The Hasbro toy My Little Pony and its associated TV series go back to the 1980s, but it took until 2010 and the premiere of the Hub Network series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic for the brony phenomenon to kick into a whole new gear—and, indeed, enter the vocabulary of non-MLP:FIM fans.

Brony is a portmanteau word combining bro and pony, and while the coinage was originally intended to cover adult males who are fans of the show, the word has since expanded to cover all adult fans of whatever gender. Many who are not so inclined find the concept of bronies well-nigh disturbing—as awesome as the show may be, the obsession has some people worried, including, apparently, whatever company recently fired an MLP:FIM devotee for displaying his fandom just a little bit too openly (i.e. not very much) at the workplace.

Of course bronyism in and of itself is harmless—in the age of the Internet, any excellently produced show will generate the desire to congregate and discuss and worship it, and that includes fare for children.

Last October the Norwegian talk show Sent med Simen Sund (“Late with Simen Sund”) dedicated a segment to the subject, inviting two of the founders of the group Bronies of Norway (932 likes on Facebook as of this writing), Ruben Stølan and Edvin Ellingsen, in to discuss their joint obsession. Sund can hardly prevent a slightly incredulous tone from creeping in—but it’s targeted at six-year-old girls!—but otherwise keeps everything appreciative and respectful. They even connive to get explorer Erling Kagge to try on Edvin’s Rainbow Dash hat.
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘My Little Pony’ characters sing Reggie Watts’ ‘F*ck Sh*t Stack’
My Little Pony crafted as a Queen Alien