a presentation about the history of my little pony: friendship is magic

1. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
Research presentation
In this presentation I will be enlightening you about the greatest fandom known to mankind
and possibly the most influential show ever released. This show has changed the
perspectives of hundreds upon thousands of people, its been known to cure
depression, anxiety, narrow-mindedness & even caused a social integration beyond anything
ever seen before.

2. My little pony: friendship is magic websites
http://www.equestriadaily.com/
Is the main hub of all thing my little pony, it shows news, forums, fan fiction, and
pictures annotated for humour from the show.
http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic
Is another fan site created for “bronies” specifically and features much of equestria daily
with a different interface.
http://mlp-fim.com/1
Is a site set-up so people could watch & re-watch any episode from the series and even
live stream on release days with chat so people can converse on the episode they’re
watching
http://rainbowdash.net/group/fimfans
Is a website set-up specifically for the chat and questions of “bronies” to other fans
http://www.derpyhoovesnews.com/
Is a website dedicated to the news about the show such as Hasbro product releases
and future seasons.

3. My little pony: friendship is magic newspaper articles
1)
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/18/ 3) 5)
military-my-little-pony-fan-club/
This is a link to a fox news article about
“bronies” in the military.
2)
4)

4. My little pony: friendship is magic newspaper articles
Analysis
1) Article number one goes into great detail about the fandom of the show that are specifically in the military
(arguably one of the most manly jobs in the world), the article references the show and even has a statement
from one of the FOB Bronies themselves.
"You, the bronies, have taught me that there are things and people worth protecting; things bigger and more
important than myself," write Ken "Derpy" Catlin. "All because I decided to watch some "gay" little show about 6
ponies. Again, as I have said before, I cannot thank you, the MLP team, or the ponies themselves enough for what
they have done for me, and this world.“
2) The second article is a snippet from the Oregonian about a 20 year old man that is a proud self confess brony
called Thomas Boyd.
3) The third article is a continuation of the brony phenomenon by the Oregonian more in depth with the fandom
and not the “fan”
4) The fourth is still a continuation of the Oregonian’s article which goes into detail about the fandom more and
checks the Facebook groups and references the fandom towards the show as a faux religion.
5) The final newspaper article comes from a very highly regarded and prolific newspaper knows as the Wallstreet
journal which was a very big deal for the fandom, the article referneces the show including the main six characters
names and discusses the fanbase of “tech-savvy geeks” known as “bronies” and mentions them being adult males.

5. My little pony: friendship is magic
A historical analysis
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a Canadian/American flash cartoon series, produced by Studio B Productions, based on the My Little Pony universe. It was developed for
television by Lauren Faust, who also did major work on both The Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. Since its on-air debut in October 2010, the series
became a popular subject of threads, reaction images and image macros on 4chan.
Fans outside the show’s demographic, especially teen and adult male fans, have come to be known as “bronies”, and occasionally use ponies to derail threads. Although fans
are generally known as bronies all across the internet, on 4chan, bronies who post ponies mainly on /co/ have been called “colts”. Also, female fans of the show have been
referred to as “pegasisters” on occasion, though this isn’t as popular as the term brony.
Online History
On October 10, 2010, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was aired as part of the debut of the new television network, The Hub, which replaced Discovery Kids. On October
19, 2010, Cartoon Brew*1+ wrote an article about the show titled “The End of the Creator-Driven Era in TV Animation”, which had an oddly alarmist tone to it. Threads on
4chan’s comic and cartoon board, /co/, attacked and made fun of the article for this reason. The article and the threads generated /co/’s initial interest in the show, causing
several members to go and watch the first episode. After the second episode aired on October 22nd, threads about the ponies started to boom even more, gaining the show
fans outside of its target demographic.
The Plot
From Wikipedia
The series stars a unicorn pony named Twilight Sparkle, who has been known to be a pupil of the world’s ruler, Princess Celestia. Seeing the young pony buried in books, the
princess gives her the task of making friends, sending her, and a young dragon named Spike, to Ponyville. There, they meet some interesting ponies, including tomboyish
Rainbow Dash, glamorous Rarity, hard-working Applejack, timid Fluttershy, and hyperactive Pinkie Pie. Together, they explore the ins and outs of the town, solve various
problems, and make even more friends. Every day is a lesson for Twilight, but none as important as the magic of friendship. At the end of each episode, Twilight relays a
report to her mentor Celestia, telling her what friendship has taught her.
Spread & Impact
Hubsites
The sudden and overwhelming influx of MLP-related media on 4chan soon led to an internal division between the Bronies and those who disapproved of the unlikely
fandom, which in turn gave rise to the expansion of the fandom outside of the imageboard community. Among the first MLP hub sites to emerge after the fallout were
Ponychan, a spin-off imageboard community solely dedicated to the show, and Equestria Daily, a portal news site for all things related to the fandom from artworks and
fanfiction to news, episode reviews and interviews. Created in January 2011 by 23-year-old Arizonan college student Shaun Scotellaro, Equestria Daily receives more than
175,000 visits a day, and is fully funded through ad-based revenue from these pageviews.
Meanwhile, the fandom also went on to infiltrate a number of major social networking, microblogging, and aggregate news sites, most notably through single topic blogs on
Tumblr and on Reddit, a home to more than 50 subreddits dedicated to the show and the Bronies. In responding to the growing demand of MLP fanart, Cheezburger
launched the Memebase site My Little Brony in July 2011.

