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Vice: I love "Rick & Morty" and I hate its fans

jrush64

Banned
The big list of awful fanbases:

SuperWhoLock fans
Bronies
R&M fans
J.Cole fans
Walking Dead fans
Wrestling fans (especially)
Patriots fans
Xxxtentacion fans
LoL players
Zack Snyder fans
South Park fans
Those GoT fans that make podcasts all about what the fuck Jon Snow or whoever the fuck ate for breakfast that one time in season 20, episode 4
Prequels fans
PewDiePie fans

With Trump fans obviously getting the gold medal

This list is obviously a joke.
 

etrain911

Member
The big list of awful fanbases:

SuperWhoLock fans
Bronies
R&M fans
J.Cole fans
Walking Dead fans
Wrestling fans (especially)
Patriots fans
Xxxtentacion fans
LoL players
Zack Snyder fans
South Park fans
Those GoT fans that make podcasts all about what the fuck Jon Snow or whoever the fuck ate for breakfast that one time in season 20, episode 4
Prequels fans
PewDiePie fans

With Trump fans obviously getting the gold medal

You're missing Homestuck/Undertale fans
 

Permanently A

Junior Member
The big list of awful fanbases:

SuperWhoLock fans
Bronies
R&M fans
J.Cole fans
Walking Dead fans
Wrestling fans (especially)
Patriots fans
Xxxtentacion fans
LoL players
Zack Snyder fans
South Park fans
Those GoT fans that make podcasts all about what the fuck Jon Snow or whoever the fuck ate for breakfast that one time in season 20, episode 4
Prequels fans
PewDiePie fans

With Trump fans obviously getting the gold medal

Where's the steven universe tumblr fanbase though? You know the ones that bullied an artist into a suicide attempt?
 
The big list of awful fanbases:

SuperWhoLock fans
Bronies
R&M fans
J.Cole fans
Walking Dead fans
Wrestling fans (especially)
Patriots fans
Xxxtentacion fans
LoL players
Zack Snyder fans
South Park fans
Those GoT fans that make podcasts all about what the fuck Jon Snow or whoever the fuck ate for breakfast that one time in season 20, episode 4
Prequels fans
PewDiePie fans

With Trump fans obviously getting the gold medal
Kanye fans gotta be up there.
 

aliengmr

Member
What's funny is (in the case of R&M and Community) the fans talked up those shows so much that they didn't come close to the hype.

They're good shows, but not nearly as good or deep as some people think they are.
 

jabuseika

Member
From "Rick and Morty is cool" to "Hating Rick and Morty fans is cool", in less than one season.

That has to be a record or something...
 
I don't know why you're going after people for bringing up political ideology since you're the person who pivoted the argument from annoying fandoms to that in the first place. That's what i'm pushing back against. Because it's taking someone's legitimate grievances and turning it into a holier than thou treatise of the hypocrisy of groupthink. I very much disagree with what you're talking about, so that's the apparent nerve that's being hit, i'll agree with that then. There is nothing inherently bad or toxic about cultural groups in a lot of contexts. There's nothing 'hypocritical' about calling out the bad aspects of fandoms just because I identify with another group of people. That's painting things with a broad brush so you can look down on everyone. Well done I guess. And I don't see how my post was in any way more of a shitpost than yours other than the fact it was shorter. I am quite dense, i'll give you that, but i'm not a shitposter just because I disagreed with you.

My point was that all groups are man made constructs of associating people together by characteristics. It's judging people by features. "People who like Twilight are fucking morons". "I feel Xbox fans are always salty", "If you are a conservative, you're a neo nazi", Whatever it is, it's not the group themselves that is the problem; But how some people within most groups start acting shitty.
I don't have a problem with groups themselves (or herein, political, religious, social or cultural) - I have a problem with that when they turn prey on others, in other groups. Like a R&M fan who looks down on someone for having a Star Wars sword. That's a person whose circle reinforces him to talk shit because he is within his group. So fuck him.

I was pointing out that this sort of thing betrays people in all sorts of groups, not just within fandom. I was trying to point out that it's not sensible to look at it so reductionistic as just "fandoms" being a problem. Rather, it's groupthink behavior that exist within any sort of social group.

But pointing that out is not the same as saying as there are no benefits to groups at all or that people in groups are worse. And I don't understand why you think I am going on a houlier than thou attitude. I'm well aware that many people can handle being in groups and still not punch down on people who are in other groups or individuals without a group.
I am just saying that I am frustrated with people who stop acting like a rational human being when they are in a group. A cop. A soldier. an activist. Someone who is a part of a fandom. You're not better or worse than anyone else and you are a coward if you fuck with people just because people in your group got your back to give you free reign to throw punches at someone who is outnumbered.

