CREDIT: ERIKA FAUST

There's no denying that back during the glory days, cartoons played a big part in our childhoods, whether you grew up in the age of Doug and Ren & Stimpy or Ed, Edd, & Eddy and Courage the Cowardly Dog. But there is one geek subculture that is grasping tightly to cartoons and refuses to let go.

Let me introduce you to Bronies. Bronies are bros, or typically teenaged to middle-aged men that watch the television show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. You read that right. Theoretically, this is odd. But after catching up with an actual brony who was more than willing to express his brony geekyness, I've learned that the spectrum of geek is broader than I thought. Some bros are bike geeks, some are sports geeks, some are music geeks, there are some who like ponies and there are plenty who like to hold onto elements of childhood a little longer.

For those who don't know what My Little Pony is, it's a television show that features the adventures of a unicorn called Twilight Sparkle and five of her pony friends in the kingdom of Equestrian. The show is filled with pink-pony happiness that glues many young fans to their television screens on a weekly basis. The show has aired for two seasons, with the third to premiere this fall.

Raymond Haggerty is a Fanshawe College student, and has been a proud brony for two years now. Haggerty is 25 years old and has no shame expressing his geekyness. When asked as to why he's a brony, his answer was simple: "The show is just happy and awesome," he said. "There's so much terrible in the world right now, it's nice to veg out for 24 minutes and watch some My Little Pony and just be happy and laugh."

Contrary to what you may be thinking, the show is a lot more sophisticated than six pony friends scouring the land looking for solutions to their fairytale problems — well, maybe not for the five-year-old fan. Haggerty said he has noticed that the growing brony community has influenced the plot a great deal, and Hasbro, the company that produces the show, has catered to their unusual fan base. "The show has definitely evolved over the last two seasons," Haggerty admitted. "It's still there to be silly, and still there for the five year-old girls, because that's still their main audience they want to deal with. But there's definitely stuff for us, like The Big Lebowski reference (in season two) is a perfect example, because no five year-old is going to get that."

Haggerty has also noticed many adult elements in the show after its first season when the brony culture became more and more predominant. Over the course of the second season, he's noticed references to terrorism, international conflict, sadism and even political unrest — pretty uncommon for your average children's show.

The brony culture is spreading quickly though, with My Little Pony and brony conventions as well as a brony-specific pony, Derpy hooves, that Hasbro has created.

But like any geek faithful to his or her creed, there is always the chance of taking some heat. Being a brony isn't exactly the easiest thing to do, but Haggerty doesn't let criticism affect him. Still, he doesn't understand the haters. "I guess they don't get it, or they hate happiness or something. How can you hate something so fluffy and excellent, and only about being happy? Especially on the Internet, there's lots of hate. I just ignore it." Haggerty has already had meet-ups with fellow bronies, and he said he hopes to post flyers around Fanshawe to inform others in hiding that there are like-minded people.

The geek spectrum is indeed wide and varied. When we meant you could be a geek about literally anything, we were totally serious.


Ray Haggerty and his girlfriend, Leanne White, dressed up as My Little Pony characters for a convention this past summer. Haggerty dressed as Rainbow Dash and White dressed as Twilight Sparkle (Credit: Leanne White)


Haggerty's favourite pony is Pinkie Pie because he said her character development throughout the series has been the most interesting. (Credit: Erika Faust)