TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Fan Flattering
(aka: Flattering The Fans)

Go To

"You're so much better and you're so different,
you don't believe in what they do.
I know you are one of us."
Blutengel, "Angels of the Dark"

This is about a work making a claim that its fans are better than other people. It's beside the point whether the author actually believes this, whether the author actually expects the fans to believe it, and whether the fans actually believe it: These three issues are separate from this trope as well as from one another. When the author doesn't believe the message but chose to do it anyway, it sometimes takes the form of an ironic Backhanded Compliment.

Compare Pandering to the Base, The Player Is the Most Important Resource.

Inverted accidentally with This Loser Is You, and deliberately with Take That, Audience! and You Bastard!.


Examples

    open/close all folders 

    Comic Books 
  • Chick Tracts: Those who read the tracts and agree with them go to heaven. All Christians who disagree with the tracts (most Christians), as well as all non-Christians, go to hell.
  • Stan Lee often plays with this in his addresses to Marvel Comics readers as "True Believers!"
  • 2000 AD editorials often have Tharg the Mighty praising the readers for being able to handle a level of Thrill-Power that most people can't.

    Literature 
  • The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster: The book claims that followers of pastafari don't consider themselves superior, since they aren't self-righteous bastards like everyone else... wait, what?
  • In the acknowledgements for Twilight: Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer states that "I firmly believe that my fans are the most attractive, intelligent, exciting, and dedicated fans in the whole world."

    Live Action TV 
  • Community: In an interview, Joel McHale said "We have the best, most attractive and intelligent fans in the world."

    Music 
  • Alabama – "The Fans," a 1986 album track on the group's first Greatest Hits album, a heartfelt "thank you" to the fans that made them country music's top musical act of the 1980s.
  • One of the best examples of the Bubblegum Pop era is one the Backstreet Boys' most well-known songs, "Larger Than Life"; despite the video having been some trippy space opera theme, the song itself is nothing more than one gigantic Shout-Out to their fans. For example, this is the chorus... in its entirety: All you people, can't you see, can't you see / How your love's affecting our reality? / Every time we're down / You can make it right / And that makes you larger than life. The opening verse even all but apologizes for being completely terrified when girls went screaming after them.
  • Jackson Browne – "The Load Out/Stay," the 9-minute magnus opus whose first part – "The Load Out" – includes at its end a special Shout-Out to the fans who help make life easier and worth the months on the road for him, his band, crew of roadies and everyone else in his entourage. The song bridges into "Stay" (a slightly reworded cover of the old Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs song), where Browne wishes that incredible live concert shows such as the one he was at (when he originally recorded the song, live in concert, in late 1977) could last forever ... all because of the fans.
  • Lady Gaga arguably has a bit of this in "Born This Way"; possibly a bit of a Justified Trope in that case though, as the song is about accepting yourself for who you are instead of trying to conform to society's restrictive ideals. Definitely Played Straight in her Monster Ball tour though, and probably genuinely meant, when she declared the event was to be a celebration of, basically, all of them being freaks together.
  • Manowar: Several lyrics claim that Man O War fans are better than other people, more metal than other people. Wimps and posers, leave the hall.
  • Buck Owens: His 1967 single "It Takes People Like You To Make People Like Me." In a twist of irony, the song peaked at No. 2 on Billboard magazine's Hot Country Singles chart in January 1968, his first A-sided hit in more than four years to fail to reach No. 1 note .
  • Blutengel: Our goths are better, obviously. See page quote.
  • X Japan: The Shout-Out to fans in the band's song "X", "You know you are the best!"
  • Rascal Flatts does it in "Here's to You":
    It's the girls in the front row singin'
    It's the boys with the wheels that bring them
    Its lighters in the air and you guys up there
    You're the heart and soul and the reason we do what we do
    Here's to you.
  • To celebrate the first ten years of being together, ABBA re-released "Thank You For The Music" to thank the fans for sticking by them (which was rather jarring considering that the band eventually dissolved out of the public eye and they never performed or made new music again.)

