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[Shadowgandor]

This might be an offensive question to some, but I really can't see why MLP got so popular. I've tried watching it but to me, it's nothing more than a kids show. Still, I'd love to get a better understanding of bronies, so if someone could explain to me why this show has gotten so popular, that'd be great.

[Telgin]

A word of warning: discussion of MLP has been largely forbidden by Toady because of previous threads on it frequently breaking forum rules.  Search for the threads in General Discussion for further details.

To answer your question though: the answer varies for everyone.  In my case, it's a combination of it being "forbidden fruit" of a sort and being a surprisingly charming cartoon.  Mostly the latter.  It's definitely something that grew on me, I didn't just sit down and watch an episode and immediately get hooked.  That took about 5 episodes and a brother who was sympathetic.  It's a self-perpetuating community sort of thing, but that has its own chicken and egg problem.

Just how it got so popular is probably not something understood completely by anyone and especially not me.  I was a fairly late joiner.  Someone, somewhere probably has a decent answer though.

[LordBucket]

Why

The internet has always liked cute things. Even /b/ has Caturday.

to me, it's nothing more than a kids show.

Somebody did a survey a while back that concluded that over EDIT: 25% of all self-proclaimed "bronies" were members of one specific Myers-Briggs type. You might simply not be the sort of person who likes it.

to me, it's nothing more than a kids show.

I'd love to get a better understanding of bronies

Cute is cute. Happy is happy. Honesty and integrity are honesty and integrity. I simply ask, how cynical do you have to be to perceive these things as fundamentally "for kids?" What about the show makes it a kids show? Simply that its subject matter is happy, cute creatures promoting virtues that most of us would agree on paper are good qualities regardless of whether it's happy, cute creatures expounding them? Really, the basic psychology is not about ponies at all. Here's a basic litmus test for bronies: go up to somebody and say "Puppies and kittens nuzzling together and bouncing in happy circles of loves and cuddles!"

If they smile and laugh happily, brony candidate.

If they correct your grammar or look at you oddly because you're not "acting like an adult," not a brony candidate.

[Vector]

Meh.  Show me actual puppies and kittens and I'll bounce, just invoke the phrase without any promise of providing evidence and I won't care.  Largely because I don't subscribe to blatant emotional manipulation like that

Which Myers-Briggs type was it, by the way?


(Also, PTW.  I don't get it either)

[Xantalos]

I was only there for the omnipotent troll, then I kinda left.
PTW.

[LordBucket]

Which Myers-Briggs type was it, by the way?

INTJ



So...correction: greater than 25% were of same type. However, according to Myers-Briggs, INTJ is roughly 2.1% of the overall population. So that bronies are 12 times more likely to be of that type than the general population seems significant.

[Neonivek]

Let me see...

The show is genuinely funny (albeit extremely corny), it is cheery and uplifting, the songs are sometimes Disney quality or better, there is good plot.

I personally can only see the show as hilariously terrible mostly because of how absolutely malicious the ponies are! "Ohh someone just flew for hours and had to put a full day of word in. I know lets throw a HUGE party at their house and continue to party even when the person tries to go to sleep. We are the best kinds of people"

A lot of people can look past a shows cartoon or "for children" nature and see the enjoyable aspect of the show.

Heck one of my favorite shows was Jane and the Dragon (oddly enough... the dragon was one of the characters I liked the least) and that was for kids. I watched all of Jem and that show was AMAZING! For both legitimate reasons and for "So bad its good" reasons.

Heck Avatar: The Last Airbender is a kids show and it actually is extremely good with a lot of quality

to me, it's nothing more than a kids show.

and that is valid. To understand why people like things you have to often see past what you don't like about it.

For example I cannot stand Game of Thrones because absolutely no one is likable to me, and if they are likable they are either corrupted, killed, or tortured. There is no one to root for and thus nothing for me to care about (hilarious thing is... I am pretty close to correct objectively).

Yet I know what people like is the drama and the black and grey morality as well as how the plots give intrigue and people rising above their station through genuine work rather then automatic pandering anachronisms.

