TV’s Craziest Fanbases – Guess Who Scored The Highest?
Tim Surette of TV.com, a writer who’s made no secret of his love for Supernatural, came out today with something both wildly entertaining yet at the same time completely disturbing.
He picked several shall we say, “motivated” TV fanbases out there and rated them based on craziness. In his words, “It’s difficult to say why, but some shows simply attract a different breed of supporters. Creepy, scary, insane supporters.”
Um, yeah, I’m not sure what you’re talking about there Tim…(shifts eyes). No that’s not me tossing aside my latest concept, which requires me to burn one or more of those weekends he mentioned in the intro. Some of my other favorite shows are on this list too, like Lost and Chuck, but it’s my affiliation with the only fandom that scored a 10 out of 10 that either has me beaming with pride or rethinking my priorities. Here’s a little of what he had to say about the Supernatural fandom:
Supernatural
Insanity Level: 10 out of 10, call the National Guard
Listen, I love Supernatural, I really do. But some fans out there really love Supernatural, to almost clinical levels. Ahem: The show’s weirdest fans are known for writing tales about a little something called “Wincest,” a play on the main characters’ surname (they’re known as the Winchester brothers) and that taboo where siblings get it on. And as much as I enjoy watching Sam and Dean Winchester battle demons, I do not have any inclination to see them (or read about them) having sex with each other.
… In the meantime, please enjoy this Supernatural drinking game video, which should provide a better idea of what the show’s “normal” fans are like. And by normal I mean completely bats*** insane.
Either way, each fandom analysis comes with a fun video and Supernatural is no exception. Below is the link to this great article and I’m embedding the video link here too just in case you don’t want to play it on TV.com or Youtube. After all, we need a Supernatural drinking game right about now.
Tnank you for the news, Alice! So we’re 10 out of 10? Hmmm… I’m even proud of it 😀
Oh my god. Well, I can’t really…stop laughing 🙂
It’s true in some ways, but I can’t take this too seriously. I mean, some of the fans are kinda wacko but hey, as long as they aren’t stalking people or attacking them physically or verbally… I can come up with plenty of worse ways to spend time.
It’s funny, because it’s true 😉
😆 😆 😆 Oh dear, oh dear … Love the drinking game even though it looks like a one-way trip to Stomach Pump City ( You can keep the friction-fiction 😳 Seriously cheesey! )
Worryingly I scored 19 out of 20 on the Nutometer as I’m part of a bi-weekly Watch-Tru-Blood-Whilst-Getting-Smashed-And-Then-Maunder-On-About-It-Far-Into-The-Night-Girly-Gang … Someone round up Jas, quick … We need a friendly professional to reassure us we’re all normal!
( Well, normal-ish, anyway … )
Maybe all you chicks with your squeeing and pleas for more shirtless scenes are loon, but I for one stand steadfast, the vanguard of regular Supernatural fandom.
I swear, I always have to put on my normal hat when I saunter on over here. 😀
10 to 10. hehe And they don’t even mention about the twitter thing back on September(Apocalypse is here). 😉
Ahem… I’m not quite sure whether I should feel embarrassed or, frankly, not give a damn…
This whole wincest thing doesn’t creep me out at all, I find it sick, though, but it’s nothing but fantasies of probably lonely hearts and more or less harmless (I won’t get started on that subject when it becomes an indeed clinical or forensic/criminal matter)….
I have known some Trekkies, and Kirk-and-Spock stories, as far as I’ve heard from them, have always been a big deal there. I guess we’ll find these kinds of stories in every fandom (though it’s mostly homosexual pairings there, less incest).
In my mind, the ‘nuttiest’ label does apply to those fans, however, that forget their manners and taste and behave in a way that – allow me to say it again – I get my vicarious embarrassment attacks. We’ve talked about those a few times.
Those fans easily score a 10, but I don’t think that it exclusively reserved for Supernatural fans.
I like other shows ,too, like True Blood, but doing what I do here on our site is as hardcore as it gets for me.
I feel sometimes that it might be somewhat nuts to invest so much time in a tv show, since writing is a very time consuming effort, if you want to get it right, you know that. But since I invest even more time in my work, my friends and the other parts of my life I love, I feel entitled to the kind of fun Supernatural and this site provides.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Alice, I wouldn’t have read about it otherwise.
This friendly professional (I hear ya, Suze), tells you – hey, you’re perfectly alright. Who wants to be normal, anyway?! That drinking game is hilarious, eh?
Let’s not take this too seriously…
Love Jas
Oh, Tim Surette, only a n00b thinks the Wincesters are the craziest SPN fans. Heh.
Oh, gosh, I knew I was in trouble when I read the first paragraph and realized that I had done two of those three things: LOST party with LOST-themed cupcakes (though ours had the numbers on them and not Dharma logos) and tear through a whole season of Supernatural in a weekend. It was season 3, and maybe I only needed 1 day, but who doesn’t love TV on DVD marathons???
There are some pretty nutjob SPN fans out there, but I really think that this site is a haven for the level-headed but still serious fans, a place where everyone is very respectful when we disagree on certain things in the show. So there are definitely some 10/10 fans out there, but no one here that I have met!
Agree with all of you, guys. Thanks Alice, for posting this, fun to read and to watch 😀
Can’t really say much about fandom, this is the first and only one I know, thou I got a glimpse on the Star Trek fans ones and it struck me as odd. Avidly following and adoring a tv show had always made me wonder. But bashing each other and the tv show’s cast, posing as the actors and attacking them, like some SPN fans do, well, that made me wondering about the fans’ state of mind.
