Fan Culture @ Swarthmore

I’ll start this post off by saying that relating it academically MAY be a stretch, but I think anyone who takes the time to watch these youtube clips will understand. Both are parts of a video made by 80’s soap opera celeb Brenda Dickson. In each she tells viewers her point of view on fashion, makeup, excercise, and diet. They are long(ish), but totally hilarious.
Clip 1:

Questions concerning the Clips:
1. These clips are examples of media made for fans of a particular celebrity (presumably because she isn’t in character in the film.) How do these fans affect the theories made by Seiter of soap opera fandom? Do the fans of celebrities in a given fantext exist in the same fandom as the fans of the text itself?

2. On Youtube, most people watch this clip ironically, which is how it became viral. What does it mean to be an ironic fan? Is there a difference in fan practice? In trying to decide the answers, keep in mind that many of the fans have created new fantexts by restaging the video parodically (For Ex: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goOsKCok6FM&feature=related). As someone who isn’t typically involved in fantexts, I was also wondering if there is usually a tongue-in-cheek element inherent in most of the practice? While I understand that people take the quality of slash/het seriously, is there still some sort of a joke involved? If not, is that one of the differences between fan practice and ironic fan practice?

3. Finally, do viral videos like these exist as separate fandoms or are they all part of a common one? Given that there are TV specials devoted to airing sets of these clips (see The Soup). I’m inclined to think that their may be a viral video fandom, and that I may be a fan of them.