Rage and hatred in the comments? Check!
Bronies culling it with friendship and tolerance? Check! (Kind of...)
I don't know if I would consider this just a meme anymore... its ridiculously long lived if so. It's still cool to see it posted up on the high traffic places of the web!
In other news, Possible Wired.com article popping up in the near future if these emails are any indication... That will be interesting.
AV Club Ponies
46 comments:
Link?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.avclub.com/articles/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-is-the-new-trai,55987/
ReplyDeleteLink's 404.
ReplyDeleteWhen did it pop up on the onion before? I visit the onion daily and haven't seen it.
ReplyDeleteWasn't a meme to begin with lol I don't see any others shows listed as memes now do we?
ReplyDeleteNever thought of it as a "meme" It's more of a large fanbase of sorts, how many it takes a crane to get it out mash up videos have you seen? Social Networking sites? Fanart? Fan stories? Yeah. This wasn't ever a meme to be honest. Something much better.
ReplyDeleteHaters just make me love the show even more!
ReplyDeleteThe trolls in the comments are just so frustrated because they can't stop the ponies. I love it.
ReplyDeleteIt's as though the people commenting on that site are trying to pretend they don't come from 4chan too. Funny really.
ReplyDeleteI kind of equate it to the Touhou phenomenon. A gigantic ultra-productive fanbase that formed around something small and unlikely. For the record, The source material for Touhou (nearly 20 games, a couple manga series, and some standalone stories) is roughly as much as 26 episodes of MLP. Touhou is not a meme, and ponies are not either!
ReplyDeleteMore similarities:
-Main characters are girls.
-Tons of "yuri" shipping.
-Magical fantasy setting (okay that's a bit of a stretch).
-All conflicts end with tea.
I wonder when the internet will start seeing it as a huge fanbase instead of a huge meme?
One note personalities? Obviously they haven't watched the show.
ReplyDelete-All conflicts end with tea.
ReplyDeleteYou mean all conflicts end with apple pie.
Can so one explain to me why they're getting so worked up and angry about bronies and animation fans in general? I've never understand why some people are so threatened by a show or subculture they don't like. I'll be the first to admit that there's plenty of stuff I don't like but I prefer to spend my time focusing on the things I do like instead.
ReplyDeleteSkunk-ape is an ass-monkey.
ReplyDeleteI'm astonished that people are so tremendously OFFENDED by the popularity of the show. They take their time to analytically deconstruct it's history, premise, and appeal, even going so far as to say "this show teaches little girls to ignore their studies and be social instead."
It's remarkable how people can be so well read, but so drastically predetermined in their opinions; it's constipated thinking. thinking.
So the man watched 3 episodes. Now he's an expert. Haters gonna hate.
@Thattagen
ReplyDeleteGood points, although a lot of people see Touhou as a meme, so I guess MLP's no different, I suppose anything with a large fanbase is a meme now. (also "-Main Characters are girls" part, all the characters in Touhou are girls, at least this has guys, lol)
I don't know why AV Club has so many haters. When stuff like this was posted on others sites like Kotaku, Escapist, Comic Alliance etc. the response was overall surprisingly positive.
ReplyDeleteThank you Fluttershy for standing up for all of us. There's a reason you're my favorite :)
ReplyDeleteAs for the people who hate MLP, I think that they've just lost touch with their inner child and they believe that anything that they perceive as being childlike is beneath them. We fans on the other hand are still able to be fully functional adults, but we also have no problem with letting our inner child come out and play every so often.
So bronies, we've just got to love and tolerate them. And also ignore them, because they're no fun anyway.
@Thattagen
ReplyDeletethe difference with Touhou is that it's Animesque, so they wright it off as Otakus and don't pay attention to it. The difference with ponies is that our show is western, so we don't have that easy exuse as to why we love it, we just try to explain how amazing it is and LOVE. and TOLERATE. the shit out of people.
The guy who's my writing coach and who introduced me to FiM in the first place had a review article published a couple days ago on the science fiction website Strange Horizons.