6. My little pony: friendship is magic
A historical analysis (TLDR)
But that’s too wordy so here’s the details
It’s a Canadian/American flash cartoon it was Created by Lauren Faust Who also worked on The Power puff
Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. My little pony: friendship is magic (mlp:fim) debuted in
October 2010 The fandom was first noticed when it Started as image macros on 4chan. Surprisingly the
demographic was teen and adult male fans Referred to as “bronies”, (bro-ponies) however the female fans
of the show have been referred to as “pegasisters” (Pegasus-sisters)
Mane six: Twilight sparkle pinkie pie fluttershy rarity rainbow dash applejack
Cutie mark crusaders: applebloom sweetie belle scootaloo.

7. My little pony: friendship is magic
A historical analysis
(Internet presence)
Threads on 4chan
Despite the outgrowth of the fandom, MLP fandom and Bronies continued to maintain their presence on 4chan, contributing to the growing body of often shockingly
perverse and graphic fanfiction and fanart based on the characters and the plot of the show. While /co/ initially loved the series because of the artwork and animation, fans
on /b/ seemed to enjoy the plot and characters more. The “cute and cuddly” nature of this show is the opposite of what members of /b/ like to think of themselves as. It
didn’t take long for the show to cross over with other memes, such as “Post ending in x will y”, nor did it take long for threads with over 200+ posts about the show to
become common.
From October 2010 to February 2011, brony hub site Equestria Daily[2] monitored the census & frequency of Pony-related posts on 4chan’s /co/ (cartoon) board, publishing
a series of statistical graphs showing the growing trend of My Little Pony on 4chan.
Episodes on Youtube
Although facing the risk of being removed due to copyright infrightment by Hasbro, episodes can still be easily found on YouTube. Due to this reason, many uploaders have
had their channels taken down by Hasbro claiming copyright infringement. Originally thought to have been a mass trolling do to the misspellings and overwhelming support
of the brony community by the MLP staff, the take-downs were confirmed to be legitimate by numerous Cease and Desist[34] e-mails sent out by Hasbro’s legal department
in late 2010.[36]
The decision made over the take-down of many youtube channels and video download sites such as ponyarchive.org left many fans of the show with a bitter taste in their
mouth as much of the fanbase used these sites to access the episodes at whim. The website Ponyarchive.org (now shut down) was set to redirect to the official iTunes
website for My Little Pony FiM Season 2 downloads.[37]
Various Youtubers, in addition to contributing much to the Brony community via videos, also run synchtube sessions dedicated to streaming episodes of the show and fan
created videos. Other members of the fandom also have set up livestreams and websites dedicated to airing the episodes on new episode days.
Bronies
Brony is an Internet slang term that is used to describe a teenage or adult male fan of the TV cartoon series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (MLP:FiM). The term “brony”
is a portmanteau of “bro” and “pony”, and was coined on 4chan shortly after the pilot episode of the show on the Hub network. Though initially seen as a cult phenomenon
outside of the show’s traditional demographic of young girls, the Bronies have since grown into a widely recognized fandom subculture and continued to retain their
presence and influence on Internet culture and its hub sites.
The first Urban Dictionary definition of “Bronies” was submitted on December 23rd, 2010, describing the group as “people who take pride in watching My Little Pony.” There
are 16 definition entries for the term “Brony” on Urban Dictionary as of June 2012. Despite the outgrowth of the fandom, Bronies continued to maintain their presence on
4chan, contributing to the growing body of often shockingly perverse and graphic fanfiction and fanart based on the characters and the plot of the show.
Bronyspeak
While “brony” is the most commonplace term used to describe the male fandom on 4chan and elsewhere, those who post ponies mainly on 4chan’s /co/ (cartoon) board
have identified themselves with the term “colts", while female fans of the show have been referred to as “pegasisters,” though to a lesser extent. Throughout
2011, additional slang terms were adapted by the Brony community, mostly words or phrases that were either taken directly from dialogue in the show or originally coined
by the fans, taking to the habit of referring to each other the same way that the ponies do as well, using words like “somepony”, “anypony”, and “everypony”. The jargons
related to the fandom were eventually compiled into a complete vocabulary of slang terms and became available on numerous fansites, establishing the basis of Bronyspeak.
To find out more about these terms and phrases, check out KYMdb – Bronyspeak.

8. My little pony: friendship is magic
A historical analysis
(Internet presence)
(TLDR)
But again that’s too much detail so heres the main points
1) The fandom started on 4chan a social hub for internet nerds
2) image macros developed from the show that were humurous and entertaining to “brony”
culture
3) the episodes were uploaded to youtube so people could watch and re-watch at their
leisure
4) hasbro (owners of the franchise) took the videos down enraging almost every member of
their fanbase
5) websites were created to maintain the episodes internet presence i.e. mlp-fim.com &
ponyarchive.org (now shut down)