Fandom Unironicism
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| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Fandom Unironicism |
| Creator: | prairieprayer |
| Date(s): | Nov 11, 2020 |
| Medium: | Tumblr blog post |
| Fandom: | General, mentions HLVRAI, Homestuck, Tumblr Sexyman, Undertale, and others |
| Topic: | How canon jokes become serious fanon |
| External Links: | Live URL, Archived URL |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Fandom Unironicism was a short meta essay by Tumblr user prairieprayer from Nov 11, 2020. While a general essay on fandom, it references a handful of fandoms and characters by name as examples, including HLVRAI, Homestuck, Tumblr Sexyman, and Undertale, among others. In the essay, prairieprayer credits their unnamed fiance for coining the term fandom unironicism. The blog post had 34 notes by Jan 21, 2022.
Some Topics Discussed
- How jokes, such as the "dick slip" in Half-Life VR but the AI is Self Aware, became taken seriously in fan works like fanfiction
- How larger fandom concepts, such as the Tumblr Sexyman, might be an example of joke characters or non-serious characters being exaggerated into seriousness by fandom
- How artistic choices not taken seriously by their fandoms, such as colored noses in Homestuck fanart, can end up taken more seriously despite being disliked or made fun of by other fans
Excerpts
My fiance were talking a few days ago about this pattern that keeps showing up throughout fandom that didn’t have a name; the taking of non-serious things and adapting them seriously into fandom. And my fiance suddenly said well, it’s “unironicism,” where something that is ironic, or silly, or a joke, or just generally not serious, is removed from its context and re-made into something unironic.
For example, the recent fandom for Half Life VR but the AI is Self-Aware. This is a fandom built almost completely on fandom unironicism, where nearly everything in “canon” is a joke. But the fandom isn’t treating it like a joke. Benry’s voice actor throws in a funny improv gag (probably made up on the spot) about Gordon having a “dick slip” and now there are fanfics where this line is genuinely a turning point for Benry’s character.
Fandom unironicism could even refer to general practices and phrases that someone began using ironically but then developed into using them unironically. The colored noses from Homestuck fanart, the expansion of silly Once-ler AU ask blogs, the re-useage of the citrus scale in 2019.