ReplyDeleteSo was Avatar a meme, too? >:|
ReplyDeleteSeriously, for goodness sake; just because something amazingly popular grew from popularity from 4chan doesn't mean it's a meme! NOT EVERYTHING FROM 4CHAN IS A MEME.
Heck i think the people that are offended, with MLP's popularity, is cause they are either crazy, ignorant or just don't know what to do with their lives. Its sad really.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteThat's a rather unfair statement. I think "opinionated" or "vindictive" is a bit more fitting.
First, the AV Club is NOT the Onion. It's an affiliation, but a completely different site.
ReplyDeleteAs a longtime poster it was endlessly amusing to see the comments jump in that article as the link went on. But remember, if you are going to comment PLEASE don't troll or insult. You will just reinforce what they think. Present why the show is good smartly and the vast majority of the readership will respect you. Some won't, but hey, haters gotta hate.
In that case, I guess the term "meme" has itself become more loosely defined over the years, and has lost some specific meaning in defining phenomena. Apparently, the word now describes ALL internet phenomena, regardless of form.
ReplyDeleteI guess if it has a page on Know Your Meme, it's a meme (in this sense), right? That seems to be in the ballpark. After all, both Touhou and MLP have pages there. This, I assume, is the logic of the rest of the internet.
haters gonna hate, we gonna love an tolerance and gather in herd to buried haters under love.
ReplyDeleteBut it's still stupid as people consider FiM as a MeMe.
And that parasprite, who had watched 3 episodes obviously just read those old article in a magazine. Coz he typed it word-to-word.
I never saw MLP: FiM as a meme either. I was one of the people who found out about the show through Lauren Faust herself via her deviantART account, so I knew about it since JANUARY 2010. (and back when she had ponies in her gallery, which was before that)
ReplyDeleteThen it became a meme thanks to 4chan and "know your meme" and I just...face-palmed, hard.
People who role play in the article's comment section can go to hell, they are proving the point of the haters and as much as I like the show I'm sad to be associated with them.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to defend the show just explain why it's good in a mature way, it's not going to convince the naysayers but think about those who don't know anything about the show. If they see fans acting like imbecile morons they are going to take the side of the haters instead of checking out a few episodes.
I used to wonder what was up with all the hate posts, and I believe I may have a theory. When something is popular... Anything, it tends to generate a lot of talk. Humans desire one thing (after the basic needs of life)... Attention. From the crying baby to terrorist bombings, it's all about "NOTICE ME!!"
ReplyDeleteSo, if something is popular, and lots of people are talking about it, saying positive things, sharing their love of whatever it is... someone else praising it will be hard to notice in the crowd.
But... if you defame, trash and otherwise negatively criticize that popular thing, OR the people who love it, you will get Instant Attention! You can get all intellectual with your hate, psychoanalyze the fans, dig up articles by clueless "experts", or pull out the "F" word or even imply membership in a certain historic central European fascist organization. Validity doesn't matter, as long as you get people to notice you. And if you get them to Respond to you.. You WIN. The Internet has a generic term for these attention-whores. Trolls. Bronies call them Parasprites. They can be as self-righteous as anyone, make any claim they want... even the popular "I did it for the Lulz!" but the truth is that all they wnat is attention. Whether they are screaming in their crib, or flying planes into buildings, they are a sad, sad lot.
I was just reading through the comments on this, and yeah, alot of ranting! There was this one post though where someone referred to a pretty cool quote:
ReplyDeleteOriginally posted by 'SuperStingray' on AVclub
I recall a quote by C.S. Lewis:
"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty, I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."
-
Just thought a few bronies on here might like that quote!
Fluttershy is awesome xD btw I didn't know that the ponies have net o.O
ReplyDeleteIn response to a pretty well-worded argument in support of the show: "I didn't read a word of that, but nice job writing an essay defending your love for 30 minutes Hasbo commercials."
