance, in any case, isn't a bad person, and how he's completely misunderstood - and unaware that no one knows and loves his true self - is rather sad.)
- The Iron Dream, an Alternate History novel by Norman Spinrad, presents itself as a work of literary criticism about a fantasy novel -- "Lord of the Swastika" -- written by a version of Adolf Hitler who left Germany in 1919. Norman Spinrad's intent was to portray the similarities between fantasy tropes (such as Always Chaotic Evil) and the beliefs that facilitated many Real Life horrors. Ironically, the American Nazi Party put the book on its recommended reading list, despite the satirical intent of the work. In Spinrad's own words:
To make damn sure that even the historically naive and entirely unselfaware reader got the point, I appended a phony critical analysis of Lord of the Swastika, in which the psychopathology of Hitler's saga was spelled out by a tendentious pedant in words of one syllable.
Almost everyone got the point...
And yet one review appeared in a fanzine that really gave me pause. 'This is a rousing adventure story and I really enjoyed it,' the gist of it went. 'Why did Spinrad have to spoil the fun with all this muck about Hitler?'
- The book can be interpreted in yet a third way: it's a satire on "you can prove your idea is good by writing a book where, by authorial fiat, your idea works". The Iron Dream shows the absurdity of that by presenting a situation where the writer is Hitler and the idea he's "proving" is racial inferiority. This interpretation recognizes the satirical nature of the book yet reads it in a way contradicting the author's intentions; after all, Spinrad himself was trying to prove an idea (militaristic fiction is fascist) by writing a book where that idea is true.
- Isaac Asimov's short story The Fun They Had is about two children who hate the future version of school, which is computerized, individual instruction directly tailored to the needs of each child. They find an ancient book that describes school as it is today, and imagine "the fun they had." Asimov intended it to be ironic; he hated school as a child because the classes were paced for less able students and he did not get along with his teachers. Many people, though, miss the intended irony (having forgotten just how bad school is) and take the story's concluding sentence at face value. It's even appeared in elementary school readers, presumably to get kids to appreciate school...
- This troper read the story in a middle school reader and took it at face value. I think it actually did help me to appreciate school more, given that I spent a lot of time in middle school at home with a book, and I realized how lonely I probably would have been if I didn't have to get out an interact with other kids in a school setting.
- Rich, white, WASPy types who like The Great Gatsby so much that they even throw Gatsby-themed parties -- without realizing that the book is a satire of the culture that they inhabit.
- The relationship between Almasy and Katherine in The English Patient is a dangerous, destructive obsession that ends up claiming not only both of their lives, but the life of Katherine's husband as well. Yet it's held up by many as one of the greatest love stories of its time, perhaps due the the film adaptation glorifying the affair more than it was in the book.
- Kurt Vonnegut's SF short story "Harrison Bergeron" is a frightening picture of the future in which the state has taken quite literally the line from the Declaration of Independence about all men being created equal, and mandated federal laws that forbid anyone from being smarter, more attractive, or more physically capable than anyone else; various penalties have been instituted to ensure compliance (e.g. radios that prevent the smart from thinking and weights that prevent the strong from being graceful). Most people see it as a cry for respect for the rights and talents of the individual. Vonnegut originally intended it as a sarcastic caricature of what right-wing pundits and philosophers, like Ayn Rand, thought America would become if the Communists took over. One can easily blame his evocative descriptions for his readers Completely Missing The Point.
- Junichiro Tanizaki's Naomi (written back in 1920s) was supposed to be a criticism of Western influences against Japanese tradition. However, many women who read it began to emulate the main female character (becoming independent, fashionable, and non-traditional, like the Flappers of the era) instead of understanding the author's intent.
- Frankenstein. Due to countless adaptations, most people are now convinced this is a story about not playing God. Furthermore, in the film Bride of Frankenstein, an actress playing Mary Shelley actually says that it was. The original book was about taking responsibility for your actions, and most of Frankenstein's rants about fate and playing God were just him trying to justify the fact that he abandoned a helpless, newborn creature.
- Heathcliff, of Wuthering Heights, is widely perceived as a romantic hero, frequently mentioned in the same breath as Darcy and Rochester. However, anyone who has read and understood the book cannot fail to perceive that he is in fact a violent, twisted sociopath, and, furthermore, was always intended by Bronte to be so.
