Misused (Alt names crowner 21 November 2020): Big Name Fan

mightymewtron Angry babby from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!

Angry babby

#1: Oct 28th 2020 at 2:49:13 PM

Big Name Fan way too often gets misused for "famous person who is a fan," which fits into One of Us. The real definition is "fan who is popular within the fandom," but even that has issues since this is a Trivia trope despite being about fandom interactions, with acknowledgement from the creators being entirely optional.

Wick check (counting one page as one wick but posting all examples listed there):

Correct (9/50)

Creator Worship: Any Big Name Fan. Obviously a general example / ZCE, but likely correct from context.
DVD Commentary: The Freaks and Geeks DVD includes on average of two and a half commentaries per episode, including one done by three "teachers" in character and one by posters on the biggest F&G fanboard. Judd Apatow and Paul Feig freely admit that they made the occasion of recording commentaries a de facto cast reunion.
WeAreNotAlone.Tropes Zero To D Link to Wikipedia article on the term "Big name fan" that describes correct definition.
VideoGame.E Republik: Berserk Button: One day, Big Name Fan and great American troll Emerik decided to create an article in Serbia about the glorious independent country that is Kosovo. The ensuing backlash crashed computers, because they could not handle all the 1,000 pissed off Serbian comments proclaiming "Kosovo is Serbia!" A lot of non-Serbian players just mention Kosovo to troll now, and it always provokes a reaction.
Creator.Vathara: A long-time fanfiction writer who started out in fanzines and is now found on fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own, Vathara is often referred to as the Crossover Queen.
Trivia.The Heroes Of Olympus: Promoted Fanboy: Viria, one of the most popular fan artists for the series, ended up getting commissioned to make official character portraits on Rick Riordan's website.
Intergenerational Friendship: Sesame Street puppeteer Carroll Spinney and young fan Nick Bertch, who became friends despite an age gap of at least 60 years. The adorable story can be found here.
Canon Immigrant: In Mega Man Reawakened, Big Name Fan Lizsama's Original Character, Elizabeth Marmalade, appears in Arc 3 with her permission.
Trivia.Gundam:
- Mark Simmons is undoubtedly the most knowledgeable member of the English-speaking Gundam fandom, having been into it since the 80s (he even submitted an original MS design for Gundam Sentinel!) and founded the well-regarded Gundam Project website. This earned him the notice of Sunrise, and he was hired on to help with the translation and localization of several series. He regularly takes part in the fandom, especially in technical discussions, and his current website Ultimate Mark is probably the single greatest source for Gundam info in English, including the official English Gundam site.
- He's even gotten some nods within the franchise: Mark Simmons is the default name for one of the Create-A-Characters in the video game Encounters in Space, Gundam SEED has a minor character (a mobile suit engineer) named Erica Simmons, and G-Saviour's main character, Mark Curran, has a sidekick named Simmons.

Famous/notable person is a fan (35/50)

