Loony Fan

" I should want to cook [Mr. Belvedere] a simple meal. But I shouldn't want to cut into him, to tear the flesh, to wear the flesh, to be born unto new worlds where his flesh becomes my key."
—Deranged fan of Mr. Belvedere, Saturday Night Live

A nut who follows the main characters everywhere out of obsessive admiration, either causing trouble or just creeping them out. Extreme loony fans may go to great lengths and evil deeds to "help" the hero they idolize. They take their eventual rejection very personally. Occasionally this character will really go off the deep end and attempt to replace their hero.

This can also overlap with the Straw Fan, The Collector, the Yandere, the Poisonous Friend, and/or the Stalker with a Crush. See also Actor-Role Confusion. Contrast with Ascended Fanboy.

Sad (and a little scary) to say, this is very much Truth in Television.

Not to be confused with a fan of Drunkard's Walk.

Examples of Loony Fan include:

Anime & Manga

  • Played for laughs in Darker than Black (and maybe a little torpedo aimed at shippers). Kiko is portrayed as slightly crazy anyway, but her crush on "Li" tops all other quirks. She almost jumps on him with Squee, loudly insults her "rival" Kirihara, and generally attracts unnecessary attention... which is somewhat disconcerting for her hero, as "Li" is the facade identity of a lad who earned his nickname "Black Shinigami".
  • Gokudera from Katekyo Hitman Reborn. He frequently goes off to beat people up for Tsuna's sake, and follows Tsuna around trying desperately to be his "Right Hand Man." Although the funny thing is that his attempt to replace the hero was actually his initial feeling, and that it's after being defeated by Tsuna that he becomes his Loony Fan.
  • Kasaya's girlfriend Eri from Zetsuai 1989 goes so over the edge that she tries to stab her idol Kouji because he's about to go into retirement
  • Arguably the basis of the 1998 anime film Perfect Blue (unarguably, a Loony Fan does at least appear in the anime).
  • Toto Sakigami of Deadman Wonderland is apparently this toward the Wretched Egg.
  • Lecto from Magical X Miracle has a series-long obsession with Yue (as well as great admiration for Merleawe for being so close to him), to the point where things get... awkward. However, this turns out well for both of them; Lecto eventually becomes an in-series Promoted Fanboy as one of Yue's top aides, and his nerdy personality quirks and stalker-like obsession settle down after Yue puts him through three years of Workaholic boot camp.


Comic Books

  • Jimmy from Jhonen Vasquez's Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, although he is considerably less insane than Nny.
  • The extradimensional imp Bat-Mite in the wackier Batman comics.
  • Jenny in The Punisher comes across as this. After seeing Frank shot by the women she is targeting she saves him and takes him to her apartment. The scenes between them invoke Misery, and Frank feels a little like her prisoner, but Jenny does nothing to stop him and the reason he can't leave is his gunshot injuries, and he patiently listens as she describes what was done to her, and sympathy for what was done to him. Jenny then has two requests: his shirt and jacket so she can become The Punisher and kill the women who hurt her, and that he stay until she finishes it. Frank feels more and more like he's trapped, and that Jenny would stop him even if he could leave, before passing out and ending up handcuffed so Jenny can show him how to torture criminals.
  • In Green Lantern Corps, Iolande's brother Ragnar was so obsessed with the Corps he murdered every potential Lantern candidate in their sector so he would end up the best candidate for the position, including his brother Stentar and Soranik Natu's partner Myrrt. When Ragnar was finally exposed, captured, and set for execution, Soranik purposefully chose to reveal that Iolande would be the new Green Lantern of Sector 1417 right before Ragnar would be beheaded. To add to this Kick the Son of a Bitch moment, Ragnar made an empty admission of guilt and repentance to show he "wasn't afraid" before his execution, thinking he still had a chance to be a Lantern. The look on his face when Soranik takes out the ring, then gives it to his sister, is satisfying.


Film

  • In The Incredibles, the villain Syndrome was once a young Loony Fan who wanted to be Mr. Incredible's sidekick, and his rejection was one of the factors that led him to become a villain, not an Ascended Fanboy, as he so desperately wanted, but a Genre Savvy bad guy.
  • Robert DeNiro's roles in The Fan and The King of Comedy fit this trope as well.
  • The Kid in the Matrix sequels is portrayed as a mild example of this.
  • From the Halloween series: The radio show callers in The Curse of Michael Myers, Harold in Resurrection, Chett in Halloween II (2009).
  • In Blades of Glory, Jimmy having one of these is kind of what causes the plot to kick off, but in a surprisingly non-scary way in spite of some of the creepy things that the Loony Fan says to him. This particular fan of his is so obsessed with the idea of having Jimmy back on the rink and is so much the type to think about these things a lot that he manages to find a loophole in the Figure Skating Championships rulebook that Jimmy then exploits.


