A good laugh

[donutsweeper]

EW has an article "The 25 Greatest Cult Shows Ever." Overall it's a fun trip down memory lane and I agree with many of their choices, but their reasoning for Supernatural making the list at #11?

"Why It's Cult: Because some members of the show's small but passionate fanbase have taken to writing fan fiction. And any show that inspires people to want to continue the heroes' adventures on their own time qualifies as cult. (We'll not mention that some of that fan fiction has the Winchester brothers doing things that brothers shouldn't be doing. It's called ''Wincest.'' Nuff said, ja?)"

*giggles* Yes, because ONLY Supernatural has fanfiction written about it. Yeah, right.

(FYI, for the true spoiler-phobes do not read its reasoning for choosing #1. Eta- It contains two spoilers and one is a casting spoiler regarding one of the specials)

Comments

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

I bet it's the Wincest that makes Supernatural ficcers stand out. But the implication that this is the only show with fanfic is very giggle worthy!

reasoning for choosing #1

Whoops, I figured it would be the thing I was already spoiled for, but it wasn't. That'll teach me!

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Wincest does make Supernatural stand out, but still... there's fanfic for EVERYTHING out there and rule 34 is in place in every case.

Oh, I'm so sorry! I hope you're not too upset to be spoiled!

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

there's fanfic for EVERYTHING out there and rule 34 is in place in every case.

Seriously. Wincest is (I gather) pretty mainstream in SPN fandom, but there seems to be at least as much if not slash as gen in any given fandom. I wonder if the E writer is really that sheltered. :)

I hope you're not too upset to be spoiled!

Ah, at this point and the way these things run in Doctor Who, I don't have very high expectations for my ability to stay pure. And I knew better than to look. ::rolls eyes at self:: It's okay. It was nice of you to warn -- that's more than the article did!


I was kind of surpised X-Files wasn't higher than #9.

[travels-in-time.livejournal.com]

And I've been all proud of myself for managing to keep myself quiet, too!

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

That must have been hard, go you! At this point I'm hoping that if I don't talk about it or see it any more, I might forget about it before it happens. My brain can be amazingly accommodating that way. *g*

[travels-in-time.livejournal.com]

I have been doing a lot of related babbling, though--the squee hit when I found out {spoiler}, and hasn't gone away yet. Picspams, fics, general spazzing; stuff not likely to help you forget, and I apologize in advance for that. *g*

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Since there is always 2-3x as much slash as gen in a fandom (if not 10x) and SPN revolves around two brothers.... It's SUCH a given. But there's plenty of slash about the brothers in "Heroes" too! Heck there's even slash about the "Bonanza" boys! It goes back a LONG time. I found it hard to believe the writer was that surprised by it (although, SPN is the only show that's made comments to fanfic (including incest fanfic) in canon as far as I know)

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

Bwah, I actually managed to catch that episode. Classic.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

It was! It's actually been mentioned twice. The writer really thinks it's hysterical, I think.

[travels-in-time.livejournal.com]

Sheesh. I knew that already, but way to go, EW, for spoiling those who don't WANT to know.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I *know* seriously. TV Guide mentioned a major plot point regarding CoE before it aired on BBCA too. Do they not understand some people truly don't want to know?

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons I stopped subscribing to TV Guide and EW years ago was that very type of thing. I was waiting up to a year to read the issues, because I was afraid of being spoiled, and by that time, well... not so relevant.

What gets me most is when people on TV will say a spoiler, then follow it up with, "Spoiler alert!" It's too late if you've already said it, dummy! It's like turning on the tornado sirens after the neighborhood is already flattened.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Yep! Fanfic does it too. The Author's Notes will have a big "SPOILER for finale" but the summary was "How does the team deal with the death of so and so" ermmm... kind of makes it obvious what the spoiler is then, doesn't it?

[travels-in-time.livejournal.com]

Apparently there's a book called John Dies at the End. And...guess what happens?

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

John lives happily ever after?

[travels-in-time.livejournal.com]

Not so much, no...

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Drat! And I thought I'd figured it out! *giggles*

[haldane.livejournal.com]

Fanfiction.net lists 831 TV shows with at least one fanfic, and that's only one site.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

And they have a misc category for fics that don't have their own fandom too. I seriously doubt there are shows out there that have lasted an entire season that don't have some fic out there somewhere.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

Not to mention all those shows that didn't last a full season, like Firefly.

