Meta bullshit, part I
Jul. 25th, 2008 02:23![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sekritomgI have a lot of (very likely uninteresting) meta fandom or really, just South Park crap stashed in various places: my computer, my old computer, my other LiveJournal, drafts in Gmail.
So basically, I stumbled on the SP fandom in late December while I was looking for something else. This is the post I wrote about an hour after I decided I wanted to learn more about the fandom. I'm aware that this is probably pretty boring, but Jesus Christ, I actually have a fucking SP-only journal, so really I should start using it. All this post will detail for you is what I thought of the South Park fandom after basically typing "south park slash" into the DA search. I guess these assessments are pretty premature. This isn't like Nobel Prize material, either. It just .. is what it is. Shit, why am I talking so much?
Inspired by the picture I liked before, I've spent the past 45 minutes looking into the South Park slash fandom on DeviantArt. Here is what I have discovered:
1. By far, the most popular ship is Style, which as you have probably assumed is Stan/Kyle.
2. The second most popular ship as far as I can tell is Damien/Pip. Which actually makes no sense since one of those characters was in, like, the second episode and no others.
3. There is also a good deal of Cartman/Kyle material, which is very upsetting because they absolutely hate each other and would never, ever date. I don't know what the fuck people call this shit (Kylartman?) but it makes even less sense than Draco and Harry because Cartman is fat and therefore not physically attractive.
4. Dear god, fandom is so great. I need something new to do with my time. Someone, please help me with that.
5. Kyle is always the flamboyantly gay one, although Stan is often tragically emo and usually has a hoodie.
6. Also, many people have determined that Kyle's only two character traits are that he's a nerd and that he's a Jew, which must be represented by a) glasses and b) his wearing of a Jewish star in some fashion. I know many a Jew and I have to say that is totally accurate. Jews always demarcate themselves by wearing a big star on their shirt. Well done, fan artists.
7. The actual interesting thing about this fandom is that slash about the main characters, who are 8 or 9-year-old boys, is nearly impossible to create either because of the character designs on the show or because they are, well, little boys. Therefore, one of two things is to be done:
- Some kind of perversion of the show character designs, which is generally hideous or
- Some kind of future representation of the boys as high schoolers, during which time they all apparently become massively stylized. And in some cases painfully gay-looking.
Actually, there is a third option:
- Drawing the exact designs from the show. Which is lazy.
So basically, I stumbled on the SP fandom in late December while I was looking for something else. This is the post I wrote about an hour after I decided I wanted to learn more about the fandom. I'm aware that this is probably pretty boring, but Jesus Christ, I actually have a fucking SP-only journal, so really I should start using it. All this post will detail for you is what I thought of the South Park fandom after basically typing "south park slash" into the DA search. I guess these assessments are pretty premature. This isn't like Nobel Prize material, either. It just .. is what it is. Shit, why am I talking so much?
Inspired by the picture I liked before, I've spent the past 45 minutes looking into the South Park slash fandom on DeviantArt. Here is what I have discovered:
1. By far, the most popular ship is Style, which as you have probably assumed is Stan/Kyle.
2. The second most popular ship as far as I can tell is Damien/Pip. Which actually makes no sense since one of those characters was in, like, the second episode and no others.
3. There is also a good deal of Cartman/Kyle material, which is very upsetting because they absolutely hate each other and would never, ever date. I don't know what the fuck people call this shit (Kylartman?) but it makes even less sense than Draco and Harry because Cartman is fat and therefore not physically attractive.
4. Dear god, fandom is so great. I need something new to do with my time. Someone, please help me with that.
5. Kyle is always the flamboyantly gay one, although Stan is often tragically emo and usually has a hoodie.
6. Also, many people have determined that Kyle's only two character traits are that he's a nerd and that he's a Jew, which must be represented by a) glasses and b) his wearing of a Jewish star in some fashion. I know many a Jew and I have to say that is totally accurate. Jews always demarcate themselves by wearing a big star on their shirt. Well done, fan artists.
7. The actual interesting thing about this fandom is that slash about the main characters, who are 8 or 9-year-old boys, is nearly impossible to create either because of the character designs on the show or because they are, well, little boys. Therefore, one of two things is to be done:
- Some kind of perversion of the show character designs, which is generally hideous or
- Some kind of future representation of the boys as high schoolers, during which time they all apparently become massively stylized. And in some cases painfully gay-looking.
Actually, there is a third option:
- Drawing the exact designs from the show. Which is lazy.
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-25 09:05 (UTC)Hey I resent that XDDD
This might be long. I can see it now.
