The bees' knees! This week, for the ONE HUNDREDTH EPISODE, V and Emily take a trip back 100 years to look at four fandoms that ruled the year of 1924: George Gershwin's jazz, Harold Lloyd's romantic comedies, Little Orphan Annie's laughs, and Babe Ruth's colossal clout. From the amazing breadth of the Gershwin brothers' catalog to the hilarity of what passed for celebrity gossip in Photoplay, from the plight of a little Orphant to the Bambino's birthday party shenanigans, we're celebrating 100 years of fannish passion and what it really means to be a legend that never dies.

Sources

Girl Shy Hot Water Helen Kane 1924 in Music Little Orphan Annie Hello, Harold! Photoplay, January - June 1924 Photoplay, July - December 1924 Babe Ruth Central

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It's locked! This week, V and Emily (although V hardly gives Emily a chance to get a word in edgewise) delve into the 94-year history of the Nancy Drew fandom. From a congressional hearing about whether Nancy is Bad For The Children in the '50s to a woman in the '30s who made her living traveling from town to town to evangelize against the girl sleuth, Nancy Drew is an OG fandom with big "fuck you purity culture" vibes. Also, she once jumped a shark in a jetski and solved a mystery by tap-dancing with some cats. Do you love Nancy Drew even half as much as V does? Would you want to be a Girl Detective?

Sources

Nancy Drew, Girl Sleuth by Melanie Rehak

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No more mutants! This week, Emily and V look at an event that had seismic effects both in-universe in its franchise and out-universe, in the real world: Marvel Comics' M-Day. The events depicted in the House of M event would go on to drive much of the forward motion of X-Men for the next 15 years and spawned whole swaths of the Marvel universe (including Agatha All Along!). And of course, any swing that wild is going to spark... a lot of Reddit posts. Thank you to listener @raineday for the request! Do you X-Men? What do you think of Wanda Maximoff?

Sources

M-Day House of M #7 The Decimation: Success or Failure? The Decimation: Stats

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Time to catch the boat of losers! This week, V and Emily encounter not one, not two, not three, but SO MANY areas of fandom that we've never covered on the show, nor encountered in our elderly lives, as we cover the Total Drama fandom and its juggernaut ship, Noah/Cody AKA NoCo. From anime terminology and Wattpad novels to TikTok stitches and Roblox's existence, we are out of our depth this week. A HUGE thank you to lovely Patron @cavewomania AKA @tylejandro for helping V understand this fandom and ship! Have you ever participated in fandom on a Web 3.0 platform?

Sources

Fanlore Total Roblox Drama Island of the Slaughtered @starryluminary NoCoVember 2024

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The Warblers are like rockstars here! This week, Emily and V look at the juggernaut slash ship to come out of Glee: Kurt Hummel/Blaine Anderson, AKA Klaine, which was born in the space of three glorious musical minutes this week in fandom history in 2010, when Blaine (Darren Criss) serenaded Kurt and the rest of Dalton Academy's student body with an accappella rendition of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" and hearts around the world exploded into confetti and tiny birds. We also discuss the logistics of using slushies as a weapon for an INORDINATE length of time. Were you a Klaine shipper? What did YOU miss on Glee?

Sources

YouTube

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Argh, DC... This week, V and Emily take another frustrating look at how DC Comics just loves to kill off Robins, this time with added explicit misogyny toward the fanbase as well as the character they've doomed to the gallows. On the bright side, V got an amazing primer from listener katieiscunning, who loves the character of Spoiler AKA Robin AKA Batgirl AKA Stephanie Brown, and made V and Emily love her, too! Plus, author Mary Borsellino began a comics accountability website known as Project Girl Wonder in reaction to Steph's awful death, and fans have been taking DC to task for their sexism ever since. Are you a DC girlie or a Marvel gal?

Sources

Death of a Robin

Fanlore

Stephanie Brown @ Fandom.com

Listener katieiscunning -- thank you!!

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Scullay!!! This week, Emily and V head back to a happy happenstance in 1994 as the birth of Gillian Anderson's real-life baby changes the fictional life of Dana Scully forever, in more ways than one. By changing the scope of Scully's life, the lore of The X-Files grew and expanded into something network TV had never seen before. Plus, we love how much Gillian and David Duchovny love each other, and we're both terrified IRL about Eugene Tooms possibly hiding in V's A/C vents.

Sources

X-Files Wikia

Shitty things that happened to Dana Scully during "The X-Files," Liz Shannon Miller

Classic Moments: Dana Scully's Abduction

ScreenRant

The weirdest promo shoot you will see today, or any day.

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Apocalypse now? This week, V and Emily start out the episode by talking about the super-cool annual convention that Good Omens fans created and host as part of The Ineffable Society: the Ineffable Con, going strong since 2019. Then, we have to delve into the allegations against Good Omens co-author and showrunner Neil Gaiman, former Tumblr everyman and (alleged) total sleazebag. Looking at the Gaiman situation through the lens of, "how are fans reacting, and how are fans treating each other's reactions?" makes us feel a little better than looking too deeply at him as a person. The episode closes out with a reminder that the fannish world moves fast -- when we put this on our calendar, it was supposed to just be a happy episode about awesome Good Omens fans, you know? Sigh.

Sources

Fanlore

The Ineffable Con

The Ineffable Con on Xitter

Neil Gaiman timeline

pearwaldorf

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*insert Tarzan yell here* This week, Emily and V explore a totally new-to-them fandom thanks to requester pandaimitator: Tarzan of the Apes. And frankly, it's crazy that we haven't heard about everything this old-timey fandom created that we still use and do today. Fan clubs! Conventions! Fan campaigns! Fanfiction! The Pizza Hut Book-It model of consumerism! The concept of the franchise itself! While the source material does not stand up to modern sensibilities — at all, and we're not defending it; it's super racist — the actions of the early fandom, and of Edgar Rice Burroughs' author-incorporation, are totally worth talking about in the scope of fandom history. We would be a different place without them.

Sources

Tarzan Forever by John Taliaferro

PulpFest | ERBfest

ERBzine.com

Signal Oil Fan Club

Tarzan: Jungle King of Popular Culture by David Lemmo

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Get out your tissues, listeners! (Seriously.) This week, V and Emily split the episode in two parts: first, the very silly attempt to understand how the Forever Knight fandom went to WAR! for the thirteenth time in 2010. Second, a look into the fannish life and ongoing impact of Forever Knight BNF Susan M. Garrett, who seems like she was a completely awesome fangirl, writer, and person. V and Emily both weep like babies in this episode because sometimes, the fans who make history ARE well-behaved, and they rock, and we love to learn about and remember them.

Sources

Fanlore: WAR Thirteen

Susan M. Garrett's homepage

FanDominion.com's Obituary for Susan M. Garrett

Farewell, Dear Fen: In Memorium

FanHistory: Susan M. Garrett

Fanlore: Susan M. Garrett

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