- Not to mention that, if you read between the lines, it's possible that Heathcliff is Catherine's bastard half-brother. Which just gives their already creepy relationship so much more squick.
- While not quite the same thing, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle was written as a socialist piece to show the plight of industrial workers. But, due to Sinclair's disturbingly graphic descriptions of what was going into the nation's meat, the government stepped in and created the FDA and passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, which requires ingredient listings on all foodstuffs.
- This troper is greatly disturbed by the response of some fans to The Secret History's central character, Henry Winter. She has read more than a few gushing about how 'perfect' he is, how he's ideal boyfriend material ... We're talking about a man who organises a bacchanal and accidentally kills someone, murders one of his friends, is planning to kill another of his friends before he decides to commit suicide ... How is this appealing, in any way whatsoever? 'Cold blooded psycho' is the description you're looking for.
Comic Books
- The DC Comics character Lobo started as an overt parody of the Nineties Anti Hero. Ironically, he evolved from parody to the real thing, and was later be featured in the Marvel/DC crossover book with Wolverine. Considering Lobo was partly based on him, some fans felt he was being taken too seriously, while others shouted that he wasn't being taken seriously enough (since Wolverine beat him).
- Rorschach from Watchmen was intended to be a subversion of grim, vaguely sociopathic anti-heroes, such as the version of Batman introduced in The Dark Knight Returns. However, his troubled life story, his (insanely) strict moral code, along with his lack of social graces (hygiene, etc.), his inner strength in his crusade that gives his life purpose in the face of a bleak future, and his frequently ridiculous conspiracy-mongering, earned him the sympathy of the readers. His personality eventually became a major influence on the portrayal of The Question, the hero of whom Rorschach was a Captain Ersatz, in Justice League Unlimited, though thankfully it was more about being a crazy cospiracy theorist (who was actually partially right) then being a genuinely batshit insane Knight Templar.
- The comic-book Question, on the other hand, had a brief story where he actually read Watchmen, noted Rorschach's similarity to himself, and decided to give the former's methods a try. It ended up with an escaped criminal, a badly bruised Question, and the conclusion "Rorschach sucks," something of a Take That to everyone who missed the point.
- Similarly, a number of 2000AD readers seemed to miss the satire of Judge Dredd and thought that this sort of extreme law enforcement sounded like a good thing. For that matter, so did Sylvester Stallone in interviews concerning The Movie. Because clearly a 6 month - 2 year sentence for littering will solve America's problems.
- This happened to R. Crumb a lot. Most notably his iconic "Keep On Truckin'" character/pose, which was adopted by many rock-loving hippies as their "mascot" as it were. The truth was Crumb was making fun of rock music lovers, who in his eyes were doing "The Dance of Cultural Death" as he put it. He even explained it in a comic in The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book, and told his (probably now disillusioned) hippie fans: "KEEP ON TRUCKIN', SCHMUCKS!". (This was followed by Mr. Natural remarking: "Don't forget, Bob, that it was the compassion, the loving forgiveness, that they found so appealing in your cartoons, that made you so popular, that got you laid, that earned you a living. Keep it in mind!")
- And let's not even start about his satirical race-related comics. (There's a very thin line between parodying racism and actually being racist.)
- Darby Conley's Get Fuzzy has attracted a moderately sized vegan high school and collegiate fanbase due to numerous appearances of the organization's apparel. The catch? Bucky uses PETA as a shield for misbehaving under the guise of a revolt against whatever stick is up his butt during that installment, while Satchel is too dumb to know what they're really all about. This troper apologizes for the lack of links, but this isn't official support from the organization themselves, just many younger members without enough English courses under their belt to recognize the mockery of their hijinks. Will usually occur on forums, blogs, journals, or in news commentary box debates.
- Jhonen Vasquez repeatedly takes pages out of his Johnny The Homicidal Maniac and Squee series, in order to Take That to various people he feels are enjoying his comic for the wrong reason, especially one extended story in the former (about a serial killing fanboy of Johnny's). Note to authors... if you feel the need to explain why the reader shouldn't be enjoying your work in the way they do... you're doing it wrong.
- Inverted by the infamous Chick Tracts - readers are supposed to agree with everything the protagonists say, but there is a significant "fandom" that finds the over-the-top nature unintentionally hilarious. In addition, on first reading them many people assume that they are intended as a parody rather than being serious.
