Can This X Get More Fans Than Y?

About

Can This X Get More Fans Than Y? is an emerging trend of anti-fan mobilization via Facebook fan pages solely designed for the purpose of outnumbering the target celebrity’s fans on the social networking site. For comical effect, these Facebook groups often choose to endorse arbitrary items of little significance (X, as in Fishstick) in competing against the famous subjects (Y, as in Kanye West).

Origin

The earliest instance that falls under this category is Can this donkey from Shrek get more fans than Sarkozy? (Pour que l’âne de Shrek comptabilise plus de fans que Sarkozy), created on December, 15th, 2008. In less than two weeks, the donkey’s fan count surpassed that of President Sarkozy with 43738 Facebook fans (at the time).

FAN COUNT STATS:

12/15/2008 – 5 pm: Group created
12/21/2008 – 8:30 pm: 1107 members … (in effect … :-))
12/24/2008 – 8:30 pm: 7700 members
12/27/2008 – 8:30 pm: 52,600 members … (Success … ;-) Haw haw

As of April 2010, the donkey has over 574,900+ fans, suggesting anti-Sarkozy groups still remain strong and present on Facebook. Also See: Sarkozy Was There.

Viral Status in 2010

Justin Bieber vs. Onion Ring

Can this onion ring get more fans than Justin Bieber? (restored), created by FB user Toby Brittan on February 1st. In the same week on February 6th, Toby’s Onion Ring completely pwned the Canadian pop star’s count by a margin of 500,000+ fans. The original fan page was subsequently deactivated by Facebook admins, but several copycat pages have been created since then.

Bieber Fan Count: 1,648,758 fans
Onion Ring Fan Count: 2,152,536 fans

Pickle vs. Nickelback

Can this pickle get more fans than Nickelback? was created by Coral Anne on February 3rd, 2010. Evidently seen by many as a funny / valid proposition, the Pickle’s fanbase snowballed rapidly into a viral campaign. In the next few days, FB fan page was picked up by “Digg”: and other popular blogs, along with the Fried Onion Ring’s fan page. On February 19th, the number of Pickle’s FB fans exceeded that of Nickelback. As of March 30th, 2010, the Pickle has a count of 1,580,178 fans and Nickelback has a count of 1,487,303 fans. That’s one hell of a pickle.

Nickelback’s Response

According to this report from Popeater.com, Nickelback singer Chad Kroeger posted a bitter-ridden message on the Pickle’s facebook page.

“Your page will be closing in 2 weeks.”

- Nickelback

In response, the group’s founder posted a lengthy note to all of the pickle fans, explaining that it wasn’t her true intention to endorse hate against the band. The full text can be read here.

This pickle page is strictly intended for humour, and anyone else can see this how they wish to, but the whole time I was pro-pickle, more than anti-Nickelback.

Spread

As of April 1, 2010, there are at least 400 – 500 fan groups dedicated to outnumbering their least favorite celebrities:

Derivatives

Note: Fan count numbers last updated on March 31, 2010.

Anti-Anti-Fans

• Can this apple get more fans tha- NO SHUT UP – 346,170 fans
  
  
  
  
• Can this pickle get more fans than that pickle? – 359 fans