Trivia.The Irate Gamer: Funny enough, James of TheOdd1sOut game admitted he was a fan of Chris back when he was a kid, and even inspired him to make videos.
Trivia.Withnail And I:
- Winona Ryder was such a fan of the movie, she convinced Francis Ford Coppola to cast Richard E. Grant in Bram Stoker's Dracula and Martin Scorsese to cast Grant in The Age of Innocence.
- David Fincher attempted to reunite Grant, McGann and Bruce Robinson for Alien³. He got the latter two.
- Johnny Depp loved the movie so much that he personally chose Robinson to direct The Rum Diary.
Music.Johann Sebastian Bach: He did maintain Cult Classic status among professional composers who studied his work for technique, including such admirers as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven.
Trivia.Willow: Inverted. For some reason, Harlan Ellison despised this film to the point that you almost think it's a parody review. He apparently thought it was a badly put-together assortment of worn-out High Fantasy tropes, but then slid headlong into a towering rant against crystals, channeling, and all things New Age. One wonders what film he was watching, since the only even slightly New Age reference in the film is the concept that Willow has to work on concentration and confidence when he does magic. Also misuse in saying Trivia is inverted.
Heartwarming.The Legend Of Zelda Breath Of The Wild: As a meta-example, Robin Williams, a Big Name Fan of the series, died by suicide during the production of this game. Since the game already has a few shout outs to him, it's not a stretch to assume that the developers put this in as a reaction to his death, and as an attempt to prevent more like it.
Trivia.Nick Drake: Drake has a lot of fans who are major music industry players, including Tom Verlaine, Paul Weller, Jackson Browne, Elton John, Elliott Smith (who is often considered his Spiritual Successor) David Geffen and Robert Smith, the last of whom named his band after a line in one of Drake's songs. John Cale was so impressed after Joe Boyd played him his songs in the studio that he asked to work with him on the spot, which is how he ended up on Bryter Layter.
Creator.Robert Donat: Big Name Fan Judy Garland even wrote him a fan letter and would consider him her favourite actor.
Creator.Todd Mc Farlane: Of AKIRA. In fact, it was the anime adaptation directed by Akira's own creator, Katsuhiro Otomo, that inspired Todd to venture into the world of animation and produce the Spawn animated series.
Trivia.Nico B: *Nico's recent LPs of Nintendo games have attracted the attention of NintendoCapriSun.
Trivia.Spitting Image: According to Stephen Fry, Princess Diana was a fan of the show.
- Many celebrities and politicians that were spoofed on the show took it as a badge of honour and a sign that you were worthy and important enough to be spoofed, and enjoyed watching the show themselves.
Music.Suicide: And as noted, Ric Ocasek was another Big Name Fan.
Trivia.Nomeansno: Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters included "It's Catching Up" from Wrong on his "Top 10 of All Time" playlist for Rolling Stone in 2010. His old hardcore band Scream opened for Nomeansno in 1987, and he said in a 2007 interview that the Foo Fighters album Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace was meant to combine the sounds of Nomeansno and Steely Dan. He says John Wright's drumming was particularly influential on him.
Trivia.The Pretty Things:
- Led Zeppelin, particularly Jimmy Page, who collaborated with The Pretty Things in The '60s. The Pretties wound up signing with Zep's Swan Song Records in the mid-Seventies, and their two albums for the label, Silk Torpedo and Savage Eye, were their most commercially successful in America.
- David Bowie did two Pretties songs on his Cover Album Pin Ups, and used the phrase "Pretty Things" in several song titles and lyrics.
Trivia.David Byrne: Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright named Byrne and Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts one of his favorite albums in a 1996 interview, saying it "knocked him sideways" when he first heard it. He was also a fan of Talking Heads, naming Remain in Light another one of his favorites in the same interview.
- Tim & Eric cited David Byrne's as an influence on their...unique style of comedy, particularly the "self-interview" made to promote Stop Making Sense.
Trivia.The Legend Of Zelda Skyward Sword: Inverted with Arin Hanson, a.k.a. Egoraptor, a YouTube personality and Let's Player who was very outspoken over his distaste for Skyward Sword. Many people who haven't even played the game themselves are aware of Arin's stance as one of its biggest detractors. Also misuse in that Trivia can't be inverted.
Trivia.The Deer Hunter: Jodie Foster says this is her favourite film.
Trivia.The Brothers Karamazov: The book has been cited as a favorite by writers such as Franz Kafka, William Faulkner, James Joyce, and Orhan Pamuk, thinkers including Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger, and Sigmund Freud, and world leaders as varied as Vladimir Putin and Hillary Clinton.
Trivia.Shadowrun Returns: Notable Kickstarter contributors include NFL punter Chris Kluwe (of whom Mr. Kluwe's design is based off of) and Felicia Day (who in turn was used in the design of Eos).
Trivia.Nier Automata: Sui Ishida, creator of Tokyo Ghoul is apparently a fan. He even gave concept art of Ken Kaneki to one of the Automata concept artists at the Tokyo Ghoul film premiere as a gift, and went onto illustrate covers for a vinyl release of the Automata soundtrack.
