Fanboy & Chum Chum

About

Fanboy & Chum Chum is a CGI animated television series about the misadventures of best friends and aspiring superheroes Fanboy and Chum Chum. The show originally aired on Nickelodeon between 2009 and 2014. In February 2020, the show saw a significant surge in popularity in memes following a series of viral posts. Memes referencing the show often utilize the X but Awesome snowclone.

History

On October 12th, 2009, the first episode "Wizboy" of the CGI animated TV series Fanboy & Chum Chum, created by Eric Robles,^[1] premiered on Nickelodeon. The series follows the misadventures of Fanboy and Chum Chum, two elementary school students obsessed with superhero comics who often find themselves in surreal situations. The secondary characters of the series include Kyle Bloodworth-Thomason, a pre-teen wizard who is often irritated by Fanboy and Chum Chum's antics, and the main antagonist Boogreguard "Boog" Shlizetti, the only a convenience store employee who enjoys "bopping" (hitting) others.

Here we go, cause we're Fanboy & Chum Chum!
A little cuckoo, Fanboy & Chum Chum
We're amazing, totally crazy
Fanboy, Chum Chum, come on, everybody, sing!
We're gonna scream at the top of our lungs!
We're gonna fly and have some fun!
We don't care, if you stare, I mean, look at our underwear!
BRAAAAAIIIIIN FREEEEEEEZZZE!

The series aired for two seasons for a total of 52 episodes.^[2] The series ended on November 2nd, 2012; however, on July 12th, 2014, direct-to-video episode "Brain Freeze" aired, concluding the series.

Reception

The series received generally negative reviews. Padraing Cotter of ScreenRant^[3] called the series "One of Nickelodeon's worst ever shows," citing irritating main characters and abundance of toilet humor and poop gags.

Part of the reason Fanboy & Chum Chum is so poorly regarded is that many viewers find the title characters unbelievably grating. They're a pair of screeching irritants who aren't particularly fun to spend time with. Fanboy & Chum Chum's overreliance on toilet humor and poop gags quickly falls flat too, and the show's opening tune is famously obnoxious too. Even the visual look of the series is unappealing, with fugly character designs and a garish color palette.

Emily Ashby^[4] of Common Sense Media gave the series three out of five stars, describing the series as "zany adventures are low on depth but high on imagination."

On IMDb,^[5] the series maintained a 3.2 score with over 2,900 user reviews as of March 5th, 2020.

Use in Memes

Prior to January 2020, the series saw limited presence online, with memes about the series occasionally appearing on iFunny, Instagram, Facebook and other platforms. For example, on August 18th, 2019, Instagram^[6] user clemy.mp4 posted a meme edit featuring the character Boog which received over 14,400 views and 2,800 likes in seven months (shown below, top). On October 6th, 2019, iFunny^[7] user CoochieJesus posted a Soy Boy vs. Gigachad meme which defenced the series (shown below, bottom).

On January 13th, 2020, Instagram^[8] user oxygensucc.mp4 posted a dubbed Anonymous Asexual meme based on the intro song of Fanboy and Chum-Chum (shown below, top). While the meme received over 2,600 views and 710 likes on Instagram in two months, it has received additional spread outside the platform, including multiple reposts to iFunny.^[9][10] On January 31st, 2020, iFunny^[11] user MrIcePotato posted a Yes Chad meme comparing the series with Steven's Universe that received over 4,300 smiles in one month (shown below, bottom). Later on the same day, Twitter^[12] user @L4PPY reposted the meme, with the tweet receiving over 8,900 retweets and 46,300 likes in the same period; additionally, the image was posted on /co/.^[13]

Through February 2020, memes about the show saw spread on iFunny and Twitter. On February 7th, 2020, iFunny^[14] user Llama posted a clip from Fanboy & Chum Chum with the sound replaced a dialogue from the film No Country for Old Men. The post received over 2,400 smiles in one month. On February 10th, 2020, Twitter^[15] user @trumpdances posted a clip from "Pump Trump" set to Fanboy & Chum Chum's intro song.

On February 22nd, 2020, Twitter^[16] user @ashcrimsonpussy reposted a meme originally posted by Twitter^[17] user @theawesomefart in TFL Podcast Discord server on May 10th, 2019, with the tweet receiving over 1,700 retweets and 6,100 shares in two weeks (original version of the image shown below).

Following the post, memes about the show saw a notable surge on Twitter, iFunny and other online platforms. Multiple examples of memes connected to the trend utilized the "X but Awesome" snowclone, with images and scenes from Fanboy & Chum Chum being used to reference other media.

Fandom

Fanboy & Chum Chum has a dedicated Fandom Wiki^[18] that contains over 700 articles about the show.

Search Interest

External References