I’m inclined to write a much longer diatribe about my experiences (and ones that I’ve noted others have had in similar situations countless times) dealing with the fan base of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. If you are a fan of the show, consider yourself a Brony, etc., don’t worry. I’m not going to bash the thing you love.
The experience that caused me to take pause occurred on Twitter (as so many things which cause pause do), where I made this simple tweet in response to several fans of the show mentioning that MLP was now listed on Netflix:
Rudderbutt
Hey, MLP is on Netflix! That’s one more thing I can ignore on Netflix!
4/2/12 6:22 PM
Having finished bathing in the blood of 100 fetuses and hitting the ‘tweet’ button, I was surprised to find, that upon the return to my keyboard after kicking a flock of baby geese in the parking lot where I work, that I had several nasty reactions to my tweet. I won’t name names, since I’m not about that, but the names themselves aren’t important; the reaction seems to be a common one from the MLP fan base. Say anything remotely negative about the show, even in jest, and it is considered a personal attack of the highest order.
Now, let’s take a critical look at my tweet. Do I make a personal attack on anyone? Do I equate someone liking the show to being the antichrist? Hell, did I even state what I thought about the show explicitly? No.
This may come as a shocker to those that are ready to hang me by my gutted small intestines for making a joke critical of MLP, but I don’t even think the show is bad. To be completely honest, I think the show is just fine for what it is. It’s a kid show aimed at adolescent girls. If you’re not in the target demographic for what the show’s writers originally intended and still like the show, hey, great for you. The rest of us actually don’t give shit what you like because you are entitled to like what you want to.
See, this is the main take home point for me tossing up this blog post, despite the fact that I’m sure that a parade of MLP diehard fans are quickly rising up to form a lynch mob to feed me apples until my stomach bursts (see what I did there; topical). It disappoints, and yes, annoys me, that a lot of MLP fans (and let me be quick to say that this is not me calling out ALL fans of MLP for doing this, but a large portion of them do) haven’t yet learned this incredibly important life lesson:
It’s okay if someone doesn’t like the things you do.
If someone makes a passing joke about the thing you love, it’s okay. Shrug it off. Ignore them. Do you still love the thing you did prior to that comment? You probably do. Is it really worth your time huffing, puffing, turning red in the face, and going on a tirade complaining that this person is personally against you because they don’t happen to share the same sentiment you do? On a cartoon?
Let me address something that you inevitably just thought of something if you’re seething with rage thus far in this post.
“But Colson! You hypocrite! You just bashed MLP on Twitter and you said to ignore people who don’t like the things you do, and then you went and made fun of people for liking something!”
I poked fun by rearranging a common Twitter post. Since I type around 100 words per minute, and the thought process it took to rearrange that twitter post occurred to me in passing thought as I was generating reports for clients at work, I wager the energy expended on such an effort was less than 1 kcal. My brain’s electrical activity required to make such a post couldn’t turn on an incandescent bulb for a microsecond. Me making this joke is absolutely no different than me poking fun at the New York Jets for trading for someone that can’t play quarterback to replace someone that can’t play quarterback. Or for making a passing joke about the Hunger Games. Or Harry Potter. Or even the furry fandom at large, where hundreds of people make posts a day making fun of furries.
Do you see any such backlash occurring from posts like theirs? You sure don’t. And that’s the part that’s truly baffling, the part that actually ruffles the feathers of the people you think are so against you for not liking My Little Pony. I promise you, the vast majority of us don’t have a problem with you liking the show. We don’t have a problem with you tweeting about it, or having Brony characters, having panels at cons, whatever. It’s a cultural phenomenon, and it’s remarkable. When I say remarkable, in this instance, I actually mean that it can be remarked upon. We make jokes about popular things because pop culture jokes and references are topical. They’re funny.
The last time I checked, ponies did not promise you an afterlife with a large number of virgins for you to enjoy. Your entire life probably doesn’t revolve around them, but even if it does, that’s your choice, and hey, more power to you. That’s what’s great about first world countries (which is likely where you are if you’re a fan of the show); that you can be as into whatever you like however much you like. Just don’t turn around and act as though someone attacked you on a personal level, or something as deeply ingrained to your being as a belief in a God or spiritual being, if someone doesn’t share the same enjoyment of said thing.
It’s not worth your time to get so worked up about it. Enjoy what you like, but for the love of god, grow the fuck up about it if others poke a little fun at it.