Trivia.My Dinner With Andre: Author Jason Pargin (of John Dies at the End and sequels) loves the movie and devoted much of an episode of the Cracked Podcast to talking about it.
YMMV.Peter Gabriel: A noticeable overlap also exists between Gabriel fans and fans of Talking Heads and/or frontman David Byrne, largely owing to Gabriel being a Big Name Fan of Byrne and the Heads (with Byrne reciprocating the admiration) and due to Gabriel & Byrne being considered kindred spirits in their affinity for eclectic art pop with heavy worldbeat elements, surreal music videos, and appealingly odd live shows.
Trivia.Slipknot: Thomson (along with Gray and Jordison) is the main death metal fan in the band, and the former is known to have an Immolation tattoo and has also expressed gratitude to the members of various bands for their influence on him (a good example being the time that he told Chris Pervelis of Internal Bleeding that there would not have been a Slipknot without Internal Bleeding), and touring death metal acts hitting Des Moines have a good shot at bumping into him.
- Corey Taylor happens to be a big fan of The Nostalgia Critic and even had pictures taken with him at the studio, even having him and his son Griff in the Critic's review of The Wall. He is also a fan of QI, having appeared on the show. He's also a major Doctor Who fan, so much so that 1) there were rumors that Slipknot would perform the theme for the 2005 series and 2) Corey performed the Fisher King's scream in the final moments of the Twelfth Doctor story "Before the Flood."
Trivia.David Sylvian: According to Ingrid Chavez, a Prince collaborator to whom Sylvian was married for a time, Prince was a fan of both David Sylvian and Japan, but was apparently too scared to invite Sylvian to Paisley Park. The appreciation was also apparently mutual, but Sylvian would never have accepted such an invitation.
Trivia.Velvet Underground:
- Czech president Vaclav Havel was a huge fan of the band. Other famous fans include David Bowie, Brian Eno, Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Ian Curtis, U2, Kurt Cobain and pretty much every band you've heard of over the last 25 years.
- While Brian Eno has been vocal in how he was influenced by the band, fellow Roxy Music bandmate Bryan Ferry covered "What Goes On" while interpolating "Beginning to See the Light" for The Bride Stripped Bare, which indicates he likes the Velvets as well.
Website.Letterboxd: Traction has increased to the point where a few indie directors and noteworthy professional critics have taken to sharing their opinions and promoting their fellow filmmakers and reviewers (such as Sean Baker, Jim Cummings, and Mike D'Angelo to name a few).
Trivia.The Craft: According to Robin Tunney, Sean Penn told her he loved the film once.
Trivia.Metallica: Robert Trujillo is a fan of legendary jazz fusion bassist Jaco Pastorius, owning his "bass of doom"^note and making a movie about him.
Trivia.Eddie Guerrero: No less a name than "Superstar" Billy Graham, who doesn't lightly give his praise. Although Eddie was also a Graham fan...
Doctor Who S22 E6 "Revelation of the Daleks": The fans (and production team) had a royal fuss over the whole ordeal, to the point where Big Name Fan record producer Ian Levine (who previously saved the show from the BBC's wiping policy four years before the practice was officially abandoned and contributed to the recovery of a great number of missing episodes)...
Trivia.The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp:
- Stephen Fry named this as his favourite film, noting that the movie is about what being English means.
- David Mamet named this as his favourite film and Roger Livesey and Anton Walbrook his favourite actors (the duel scene being his "idea of perfection").
Trivia.The Wonderful 101: R&B star Sisqo is actually a fan of the game, and has expressed interest in appearing in it.
Trivia.The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes: Mark Gatiss considers the film a masterpiece and cited it as a big influence on Sherlock.
Trivia.The Punisher MAX: Matt from Two Best Friends Play is a big time Punisher fanboy. During playthrough sessions he'll even randomly reference various arcs from this series.
Trivia.Selling England By The Pound: The album has several, though the biggest is probably John Lennon; the band felt greatly encouraged by his praise of the album at the time. Others include Rush's Neil Peart, Marillion's Fish, Guided by Voices' Robert Pollard, and perhaps most oddly, Jeremy Clarkson of The Grand Tour (and formerly Top Gear). Meanwhile, Clarkson's co-star, Richard Hammond, notoriously dislikes the album and Genesis as a whole, to the point where Clarkson would occasionally blare "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" to annoy him on Top Gear.
Trivia.Panic At The Disco: Pray for the Wicked was reportedly picked up by, of all people, Hideo Kojima. On Urie's end, he is a fan of Fit for an Autopsy and particularly Joe Badolato's vocals, and he has featured them multiple times on stream (and also once gifted Shane Jost a one-month subscription to Joe's channel).
Trivia.Talk Talk: Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright named The Colour of Spring one of his favorite albums in a 1996 interview, comparing it favorably to Pink Floyd's own Wish You Were Here for its directness.
Trivia.Thomas Ligotti: Nic Pizzolato, showrunner of True Detective, is on record as an admirer and admitted that his work was a powerful influence on the show's first season (to the point where he was accused of plaigiarizing much of Rust Cohle's dialogue directly from The Conspiracy Against the Human Race).
- Andrew W.K. is also a devoted fan.
WebVideo.The Nostalgia Trio: Jim Fucking Cummings, it seems.