People who are into C/K aren't just into it for PRETTINESS. We're into it for bondage! For non-consensual raep! For lots of anger and yelling and violent, passionate, hateful sex! It the very antithesis of Stan/Kyle, who stand for loving, slow, relationships. They are the ones who hold hands and kiss in the bathrooms before anyone can see while Cartman and Kyle are just in the middle of the hallways pushing each other against lockers until one of them just can't take it anymore and can't resist the impulsive urge to kiss the other person's lip because their so, damn, CLOSE.
Okay, got kind of carried away over there, but still. XD
And then I just noticed that this was a journal thing that you wrote when you were first into SP! Damniiiit. Oh well. Anyways, I started late too D: I think... in August 8D So only 4 months before you!
no subject
Date: 2008-07-25 18:10 (UTC)Honestly I have to credit your super-hot bondage porn with a lot of that. It's weird, because in the other fandom I was interested in, I was never interested in anyone other than the canon slash pairing, really. Maybe it's a symptom of Kyle-with-anyone syndrome. Or maybe it's ... you know what, I don't know. I don't see a lot of reason to be choosy or single out one pairing and ignore everything else. Obviously if I had to pick one thing it would be Stan/Kyle, but it's a fucking fandom and I don't have to do that.
I don't know. What did you think the first time you looked around the fandom?
(Oh, PS, I wouldn't say Cartman isn't pretty. He can look like whatever you want him to. I was basically taking a jab at Draco/Harry, which a friend on my other journal is/was pretty into.)
no subject
Date: 2008-07-25 19:33 (UTC)And I'm suprised you got into it because of my bondage porn XD;;; If anything, I thought it'd scare you away from the pairing! As for my OTP, It used to be a tie between Style and c/k, but now I'm pretty sure the c/k's taken over a liiiiiiitle bit. (and seriously, what is up with the Kyle-with-anyone syndrome? Someone should do research on that XD)
Uhm. First time I looked in the fandom, I laughed and then felt pretty ashamed of myself. Kyle was such a little girl and omg, Kenny had blonde hair! I didn't know that. People drew Cartman kind of skinny- and oh- uh. My first real C/K was the fluffy, bubbly, & pink kind of C/K, and I didn't like it :< I only drew it the first time for a friend,... but then I started noticing the chemistry and I was like 'hey... fatness aside, this is pretty hot'. Besides, my previous fandom before that was Invader Zim, so I was really already going into the weird stuff.
Oh, and I forgot to say that #6 made me lauuuugh XDD And then look back at my stuff to see how many Kyles had the star on his clothes or in the bg
no subject
Date: 2008-07-25 09:47 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-25 17:59 (UTC)(I've done popcorn.)
no subject
Date: 2008-07-27 23:43 (UTC)Stan is totally emo, but like my friend once said, "I don't know why people always draw goth!Stan, it was a tough time in his life--he need not be reminded. ;-;!!!" (I think the exclamation points went on for a full page, no really, my friend was very upset by this revelation.)
- Some kind of future representation of the boys as high schoolers, during which time they all apparently become massively stylized. And in some cases painfully gay-looking.
I definitely luled at this. XD That was my reaction when I saw SP fanart for the first time. I basically smacked my screen and was like, "FUCK, I CAN'T UNSEE THIS NOW, AH IT BURNS." But, now, I'm so unaffected by crazy shit I see, that I love most of it... except the painfully ugly drawings, which are so hideous you kind of have to wonder how the artists don't realize they suck? <<< I'm allowed to say this, because I suck at drawing, and thus I would never expose the population to the horrors that be in my art.
But, it's safe to say that a large majority of SP fanartists are goddamn amazing. If they weren't, I don't think I would have saved over 2,000 fanart pictures on my computer. <<< No lies, I tell the truth here. I have a saving everything I consider my "favorites" problem.
I think I've become a much more twisted person since entering the South Park fandom. It's, like, I've never seen so much rape and fluffiness at the same time. It's all so confusing and wonderful.
Very late backlog of responses, part I
Date: 2008-08-03 23:34 (UTC)So, um, while I find the goth aesthetic awesome, I have always felt that it gets to be quite overplayed in this fandom, because for it to be meaningful at all it needs to be very well done, and not many people are capable of that. Does that make sense? Basically, just putting Stan in black and making him a dick doesn't work unless there's some depth to it -- that, or it's hilarious.
I have a fairly similar idea about art, which is that creating it is awesome, and everyone should, but if indeed you suck at it, please keep it away from me. One thing I like about DA is that it makes it sorta possible to pretend these ugly things don't exist ... sometimes.
And, again, the plethora of great fucking artists (in all senses) is what makes this fandom so fucking awesome. (I have like two things saved in my Photobucket. I am woefully underprepared.)
Oh, I was always twisted. I don't think I could enter a fandom if I didn't know there would be an appropriate amount of rape. And the appropriate amount, of course, is TONS.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-06 15:19 (UTC)May I friend?
no subject
Date: 2008-09-06 15:44 (UTC)Sure, friend away.