Back in the day, it used to be harder to be
a big fan of anything that wasn’t sports, or something similar, as people would make
fun of you for being a geek. Today, it is quite accepted to be incredibly
obsessive about almost any facet of popular culture, even if liking it or being into it
doesn’t actually require any knowledge, practice, or constitute an actual hobby with
interactive activities. Unfortunately, while this is nice for people
who were once mocked, it has also emboldened a lot of people to “flaunt their fanboy”
in ways that cause trouble for society around them, and make the other fans of that particular
bit of pop culture look rather bad. 10. Jake Lloyd’s Life Was Ruined By Angry Star
Wars Fans Jake Lloyd is well known for being the guy
who played little Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace, all the way back in 1999. Many people, nearly two decades later, have
wondered what happened to the kid who caused so much unintentional controversy. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that Lloyd
was bullied so badly over his role in Star Wars that he came to the conclusion it ruined
his life. He threw out everything he owned related to
Star Wars, and refuses to watch any of the movies anymore. Apparently, kids are just the worst, and would
not let up on him at all. People constantly made lightsaber noises and
other jokes whenever he was around, and he simply couldn’t live a normal life at school
— not to mention at one point he claims to have been doing about 60 interviews a day. While Lloyd mostly blames George Lucas for
his story and direction, the real blame here are all the adult Star Wars fans who bullied
him online, and convinced all the children that he had done an awful job and dragged
the movie down. Lucas just made a story, and Lloyd did the
best he could to act out the role that he had been chosen for. There is never any excuse to bully a child,
and those who ruined Jake Lloyd’s career cannot blame the film’s creator as a defense
for their behavior. 9. Game Of Thrones Fans, Obsessed With Direwolves,
Have Created Abandoned Husky Problem Game of Thrones is one of the most popular
things in pop culture right now, period. Most people have watched it, and even those
that haven’t know more about it than they would probably like, and most assuredly have
a strong opinion on the series all the same. Unfortunately, like any fandom, people almost
immediately started taking things too far. One of the most beloved bits of popular culture
in the show are giant beasts called direwolves, which look a lot like large huskies. These beasts are often used as a combination
of pet and guard dog in the series, and as such, many fans have decided that they, too,
want their very own direwolf. The problem is that the nearest thing in real
life is a husky or other similar breed, and these dogs are both large and require a lot
of space and attention. Many people get a husky in order to have their
own direwolf, and then abandon it at a shelter when they realize that the responsibility
was too great for them. Pets are not just a novelty, but something
you are supposed to keep for the life of the pet. Some shelters in the UK even saw the amount
of husky breeds abandoned doubled in a couple years, as the show started to become more
popular. The good news is that recent educational campaigns
to convince people not to buy a dog they cannot take care of appear to be having effect, as
the the amount of abandoned huskies is slowly dropping back down to more regular levels. 8. The Beatles Stopped Touring Because The Non-Stop
Screaming From Fans Was Unbearable Some people wonder why the Beatles decided
it was time to call it quits and stop touring around, selling out venue after venue. After all, they were on top of the world,
were always surrounded by screaming fans, and never had to worry about their popularity. However, as musicians of integrity and people
who just plain get tired over time, the entire thing was starting to tax them. When the Beatles started out, they could play
smaller venues, which allowed them to get really good sound quality and focus on their
live playing. However, as they became wildly successful,
the Beatles now had a serious problem. They had to book bigger and bigger venues,
which usually meant sports stadiums. Back in their day, this meant horrible sound
quality, and the crowd hearing a lot of it poorly filtered through the PA system. To make matters worse, their own amplifiers
were not strong enough to make themselves heard over the screaming crowd, so much so
that they could not even properly keep time with each other. In the end, they decided that their concerts
had become fan screaming zones, and that the fans were not even there to listen to the
music anymore, but just to obsess over the band itself and see them in person. 7. Adult My Little Pony Fans Made Things Awkward
When A MLP Movie Came Out In Theaters Nearly everyone has heard of the phenomenon
surrounding the so called “bronies.” For the few who are not aware, bronies are
male My Little Pony fans who will loudly proclaim their fandom and bring it up even when there
is no need to at all — kind of like vegans or people who do CrossFit. These fans usually skew toward the adult side,
and have often been looked at by outsiders with a level of contempt that even furries
