Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2019: Week 35

Crack has two main meanings in a fandom context, both playing off the slang for crack cocaine:

One, that a fanwork is highly addictive. The rec community Crack Van played with this definition. "Crack" was also common slogan in older anime fandom and emblazoned on t-shirts and bumper stickers.

Two, crack can describe fanworks with a fundamentally ludicrous premise, or otherwise including a plethora of unbelievable, incredible, or just plain silly elements - that is, implying the author/artist must have been on drugs to produce something so insane. It may be used in a compound noun ("crackfic"), or as an adjective ("crack pairing"). On tumblr, posts in the vein of crack may be labelled as crack!post.