Unclear (6/50)

VideoGame.Deus Ex: In universe. Bob Page is a huge fan of Thomas Aquinas, the monk who wrote the Summa Theologiae. If you have an idea what it was all about, Page's end goal ambitions are rather explicitly spelled out for you. No mention of popularity among other fans or if this is "in-universe celebrity is a fan" misuse.
WebVideo.Friendship Is Witchcraft: Characterization Marches On: In the first episode, Princess Celestia seems to actually like Twilight Sparkle — albeit in more of a "celebrity and Big Name Fan" way than their close relationship in the actual show — and actually asks her for a friendship report. Later episodes show Princess Celestia to consider Twilight obnoxious at best and creepy at worst, and establishes the letters as something Twilight took it upon herself to send and Celestia wishes would just stop.
WebAnimation.Battlefield Friends: * Ink-Suit Actor: Level Cap appears as himself at one point.
Trivia.Deceased Crab: Fan Disillusionment: While he remains a Big Name Fan of the original La-Mulana, his frustrations with the sequel (specifically the rampant bugs, tasteless translations, and a patch introducing a softlock which was never rolled back) caused him to disavow the game and swear never to make another video covering it.
Characters.Erins Total Magical Adventure Team Geniuses A ZCE under Sierra's folder which seems to hint at the correct usage because I know the context of the source material, but isn't clear enough if she's regarded as a BNF by other fans or if she's just a very loud Loony Fan.
VideoGame.Marathon: Also, of course, the Vidmaster Challenge levels, ultra-hard versions of what Big Name Fan Randall Shaw (who created them) considered the hardest level from each game. Could be correct, but could also be Ascended Fanboy.

Less than 20% of the examples qualify as correct usage. Woof.

Edited by mightymewtron on Oct 28th 2020 at 5:50:33 AM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu

#2: Oct 29th 2020 at 2:51:23 AM

Opening. Frankly, I think the fact that this page is flagged as Trivia is encouraging the misuse - "fan who is famous in the fandom" is more along the lines of an Audience Reaction, not Trivia. So if we keep this trope it needs to be flagged as YMMV and removed from Trivia

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

ccorb from A very hot place Since: May, 2020 Relationship Status: It's not my fault I'm not popular!

#3: Oct 29th 2020 at 3:28:15 AM

Maybe a rename would help. I've seen this term in the wild, but a clearer name such as Fandom Important Fan would do the trick.

Rock'n'roll never dies!

mightymewtron Angry babby from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!

Angry babby

#4: Oct 29th 2020 at 5:29:32 AM

Or even just Fandom Big Name Fan, if not too redundant.

EDIT: Seconded on making this YMMV if we keep the original definition, by the way. The only way it fits Trivia is if we limit it to fans that the creators have acknowledged in some way. My only concern is people fighting over whether somebody is enough of a "big name" to list.

Edited by mightymewtron on Oct 29th 2020 at 8:51:11 AM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

ccorb from A very hot place Since: May, 2020 Relationship Status: It's not my fault I'm not popular!

#5: Oct 29th 2020 at 5:43:41 AM

Well, there's an entire folder of Department of Redundancy Department dedicated to tropes and other things on the wiki.

Rock'n'roll never dies!

Berrenta How sweet it is from Texas Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love

How sweet it is

#6: Oct 29th 2020 at 11:42:35 AM

Tossing another option into the ring, in case we want to do concise: Fandom VIP.

The other options are alright, too.

she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report

FernandoLemon Nobody Here from Argentina (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: In season

Nobody Here

#7: Oct 29th 2020 at 11:50:48 AM

I really like that.

