On September 28, Bowen Yang carried out one among 2024’s most resonant items of political theater whereas dressed as a pygmy hippo.
Yang was behind the desk on Saturday Evening Dwell’s “Weekend Replace” phase, dressed like Moo Deng, who on the time the present aired was the web’s present fave. What he was saying, although, sounded extra like feedback by pop star Chappell Roan, who’d just lately taken to social media to ask followers to be extra respectful about approaching her in public or saying inappropriate issues to her on-line. “Don’t yell my title, or count on a photograph, simply because I’m your parasocial bestie, or since you respect my expertise,” Yang mentioned, encased in a rubbery Moo Deng costume.
The bit was performed for laughs, however in 2024, the actions of followers—to one another, to the folks they’re followers of, to the world at massive—entered an entire new section. Greater than half a century after John Lennon noticed that the Beatles had been extra standard than Jesus, fandom, fueled by ever-churning social media platforms, has taken on a form past spiritual furor.
Through the US election, it was evident in the manosphere and MAGA hats. Additionally, in Vice President Kamala Harris’ embrace of the “brat” ethos. In popular culture, it was Taylor Swift stan accounts leaving X for Bluesky over frustrations with Elon Musk’s involvement in president-elect Donald Trump’s marketing campaign. It was additionally the return of Gamergate, manifesting in an entire new harassment marketing campaign in opposition to range and inclusion efforts in online game growth. It was Kendrick Lamar turning his beef with Drake right into a neighborhood occasion in Los Angeles.
Throughout mediums and pursuits, being a fan of somebody or one thing didn’t simply imply shopping for a T-shirt or a film ticket, it meant selecting a aspect.
Superfans, Supersized
In response to Simone Driessen, an assistant professor of media and standard tradition at Erasmus College Rotterdam, 2024, greater than something, marks one other yr during which folks acknowledge, and even reconcile with, the truth that followers have actual energy.
“The MAGA second, for me, has its roots in the January 6 moment. It was nearly as in the event that they had been cosplaying a coup—however it was very actual and with very actual penalties,” she says. “Brat summer season, Swifties for Harris—they’re attests, to me, of how these fannish expertise one builds by way of being a fan (from looking Easter eggs to making a neighborhood) may also be politically helpful.”
Proof of that is all over the place. As my colleague Makena Kelly wrote this yr, 2024’s marketing campaign cycle was the influencer election. Folks with cameras, microphones, and enormous followings grew to become, she wrote, “tastemakers, meme sharers, video creators, and organizers; additionally they wield vital energy on the subject of encouraging their followers to vote.” Folks like Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and conservative YouTuber Ben Shapiro had the facility to have an effect on what occurred on the polls. Whether or not or not a candidate did Joe Rogan’s podcast grew to become headline-making information. (Trump did; Harris didn’t.)