I've written this while being very sick, medicated, and sleep deprived. So of this comes off as rambling gibberish, then please disregard it and consider me a crazy person.
None of these are actual explanations, and I genuinely read them because I wanted to see an answer to that question. The first two links essentially admit that the appreciation for My Little Pony is, indeed, ironic in nature, with the first link explicitly arguing that it's mostly just increasingly popular for the sake of being popular (people liking it, because other people like it) the third is just someone's random blog about how he likes it because.. he desperately needed to think of a reason, and the last article, it being Wired of course, was the most interesting, but only because it reminded me of an older Wired article on "
neo-sincerity."
The article on neo-sincerity is a much better read for understanding the increasing popularity of MLP, because what that trend is, is essentially just reverse-irony. Symbolic of the overall trend in the last few years of some in society kicking off the ironic backlash to irony. As the article highlighted:
The love for My Little Pony is basically just rooted in a wild overreaction to a broader pop culture that has been too saturated in ironic detachment. The, of course,
ironic thing, is that the overreaction is just as feigned and f**king annoying as someone trying too hard to be ironic. This rebellious attitude to the irony of the 90s and early 00's "risks being labeled as melodramatic" because it
is (childish, and) melodramatic. It's the opposite end of the spectrum, basically. Postured and annoying, but for entirely opposed reasons.
A logical and objective reason for liking something (anything, really) is not
necessary, but it becomes necessary when you apply objective terms to it and you attempt to place it on a pedestal as something greater than it really is.
My Little Pony succeeds because of several factors:
1. Ironic appreciation. This is inarguably what spawned the "fad."
2. Being part of the zeitgeist with the rest of the cool kids. People are into it because, for other people, it's the hot new thing to be into, and while they're into it, they're going to be
really into it.
3. Over the top "neo-sincerity," wherein people seem to feel the need to go above and beyond the call of duty in trying to make sure everyone around them knows for goddamn sure that they just
loovvveee My Little Pony.
4. Kids.
At the end of that Wired article, it highlights someone from New York magazine who writes about how neo-sincerity could be just as, if not more, dangerous than ironic detachment. About how fanboy culture has "won," and yet, in doing so, it's also done irreparable damage to what being a nerdy little fanboy was originally all about, creating two distinct camps: people who hate everything, and hate everyone that doesn't hate everything, and people who love the things they love a little too much, and shun everyone that doesn't conform to the fanboyish group-think.
In other words, there is increasingly less and less room for people who don't have a position in either camp. Who love some things and hate some things, but don't feel the need to go out of their way to unnecessarily throw the things they love and hate in other people's faces. Who don't posture either way, they just have opinions and that's that.
So basically, what I'm saying is, keep your goddamn pony memes to yourself and out of the hair of people who want nothing to do with it. If something is truly worth loving, it's worth loving
quietly.
Also, everyone should go join The AV Club.
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