In March 2016, the trailer for Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot debuted onlineudand suffered the unfortunate accolade of being the most disliked trailerudin YouTube history. Popular news media, including professional, pro-am,udand amateur commentators, picked up on the resulting online kerfuffle asudclear indication that there is something rotten in the state of fandom. Feigudhimself frequently turned to the echo chamber of social media to denounceudfans as “some of the biggest arseholes I’ve ever met in my life”. Addressingudfans that singled out the reboot as “ruining my childhood,” Feig pouredudfuel on the fire by criticising such a perspective as merely the product ofud“some whacked-out teenager,” overdramatic, pathological and, perhapsudmore pointedly, “toxic”. In so doing, Feig—and, by extension, the cast ofudthe Ghostbusters reboot—replicated and re-activated traditional stereotypesudof the fanboy—living in his mother’s basement and obsessing over trivialudentertainment.
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