The Devil's Encyclopedia: F
Fanboy
The fanboy is one of the strains of the common American nerd. What constitutes a fanboy is an excessive devotion to some line of entertainment, such as a comic series, movie series, or most frequently, TV series. The time a person spends with the entertainment product has to be both a cause and an effect of poor social skills, i.e. the person takes on the interest with time that would have been spent on more mainstream social interaction, and the interest then stops the person from developing better social skills as the person avoids more social situations and behavior that helps in social situations, keeping the person out of practice. Two possible further requirements for the term are having reached puberty and being male, although both are debatable. As the common American nerd is overwhelmingly male, and the fanboy characteristics even more so, the gender issue is rarely relevant. Fanboys tend to be virgins until much later ages than the rest of the population.
Wildlife specialists note that this strain of nerd is generally not dangerous, and can usually be placated with some Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers and Dr. Pepper. However, the fanboy can grow quite violent if one suggests that Final Fantasy X-2 was better than Final Fantasy X, or that Seven of Nine wouldn't be caught dead with a guy who wears tighty-whities. Tranquilizer darts are usually ineffective in this case due to the weight, so experts suggest scaring the fanboy away with fanboy-unfriendly items such as conditioner or condoms. Common fanboy interests include the "Star Trek" TV shows as well as the accompanying movies, the Star Wars movies, the Lord of the Rings books and movies, "Stargate SG-1," "Xena: Warrior Princess," Magic: The Gathering, "The Simpsons," "Battlestar Galactica," and "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and its movies. In general, fanboys gravitate toward science fiction, fantasy, anime, and RPGs, possibly because entertainment that deals in the "real-life" style issues such as dating and office jobs are less relevant due to their lifestyles.
The fanboys are a constant target of jokes in TV comedies that are subjected to large numbers of fanboys themselves. "The Simpsons" makes fun of the fanboys possibly more often than any of the others, usually using a character known as The Comic Book Guy and often placing him in a room full of similar fanboys. Conan O'Brien has developed a popular technique of demonstrating how nerds in general, but usually fanboys, will react to things on his show, by portraying them in a pinched, high-pitched voice. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a puppet character that sometimes appears on O'Brien's show, tends to target the fanboys as well, such as by visiting showings of the Star Wars prequels and asking a costumed moviegoer, "Seriously, have you ever talked to a woman without having to give your credit card number?" Former WB cartoon "Freakazoid!" even invented a minor recurring character named Fanboy to mock them. A typical portrayal of a fanboy in a comedy is an overweight male, ages 16 to 30, with an unkempt appearance from general poor hygiene, a nasal high-pitched voice, and extremely casual attire usually involving T-shirts with writing such as bad jokes about a TV show. Common elements of mockery in television portrayals are by having the fanboys reference television episodes by number (not meaning the season and airdate order within the season, but the unusual internal code such as 2GEX05) and by having them insist on pointing out insignificant errors such as switching which hand is holding an object between cuts.
Common criticisms of the fanboys are how they show their love for a creative work by constantly attempting to pick it apart for small errors and the odor that they leave by skipping grooming in favor of repeatedly watching their shows. Lately, the fanboys have found their greatest stronghold in the Internet site Wikipedia, where fanboys of "The Simpsons" catalog text that flashes by on screen for two seconds and make up elaborate backstories in an attempt to justify small plotholes that nobody but the fanboys has noticed. Much like the Ebola virus, the fanboys have a way of spreading, except to different mediums, becoming devoted to things such as web comics and Internet animations. In case they move to The Devil's Encyclopedia, I have my cyanide pills.