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Fan Boy: Difference between revisions
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The term used for obsessive fans of a particular activity that goes a bit too far onto the creepy side. Unlike [[Fan Girl|fangirls]] (which usually refers to women obsessed with characters and their relationships with either other characters or themselves to the exclusion of the rest of the elements of the canon), the term "fanboy" is usually reserved for antisocial people with a self-inflated ego over their knowledge and/or mastery of the topic in question, often parading it around and belittling those around him. They are to fandoms what "[["Stop Having Fun!" Guys]]" are to tournament rules.
A major difference between fanboys and fangirls is how they approach the show in question. Fangirls are usually more attracted by the characters (both their looks and their personalities) than by any other aspect of the show, whereas fanboys often become obsessively attached to the show's ''creators''. Prime examples are ''[[South Park]]'' fanboys who can barely get a sentence out without repeating the phrase "Matt and Trey" six times over, and ''[[Star Trek]]'' fanboys who obsess over how Paramount has supposedly ruined "Gene's vision", not taking into consideration that Gene's real (and honourable) vision was to earn money to support his family. Fanboys are consequently much more attracted to the authorized than the unauthorized, because owning authorized items gives them a feeling of connection to the creator who authorized them and because spending money on an item means to them that the item has some value. This attitude sometimes leads fanboys to mock and disrespect traditionally female fan activities such as filking and fanfiction (after all, if you don't have approval and you don't pay for it, it must be worthless, right?), but it also leads them to spend precious money on vastly overpriced items simply so they can have that official, authorized connection to the show and its creator. As was once said: fans buy the Spider-Man comic book; fangirls write love stories about Spider-Man and Mary Jane; fanboys spend $129.99 on a tacky statue of Mary Jane doing Spider-Man's laundry that should really cost about eight bucks.<ref>According to the designer of the statue in question, it was supposed to be MJ discovering the Spider-Man costume in the wash, apparently thrown in without her knowledge.</ref>
The [[Fan Boy]] is usually the first one to belittle, put down, and mock anyone who suggests that there might be [[Ho Yay]] in a series, ''even if it was deliberately put there by the creators''. Shockingly, he generally reacts [[Double Standard|quite differently]], and [[Girl-On-Girl Is Hot|more favorably]], to any possibility of [[Les Yay]]. One could say this was due to his own crushing insecurities, but it might just be that he expects [[Depraved Homosexual|a gay character to be different]]. At any event, he's the one who writes articles like [[No Yay]] and who whines about "brain bleach" if any character who isn't [[Camp Gay]] is even hinted to be slightly bisexual - and of course he'll never notice even the most blatantly obvious subtext, or he'll hotly deny that it exists after it's pointed out. Basically he expects [[Fan Service]] to service him and him alone, and squeals in rage if anyone suggests the show wasn't written for his viewing pleasure only. This has changed in some fandoms, but in others it's still just as prevalent as it was twenty years ago. In some, it's even worse.
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== Fictional examples ==
=== [[Anime and Manga]] ===
* Graham Specter from ''[[Baccano]]'' is the No. 1 Ladd Russo fanboy.
* Tamaki from ''[[Code Geass]]'' is a member of the Black Knights, who's always Fanboying about his "best buddy" [[My Hero Zero|Zero]].
** And Diethard. So much that, {{spoiler|on his deathbed, he asks Lelouch to kill him with Geass.}}
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* [[Deadpool]] is a huge fan of [[Captain America (comics)]] and [[The Mighty Thor|Thor]].
* The ''[[X-Men]]'' villain Sauron is obviously a ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' fanboy, as he named himself after that trilogy's [[Big Bad]].
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=== [[Live Action Television]] ===
* You wont really see it in the show, but if you go to [[Sherlock The|Blog Of Dr. John H. Watson]] you can see comments from two fanboys (Jacob Sowersby and theimprobableone) in the comments sections of several posts.
* During the ''iStart A Fan War'' episode of ''[[iCarly]]'', there is one fanboy for the Sam/Freddie 'Seddie' [[Shipping]] couple who is a textbook version of this. He stands up and shouts "SEDDIE!" over and over. For those with knowledge of the fandom, he's obviously based on one specific [[Big Name Fan]] who became well known for those antics on the creators blog and websites.
* Fanbot from ''[[VR Troopers]]''. Although mostly comic relief with his Hollywood fanboy personality and proved to be a bit clumsy, he was actually [[Not So Harmless|the most powerful monster of the week they faced all season]]. Before fighting the Troopers, he was assigned to destroy a traitorous ally's super powerful robot, which he did [[Curb Stomp Battle|fairly easily]]. JB's normal finishing move (the laser lance) was so ineffective that be it impalement, slashing, you name it, it only tickled to the point where he made a joke about it. JB actually had to hit him with the techno-bazooka to defeat him, [[Nigh Invulnerable|a weapon used against multiple aircraft]] (but repowered his laser lance and attacked the already defeated robot for some reason). His personality was lampshaded when JB said during the battle "sorry, no autographs" and "there's nothing worse than an angry fan". He actually wasn't a fanboy by designed but a giant industrial fan (he killed the other robot by sucking his parts through his blades), so his name was a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|pun on fan]].
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** To the point of hosting his own ''[[Star Trek]]'' convention, complete with [[Mary Sue]] fanfic, and being pissed that Fry's a bigger fanboy than him.
* Syndrome of ''[[The Incredibles]]'' used to be this.
* Irving, in ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]''.
{{quote|"I jumped in the car when your mom stopped for gas: I'm just happy to be here!"}}
* ''[[The Simpsons]]''' Comic Book Guy: While often being used for [[Take That]] gags, [[Wonder Woman (TV series)|Lynda Carter]] has a restraining order on him and he was almost married with a [[Star Trek|Klingon]] priest.
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