don’t usually have to contend with. Now, some of this is with good reason. While there are those who claim to simply
like the show because it is cute, and they want to get in touch with their “cute”
side, there are some people who simply make it weird. These fans tend to be those who actually find
a sexual component to their love of MLP, and will draw or seek erotic fanart and fanfiction. These men are usually very full grown adults,
and some people feel that there is almost a pedophiliac element to some of the creepier
adult male fans of MLP. For this reason, when a MLP movie came out
not that long ago, many people were extremely concerned about how weird MLP fans might make
it for children, who wouldn’t understand why a bunch of grown men were at a movie for
little girls. Many movie theaters even offered special showings
much later at night, in the hopes it would attract the bronies away from the earlier
showings, so parents wouldn’t have to answer awkward questions from their little girls. 6. New Beanie Baby Releases Were Almost Always
Messy For those too young to remember, Beanie Babies
were a craze during the ’90s that the adults seemed to get way more into than the kids. The creator of the toys deliberately designed
them with limited availability in order to make different ones collectors items, and
create a false sense of rarity even though they were mass produced toys and there was
nothing particularly special, expensive, or high-quality about them. People fell for the same psychological trick
so many sellers of various goods have used in the past, and one of the most insane fads
ever kicked off with a bang. Unfortunately, it was more than just a mostly
harmless fad like fidgets spinners. While the fidget spinner fad may have annoyed
people, there was no worry about availability or patents — every company was selling them
with whatever branding or designs they wanted. But with such limited amounts available, anytime
new Beanie Babies were coming to a store, it became an event and people would line up
outside and behave horribly to each other. People were sometimes injured or trampled
by the crowd — usually children — and United States customs had to start specially
looking out for Beanie Baby smuggling. The release of a new Beanie Baby nearly always
showed some of the worst of humanity. 5. Rick And Morty Fans “Ironically” Camp
Out And “Ironically” Protest For Szechuan Sauce Rick And Morty has gained an enormous cult
following, and its fans are a loud and rather expressive bunch. On one episode of the show, one of the characters
makes a big deal about a limited time promo sauce from McDonald’s called Szechuan sauce
— obviously it’s really one of the show’s creators speaking through the character here. This quickly became a meme even though most
of the fans likely either didn’t remember the sauce, never knew about it before, or
had forgotten about it. It’s not like there were petitions for it
before the show. Unfortunately, McDonald’s thought they would
actually try to show goodwill to these fans, and released it for just one day, as it had
just been a promo originally and they really didn’t expect it to be all that popular. Sadly, McDonald’s simply couldn’t have
predicted how many people would show up at each location, or just how crazy internet
fandoms can be in real life. People camped out for it, simply because it
was designed to cater to the show. When it turned out that most locations didn’t
have enough, people went nuts. They crowded into the stores, some people
jumped the counters trying to steal sauce, they disrupted business, and loudly protested
outside that “they wanted sauce” even though the employees obviously had no control
over how much was delivered there. Throughout all of this bratty, childish behavior,
they tried to claim that their unruly near mini-riots were just being “ironic” and
that McDonald’s was really to blame for not stocking enough. The fact of the matter is that acting like
children over some sauce for chicken nuggets is simply never acceptable and it isn’t
ironic when you actually cause public disruptions or camp out for a sauce. It’s just idiotic. 4. One Direction Fans Start A Small Riot Over
A One Direction Movie One Direction is the latest teen boy band
that all the teenage and preteen girls have swooned, screamed, and rioted over. A few years ago One Direction released a movie
called This Is Us, a documentary feature about the boy band and their meteoric rise to the
top of the teeny bopper food chain. The premiere was to be held in Los Angeles,
and in order to be fair, since there were only a limited number of tickets, you had
to go through a sort of lottery system to see who would be allowed to have tickets. This was generally a good idea to prevent
scalpers. However, the problem was that they didn’t
properly estimate the ticket count. The company that was in charge of giving away
the tickets gave away hundreds more tickets than there were actual seats in the theater. Many people lined up the night before, and
those behind in line were still optimistic that their ticket might work and they might
be able to go in to see the movie. Well, the time came to let people in and about
100 people were let through, with the rest waiting outside. This angered the young preteens lined up to
see the movie, and hundreds of them rushed into the theater, knocking things over in
