2nd of Blaugust - B - Bronies are people too, unless they want to be Ponies...

A few weeks ago I was in Melbourne to play at a chip music show (which went really well) and while I was there I stumbled upon Minotaur, a pretty large shop full of pop culture stuff that people wet their pants over to buy. I had looked through and stumbled upon a shirt that I thought was kinda cool but not too creepy. But I couldn’t go as far as to buy one. As I was discussing about it at AVCon I was told, “But you couldn’t buy it because you would then become ONE OF THEM!”

So what was the shirt of? Why, it was a cross between Nyan Cat and My Little Pony.

In case you didn’t know about the Brony culture let me take you on a history your as to why a 27 year old guy would contemplate buying something to do with My Little Pony.

The My Little Pony line of toys originally came out in 1983 and have been marketed by various means. One of the popular ones have involved TV shows. To keep the toys current they have gone through different revisions throughout the toys lifespan. For the latest generation of toys they decided to create a new TV series to base the new line of toys off. They decided on getting Lauren Faust as the Creative Director and Executive Producer. She has previously worked on The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Because she was given a lot of creative control she decided that the show had to have more depth to the characters and not play on girly stereotypes as well as appeal to the parents that would also be watching the show with their kids. Well it turned out to be success outside of its target audience of 3 to 10 year old girls. Especially to teenage and adult males.

These fans of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic call themselves Bronies, and go nuts about it on the Internet. They have spawned Memes, fan fictions and even Conventions. When someone comes out to openly show their appreciation of the show they become, “a part of the herd,” and try to spread the message love and friendship across the web.

Right now I am partway through watching the second series and I’m actually finding it entertaining. I even have a favourite character (which is Fluttershy in case you were interested). Yet I wouldn’t tell my family or people I didn’t know well enough about it. Possibly because Bronies tend to be seen as the butt of most geeks jokes a bit like how Furies are.

I try not to take the whole thing too seriously to be honest. I have a good laugh when I watch them and joke about it with my friends. But if I do go far as to buy that shirt then I will wear it with pride. It’s only because I like watching a show. That’s all there is to it.