I've always gotten the feeling EW lives in it's own little world, where Twilight is the be-all-end-all fandom and everything else is vaguely interesting to them.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I bet there are a few shows that got cancelled about 5/6 episodes that never crossed into the fanfic/fandom world. But anything with more than 13? It's out there, if you look hard enough.
You may be right about EW though

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

Oh, that reminds me, the article said that Firefly was canceled after 11 episodes. Wrong, it was canceled after four. (I think. I know less than half of the eleven filmed episodes were aired on FOX.) Thank goodness for DVDs!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medley_/]

...That's a pretty serious spoiler. That I already knew, so no problem for me, but yikes, EW.

That is hilarious about Supernatural. THey're gonna need a much longer list! (Yay for The Tick being on there!)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Yes! I was so happy to see The Tick!!

The spoiler bugged me. If it hasn't aired, it shouldn't be mentioned in my opinion.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medley_/]

I agree with you! And that's only aired at ComicCon, and certainly isn't widely known. Did you know already?

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I knew about that particular spoiler (both of them, the casting spoiler and the fact it was a last episode)

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

ALRIGHT. PUSHING DAISIES!

And Police Squad!

And the X-Files and Buffy. Yeah!

I think SPN was mentioned since it's the only time fanfic was referenced ON the show. That might be what they meant, but it was written... wrong.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I assume that's why SPN's fanfic is mentioned, but still- it certainly came out wrong

[ahavia.livejournal.com]

OK, Man from U.N.C.L.E must be mentioned.
And OZ on HBO, The Sentinal (not the movie). NCIS, and my favorites - Due South and Forever Knight. What about all the Star Treks!
The first time I found out about fanfic it was when we discovered s story in our teenage sons' bedroom on memograph paper of Spock and Kirk together doing more things then we knew men could do together. Totally freaked the 2 Lesbian mothers that we were then.
How far I have come!
Ahavia

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I was very surprised not to see Star Trek on the list. I assume it was considered too mainstream or something.

[phoenix64.livejournal.com]

Yay for mentioning Profit, boo for not mentioning due South. Beyond my personal preference, dS was a big player in the earlier days of online fandom. Also boo for not mentioning Vengeance Unlimited.

As always, boo for spoilers, though to be fair I think this is one of those things where mainstream culture hasn't caught up with fandom culture. To many people who shot JR is something that should remain hidden, but casting news not so much.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Good point- due South's fannish community was one of the main reasons it continued after CBS canned it. There are several shows that had an extra season or tv movie specials because of that (Alien Nation, Jericho, Magnificent Seven come to mind immediately.)

The fact the Ten to Eleven thing is mentioned SO often in so many places is also something I find a bit shocking. I'd somehow not heard about the Nine to Ten shift and the shift made quite a big impact on me. Considering how often I see the mention of DT's swan song in print media (let alone on the net) I wonder if it's possible for anyone to remain in the dark about it in this day and age.

[phoenix64.livejournal.com]

Like I said, I think in part the casting news=spoiler is a fannish culture thing that doesn't necessarily translate to the mainstream. And I think part of it is pure information bleed in the age of the internet, as in: all that information is out there, how could anyone not want it?

My favorite "why isn't everyone reading this site?" site, overthinkingit.com, had a post last month concerning movie spoilers which was kind of interesting - here (http://www.overthinkingit.com/2009/08/27/spoilers/). Note that the post has some minor spoilers for District 9, but it does warn for them.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Oooh, interesting site! I agree A LOT with the article you linked to, especially this bit:

This much is clear to me: there is nothing you can learn about a movie beforehand that will heighten your enjoyment of the movie. Trailers can certainly heighten your anticipation, and make you count down the days before you can line up and gladly wait three hours to be the very first to see something. But the tradeoff is, you know what’s coming. You know that at some point, Iron Man is going to shoot a missile at a tank and turn and walk away before it explodes. So when the moment comes, what you experience is the thrill of recognition, not surprise.

Obviously you need to be told something about a movie to want to go see it, but commercials and trailers and reviews can try to keep things under wraps and (like they suggested in the article) I think the viewer might be better off for it. It reminds me of "Fight Club." I read several reviews of when the movie came out and never learned the big secret until I watched the movie. However, because of the way it was presented and marketed a lot of people only thought it was a movie about men punching each other out and chose not to go see it. But "Fight Club" (and similar movies with twists, like "The Usual Suspects") is a much better movie if you don't already know the big secret and get to watch it be revealed.