3rdgensooner
6/17/2011, 03:52 PM
My Little Pony Corrals Unlikely Fanboys Known as ‘Bronies’ (http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/bronies-my-little-ponys/)
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2011/06/LukeAllen1.jpg
Luke Allen, one of a growing number My Little Pony fanboys known as “bronies,” poses with two
action figures from McDonald's Happy Meals.
Each day, out-of-work computer programmer Luke Allen self-medicates by watching animated ponies have magical adventures.
The 32-year-old, who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, loves his daily fix of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (http://www.hubworld.com/my-little-pony/shows/friendship-is-magic), and he’s not alone. He’s part of a growing group of “bronies (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Brony)” (“bro ponies”) — men who are fans of a TV show largely intended for a much younger audience.
“First we can’t believe this show is so good, then we can’t believe we’ve become fans for life, then we can’t believe we’re walking down the pink aisle at Toys R Us or asking for the girl’s toy in our Happy Meal,” Allen said in an e-mail to Wired.com. “Then we can’t believe our friends haven’t seen it yet, then we can’t believe they’re becoming bronies too.”
Every nerd has a favorite TV show they watch religiously and know inside and out. But My Little Pony seems like an unlikely object of fanboy love. Since the show debuted last fall on cable channel Hub TV, it’s attracted a growing number of male fanatics. Their love of the show is internet neo-sincerity (http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/09/new-sincerity/) at its best: In addition to watching the show, these teenage, twenty- and thirtysomething guys are creating pony art, posting fan videos on YouTube and feeding threads on 4chan (and their own chan, Ponychan (http://www.ponychan.net/chan/)).
They also risk life, limb and being trolled to death on the /co/ board (http://boards.4chan.org/co/) to fawn over a small gaggle of ponies with names like Twilight Sparkle (http://www.hubworld.com/my-little-pony/shows/friendship-is-magic/characters/twilight-sparkle), Fluttershy (http://www.hubworld.com/my-little-pony/shows/friendship-is-magic/characters/fluttershy) and Rainbow Dash (http://www.hubworld.com/my-little-pony/shows/friendship-is-magic/characters/rainbow-dash).
The fan videos might be the main reason anyone outside the brony community knows the show as a meme. Nerd blog Topless Robot, for example, is committed to following My Little Pony fan videos (http://www.toplessrobot.com/search.php?tag=My+Little+Pony&blog_id=132). One YouTube user posted an 8-bit chiptune anthology of songs (http://www.youtube.com/user/RainbowCrash88) from the show, and the A.V. Club recently called the trend of mashing up My Little Pony clips with movie trailers a “meme champion (http://www.avclub.com/articles/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-is-the-new-trai,55987/).”
“I believe the fan base for this new generation of MLP is one of the most amazing/unexpected things to come out of the internet in a long while,” Henri Yount, a 20-year-old from Virginia whose My Little Pony mashups with movie trailers (http://www.youtube.com/user/BronyVids) have gotten nearly 350,000 views on YouTube, said in an e-mail to Wired.com (see his pony-riffic spin on Watchmen above).
“When I say ‘amazing,’ I’m referring to the crazy amount of content and the hard-working people who produce material every day, which I haven’t seen in many other fan bases,” Yount added.
To see that dedication, one need only take a quick look at a recent series of “Hitler Reacts To … (http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/downfall-hitler-reacts)” videos that show Der Führer as a dedicated brony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6k-3l4gSSk) infuriated over the removal of several My Little Pony videos from YouTube.
Or the high school presentation one young man did on the physics of the show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muVfidujxRg&feature=player_embedded#at=447). (A note to other news outlets: Physics Brony’s name isn’t Stephen Magnet as has been reported (http://www.good.is/post/nerds-rule-watch-this-kid-destroy-the-dubious-physics-of-my-little-pony/). Stephen is right, but the last name is a reference to “Steven Magnet” — an inside joke amongst bronies (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/05/physics-brony-trolls-huffington-post.html).)
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2011/06/Sethisto-192x300.jpg
Shaun runs the My Little Pony
fan site Equestria Daily.
YouTube isn’t the only place online creative communities are gathering in pony love. The online artist collective deviantArt had, at last count, nearly 90,000 pieces of My Little Pony artwork (http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&global=1&q=my+little+pony) and hundreds more are (http://mylittlecomrade.deviantart.com/) going up (http://mlp-fim.deviantart.com/) each day (http://my-little-pony-club.deviantart.com/) (on one random day in May, about 330 pieces were submitted).
