Brony - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

The adult fandom of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has led to references to the program in popular culture. Musician Andrew W.K., a fan of the show, said that he strongly identifies with the over-enthusiastic character of Pinkie Pie. He said, "She's another creature, much like I am in this world, who is doing everything she can to have fun," and that he feels inspired by the character spreading excitement and joy to others. He hosted a panel, called "What Would Pinkie Pie Do?", at the Canterlot Gardens convention in September 2012, calling the experience "the most intense experience of my life". Rapper MC Chris released a song called "Discord (My Little Brony)" on April 1, 2012, that showed high familiarity with the show and its culture.

The animated television show Mad spoofed Friendship Is Magic at least twice; one segment was called "My Little War Horse". A secret level in the video game Diablo III included enemies named "Rainbow Western", "Midnight Sparkle" and "Nightmarity", alluding to Friendship is Magic In interviews for the video game-related podcast series Geek a Week, both Markus Persson of Mojang and Gabe Newell of Valve said they are fans of Friendship is Magic. Owlchemy Labs added a "Brony Mode" to their video game, Snuggle Truck as free downloadable content in October 2012, specifically as a nod to the brony community. The mode replaces the fuzzy animals in the game with Friendship Is Magic-inspired ponies which the user must drive safely across a landscape. An extended character, the Mechromancer, available as downloadable content for the game Borderlands 2, includes numerous references to the show and the fans through the character's skill tree.

The Pirate Party Germany's parliamentary group in the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin (the Berlin state parliament) has insisted on the inclusion of a break called "pony time", in which an episode from the series is shown, during their meetings at their parliamentary office, which displeased many other members in the Berlin parliament. The internet activist group Anonymous used the character Rainbow Dash to deface the website of the Social Democratic Party of Austria in 2011, and 2012. A teenage white hat hacker used the name "Pinkie Pie" for anonymity and a fan drawing of the character wielding an axe as part of a successful entry in an early 2012 contest sponsored by Google Chrome to break the security of the web browser; the same user also was the first to break the security in a second contest held later in 2012. A May 2013 update to Google Hangouts included an easter egg that would have Friendship Is Magic-inspired ponies run across the chat window.

An article that appeared in the New York Times on December 26, 2011, "Navigating Love and Autism" by Amy Harmon, described how a young woman with Asperger syndrome used My Little Pony characters to relieve stress. She visualized the character Twilight Sparkle whenever she "found herself in a bad-mood rut". The story misidentified Twilight Sparkle as Fluttershy on initial publication and the paper issued a correction, which some journalists have jokingly considered as "the best New York Times correction ever", though others saw it as a sign of the journalistic integrity of the Times. Harmon was contacted by fans about the mistake, and said, "I hate to get anything wrong, but I confess to some enjoyment in finding the right way to phrase this one."