I'd like to apologize for all this.

crazysamaritan NaNo 4328 / 50,000 from Lupin III Since: Apr, 2010

NaNo 4328 / 50,000

#8: Oct 29th 2020 at 12:07:23 PM

If I understand this right, this is about a fan who becomes important within the fandom. Well, what makes them important? Their celebrity status comes from being fans. So would they be a Fandom Representative? If they get hired by the creators, they become a Promoted Fanboy?

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

mightymewtron Angry babby from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!

Angry babby

#9: Oct 29th 2020 at 12:10:35 PM

I think if we want a Trivia trope here, "big name fan that gets acknowledged by the creators, but not outright promoted to work with them" could be a good way to go. That could be split off entirely or we could redefine this trope.

Edited by mightymewtron on Oct 29th 2020 at 3:10:59 PM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Synchronicity (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)

#10: Oct 30th 2020 at 9:39:43 PM

Big Name Fan is a term that predates the wiki, for what its worth, so I'm against redefining with the current name. Even if we split off something else it should at least be kept as a definition-only page.

I agree it's a better fit for YMMV if kept. It's an audience reaction on two levels — there has to be (1) a fan who creates works and (2) these works are beloved by fandom.

Edited by Synchronicity on Oct 30th 2020 at 4:42:47 PM

ccorb from A very hot place Since: May, 2020 Relationship Status: It's not my fault I'm not popular!

#11: Oct 31st 2020 at 3:56:48 AM

Now that I look at it, I agree on making it YMMV, since YMMV is an overview of the several different sides of a fandom.

Rock'n'roll never dies!

ADrago Since: Dec, 2015

#12: Nov 1st 2020 at 9:07:24 PM

To renaming and making YMMV since it involves the fandom. I like Fandom VIP. For the misuse of "famous person who's a fan of the work", that's already covered by JustForFun.One Of Us.

WarJay77 Big Catch, Sparkle Edition (Troper Knight)

Big Catch, Sparkle Edition

#13: Nov 1st 2020 at 9:07:54 PM

Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness

mightymewtron Angry babby from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!

Angry babby

#14: Nov 1st 2020 at 9:30:21 PM

So making it YMMV seems to be our path, but renaming is a bit in the air due to the current being a pre-existing term. May as well start a crowner.

EDIT: Crowner. Anything else to add? Doesn't seem like anybody wants a redefinition.

Edited by mightymewtron on Nov 1st 2020 at 12:32:04 PM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

crazysamaritan NaNo 4328 / 50,000 from Lupin III Since: Apr, 2010

NaNo 4328 / 50,000

#15: Nov 2nd 2020 at 5:13:50 AM

Added banner to page

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.

LaundryPizza03 Maintenance? from Texas Since: Aug, 2020

Maintenance?

#16: Nov 2nd 2020 at 8:16:23 AM

Hollering to hook...

I'm back!

AmourMitts Since: Jan, 2016

#17: Nov 6th 2020 at 9:50:21 PM

A little late, but, it looks more like Just for Fun than YMMV.

mightymewtron Angry babby from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!

Angry babby

#18: Nov 6th 2020 at 10:03:39 PM

What makes it JFF? It's documenting something real and tangible in the fandom, which allows it to stay YMMV. Is it just going off JustForFun.One Of Us being JFF?

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

LaundryPizza03 Maintenance? from Texas Since: Aug, 2020

Maintenance?

#19: Nov 6th 2020 at 10:37:56 PM

Hollering again to hook... Why don't the mods act the first time?

I'm back!

Synchronicity (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)

#20: Nov 6th 2020 at 10:38:43 PM

Calm down. The mods are shortstaffed and have lives outside the wiki. Things slip through the cracks sometimes.

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu

#21: Nov 7th 2020 at 3:38:24 AM

Attached it.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Twiddler (On A Trope Odyssey)

#22: Nov 11th 2020 at 8:50:38 PM

Is renaming mutually exclusive with turning Big Name Fan to a Fan Speak / definition-only page?

mightymewtron Angry babby from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!

Angry babby

#23: Nov 11th 2020 at 9:00:15 PM

Not sure, but making it Fan Speak isn't too bad an idea, though I prefer the YMMV option to clear up the definition, as it could be noteworthy on pages.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Twiddler (On A Trope Odyssey)

#24: Nov 11th 2020 at 9:34:16 PM

If they're not mutually exclusive, then making it Fan Speak is compatible with the YMMV option.