- Satirical depictions of politicans are almost inevitably popular with their targets (with the notable exception of Steve Bell's take on former Prime Minister John Major.) Often they will contact the cartoonist, or the paper it was published in, to ask for a copy or the original, probably thinking it's better if people are making fun of you than just ignoring you. Ralph Steadman declared he would only depict politician's arses to prevent this.
- Embracing the satirist (or impressionist) is an intelligent tactic most politicians should at least pretend to embrace. Laugh along with the scorn and you're the fun-loving dude who can laugh at himself. Express distaste, even at an awful, unfunny portrayal, and you're the scowling buzzkill with a stick up your ass.
- In recent years especially, Marvel Comics supervillains Doctor Doom and Magneto have developed fanbases who seem determined to completely overlook the fact that these guys are actually supposed to be the villains, to the extent that it's not uncommon to see slogans such as 'Doom is Right!' or 'Magneto is Right!' used entirely seriously. Given that one is a ruthless and scheming Evil Overlord almost completely driven by a fanatical need to prove himself superior to everyone else in the world and an unjustified and over-the-top grudge against his old college rival, and the other is a fanatical Knight Templar mutant supremacist who -- for all that he's a Well Intentioned Extremist at best -- at the very least wants to reduce humanity to a second-class slave race ruled entirely by a mutant elite, and both have seriously contemplated and implemented near-genocidal plans of world domination to achieve their ends, the level of admiration that these two get at times seems a bit... wrong. Granted, both characters are written and intended as being deliberately complex and three-dimensional with understandable and in many ways sympathetic motivations and backstories, as opposed to being mere one-dimensional stock villains, and both are Magnificent Bastards who have had more than one Crowning Moment Of Awesome, but a lot of people seem to forget that ultimately they're still pretty bad guys.
- To be fair, Marvel's tendency of turning many of it's main heroes into what are essentially Designated Heroes over recent years doesn't exactly help matters; when your supervillains start coming off as being more reasonable and sympathetic than your superheroes, you're doing something wrong.
- To be even more fair, what kind of loser wouldn't want to be ruled by ''Doom''?
- The rapid transformation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into the sort of merchandise-driven juggernaut it was originally meant to be parodying had a lot to do with this; the creators and later licensees seem to have simply decided to run with the misaimed version instead of trying to fight it.
Web Comics
Film
- Extreme example: There is a sequence in the movie version of Pink Floyd's The Wall where Pink hallucinates that he is a fascist leader, leading a vicious army of skinheads. This scene is meant as a look at the relationship between a performer and his fans... but a group of Real Life white supremacists didn't get the joke and based themselves off the scene, adopting the crossed-hammers symbol of Pink's army and dubbing themselves the "Hammerskins".
- Even the album is based off of was largely influenced by misaimed fandom, as Roger Waters (Pink Floyd's bassist and leader) once stated in an interview. During the tour for Animals, members of the audience were so crazed that a mesh fence had to be erected between the stage and seats, creating a literal wall. (It was not lost by Waters) In one incident, a fan climbed up to the fence, Waters insulted and spat on him...and the fan went nuts. Not mad, but happy. Waters pretty much decided that a metaphysical wall existed, and started working on the album.
- Fight Club comes to condemn its themes of fascist nihilism, but in a manner that makes it easy to miss after depicting them as cool. "That's awesome, let's start our own fight club! The first rule of Project Mayhem..." The movie also has a great deal of straight-takeable misogynistic themes, which are intended to be the views of an Unreliable Narrator to highlight the main character's warped views of women.
- Team America: World Police has a cheerfully jingoistic theme song, "America, Fuck Yeah". If you didn't think that some people were going to take it seriously, you're clearly not cynical enough. (If you are that cynical, the movie made fun of you, too.)
- Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby remains extremely popular with NASCAR fans, despite the fact it was made specifically to mock both them and the sport itself. Apparently, rednecks have a wider-ranging sense of humor than some people give them credit for.
- Thank you!
- This editor disagrees that this one is mis-aimed, and doubts that NASCAR fans have missed what's obvious to everyone else. Pieces that exist as parodies are generally only funny to the people who are familiar enough with the subject matter to get the joke. It's the same reason fans of Star Trek are more likely to enjoy a movie like Galaxy Quest or Trekkies, or RPG players to appreciate something like Gamers, than would someone who didn't have enough familiarity with the original to understand what's being poked fun at-- even though they're the butt of the joke, albeit in an affectionate way. NASCAR fans, like any fans, presumably know there are some things about their fandom that are funny or mock-able. I suspect NASCAR fans enjoy this movie as an in-joke and like it because it relates to them, rather than them missing the purpose behind it. I think this one is a "maybe" at best, and more likely doesn't apply.
