@OptimusPrimevil  
It’s more like 4chan was the Vikings who actually found America first, but almost nobody gives a shit. Most normies on the street think Europeans found it or at least only care about them. Hell they probably just care that we were English and we drove away the British, forget fucking columbus even. Likewise, most casual bronies probably only know or care that somebody on Tumblr, Reddit, YouTube etc. they liked was a brony and that it’s a big thing on that website and that’s all she wrote. Hell I’ve been on the move, on and off the streets, fighting ptsd and shit for so long, I hardly even know or remember why I’m here half the time….. uhhh, yeah, ehhh…. i need sleep.

@TexasUberAlles
 
And the raviolis were cold too!

@Joseph Raszagal  
That’s the spirit.

I think we’re all getting a little too wrapped up in the Anon here. Let us not forget, THE FUCKING PRINCESSES ARE NOW CIRCLING US IN SPACE!
 
C’mon, people. For all I care, the fandom was started by a bowl of ravioli and parmesan.

@TexasUberAlles  
I can attest to this. I heard about the show on DeviantArt, and my curiosity was truly piqued when I heard Faust’s name. I didn’t learn about the 4chan publicity until way later.

@PonyMan237  
Dude, I didn’t even know 4chan was into it at all when I got into the fandom; I was interested before it started because of Faust, Renzetti, and Strong, and watched it off and on until a friend of my wife sent her a Youtube video she made of Art Of The Dress and got us hooked. I saw it online on the SA forums for nearly a year before I heard anything that connected it to 4chan, because all the people who brought it up to me at anime conventions either followed Tara from Teen Titans or Lauren from PPG and Foster’s. 4chan was not at all a requirement.
 
Like BP#3C9B pointed out, if all it took was subverted 4chan mockery to manufacture a fandom out of thin air, Foodfight would have multiple fan conventions instead of being a punchline. Channers got in on the ground floor of FIM fandom, and as much as I despise 4chan I don’t discount its importance in giving the Pony Bro demographic a place to coalesce in the early days, but they were standing on a foundation that had already been laid down by the middle age women they get their jollies mocking and the walls were already being carried in prefab by older and younger fans of shows like Teen Titans, Dexter’s Lab, PPG, and Foster’s. I laugh the laugh of an oldschooler in a room full of precious babbies whenever I see channers patting themselves on the back for having been all daring and innovative for challenging gender stereotypes by being college dudes hard into a show for little girls, because we filled stadium seating classrooms at the University of Texas Anime Club in the early ’90s with an audience of half to three quarters 20something guys watching fan-subbed magical girl anime.

@TexasUberAlles  
>denial

@TexasUberAlles  
ah!

@OptimusPrimevil  
…Sort of thing. 4chan played an important part in spreading and “organizing” the fandom among college-age guys who weren’t already fans of kids’ cartoons in the early days of FIM, but to claim that they were solely responsible for the fandom’s very existence is just silly.

@TexasUberAlles  
so it’s 4chan is like europeans claiming to find undiscovered land full of natives?

4chan did not invent the fandom, you anonymous jackass.

…Sort of thing. The MLP franchise has been around longer than 90% of channers have been alive; Friendship Is Magic had millions of fans before the first episode ever aired, and it’s only ever been people whose entire worldview is the inside of their own colon who thought that it didn’t start existing until they watched it.

@Too_Offensive  
CH4

@Background Pony #3C9B  
I doubt anyone would argue that Lauren and the others were responsible were making the show as good as it is. The way I see it, 4chan gave the show publicity to the eventual periphery demographic.
 
Good Show+Publicity=Fandom

Confirmed: /mlp/ thinks being a fan of MLP:FiM is a “joke”.
 
@Background Pony #1C5E  
Yeah, if being contrarian towards a Cartoon Brew article was all 4chan needed to launch a fandom, then Foodfight would have multiple fan conventions every year. If it weren’t for Lauren Faust, Studio B, and the freelancers they brought in actually giving a damn about producing a good show, there wouldn’t be a fandom regardless of 4chan’s endless maymays.

[deleted]

@Background Pony #DB6F  
I don’t remember FIM ever being a “throwaway meme” at any point. The first thread began with people reading the article about the guy freaking out, and watching the cartoon just to spite him, and then realizing it was actually pretty decent.

@Background Pony #40F2  
Technically it started as another dumb throwaway meme on /co/. Until someone realized the show was actually good and broke away. They still like to pretend it was their idea though.

The fandom is a joke.
 
We are still on the ride to the punchline.

[deleted]

@JP  
Hmm  
!static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/13/132162/2546624-133451218783.jpg!

>joke

I’m just waiting for someone to carve a giant pony on the Moon. That would be extremely irresponsible, expensive and insane, but oh so awesome.

I think it stopped being a joke quite a while ago, Mr. Anon. ^_ ^