ReplyDeleteIt's comments like that one that give me the impression that the users on that site don't act the way they do because they disagree with the fans' opinions (which I am quite capable of accepting, as everyone is entitled to their own opinion), but because they refuse to acknowledge the existance of such arguments entirely (regardless of the quality of the argument), let alone accept them as valid opinions. I'm not very familiar with that website, are the users there always so reluctant to aknowlede differing opinions on subjects or is it limited to MLP-related discussions?
Im not happy with all the comments, a lot of people seem mad about this, they may be trolls but there is no way to know for sure, I just hope that they can learn to live with it, because I still hope that the ponies will keep on spreading like this :3
ReplyDeleteMy Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
ReplyDeleteInstant forum rage. If only we could harness it as a source of energy, we'd be off fossil feuls in 10 seconds flat.
As a semi-regular reader, I can tell you that the commenters on AV Club have always been tragic sufferers of the stupid virus. It's a good site, but you wouldn't get that impression from the raving, drooling imbeciles who comment on the articles.
ReplyDeleteHaters gonna hate, etc.
There are things people don't want to be associated with in every fanbase everywhere. Assuming that those who roleplay as the ponies on AV club site is what the fanbase is a close minded ignorant thought process.
ReplyDelete@Nathan
ReplyDeleteThis is true. Some websites just have a very stupid and argumentative group of commenters. CNN's comment sections are a goldmine for this, just check any article on that site and I'm sure within five comments you will face palm.
Not all the comments are bad, there was one good one,
ReplyDelete"I couldn't care less about My Little Pony but I can honestly say that however sad the adults who watch it may be, it's a million times worse to be an adult who spends their time on the internet insulting people who watch My Little Pony.
Every single "fuck your gay ponies" post I see just proves that the sad lonely Pony fans are, at least, not as sad and pathetic as you."
I think this is the first time I've seen a non pony fan stand up for us.
they are posting a lot of my videos... also update on that wired article, I was interviewed by someone from wired.com on how I make my videos and why I got into the show so hopefully it actually shows up.
ReplyDeleteI didn't read much, but to me that site seemed like a text version of XBox Live. I'll give it a pass.
ReplyDeleteI read a few of those comments and the only thing I got from it was "these people desperately need a hug" v:|v
ReplyDeleteYes jerkholes on the Onion were all trolling that's why there are fansites and people like me who don't even go to 4Chan like it.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite one had to be "grow up and stop watching pony cartoons ya dumb f#!@$" yes cause it's so much more different from watching any cartoon.
Does the fact that people watch and enjoy a show about Ponies really affect these people and how is liking a genuienly good show make us "Trolls"?
@Nathan Another site renowned for its idiotic comments is Yahoo! Any news story, any article, you'll always find more than a few nuts in the articles. Places like this make me wonder why I even read comments in the first place (It's a habit...).
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that the commenters are just a bunch of pricks, they do have the idea of a meme down pretty accurately:
ReplyDelete"an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture"
Which is pretty much what MLP:FiM is. I don't like to consider it a 'meme' either, but by all definitions...
Bad acting? Shallow characters and terrifible animation? Preschool level plots? Are they kidding me that arrogant, stupid crap? Friendship is Magic is none of these!
ReplyDelete@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteWell, by the accurate definition of Meme, fire, the wheel, written and spoken language, and cooking your food are all Memes. I wouldn't worry too much about MLP being considered one.
The trolls are just defining "Meme" as "Dumb gay shit I don't like, so there."
Someone should do a comparative analysis of cultural phenomena that provoke sizeable backlashes. For example:
ReplyDeleteEragon - Critics read the novels and devote entire webpages to pointing out flaws in plot, writing, characterization, dialogue, and messages.
Twilight - Critics read the novels and devote entire webpages to pointing out flaws in plot, writing, characterization, dialogue, and messages.
MLP: Friendship is Magic - "Critics" ... er ... don't watch the show, and ... um ...
When haters create something as analytical, informative and razor-sharp as the now-defunct "Anti-Shurgutal" website, I will actually take them seriously. The way they are going now, they are actually giving MLP:FiM a lot more power and conviction than they can comprehend.