- Gordon Gekko from Wall Street was supposed to represent the worst excesses of the 1980s, but many people took him as a role model, taking his famous "Greed is Good" speech at face value. (Interestingly, because the movie is set in 1985, Gordon Gekko may not have actually broken any laws -- the writers Did Not Do The Research.)
- Jarhead [1] includes a scene in which the marines cheer for Apocalypse Now [2]. On the commentary track, it is noted that marines never see anti-war movies as such.
- Hard Candy is meant to be an indictment of the ridiculous pedophile scare, inspired by manipulative girl gangs in Japan, by taking one such young believer's fanaticism to ridiculous heights for emotional instead of financial reasons. However, due to both characters being equally protagonistic and antagonistic at the same time, going back and forth in their cat and mouse game, almost nobody took it that way. In fact some believed the 14-year-old to be the protagonist and totally justified in what she did, including the actress portraying her! There's even an "Internet Safewatch" group which uses the 14 year old's hoody as its logo/mascot. How twisted is that?
- This Troper doesn't think it was meant to be an indictment, so much as ambiguous. Merely reversing the predator/prey relationship does not actually have a built-in moral judgement. It also makes sense that Ellen Page sides with her character, as many actors who play villains find the righteous side of them. No one thinks they're the villain.
- Scarface is meant to be a denouncement of the violent gangster film, with Tony Montana becoming estranged from his closest companions and dying ultimately. That hasn't stopped him from gaining many fans. It probably doesn't help that Tony is gunned down by a rival drug lord punishing him for the protection of innocent lives, as opposed to an agent of the law carrying out a judicially-mandated death sentence.
- In fact, most violent gangster films are denouncements of violent gangsters.
- The 1932 version of Scarface, on which the 1983 movie is based, is even more unsympathetic toward its main character. Tony Camonte is killed by cops, and the film's subtitle is "The Shame of the Nation". This version of Tony doesn't have quite as much of an ironic fandom, but he did get onto the AFI's list of the 100 greatest villains.
- Requiem For A Dream both caught flak for being so "pro-drug" and has also been repeatedly described as "the greatest anti-drug movie ever made". Clearly, someone is missing something here.
- Considering that all four of the drug addicts whom the movie follows ultimately end up as miserable failures whose hopes and dreams are slowly and agonizingly pulled apart and destroyed as a result of their addictions spiraling further and further out of control and without exception are doomed to miserable, soul-destroying lives involving imprisonment, prostitution, psychosis and, in one case, having a septic, rotting arm amputated because it was infected from the character doing too much heroin, this editor suspects that it was those who consider it 'pro' drug-use who weren't paying very close attention.
- Trainspotting was also critised for glamourising drugs. Fishing in "The worst toilet in Scotland?" Soiling your girlfriend's parents bedsheets? Dead baby? Actually screwing your life up? Yeah, that's real glamorous.
- Similarly, Leaving Las Vegas was criticized for glamorizing alcoholism. Apparently these people missed the bit where the protagonist decides he's going to drink himself to death, and does.
- What about all those Sith/Empire fans? There are Fascist organizations like Emperor's Hammer set in the Star Wars. And leave us not even get started on the Mandalorians...
- Many, many mobster movies, such as The Godfather, Goodfellas, Casino and Scarface?. Far too many people see the big houses, beautiful women, expensive cars and fancy suits and think of the protagonists as "men of honor". Naturally they completely forget that the characters are thieves, murderers and drug dealers who lose everything and everybody close to them by the end.
- Worse still in that some of these movies are based on real events. Jimmy deciding in Goodfellas that he'd rather kill his accomplices in the Lufthansa heist than split the money with them becomes decidely more repugnant when you realize that's what really happened.
- Taxi Driver has Robert DeNiro trying to kill a presidential candidate. Well, some guy watched the movie many times, got obsessed with Jodie Foster, and after many attempts to contact her, decided to impress her by shooting President Reagan...
