Fan Disillusionment: Difference between revisions

''You are such an asshole!

''You are such an asshole!

 

 

Sometimes, such disillusionment may stem from an overall decline in quality (or a perceived decline, in any case) in the material itself. The show may suffer from one too many mistakes, [[Did Not Do the Research|glaring errors]], or [[Kill'Em All|cullings of the cast]], all of which can lead to fans just giving up. There's only so much you can quietly resign to the dustbin of [[Fanon Discontinuity]] before throwing your hands up in exasperation and storming off in a huff.

Occasionally, however, the reason for a fan's desertion, or loss of enthusiasm, is because they feel that the people who create their favourite show, book, game, or songs have let them down in some way. Sometimes this is justified when the person in question is deliberately cruel to their fans, but sometimes this is entirely the fans' fault for crying [[Ruined FOREVER]] at every sign of something happening that they don't appreciate.

 

 

Compare [[Artist Disillusionment]]. See also [[Ruined FOREVER]] for just how many times fans will claim this is happening in perfectly healthy franchises.

 

{{examples}}

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

 

== Films ==

* In ''The Fan'', Robert De Niro is an obsessive fan of Wesley Snipes' baseball star who goes berserk after hearing Snipes criticize his fandom.

* In ''[[Big Fan]]'', Paul Aufiero is obsessed with the New York Giants, especially star player Quantrell Bishop. He's 36, still lives with his mother, works in a parking lot, and watches home games in the parking lot of the stadium via a television hooked to his car battery. When he and a friend chance bump into Bishop at a strip joint, he decides to take the plunge and introduce himself to him. Things do not go as planned, a fight breaks out, leaving Paul with a black eye and a confused conscience as to how he should present himself as a court witness against his hero.

 

== Literature ==

{{quote|"[[Bored with Insanity|Good news for you, good sirs, that I am no longer Don Quixote of La Mancha, but Alonso Quixano, whose way of life won for him the name of Good]]. Now am I the enemy of [[Knight in Shining Armor|Amadis of Gaul]] [[Follow the Leader|and of the whole countless troop of his descendants]]; [[Cliché Storm|odious to me now are all the profane stories of knight-errantry;]] [[Heel Realization|now I perceive my folly]], [[The New Rock and Roll|and the peril into which reading them brought me;]] [[It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time|now, by God's mercy schooled into my right senses, I loathe them.]]"}}

 

* The [[Sitcom]] ''[[Growing Pains]]'' featured an episode in which Ben, at a concert featuring his favorite singer, gets a backstage pass to the singer's dressing room... and is disgusted to find that the "wholesome" artist is having a tawdry affair.

* The British TV comedy/drama one-off ''Cruise of the Gods'' is about all of the confusions, disappointments and shattered illusions that result when the fans, writers and actors of an old science fiction series meet up at a shipboard convention.

* Joey on ''Gimme a Break'' watched a TV show starring Captain Jerk, whom he idolized. After meeting him in person he discovered the actor playing Captain Jerk was a racist, which crushed Joey. He finally confronted the actor and told him he was going to tell all his friends to stop watching Captain Jerk's show and start watching Mickey Mouse, adding "and Mickey Mouse is black!"

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the Doctor and Martha encounter Shakespeare and experience Fan Disillusionment upon discovering his loud and bawdy behavior, more akin to a frat boy than a literary legend. Martha remarks, "You should never meet your heroes." However, they eventually grow to like him.

 

== Manga ==

* In ''[[Otaku no Musume-san]]'' there is a scene where Kouta's [[Otaku]] fans rush onto his stand in the Comiket manga fair, but when they find out that he actually ''has a daughter'', many of them get disillusioned by the fact that Kouta is not ''so'' much nerdy as ''they'' are.

 

== Music ==

* The song "Van Halen" by Nerf Herder is about a [[Van Halen]] fan who becomes disillusioned after Sammy Hagar replaced David Lee Roth.

* "Stan" by [[Eminem]]. He kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend over not getting a timely response to his letters.

 

== Web Comics ==

* As with [[Artist Disillusionment]], this is a plot line in ''[[Megatokyo]]''. It's suggested that not-entirely-inaccurate rumours of Erika's violent nature affected her image badly, a jarring contrast to her [[Genki Girl]] voice-actress persona. However, apparently it didn't do enough damage to keep her more obsessive fans away. Kimiko constantly worried about "letting her fans down," although she more or less stopped this since encountering the unpleasant side of fan obsession.

 

== Western Animation ==

** Lampshaded when O'Farrell, who over the course of the episode becomes a fan of the aforementioned series, says at the end of the episode, "I didn't even get a chance to become disillusioned."

* ''[[Hey Arnold!]]''

** An episode depicted Arnold in search of a missing children's author who has turned extremely bitter and reclusive. {{spoiler|Through sheer persistence and a massive guilt trip, Arnold gets the woman to write again; her first new book begins with "A boy with a strange-shaped head and a nasty witch who no longer believed in magic".}} The author's name, Agatha Caulfield, is a reference to real-life [[Artist Disillusionment|reclusive author]] J.D. Salinger.

** Another episode of ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'' focuses on Eugene finding out that his favorite superhero, "The Abdicator," [[Nice Character, Mean Actor|is a jerk when the camera's not on him]]. Eugene goes on a [[Poke the Poodle|badboy rampage]].

 

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[[Category:Meta Concepts]]

[[Category:No Real Life Examples, Please]]