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2011/06/LukeAllen1.jpg
Luke Allen, one of a growing number My Little Pony fanboys known as “bronies,” poses with two
action figures from McDonald's Happy Meals.
Each day, out-of-work computer programmer Luke Allen self-medicates by watching animated ponies have magical adventures.
The 32-year-old, who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, loves his daily fix of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (http://www.hubworld.com/my-little-pony/shows/friendship-is-magic), and he’s not alone. He’s part of a growing group of “bronies (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Brony)” (“bro ponies”) — men who are fans of a TV show largely intended for a much younger audience.
“First we can’t believe this show is so good, then we can’t believe we’ve become fans for life, then we can’t believe we’re walking down the pink aisle at Toys R Us or asking for the girl’s toy in our Happy Meal,” Allen said in an e-mail to Wired.com. “Then we can’t believe our friends haven’t seen it yet, then we can’t believe they’re becoming bronies too.”
Every nerd has a favorite TV show they watch religiously and know inside and out. But My Little Pony seems like an unlikely object of fanboy love. Since the show debuted last fall on cable channel Hub TV, it’s attracted a growing number of male fanatics. Their love of the show is internet neo-sincerity (http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/09/new-sincerity/) at its best: In addition to watching the show, these teenage, twenty- and thirtysomething guys are creating pony art, posting fan videos on YouTube and feeding threads on 4chan (and their own chan, Ponychan (http://www.ponychan.net/chan/)).
They also risk life, limb and being trolled to death on the /co/ board (http://boards.4chan.org/co/) to fawn over a small gaggle of ponies with names like Twilight Sparkle (http://www.hubworld.com/my-little-pony/shows/friendship-is-magic/characters/twilight-sparkle), Fluttershy (http://www.hubworld.com/my-little-pony/shows/friendship-is-magic/characters/fluttershy) and Rainbow Dash (http://www.hubworld.com/my-little-pony/shows/friendship-is-magic/characters/rainbow-dash).
The fan videos might be the main reason anyone outside the brony community knows the show as a meme. Nerd blog Topless Robot, for example, is committed to following My Little Pony fan videos (http://www.toplessrobot.com/search.php?tag=My+Little+Pony&blog_id=132). One YouTube user posted an 8-bit chiptune anthology of songs (http://www.youtube.com/user/RainbowCrash88) from the show, and the A.V. Club recently called the trend of mashing up My Little Pony clips with movie trailers a “meme champion (http://www.avclub.com/articles/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-is-the-new-trai,55987/).”
“I believe the fan base for this new generation of MLP is one of the most amazing/unexpected things to come out of the internet in a long while,” Henri Yount, a 20-year-old from Virginia whose My Little Pony mashups with movie trailers (http://www.youtube.com/user/BronyVids) have gotten nearly 350,000 views on YouTube, said in an e-mail to Wired.com (see his pony-riffic spin on Watchmen above).
“When I say ‘amazing,’ I’m referring to the crazy amount of content and the hard-working people who produce material every day, which I haven’t seen in many other fan bases,” Yount added.
To see that dedication, one need only take a quick look at a recent series of “Hitler Reacts To … (http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/downfall-hitler-reacts)” videos that show Der Führer as a dedicated brony (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6k-3l4gSSk) infuriated over the removal of several My Little Pony videos from YouTube.
Or the high school presentation one young man did on the physics of the show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muVfidujxRg&feature=player_embedded#at=447). (A note to other news outlets: Physics Brony’s name isn’t Stephen Magnet as has been reported (http://www.good.is/post/nerds-rule-watch-this-kid-destroy-the-dubious-physics-of-my-little-pony/). Stephen is right, but the last name is a reference to “Steven Magnet” — an inside joke amongst bronies (http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/05/physics-brony-trolls-huffington-post.html).)
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/underwire/2011/06/Sethisto-192x300.jpg
Shaun runs the My Little Pony
fan site Equestria Daily.
YouTube isn’t the only place online creative communities are gathering in pony love. The online artist collective deviantArt had, at last count, nearly 90,000 pieces of My Little Pony artwork (http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&global=1&q=my+little+pony) and hundreds more are (http://mylittlecomrade.deviantart.com/) going up (http://mlp-fim.deviantart.com/) each day (http://my-little-pony-club.deviantart.com/) (on one random day in May, about 330 pieces were submitted).