- In Pixar's Cars (which believe it or not has a small but dedicated fandom), the Deliquent Road Hazards were meant to be a gang of dislikable street punks, to the point that the animators modeled them after tastelessly modified "ricer" cars. Strangely enough, the fandom completely fell in love with them, making enough fan art and fanfiction centering around them to impress even the most hardened internet warrior.
- Many of the great Slasher Movie killers (Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, etc) have developed intense fan-bases and have become arguably the protagonists of the movies which are made about them - this despite the fact that they are, to a man, psychotic, depraved and in many cases literally demonic serial killers who are almost all very very weird when it comes to sex... Then again, considering the annoying teen stereotypes they butcher, Designated Antagonist seems more and more fitting by the day.
- Joseph Goebbels, in response to Fritz Lang's M, endorsed it as "Promoting capital punishment." One wonders if he actually watched the film or just once heard a vague description of it that sounded good to him, as in the film, the endorsers of capital punishment are unfeeling, self-centered criminals who are portrayed as wrong for wanting to kill a man who is compelled to his heinous actions by insanity, and thus not responsible for them. Of course, this initial positive response didn't stop it from being banned and co-opted for propaganda purposes.
- While Fritz Lang was himself against the death penalty, one of the reasons that film is so good is that it avoids anviliciousness, and instead plays up all the subtle contradictions, making it seem very ambiguous. The film ends before Peter Lorre's character is actually sentenced. Goebbels was certainly not the first person, nor the last, to see the film as "obviously" supporting one view or the other.
- The film's original title was "Murders Among Us", which did not go over well with the Nazis. As Fritz Lang put it, "They [the Nazis] worried that the villains would be thinly disguised characters that the audience would recognize as Nazis. So I told them that, no, I was dealing with a child murderer, and they said 'Ja, ja, go ahead, Herr Lang.' The pigs."
- Falling Down deals with a man who snaps because of the pressures of his life, and goes on a rampage either injuring people, causing their deaths or wrecking their place if they're rude to him or try to rip him off. Despite the character's disproportionate reaction to his inconveniences and his obvious mental problems, some people who watched the movie see him as a blameless hero.
- Spoiler: He also sees himself that way. During his confrontation with the Robert Duvall character at one point he stops and says "wait - I'm the bad guy here?"
- The film Rollerball found its biggest success among people who were excited only by the actual rollerball scenes, a ridiculously violent sport that is the centerpiece of the movie's satire of a society increasingly desensitized to violence (another scene features people at a party blowing off steam by taking a flamethrower to some trees). Some sports people even asked the filmmakers' permission to create an actual rollerball league.
Video Games
- Lezard Valeth from Valkyrie Profile was written to be as repulsive as possible, a sexually deviant stalker and violator of natural laws; like Harry Potter grown up terribly, terribly wrong. Some fans eat his character up, and pair him with the heroine of the first game.
- Silent Hill 2 shows many misogynistic themes, perfectly summed up in the scene where a large, muscular man-monster is shown raping a creature composed of a pair of sexy legs, with another pair of sexy legs in place of an upper body. This was interpreted by many to mean that sexual objectification is cool and edgy, which was met with either approval or disapproval. It was actually intended as psychological symbolism of the main character's masculinity issues.
- Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII is a megalomaniacal Big Bad who spends most of the game on a murderous killing spree (including famously and brutally slaying a beloved main character), pausing only to mock and psychologically manipulate the main character, but he does it with such style and is such a Badass White Haired Pretty Boy that fans lap it up and have turned him into a Draco In Leather Pants (see that entry for more). Prequel games portraying him as sympathetic before he went sociopathically insane have not helped, though for this troper the fact that he was basically a decent, no-nonsense dutiful soldier type before only highlights how irredeemably far he fell.
- Objectivists who like BioShock and think Andrew Ryan was right about everything [[cn]]. That is all.
- The browser game You Have To Burn The Rope is really a parody of the idea that a short game with simple, spoonfed puzzles could become a phenomenon just because it has a quirky song at the end (while this troper disagrees strongly with this opinion, it's certainly the point the developer was trying to make). Thing is, You Have To Burn The Rope ended up becoming a phenomenon because it's short, has a simple, spoonfed puzzle and a quirky song at the end.
- This troper knows members of the fandom who absolutely adore Kingdom Hearts for it's biting satire on The Power Of Friendship, the power of heart, and all that Disney/Shonen stands for. Then again, these same folks think that well written Slash Fic are parodies of the much more common poorly written ones.
