It seems that there is a subculture of mostly adult men — called bronies — who gather to worship My Little Pony. You know, this:
Who knew this even existed? Anyway, Kurt Schlichter over at Big Hollywood has a hilarious take on all this and concludes that this group should put its fantasy life to better use and pretend to “act like a man,” Don Corleone–style.
One thing Kurt didn’t mention is that the bronies are watching the modern version of My Little Pony, not some campy pop-culture adulation to the original. This new version of My Little Pony airs on the Hub network.
For those that don’t know about Hub, it’s a network for kids that’s a joint venture between the toy company Hasbro and the Discovery Channel. The shows are designed to sell toys. That’s it. Sell. Toys. Now, I have no problem with the capitalist intentions of the Hub network, but I won’t let my five-year-old daughter watch the channel. Enough ads bombard her without having a toy company in charge of the message.
And if the channel isn’t fit for a five-year-old girl, I am lost on the appeal of the show to adult men, especially since the show is a re-boot designed to sell colorful plastic ponies to five-year-old girls.
Hey, I understand fans. But there’s a big difference between, say, dressing as Han Solo at a Star Wars convention and dressing as Jar-Jar Binks. The first is kind of fun; the second is just plain weird.