Fandoms have existed for as long as people have shared interests, but lately, the internet has allowed them to take on a more malicious form. From fans of “Rick and Morty” to “Homestuck,” the worst offenders earn the title of a rabid fandom.
For a sci-fi comedy show so suffused in esoteric pop culture references and shock value, it wasn’t particularly surprising that “Rick and Morty” kicked off its third season premiere with a joke about Szechuan sauce, McDonald’s temporary promotional product for the 1998 movie “Mulan.” Rick, the show’s brilliant scientist-slash-dimension traveller, and his apparent obsession with the discontinued condiment skyrocketed the once forgotten sauce into popularity. Taking advantage of the unofficial promotion, McDonald’s decided to bring back the sauce for one day, only it didn’t work out exactly in their favor.
On Oct. 7, “Rick and Morty” fans stormed McDonald’s all over the U.S. in search of the sauce. But whether McDonald’s purposefully kept stocks low or just severely underestimated the fervor of “Rick and Morty” fans—fights and riots broke out when their local McDonald’s eventually ran out of the already limited supply.
And while “Rick and Morty” is as well written as any other sci-fi comedy on TV and has many decent fans, this wasn’t the first time the “Rick and Morty” fandom revealed its toxicity and bad behavior. Only a month before, co-creator Dan Harmon condemned the so-called fans who harassed and doxxed the show’s female writers for seemingly taking all the credit for some episodes and ruining the series, despite the teamwork put into all the writing.
Their reputation as a highly obnoxious and elitist fandom was spurred on by the “To Be Fair You Have to Have a Very High IQ to Understand Rick and Morty” block text meme. The copypasta originally aimed to emulate Rick’s superiority and supposed rejection of sentimentality, but it eventually became a mockery of the fandom’s general attitude toward outsiders.
Although this one incident is admittedly hilarious, such examples of toxic fandom culture aren’t limited to the “Rick and Morty” fandom. For example, “Homestuck,” a webcomic that ended in 2016, was known for its ridiculous length and particularly annoying fandom. While most fans were welcoming, a large facet of the fandom was known to act egotistically for having read the entirety of “Homestuck” and understanding its inside jokes—a kind of behavior similar to that of the self-proclaimed SuperWhoLock fandom (“Supernatural,” “Doctor Who” and “Sherlock”). This combination fandom has become notorious for switching the topic of any post to something SuperWhoLock related, often with the use of gifs and obscure references.
Of course, to some extent, a fan of almost anything will be a little (or a lot) annoying to a non-fan. A person who has never seen “Game of Thrones” or listened to BTS or read “Harry Potter” could understand the feeling of discouragement from liking something because of the people associated with it. But a large part of modern fandom culture is waiting for people to find a way to ruin what we like, and arguments on how pop culture should be consumed will continue far beyond “Rick and Morty.” At its best, fandom culture shouldn’t be something to avoid but something to collectively enjoy.