That R&M fan wouldn't have talked that shit had he not been validated by his R&M pals.
 

Bronx-Man

Banned
This list is obviously a joke.
no

You're missing Homestuck/Undertale fans
Homestuck.....I haven't heard that name in a long time. A long time.

Where's the steven universe tumblr fanbase though? You know the ones that bullied an artist into a suicide attempt?
Mentioned that in a later post.

Kanye fans gotta be up there.
Boi, if you don't git yourself back to gaf-hop....
 

CS_Dan

Member
The big list of awful fanbases:

SuperWhoLock fans
Bronies
R&M fans
J.Cole fans
Walking Dead fans
Wrestling fans (especially)
Patriots fans
Xxxtentacion fans
LoL players
Zack Snyder fans
South Park fans
Those GoT fans that make podcasts all about what the fuck Jon Snow or whoever the fuck ate for breakfast that one time in season 20, episode 4
Prequels fans
PewDiePie fans

With Trump fans obviously getting the gold medal
Even Tool hate Tool fans, and I like Tool
 
As much as I love Rick and Morty it does bug me that the show can't seem to decide if Rick is awesome or not. Yes there are episodes that show him miserable and alone but just as many show him as always being right with anyone who doubts him being a moron who will eventually be humiliated and/or killed. Yes we're supposed to realize that lifestyle is self destructive but it's easy for me to see why some people don't get that.

Compare to Bojack where it's shown under no circumstances that he is miserable, self destructive, and you would in no way want to be like him.

I'm not saying Rick and Morty should change but I see how the comedy comes at odds with the drama at times.
 

Sianos

Member
I think it's larger than fandom. You can see this in all sorts of groups where hypocrisy and group think end up making people hypocrite to what they tout to teach and preach and lectures others about. Religion is an obvious example- Social movements is another. "My group is about kindness and inclusiveness, so I'm gonna fuck up others I don't agree with".

Fundamentally, human beings are lazy, self centered and have an ego that is mostly about being understood and concerned about ones own feelings than others. Even if other people suffer immensely on my expense (indirectly), me not being uncomfortable is my chief concern.



It strikes me as childish that one would think that there are only one way for people to be attached to something. The idea that if the alt-right enjoys pizza, you should not enjoy pizza because pizza is co-opted by the alt-right is profoundly stupid. That what you enjoy (like R&M) overlaps for other reasons with morons who enjoy the same thing is really not a reason to disengage from the activity.

There are idiots who use South Park as their baseline for political ideology. Okay- What does that have to do with everyone else? It knee jerks me ever so hard, to see leftists piss their and acting reactive to whatever deplorable people are doing. Every time they are doing something, a good upstanding progressive have to act in accordance and be concerned about their public image.

Stand by your fucking convictions instead of categorizing yourself and others into boxes. Fandom or ideology. You're not it. It's just something you have in common with. You're not an atheist. You're not a gamer. You're not a feminist. You're not a Game of Thrones fan. There is nothing of value to derive from you summarizing yourself as being "it". You're none of those things, and what you are, doesn't fit into any fucking box that can be ticked, because you're a walking contradiction of various thoughts and your personality is basically stitched together by biased memories and habits.

We tell ourselves we're this or that we are that, to give ourself and others, a way to feel like we are understood. It's not tone policing, as the way we speak, really give us insight into our own flaws and blatant hypocrisy. We live and breathe the same bullshit in other forms, that we look down on others for. It's just in different contexts. And we're very much unaware of it a lot of the time.

So it's easy for us to shit on fandom and make fun of these people, but most of us are guilty of this in different contexts. Particularly political (here on OT GAF).

The problem is, how else do I express my rich inner world to other humans - and how can they express themselves to me? Symbols, whether they be the words of language or pictoral images, are our primary mechanism to express our conceptual mapping of the world and the inferences we draw from it.

A more "accurate" term than saying "I am a member of [category]" would be to say "I possess or am actively cultivating certain characteristics or beliefs that are centrally codified as [category]" - because all objects within a category have a degree of centrality to the prototypic image of that category.

There is definitely the problem of our tendency to, when unexamined, gravitate towards the centrality of whatever categories we compose our outwardly appearance of - to model oneself after an archetype. The problem is when people substitute the maps of their identity constructed from others media for their own identity. Again, drawing inspiration from the world is great and can teach you a lot about yourself - but fully destroying your own agency in doing so loses something valuable.