Still, the Supernatural fandom was a revelation for me. Because there are people out there who express their interest in a tv show in a fun and non-harming way, even an educational way (man, I could graduate on mythology now ;-)). And still have a life. Yes, I’m talking about our winchesterfamilybusiness 🙂 and fans like Bardic’s Descant and Support Supernatural. Places where I can live my guilty pleasure and not feel guilty. And where the truly nutty fans won’t get to me 🙂
We may have a certain dose of insanity, Mr. Surette, but I think we’re adoreable.
Why? Because I wear a t-shirt on my giant hooters that says WATCH SUPERNATURAL / 9 PM / ON THE CW / BETTER THAN SEX!
I am ADVERTISING the show, for God’s sake! That doesn’t make me some kind of nut job! Plus, Jensen and Jared love the shirt and always thank me!
Excuse me, the med cart is coming around, and I have to tell Jensen and Jared, “I love ya!”
Love ya all,
Robin
10 out of 10, eh? 😳 That list is hilarious, thanks for sharing. I’d wondered, but I didn’t have any other fan communities to compare with! My love for this show has gotta be at least a couple SDs off the mean, but when I first saw the word Winc*** I couldn’t believe it– my eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets. I just hadn’t realized that line could be so easily crossed by some. Guess that makes me kind of naive.
Is the drinking game really so wacky, Tim? 😆 Don’t all fan communities make up drinking games? I know for sure I saw one for X-files in college?
Robin– 😆 😆 😆
Agree with ElenaM on the whole Win…yuck thing. When I first found this fandom (it’s my first too, heee) for some time missread it as Winchest and thought “What’s the fuzz about it?!”..And then accidentally read a few paragraphs of that “fiction” and threw up in my mouth a little before running like hell. I understand that it’s fiction but it’s not my cup of tea, hell, not even my planet. Solar system.
Dude, they are brothers.
Nuff said.
The whole `Wincest` thing makes me feel icky too but other than that lets just embrace the insanity people and enjoy ourselves.
10/10 doesn`t that mean we`re all perfect!
Ha–I like that way of looking at it 😆 I learned during residency that there’s plenty of eccentricity to go around, and I’m totally including myself in that–who’s normal, after all? So it’s not my planet either, but if people wanna write about John and Bobby’s secret love, whatever… (might need federal witness protection for searing that onto people’s brains…) I feel a little blue, though, when I see the “Rules for Commenting” Mo Ryan feels compelled to put at the end of every SPN post. That’s why I love this site though, there’s so little of that, whatever “insanity” we find here is totally something to embrace!
Eeurgh … I really wish I hadn’t read that. I used to work with someone who told far more than one wanted to hear about her love life and her partners preferances and all kinds of other yucksome mental pictures which bubble up when I’d rather they didn’t and that little gem’s going right into the nail the lid shut file along with Dot’s revelations about Guiness and white scanties ( Dot looked like a peeled potato in a Tina Turner wig … ‘Nuff said 😳 )
I can’t post on TV.com (They won’t let me login), so I would like to complain about this article here, is that okay? If not please remove this comment.
I know they probably intended this to be fun, but I’m kind of tired of people bagging on supernatural fans, it’s getting really old. I will admit that there are some very avid fans out there, and if I was going to point out something wrong with this fandom it would be Sam v Dean Girls (I think Dean is awesome, but I don’t think it’s worth starting WWIII because someone thinks Sam is more awesome than Dean), same for the Jensen v Jared acting debate, or fiction where the guys are secretly a couple in real life (I think that’s probably creepier), not Wincest. I think the very vocal people are in the minority, but they post on the internet so it seems like a more widespread problem. My guess is that most supernatural fans are like people who participate in this site, passionate about this tv show, but fairly level headed. But what I think this article fails to grasp is that all of this stuff exists elsewhere in other fandoms, Smallville (RPS), American Idol, Heroes has Incest Pairings too, FYI did you know that there is Sports RPS. The type of supernatural fanfiction out there is not really unique. Heck even Rome had a brother and sister sleep with each other during an episode. I just don’t think that the people who make articles like this have latched onto other fandoms as a punching bag like they have Supernatural.
I guess what angers me is that I’m most likely one of these fans that their making fun of. I will on occasion read Wincest Fanfiction, and I will admit that most of it is really off-putting (underage and rape is not okay), but I find some of it interesting if it’s well written. I think the whole taboo aspect of it is intriguing. I recognize it’s weird. I also read RPS when the setting is something completely different from this reality (movie retellings, sci-fi, spy, different occupations), I’m even starting to write some. But since fanfiction is mainly anonymous and know one really knows anything about the authors, no one really recognizes that these people have lives, I know i do, and most of them aren’t “bat shit crazy” for writing this stuff. It’s just an anonymous outlet for peoples creative impulse to write within the context of their favorite tv show. I think it’s an aspect of the modern fan culture and people need to stop bagging on others for exorcising this creative impulse, they are not hurting anyone. Also it’s FICTION get over it, if it’s not your cup of tea don’t read. 😡
Reply to above. Cool, I just needed to vent. I’m glad that I was able to do it here. Love this site by the way.
SPN the craziest cause of fanfic.
Nope they been writing that stuff since the 70s.
In plus The Vampire Diaries will be on this list soon cause I saw some slash goin on there too. lol
People shouldnt get scared of the fandom cause of craze fans, everyshow have its few nut jobs.
But what set SPN apart from everything else its the most vocal in suportive. I hate when people focus on the bad, how about make a article of the charties we helped or money donation because we do it all.
People forget SPN fandom have to be the loudest at times, because if they didnt the show whould of been cancled back in season 2.
In that would of been a shame