WHAT THE HELL IS A BRONY? PLAYBOY INVESTIGATES

Playboy ^ | APRIL 21, 2015 | Zaron Burnett III

[CtBigPat]

Bronies can be summed up in one sentence: they’re grown-ass men who love a little girl’s cartoon show about the adventures of a group of magical ponies.

It’s Easter weekend, and I’m in an airport hotel in San Francisco attending the second annual Bay Area Brony Spectacular Convention, aka BABSCON. I have absolutely no idea what to expect. I just really want to see this scene for myself. I gotta know: What the hell have Bronies found in My Little Pony that the rest of us dudes missed?

[GraceG]

Every single fandom out there has it’s share of complete and total weirdos, some, more than others...

[nascarnation]

[x]

I wonder how much of it is ironic. Like Gutfeld with his unicorns:

Or Joel McHale from E network:

[COBOL2Java]

[Chode]

[uncitizen]

No! There’s something really wrong with a grown man who’s into My Little Pony!

[Menehune56]

I think most Bronies do it just to be weird. As geek culture has taken over pop culture it’s harder and harder to be an outlier, and some people have a large drive to be different.

I think this is the explanation too. But they're still a bunch of sick freaks.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“This thread is perfectly fine without pictures. And since it is from Playboy, no naked brony pictures either. “

We need to fix this. Hey Karl, did you read Maureen Dowd’s story about Hillary in the NY Times?

Let the games begin.

[CtBigPat]

I thought it sounded strange at first, then I watched a few episodes and got hooked. It’s probably a better show than most of the crap on TV and there is something about the characters, the design and the writing that is highly addictive.

[BenLurkin]

men who love a little girl’s cartoon show about the adventures of a group of magical ponies.

[BenLurkin]

[BenLurkin]

[Crazieman]

[Rides_A_Red_Horse]

My friends and I played D&D nearly every weekend at first Air Force duty station. We also watched cartoons one guy recorded (Transformers and GI Joe).

If one of us suggested watching something like “My Little Pony” that fellow would likely be thrown out the window.

[BenLurkin]

Now that is a horse of a different color!

[PeteB570]

My 24 year old daughter will come home on weekends and watch MLP for hours with the 4 year old Granddaughter. They both love the Ponies.

She introduced me to the term “Bronies” a long time ago.

I to, have watched MLP with the Granddaughter when nobody else is around and she wants somebody to sit with her.

[windcliff]

ping

[The_Reader_David]

The "Brony" phenomenon does make me wonder whether the writers of My Little Pony haven't successfully imported something one sees in the better Japanese anime ostensibly targetted at a grade-school audience: plots that work at more than one level so that they can simultaneously be understood at a low level by the target audience, but at a higher level work for adults who end up watching with their kids.

A long time ago, I was advised by a student, a college junior who took an upper level undergrad course in combinatorics from me, who found out that I liked (at least some) anime, "You have to see Cardcaptor Sakura, yeah, yeah, I know, but trust me, you have to see it." (CCS as it is known among otaku -- the Japanese word imported into English to denote "anime geeks" -- seems to have a target audience of six to ten year old girls.) I ignored his advice for years until I found that xxxHolic which I loved (about poor bloke working for a witch who runs a wish granting shop -- an enterprise which is a priori sinister in light of the Buddha's insight into the relationship between desire and suffering) was set in the same "mythos" as CCS. I would not give a "must see" recommendation for CCS to anyone older than ten unless and until I knew the person asking for recommendations had developed a Japanese patience for slowly developing plots. The episodic plots are trite, enjoyable only by the target age-group, but over the whole course of the (I think four season long) show there are two long-term story arcs that are very satisfying even for adult viewers.

I haven't clue whether the new-issue My Little Pony series has that sort of structure -- if it does, I'm inclined to pardon the wierdness of the "Bronies"; if it doesn't, I think the standard advice "Get a life!" is in order.

[Ditto]

I’ve been to several brony events including a Season 5 Premier party a few weeks ago. Rather weird and extremely geeky but not sick or perverted. Just a bunch of nerds having fun

Sounds like the 'Furries' who are equally demented.

[WKUHilltopper]

Bronies? Another word came to my mind.