Literature


Live Action TV

  • Played for laughs in an episode of Friends, where Brooke Shields portrayed a Loony Fan stalking Joey, convinced he was really the character he played in a soap opera (they got rid of her by convincing her that Joey was actually the Evil Twin instead).
  • Sarah Silverman's character in Monk.
  • The Jonathan Creek episode "Danse Macabre" featured am obsessed fan who followed a horror writer from the US to the UK and eventually cut the head off her dead body and carried back to America with him.
  • Played with in an episode of the short-lived HBO series of Tenacious D. It starts with Lee, a fan who is overly-obsessed with Tenacious D, but afterwards the Tenacious D duo becomes overly-obsessed with Lee, culminating with his murder.
  • Mel in Flight of the Conchords - president and sole member of the band's fan club and relentless stalker.
  • Mandy from iCarly. After appearing as a guest their web show, she followed Carly, Sam, and Freddie around constantly and even switched schools to be around them, which drove them crazy. Mandy eventually became obsessed with a band and seemingly moved onto to pestering them but a more recent episode showed she was back to obsessing over iCarly.
  • An episode of music group S Club 7's TV series featured an annoying fan that was at first obsessed over Bradley and then later Rachel.
  • Joxer from Xena: Warrior Princess initially. Xena gets a handful of other "I've studied your every move!" (sometimes followed by "Now we must fight with knives!") type of meetups, but they're generally not the following-around kind of groupies.
  • In one episode of Dollhouse, the title organization is hired to protect a rock star from a Loony Fan. Echo becomes a back-up singer, while another Active becomes a Big Name Fan.
  • In the Doctor Who mini-episode "Time Crash", the Fifth and Tenth Doctors accidentally meet. Ten, delighted, immediately recognizes his former self, but Five takes him for an obsessive fan and is most annoyed.
  • The Amanda Show had Penelope Taynt (played by Amanda, herself), a nerdy fangirl and webmistress of her own Amanda fan site (which actually exists!)
  • Supernatural had Becky Rosen, a parody of some of the show's more extreme fans, who wrote incest fanfiction about Sam and Dean.
  • In Charmed, when their secret is finally revealed, they encounter a young witch who wants to join their coven. After she breaks into their house and is promptly shut down, she doesn't take it well and ends up shooting Piper.
  • An episode of NCIS had a fan of McGee's book series who thought it was real and start killing people that resembled his characters, who are based on people he sees. This due to the fact he read some pages that stated they were trying to kill the character McGee's character.
  • After G'Kar's book is published (without his permission, as he hadn't finished it yet) in the fifth season of Babylon 5, he is hailed by his people as a prophet, gaining a following in the hundreds of thousands. Hundreds (at a minimum) of Narns travel to the station to learn at his feet, to his utter horror. He ends up ordering the Narn who created the G'Kar religious statuettes (which he despised) to leave him be and go back home. Shortly before G'Kar leaves the station for good (to get away from his followers), that Narn tries to shoot him and ends up wounding Garibaldi's fiancee by accident.
  • Subverted in the Shake It Up episode "Copy Kat it Up", wherein a shy, socially-awkward girl named Kat seems to have a near-stalkerish obsession with the girls, especially CeCe. It turns out to be a Batman Gambit to get a spot dancing on the show.
  • The current page quote comes from a Saturday Night Live sketch about a support group for obsessive fans of Mr. Belvedere. They play a game called "Should and Shouldn't" which "helps keep the line between fantasy and reality a little less blurry":

Chris Farley: I should want to say "Hi!" to Mr. Belvedere. I shouldn't want to kidnap him and keep him in a big glass jar in my basement.
Tom Hanks: Okay, okay. That's good, we get that. But why? Why shouldn't you do that?
Chris Farley: [Beat] Uh, because his breath would fog up the glass and I couldn't see him then?