their way and generally making a big, screaming mess of everything. Eventually police managed to properly calm
people down and disperse the crowd, and the showing finally began for those lucky few
allowed into the theater. 3. Harry Potter Fans Buy Owls And Then Abandon
Them En Masse Harry Potter fans are generally known for
being one of the more well behaved fandoms. Despite lining up outside to buy limited amounts
of books, you don’t really hear about Harry Potter fans beating each other with fake wands
while trying to get a copy of J.K. Rowling’s latest novel. In fact, most of the time they float under
the radar as an obsessive, but utterly innocent fandom. However, while Harry Potter fans aren’t
necessarily malicious, there are things they have done that were definitely negligent,
irresponsible, and caused unnecessary suffering in the world. When Harry Potter started to become popular,
kids started asking their parents to buy them an owl as a pet, and Rowling herself immediately
sounded the alarm. She told fans not to buy an owl, but to get
a better pet, or donate to causes that help owls instead. She explained that they do not make good pets
and generally require a ton of upkeep and space — ideally they should have an aviary
that is at least 20 feet square. Unfortunately, most people were doing a poor
job of taking care of these difficult animals, and as Harry Potter’s popularity waned a
bit, they started abandoning them en masse. According to a woman in the UK who runs a
sanctuary for owls, she had originally had about 5-to-6 per year. After Harry Potter fever started to die down,
she went to over 100 owls being taken care of in her sanctuary in just one year. 2. Juggalos Started A Riot Against Tila Tequila
And Got Put On The FBI’s List As A Gang Pretty much no one remembers or cares about
Tila Tequila — she was a reality TV star who briefly flirted with a largely unsuccessful
music career. Oh, and she’s maybe kind of a Nazi? Huh. Weird. Anyway, while she was never really a very
respected figure in terms of celebrities, and often widely mocked, the behavior displayed
towards her at the annual gathering of the Juggalos one year was absolutely unacceptable
(remember, this is before all the Nazi stuff). She had been invited to perform at the event,
in a move that left a lot of the world and most of the Juggalos very confused. She is hardly the type of artist who would
be of interest to fans of “horrorcore,” so it seemed like an odd choice. One explanation is man’s desire to get laid,
as at one point, Shaggy 2 Dope tried to get the crowd to be kind to Tequila’s future
performance, by explaining that he wanted to have sex with her. Unfortunately, Shaggy 2 Dope’s desire to
get laid backfired rather tremendously, because things went about as well as you can expect. An artist with no real understanding of the
genre (Tequila) shows up on stage to perform at a music festival full of drunk people,
and the crowd immediately hated her. The crowd threw whatever they could, and jeered
her incessentally. Rumors say actual human feces and plastic
water bottles full of urine were thrown at her, and at one point the crowd started yelling
at her to show her breasts. Perhaps thinking it would make them calmer
or make them like her, she did take her top off, but that seemed to only make them angrier,
as if they just wanted to be mad. When she left the stage, she was followed
to her trailer, where her windows were smashed up before she was able to make her escape. She later attempted to sue to shut down future
gatherings of the Juggalos, although she does not seem to have been successful. While the Juggalos tried to defend their behavior,
they have been classified as a gang by the FBI in later years for various different antics
including that situation, and the band’s attempts to fight it in court have, thus far,
totally failed. 1. Chris Brown Fans Have Gone To Great Lengths
To Defend A Domestic Abuser Chris Brown is known by most people for that
time he beat up his then-girlfriend Rihanna. The world was very very angry with him, he
gave a rather forced public apology, and managed to get away without any jail-time. Chris Brown, for his part, felt that the whole
thing should have blown over after he apologized and took his “punishment,” but many people
felt that he still deserved a lot of grief for his actions. Plenty of folks felt that his apology was
not particularly sincere, and that his behavior didn’t really seem to show any positive
change or improvement. For this reason, some people in the past have
taken to razzing him on Twitter pretty hardcore. Well, a few years back a comedian named Jenny
Johnson decided to call out Brown on Twitter, and he decided to take the time to get into
a personal tussle with a random woman he had never met before. After an incredibly vulgar exchange that made
him look very bad, he eventually temporarily locked his Twitter account so no one could
see his shame. However, not to be outdone by the horribleness
of their favorite celebrity, his fans went absolutely nuts. They went after Johnson, excoriating her on
Twitter and even going so far as making death threats as revenge for her making fun of Brown. These fans, knowns as breezies, have also
been known to defend Brown and stick up for him, doing whatever they can to justify his
actions, whenever his violent past is brought up — to them, he can do nothing wrong.
