Fan Culture @ Swarthmore

Fan Artifact Presentation: Week 11

The Sports Anti-Fan, Rivalries and YouTube

Steve Wolf and Loretta Gary

Red Sox Suck!

Red Sox vs. Yankees Lean Back Parody

Sports in general are filled with different rivalries. As Theodoropoulou points out in her essay, these rivalries can stem from various sources, but the most important factors in a rivalry are that the two teams are “opposing threats” and that the fans of each team share mutual feelings of “fear, admiration, respect, and envy” of each other. Right now, one of the longest lasting and most discussed rivalries is between the baseball teams the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. This particular rivalry is interesting because the dominating side of the rivalry has shifted recently. The New York Yankees have been the most historically successful team in Major League Baseball while the Red Sox were historically inept teams. However, during the past few years, the Red Sox have won two championships in 2004 and 2007, while the Yankees have struggled, by their standards, and have had an 8 year title drought. While Yankees fans used to patronize Red Sox fans with chants such as “1918!” (the last year before 2004 that the Red Sox won the World Series) now, Red Sox fans have the upper hand in terms of recent success.

Another aspect of sports rivalries that Theodoropoulou discusses is the “game” of mocking each other’s teams. Similar to her example of Tom and Aspa’s argument (322), ESPN columnist Bill Simmons an avid Red Sox fan has a running gag in his podcast where he calls up his friend, who is a Yankees fan, and asks “Are you worried yet?” The openness about his fandom has varying results. First, there are similarities between the Red Sox-Yankees and the Olympiakos-Panathinaikos rivalries mentioned in Theodorpoulou’s essay. But also, as a columnist for one of the most popular sports websites (ESPN.com), Simmons garners a national audience, and his writing style, which clearly reveals his Red Sox fan status, leads to his ability to blur the line between being a media producer and being a fan. As a sports fan, Steve had some background knowledge of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, such as the curse of the Bambino, but a large part of his knowledge of the rivalry is derived from Simmons’ columns. Because of his national following, Simmons has developed some anti-fans of his own which then causes his anti-fans to become anti-fans of Simmons’ cherished fan objects. For example, during the last Super Bowl, the New York Giants played the New England Patriots. Although the Giants are one of the rivals of our favorite football team, the Philadelphia Eagles, Steve found himself cheering for the Giants. The biggest reason was because the Patriots were undefeated and heavily favored, but partly because Simmons’s article would be more interesting if his team lost rather than if they won.

The clips we’re focusing on showcase the role of YouTube as a venue for anti-fans to broadcast their opinions and participate in discussions with other fans, which Theodoropoulou describes as “antagonistic but also playful and teasing” (323). There are hundreds of videos not only about why a certain sport team sucks but there are also many response videos and comments from the rival fans explaining why the opposing team is worse. Two of the videos we selected support opposing teams the Red Sox and the Yankees. Both videos use image montages and mock the other team and their fans while bolstering support of their own team. This “game” of YouTube anti-fan postings is just another example of how the fans are aware of and perform their anti-fan identity. The “Lean Back Parody” video is especially interesting because it showcases the tradition of creating songs and chants that mock the other team and fans.

Finally, we’ve included a few other videos as well to highlight the wide variety of anti-fan activity through YouTube. Both videos come from YouTube users who have made multiple videos supporting their team while attacking others creating numerous anti-fans of themselves. The first is a short animation highlighting the Eagles dominance over the Cowboys. The other is a video blog entry in which the anti-fan explains why he hates Dallas Cowboys fans.

–

On a different note, we also thought the following dialog between Howard Stern’s boss, Pig Vomit, and a media consumer researcher adds another perspective on the role of the anti-fan in other fandoms. Quote from Private Parts (Betty Thomas, 1997):

Researcher: The average radio listener listens for eighteen minutes a day. The average Howard Stern fan listens for – are you ready for this? – an hour and twenty minutes.
Pig Vomit: How could this be?
Researcher: Answer most commonly given: “I want to see what he’ll say next.”
Pig Vomit: All right, fine. But what about the people who hate Stern?
Researcher: Good point. The average Stern hater listens for two and a half hours a day.
Pig Vomit: But… if they hate him, why do they listen?
Researcher: Most common answer: “I want to see what he’ll say next.”

–

More thoughts and questions:

1.)In what other realms of fandom are there prominent anti-fans?

2.) What are the distinctions between the consumption of an anti-fan and a “true fan” in non binary situations?

3.) If there is no clear opposition, is it possible to become an anti-fan that acts similar to an actual fan (i.e. someone who still consumes the fan object)? (such as Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Howard Stern, etc.)

4.) In one sided rivalries, what side is the “rival” and where does the loyalty lie?

5.) Are the gender dynamics and stereotypes that are explicitly seen in sports fandom an example of the fanboy/fangirl identities? Does sports fandom support the argument for the reality of the fanboy/fangirl structure or negatively perpetuate the concept?

6.) What role do commentators play on influencing (anti)fan identities?