Music

  • Eminem's "Stan" is presented as a series of letters by a Loony Fan who takes Eminem's "Slim Shady" persona to be Serious Business and tries to emulate him in every way possible... up to and including tying up his girlfriend, stuffing her in his trunk and killing both of them by crashing his car. The song ends with Eminem writing back (to said fan's second letter). Eminem writes in his reply that Stan should seek help, because his case reminds him of a news story he saw about a man who killed his pregnant girlfriend and himself afterwards, he then suddenly realizes that Stan was the man behind the murder-suicide.
    • It's since given rise to the term "stan" to mean roughly "fanboy" or "fangirl."
  • Maynard James Keenan of Tool is said to brandish a paintball rifle when he sees fans on his lawn simply because of his experience with Loony Fans.
  • Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" is about such a fan.
  • The White Stripes song "Take, Take, Take" is an interesting version: Jack White describes meeting Rita Hayworth at a restaurant and acting like a complete fanboy. Every action of his (seeing her, standing close to her, talking to her, etc.) ends with the words "AND THAT WAS ALL THAT I NEEDED". After every time he says it's all he needed, he thinks of something else he needs from her, until finally she gets up and leaves. "IT WAS AS IF SHE / COULD NOT APPRECIATE / HOW COOL I WAS BEING."
  • "Martin Scorsese" by King Missile. The lyrics to the song are the singer impersonating a crazed fan of Martin Scorsese, shouting profane lines about how he wants to meet the director and do various violent acts to him, basically just beating him to death (or at least to a bloody pulp) while thanking him for making the greatest films he's ever seen in his life.
  • In the video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "By the Way", the lead singer is kidnapped by a taxi driver and has to be rescued.
  • The Arrogant Worms have a song dedicated to this trope, reminding her of such things as how none of their songs are about her...except for this one. Which is all about her.
  • The video for "Lego House" by Ed Sheeran, up to an including eating Ed's chewing gum. Yeah...
  • As well as the video for Lily Allen's "Who'd Have Known", where she kidnaps Elton John.


Professional Wrestling

  • Mickie James' original gimmick in WWE was as Trish Stratus's creepy stalker fan. Oddly enough, since Trish retired, Mickie's actually developed into Trish's Expy. One might think this is continuity in action, but continuity has never been WWE's strong suit.
  • More recently[when?], Beth Phoenix has picked up one of her own in Rosa Mendez.


Video Games

  • Sakura Kasugano was referred to by Ken as 'Ryu's stalker', and not only does she have similar moves her alternate costume in Street Fighter IV has her dress almost exactly like him. Frightening.
  • In Elder Scrolls: Oblivion you'll gain an adoring fan after winning the title of Arena champion. While he arguably qualifies as a loony based on his ranting and his willingness to follow you anywhere, unlike a typical Loony Fan he'll obediently go away if told to. He'll also remain right where you tell him to—even if it's the game's equivalent of hell.
  • Shepard gets one in Mass Effect 1 by the name of Conrad Verner. Paragon Shepard can let him down gently, Renegade Shepard can physically assault him. If the player doesn't have enough charm or intimidate points to do either of the above, he'll run off and get killed trying to prove himself.
    • In the sequel he shows up again and says that you assaulted him, due to a save error that assumes you took the Renegade option. Since that point he's taken to dressing in a replica of your armor and acting like you did in the first game with side quests and looting. If you manage to talk him down, he'll go back to a normal life; if you upset him, he'll fall into a sewage treatment plant's turbines.
    • He shows up again in the final game, this time claiming that Cerberus is an ally of Shepard, and thus the galaxy. After being set straight, Conrad eventually reveals that he has a shrine dedicated to Shepard.
  • The Sims 1 has the Obsessed Fan, who while not quite evil can be a considerable annoyance to famous Sims.
  • No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle gives us Kimmy Howell, a fangirl of Travis Touchdown who eventually decides the only way to prove herself worthy of her crush is to kill him. Travis gives her a back-bodydrop and tells her to get over it.
  • Amy Rose started out as a somewhat subdued variant of this towards Sonic the Hedgehog.
  • In Crisis Core, Sephiroth has a devoted group of fans who know what shampoo and conditioner he uses and how much. One must assume that they know this either because they're going through his trash or breaking into his home on a regular basis.


