Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Fandomania--Star Wars

When Star Wars came out in 1977, I was about 13. I fell for it, hard. I saw it many times. I read the novelization over and over until I had it practically memorized. And when none of that was enough for me, I eventually did a dramatic reading of the novelization into a tape recorder (along with sound effects and a musical prelude on my clarinet). This is a clear and embarrassing example of what I'm calling "fandomania." It's what happens when fandom gets way out of control. A long time ago in a low tech setting far, far away (California, which sometimes feels like another galaxy), that's the best I could do. But now we can do much, much better.

For example, check out these instances of musical fandomania here and here. Yes, the first one is a lip synch. Doesn't that make it an even clearer case of fandomania?

Okay, it's your turn. Give me your stories of people whose love of Star Wars has gotten out of control. Confess as I have, if you want. Or give us another link.

I'm not talking about Star Wars humor here. We'll do a post on that at some point, I promise. But for the most part we're now looking for people who aren't trying to be funny. So save the Robot Chicken etc. for another day.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I was about 6, I used to sit in a swiveling chair facing the wall waiting for someone to enter the room (especially when we were expecting company. When someone came in, I'd do a slow, menacing 180 and pretend to be Emperor Palpatine, saying things like "I've been waiting for you" and "In time you will call me master." On two separate occasions, my friends and I have watched all 6 films in a row--3 hours and 37 minutes, if I remember correctly. Also, a few friends and I are going to start playing Star Wars RPG (basically D & D, but Star Wars).

randy jensen said...

Okay, I'll add this to the mix. Next?

David B. Ellis said...

Have you seen some of the fan lightsaber duels on Youtube?

These two guys are actually very good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NE5elL30w4

And their sequel video is even better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-is63goeBgc

randy jensen said...

Yes, those lightsaber duels are pretty cool. And then there are always the "look, I got a lightsaber for Christmas!" ones, e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXMX_xm7IRo