Fan Boy: Difference between revisions

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 (Franchise)|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>

 

 

With the term [[Fan Girl]] having come into prominence, fanboy is starting to see itself get used in the same way. However, when the term fanboy is used this way, it's usually suggesting something even more base about their sexual obsession. Whereas a stereotypical [[Fan Girl]] will usually find some base element in the personality of the character to fetish over (although it definitely helps for the character to be handsome as well), a fanboy will usually just have discussions of a given female actor's physical attractiveness when it's not directly relevant (with almost no mention of personality unless it's something that contributes to fetish such as [[Moe]] innocence or an affinity for a particular hobby). For example, one poster on a forum may comment that Ms. Smith (who plays a [[Hot Scientist]]) appeared in an episode of a crime show. A fanboy will then comment that she wore some particularly tight jeans in that episode.

In the original Japanese, the term [[Otaku]] is synonymous with this, but also implies an almost stalker-like attitude as well. The original (very pejorative) meaning got lost when it was adopted by English language fans of [[Anime]].

 

 

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* During the ''iStart A Fan War'' episode of ''[[I Carly]]'', 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]].

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

[[Category:Truth in Television]]

[[Category:Fandom]]