[Shadowgandor]

Hah, up to now I seem to be the perfect brony candidate. I smile at the mention of puppies and kittens and I'm INTJ as well. Still, I disliked the humor and feel of the show and it didn't engage me at all. Maybe I should watch a few more episodes and judge again, but I'm still keeping this open due to curiosity. Thanks for the responses up to now anyway

[Neonivek]

Hah, up to now I seem to be the perfect brony candidate. I smile at the mention of puppies and kittens and I'm INTJ as well. Still, I disliked the humor and feel of the show and it didn't engage me at all. Maybe I should watch a few more episodes and judge again, but I'm still keeping this open due to curiosity. Thanks for the responses up to now anyway

Try seeing it like I do... As something hilariously terrible.

Especially the first two episodes. Those ponies are EVIL!

[LordBucket]

I disliked the humor and feel of the show and it didn't engage me at all.

Both the character of the show and the personality of some of the characters have changed drastically over the years. You might try watching episodes from a different season to see if that helps. Personally, some of my favorite characters from season 1 I now find just annoying in season 3. Your mileage may vary.

Also..."My Little Pony: the show" and "My Little Pony: the community" are different from each other. I probably wouldn't be wearing a Celestia avatar based solely on the show. Fan works have deeply expanded on the depth of the show. To some extent...watching the show is kind of just a primer to allow you to know the characters well enough to appreciate what the community does.

Look at "Dwarf Fortress: the game" and then compare it to "Dwarf Fortess: the bay12 forums." MLP is similar.

[Bdthemag]

You asked one of the worst possible questions that you could of asked, like seriously. The people who like the show will come in and go "Well it's just funny, and I love the characters!" or something along the lines of that, going through the same discussion saying their community is fine and any bad apples are just the "Outspoken Minority". Then people who don't like it will go in saying how shitty they think the show is, and how weird and annoying they think the fans are. Shortly following that it'll go back to the outspoken minority argument, and insults will be flung back and forth until the thread either dies out or is locked.

[Xantalos]

It seems quite civil for now.

[Bdthemag]

Even if it does stay civil, it'll then either be a circlejerk over the community and show, or irrational hate towards it depending on who is currently on at the time. I'm just sick of hearing about it, because I've already heard every argument and every kind of idiotic quip regarding this for the past year. The MLP fandom has been, and is going down the path of the furry fandom anyways. Everyone actively hates them now, and then they'll disappear and learn to be reclusive within their own communities to the point people only dislike them when they show up.

[XXSockXX]

I have no problem at all with people liking something like that, but it's just not for me. I have wondered occasionally how it got so popular, it seems to be everywhere.
I remember it mostly from the 80s, as a toy marketed for girls like under age 8. I can understand why adults might like kids entertainment out of nostalgia both for a certain toy/show/book etc and for childhood itself.
For me personally, this whole "cute" thing is a bit weird. I find it kind of offputting, which is why I don't like Disney stuff and most Manga. I kinda have the Animation Ghetto thing in my head, I enjoy some of it, but think of it as mostly kids stuff. I enjoy playing with a real kitten or puppy, but I rarely watch videos of kittens and stuff like that.

I have a provisional working theory why people like that kind of stuff. All youth/subcultures I have been involved in have taken great lengths to be as offensive and disturbing as possible, politics, religion, violence, sex, you name it. I have often discussed with friends that nothing could come after us that could shock us anymore and nothing could go more extreme. But now young people like this "cute" stuff. It's so cute and happy that I find it almost disturbing. So I guess this could be in part some kind of counter-movement. I mean an otherwise "cool" looking 16 year old playing with a MLP toy (something a teacher friend of mine observed) is as weird to me as 16 year old me was weird to my parents with all the loud music and satanism and violence and stuff.
But maybe I'm just old and cynical.

I do think there are parallels in how people perceive MLP fans and fans of other, older or completely different subcultures, in that they often seem to assume the worst without actually trying to get a clearer picture.

[Xantalos]

It's also the eyes of the horses. Bigger eyes = cute, apparently.