But categorization has value in spite of our own poor usage of it. It allows us to make sense of the world and construct complex systems. It allows us to communicate far more effectively even if connotations sometimes muddy the channel.

Signalling through self-identification has instrumental value - presenting yourself in a clearly understandable manner is useful so as to guide your observer to drawing the conclusions about you that you desire. It can also signal how you are likely to feel towards a particular topic - or how safe a person with a set of traits can feel around you. It makes people feel more at ease interacting with you when they have somewhat of an understanding of you, and language helps to enable this understanding.

Basically, humans and their anthropocentric language can be confusing, but it's not surprising that humans have a natural tendenxy to use themselves as a frame of reference for abstract concepts.

(Also, refusing to self-identify and making a point of why you refuse to sometimes sends messages too, if there is a central commonality between those who do so - see people who really don't like the word "feminism")
 

jstripes

Banned
Excellent timing:

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Fandoms in general can get pretty toxic. “There’s no way you can possibly understand how great X is. How dare you say that about my favourite character. Haha you’re wasting your time watching/playing Y, X is waaay better, trust me.” My Little Pony, Steven Universe, Rick and Morty, Star Wars, Overwatch, a lot of anime fandoms, you name it. People begin to feel entitled and abuse the fuck out it for the sake of a piece of fiction.
 

DeathyBoy

Banned
Fandoms in general can get pretty toxic. “There’s no way you can possibly understand how great X is. How dare you say that about my favourite character. Haha you’re wasting your time watching/playing Y, X is waaay better, trust me.” My Little Pony, Steven Universe, Rick and Morty, Star Wars, Overwatch, a lot of anime fandoms, you name it. People begin to feel entitled and abuse the fuck out it for the sake of a piece of fiction.

I still hold wrestling fans as among the worst. What other groups pay to see shit just to heckle it like children?
 
I still hold wrestling fans as among the worst. What other groups pay to see shit just to heckle it like children?

Man, I don't watch wrestling but my friend gets free tickets whenever they are in town and I go with him. Besides the obvious guys like Cena, I don't know who they are, but when your there live the heckling is fun and really establishes who to root for, and who is the villian. Also the fans I sit around are having a great time, my two cents
 
I still hold wrestling fans as among the worst. What other groups pay to see shit just to heckle it like children?

But that's a major and logical part of it: There are heels, bad guys, that you're supposed to jeer. Heckling is participation.

I’m inclined to agree with this, but at the same time there are dudes on twitter who take it way too far.

I will say though that its fucking hilarious when people bring anime signs to matches.
 

robotrock

Banned
Man, I don't watch wrestling but my friend gets free tickets whenever they are in town and I go with him. Besides the obvious guys like Cena, I don't know who they are, but when your there live the heckling is fun and really establishes who to root for, and who is the villian. Also the fans I sit around are having a great time, my two cents

sometimes the crowd is shit though. like yeah you've got the right idea, when it's working out well for both WWE's side and the audience, it's a great time. but i think they've had a few questionable chants this year
 

Sianos

Member
My theory on the Pickle Rick thing is that was an experiment on their fanbase. They distilled Rick's extremely broken personality down into something memeable just to see what happens.

When people yell "PICKLE RICK!!!!", they're actually yelling "I ruin every interpersonal relationship I have and refuse to face responsibility!" without realizing it.

This is my theory as well.

Along these lines, I think Rick's speech to Beth where he says "you aren't evil - worse, you're smart" makes sense for his character and in the context of the show precisely because Rick has been directly told by Dr. Wong that "he uses intelligence to justify sickness". A few episodes later and there's an example of Rick doing exactly that, invoking intelligence as a justification for Beth's character flaws.

Rick and Morty is pretty direct and doesn't pull any punches condemning it's characters. But the characters also don't immediately reform when called out by an impressive monologue, because generally people don't either. Like it's been said in the show, mental self-care can be a long process and often not an exciting one - but it is one that is of critical importance.

Maybe years down the line we'll get the Rick and Morty equivalent of End of Evangelion to even more directly call out the Pickle Ricks.

EDIT: Here's an interesting take on this idea that covers it in more detail.
 

Blackthorn

"hello?" "this is vagina"
I’ve never talked about Rick and Morty online or sought out any discussion about it, so I had no idea this was even a thing.

And I will continue not to care that it’s a thing.
 
What is it about these shows and it's overly pretentious fans? Just wait when the show becomes mainstream to the masses and it's "fans" will change their tune.
 
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