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Fanboy is a derogatory term used to describe someone who is utterly devoted to a hobby or a subject, to the point where it becomes an obsession. Fanboys are often experts on minor details regarding their hobbies, and they take these details extremely seriously.
These sorts of fanboys stereotypically show an almost sycophantic devotion to the creators and principles behind a work they are currently enthralled by, but will quickly move their attention elsewhere once something better or just newer comes along. A good example of this is Harry Knowles and his associates at Ain't It Cool News, whose particular focus is on movies in the action, fantasy, adventure and superhero genres.
The term is usually applied to people in their teens or 20s. Probably because of the age, common objects of deference for fanboys are TV shows, movies, game consoles, computer games, operating systems and software companies.
Fanboys often find it necessary to defend the object of their affection against real or perceived attacks. They also take very seriously comparisons with competition. Even rational arguments and valid critique of the subject is often met with emotional attacks, affirming the subject's superiority.
Because of its negative connotations, in fannish subculture the term fanboy is generally seen as derogatory. Nevertheless, self-labeling usages of the term have been noted; in the songs of the fannish parody musician Luke Ski, many characters proudly consider themselves fanboys.
Since the term is primarily derogatory, most people do not understand why a person is labeled a fanboy. Fanboys can be seen as extremists, but often they respond to people who are on the other end of the spectrum, people who are very critical of a product, whatever it may be. Those people who are critical of such things, often justify their criticizing by calling it "constructive criticism". For a prime example of that overused term, listen to any of Simon Cowell's negative comments on American Idol.
The female equivalent is sometimes called a fangirl, but in all actuality there are several differences between the two, mostly relating to socialization and ways of expressing their fannish tendencies. On the internet, some fangirls keep their gender secret to avoid harassment, particularly from fanboys with social issues who complain about women in general. Also, most fanboy genres are still mainstream perceived as immature and geeky, thus unattractive to women. As a result, many lonely fanboys become smitten and overwhelmed by any friendly fangirl who shares their interests (regardless of whether or not she's available), a situation that occasionally turns into a case of obsessive stalking.
The stereotypical image of the fanboy is as an unkempt, often overweight, and generally unattractive figure of a young man who often appears as a loud mouthed pseudo intellectual. A popular depiction of this stereotype is the Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons. In reality, many fanboys are generally shy outside of their own circles and considered harmless as they appear mostly to keep to themselves. This sentiment was marred in 1988, however when a 28 year old Japanese man, Tsutomu Miyazaki was arrested for sodomy and murder of several young girls. When his small apartment was raided, police found thousands of videocassettes of anime, pornography, and recorded SF and other genre TV shows as well as hundreds of manga. This incident was tragic, even more so, because the suspect's surname was the same as beloved Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. Originally, fanboys were lightly scoffed and dismissed, however, with the Miyazaki incident, the otaku (as a fanboy is called in Japan) has also in the public mind, become synonymous with deviant.
For all their faults, fanboys were originally assumed to be intelligent, educated individuals otherwise -- at least until the mid 1990s. With the glorification of the slacker culture, the movies of Kevin Smith's Jersey Trilogy (Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Mallrats), altered the fanboy image yet again especially as the video gaming culture increased in popularity. As a result, the cerebral, nitpicky image of fanboys began to recede into nostalgia as a new generation of fanboys emerged who were more narcissistic, more superficial, and more concerned with the external aspects of the genres and the fanboy culture in general. Another reason for this shift in perception is that Fanboy culture has been increasingly paying more attention to television, electronic multimedia, and anime (especially the childlike Saturday morning cartoon-like anime), and less attention on traditional cerebral activities such as reading.
See also: addiction; otaku; anorak.
The letter sequence "FANBOYS" is also a mnemonic for the words for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. These words are coordinating conjunctions, which are used to join two independent clauses. It is customary to place a comma after the first clause. Some prescriptive grammarians say that one should not start a sentence with a coordinating conjunction. But others don't. (See English grammar.)
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