    Tabletop Games 
  • Hackmaster 4th Edition
    • In the introduction to the Player's Handbook it says "...the fact that you've chosen to pick a copy of HackMaster speaks well of you." and says of Hackmaster players "We're not ordinary — we're Extraordinary.''
    • The introduction to the Game Master's Guide praises the reader's "spirit, drive and determination to rise to the challenge."
  • Dangerous Journeys/Mythus system
    • Journeys magazine issue 2. Gary Gygax wrote the following in an article:
      What is in this column, however, is in one sense privileged. It is assumed that the readers are all special, more knowledgeable, in some measure because they are readers.
      You, wise reader, on the other hand, are knowledgeable, so further instruction and advice can be given and properly acted upon...with your high degree of acumen...
    • Mythic Masters magazine.
      • In one issue, an article entitled "Support Your Chosen Game System" written by Gary Gygax said that the Dangerous Journeys system was "...for the discerning and dedicated roleplayer..." - i.e. the person who was a fan of the game because they were reading a magazine devoted to it.
      • In his "The Town Crier's Gone Mad" editorials, Gary Gygax would often praise the fans of the game to flatter them. For example, in Issue #5 he included comments such as "you who have recognized the radical new nature of the system are the avant garde.", "elite intellects able to grasp the concept and understand the infinite scope offered." and "Don't expect others to have the same insight and understanding you possess."
  • Tales from the Floating Vagabond adventure Weirder Tales...a Space Opera. The work starts off with the following: "If you are reading this, then you have most likely purchased this module, thus proving yourself a gamer of discriminating good taste. No doubt you are a snappy dresser, a witty conversationalist and a mean cribbage player."
  • Dungeons & Dragons
    • Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition Dungeon Master's Guide. In the Introduction to the DMG, Gary Gygax praises the reader: "Being a true DM requires cleverness and imagination which no set of rules books can bestow. Seeing that you were clever enough to to buy this volume,, and you have enough imagination to desire to become the maker of a fantasy world, you are almost there already! "
    • Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition supplement The Mother of All Treasure Tables. The introduction tells the reader "We congratulate you on your obvious great wisdom and excellent taste."
  • Dying Earth RPG
    • The Excellent Prismatic Spray magazine
      • Volume One Issue One says "It is apparent even now that you, dear reader, are a person of more than usual sagacity (perception, good judgment, foresight, etc.)."
      • Volume One Issue Two article "The Three Golden Swans" says to its reader: "As a person of notable intellect and perspicacity, you..." and "As a GM you are no doubt a person of high intellect and exquisite taste, moved by a spirit of noble self-sacrifice to take on the burdens of game moderating as a way of entertaining others."
      • At the end of Volume One Issue Three, there's an ad for the magazine itself. It says "It is obvious that, having read through to this point, you are a person of considerable discernment. Someone of your caliber is undoubtedly busy with many calls upon your time."
      • At the beginning of Volume One Issue Four, an ad to entice the reader to subscribe says "Farsighted and mathematically literate individuals may subscribe for four issues..." and "Those perspicacious individuals who subscribed to The Excellent Prismatic Spray when it first appeared..."
      • Volume 1 Issue Six adventure "Brotherly Love". One section says "No doubt any Games Master showing such discerning taste as to read this adventure", an attempt to flatter the reader (presumed to be a Dying Earth RPG Game Master) into running the adventure for their players.
    • Supplement Rhialto's Book of Marvels: The Rules of Archmagical Omnipotence
      • In the introduction, the person who bought the book is told how wise he was to do so.
      • Later on, it says that those who play the Dying Earth game are of unquestionable maturity.
    • Supplement The Compendium of Universal Knowledge
      • The entry "Gamers of Quality and Taste" says that anyone who buys one of Pelgrane Press's products is one.
      • The entry for the Scaum Valley Gazetteer (a product of Pelgrane Press) says that if the person reading The Compendium of Universal Knowledge is one of the "Gamers of Quality and Taste", they will buy the Scaum Valley Gazetteer.

    Video Games 

    Western Animation 

Alternative Title(s): Flattering The Fans

Top