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has a disturbing penchant (on this wiki, at least) for some fans to exalt Mewt as a saint and decry Marche as a thug stepping on the dreams of his friends.
- Super Robot Wars is what happens when Misaimed Fandom has the money to make games based on this. Gai from Nadesico can survive, ignoring the entire point of his death, Shinji Ikari can be a badass, and most deaths can be removed by meeting certain conditions. The main reason is that the SRW series is an idealistic series frequently dealing with cynical anime.
- This editor admits it: he felt sorry for Bellamont in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Even though he had a huge Rape The Dog moment when he brutally tortures and kills fan-favorite character (especially with the ladies) Lucien, then hangs him in the house the player is sent to meet him at, the fact that Lucien Raped The Dog first, when he killed Bellamont's mother and drove him insane, not to mention that I never liked Lucien anyway, cemented Bellamont as The Woobie instead of the Knight Templar he was intended as in my mind.
Music
- Type O Negative have pretty much built their entire career upon misaimed fandom. That, or the Goths who listen to goth rock that parodies the goth scene (songs like "Black No. 1") have a penchant for self-parody.
- For what it's worth, this troper (who does have long hair, wears entirely too much black, and has worn out a VHS tape of The Crow) has never found many goths out of high school who take themselves very seriously.
- The Dire Straits/Sting song "Money For Nothing" featured prominently on MTV when it began, despite it being noticeably anti-MTV.
- The first video MTV ever played was "Video Killed The Radio Star" by the Buggles. There's nothing wrong with accepting criticism.
- The song "Every Breath You Take" is done in the style of a charming love song, but listening closely to the lyrics makes it clear that the singer is a very creepy Stalker With A Crush. However, many people actually think of it as a genuine romantic love song. So much so that this troper has heard it played at weddings.
- The Police seem to have a thing for creepy ideas of "love." In addition to the above song, this contributor remembered hearing "Don't Stand So Close to Me" the first couple of times, and rather liking its tune until paying closer attention to the words.
- One of Green Day's bigger mainstream hits, a surprisingly moving ballad, has been heard playing at everything from proms to weddings to graduations. Never mind the fact that the song is about a messy break-up (specifically, Green Day's messy breakup from hardcore punk fans who insisted that any sort of mainstream success is "selling out") or, more pointedly, that it sports the title "Good Riddance".
- It's likely that most listeners think the title is "I Hope You Had the Time of Your Life", based upon the refrain. This is exemplified by one of those anecdotes that's just too good not to be true: Apparently a serious dramatic television series was going to finish off a particularly sad story arc about a minor character dying by having his friend sing the song at his funeral. And so the script read, "Everyone is crying, Joe walks up to the podium, looks sadly at Bob's body, and starts to sing, Good Riddance".
- Admittedly, the title doesn't really have anything to do with the actual song, if I remember correctly. Billie Joe said something in an interview about slapping that name on because he felt that without it it was too straightforward.
- On the topic of "love" songs, this troper gets a kick every time he hears somebody dedicate Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" to their loved ones. Either they realize that the song is about leaving somebody, or they don't. Either way, it makes the annoying wail almost bearable.
- Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" was/is seen by many as a Reagan-era patriotic anthem, when it is about Vietnam veterans having been perceived as unemployable.
- As a matter of fact, the Reagan administration approached Springsteen to endorse Ronnie in the 1984 elections. Springsteen refused.
- Somewhat along the same lines as the above, Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World" is often thought of as a patriotic celebration of life in the free world. However, the lyrics pointedly critique the socioeconomic state of America circa George H. W. Bush's presidency, addressing topics such as homelessness and drug addiction.
- Pearl Jam's "Betterman" is a song about a woman rationalizing her place in an abusive relationship. And yet at any given concert performance, you can see couples lovingly singing it to one another, and on at least one occasion, a man proposing to his girlfriend during the song. Because paying attention to the lyrics is for chumps.
- "Waltzing Matilda" is about a guy who steals a sheep and then drowns himself when the police come after him. A significant number of Australians think it should be the country's national anthem (maybe it has something to do with the country's traditional anti-authoritarianism).
- Not to be confused with "The band played Waltzing Matilda", which is about parades on ANZAC day, and probably the most patriotic song about the pointlessness of war this editor has ever heard.
- This Australian troper would just like to mention that almost every person she knows over the age of about 13 understands that "Waltzing Matilda" is actually quite depressing, but generall
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