Web Comics

  • Seymour in Sinfest, -- an ultra-religious character who goes around chiding people for not being pious enough. God refers to him as his "loony fanboy." The devil thinks God needs a better representation and likes to make fun of him. He has his own lame-ass fanboy as well. Who writes "Devil Fanfics". These two tend to be funnier together. Monique tried to play a crazy fangirl, but wasn't ready to go far enough to be believable, so she... outsourced this.
  • The webcomic Fans! (a comic which itself focused on fans of various sci-fi/fantasy shows) played with this concept when it introduced the character of Tim the Fanboy, a geeky stereotypical "fanboy" who was a near-obsessive fan of the main characters. Unfortunately for them, once he realized that they weren't perfect, he felt betrayed and in turn betrayed them to become the 'fan' of a psychopathic time-travelling warlord who was doing her very best to wipe them out of existence.
  • Mike from Something*Positive before his redemption. His stunts include trying to steal a tuft of Gary Gygax's beard, breaking into Nichelle Nichols's hotel room and begging her to marry him, and somehow setting fire to Steve Jackson.
  • Piro and Largo's characters in the Endgames videogame-world of Megatokyo acquire a loony fan; Largo promptly throws him off a cliff. As for the regular world... most of the main female characters have vast legions of stalkery fans at varying levels of creepiness (some are just obsessive, others are obsessive about collecting Panty Shots of their idols).


Web Original


Western Animation

Melody: (to Bart) I can't believe I'm playing video games with Bart Simpson. I sketched you so many times in my dream journal.

  • Played for laughs in an early episode of Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, "Dis-Harmony", where Ami and Yumi found themselves being followed everywhere (and I do mean everywhere) by a crazy fangirl named Harmony, who would constantly remind them "I'm your #1 fan!"
  • Fan Boy of Freakazoid! is another example played for laughs.
  • Guaca in The Emperor's New School. "Kuzco RULES!"
  • Lorne, the "Friend for Life" (complete with his own musical jingle) who won't leave Sam and Max alone.
    • This gets comes to a darker in retrospect head in "Fools Die on Friday", where Lorne highjacks a Swedish blimp and tries to crash into New York City in order to attract Sam and Max' attention.
  • Sierra from Total Drama Island, she claims she knows everything about the cast, "Your hopes, your fears, your dental records!"
  • Kim Possible's cousin Joss admired Kim so much that she dressed completely in Kim's style, had numerous pictures of Kim plastered around her room, talked about nothing except for Kim, and even accidentally made Kim fail the mission by trying to copy her in the middle of action. In the end she learned not to admire Kim that much, so she started admiring the sidekick Ron Stoppable instead.
    • Frugal Lucre drove Dr. Drakken to distraction with his non-stop praise and commentary while they were sharing a prison cell. After they got out of prison, he found Drakken's lair and talked him into pulling a joint caper.
  • Word Girl takes a spin on it: Glen emulates Dr. Two-Brains, completely fulfilling the trope in that he eventually tries to replace him... except that Two-Brains happens to be a villain himself.
  • While most Decepticons are out for power, love fighting, or are just plain psycho or sadistic, Lugnut in Transformers Animated follows Megatron because he completely idealizes him. His constant praise annoys even Megatron, who in one memorable scene actually gets a robot version of a Twitchy Eye because Lugnut won't stop talking about how glorious he is instead of actually going outside and doing his job.
  • Irving is so big a fan of Phineas and Ferb that he carries around a scrapbook of their adventures and often joins in their endeavors even if he's not invited. In an interesting case here, Irving started out as a one-off character but then began to recur, and shows signs of possibly becoming a Sixth Ranger to the boys' group of friends.

Irving: I got in the car when your mom stopped for gas!

  • An episode of KaBlam!! had to do with a fan visiting the set of the show, and constantly annoying Henry and June due to his huge obsession with them. He even wears Henry's outfit, June's sweatshirt, and even has his hair blue dyed to match June's (either that or it's natural). June constantly refers to him as "Weird Ryan from school", meaning the duo already knew him.
  • "Foamy" from Avatar: The Last Airbender, who appears twice, is one of these. His only distinguishing characteristic is how he foams at the mouth and collapses on the ground whenever Aang is nearby. Zuko also seems to have his own in "Nightmares and Daydreams"; she has to be carted off by his guards.
  • An episode of Jimmy Two-Shoes had a bunch of pandas becoming these to Heloise.
  • One episode of Robot Chicken has a sketch in which "Hannah Montana" gives an autograph to a crazed fan who then shoots her dead.
  • Parodied in the Futurama episode "That's Lobstertainment", when Bender becomes the official stalker to robot actor Calculon.
  • Katrina Rad in The Problem Solverz episode "Magic Clock". She follows the group around everywhere so she can write a blog entry about them, but she's really |crazy about Roba.
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog has Sonette, who, along with changing her name, has sneaked into Sonic's room while he was sleeping and stolen merchandise from him. She also is frequently seen with a piece of Sonic's chewed gum in her mouth.[1]


  1. ↑ Sonic had earlier claimed that he doesn't chew gum, which leads to speculation on whose gum that really is.
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