Phantom of the Opera
From Encyclopedia Dramatica
The Phantom of the Opera is a book by French author Gaston Leroux which no one other than Phantom fans has ever read.
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The Book
In 1910 Gaston Leroux, a portly French journalist, published a book about a deformed murderous genius with a voice of an angel who lived under the Paris Opera House, fell in love with a young soprano named Christine, and died tragically from a broken heart.
The Movies
Universal Studios made a film of the book in 1925, starring silent star Lon Chaney. Various other studios remade the film, taking elements of the basic story but changing it beyond much recognition. Film versions of The Phantom of the Opera range from Phantoms who are father figures, psychotic slashers, sympathetic chaps with a witty tongue, and barely deformed men who cannot sing.
Joel Schumacher directed the 2004 movie based on Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, reinvisioned with a young and sexy cast, and a Phantom whose angelic voice was hideously damaged in an accident with an iPod and his underground lake.
The Musicals
The first musical of The Phantom of the Opera was produced in 1974 by Ken Hill, who made the mistake of asking Sarah Brightman to be in it some years later. Her then husband, the frog-like Andrew Lloyd Webber (we don't need to stinkin' Lords), said "Jolly good show old fellow, why don't I produce it on the West End and turn it into a mega hit?" Then he read the original novel and thought "Hold on there my boy, why don't I write my own musical, playing up the gothic melodrama and romance so I can make millions of dollars from fangirls, instead?" So he did.
The Fandom
Typical to Phantom phandom is the inability to spell any word which begins with an F without spelling it with a PH instead. Phantom phans phantasize about phucking their phavorite Phantoms, and write voluminous phanfic phull of mystic yearnings. Like all fandoms, they infest the internets with their web pages, discussion forums, and LJ communities, where they share their love for ugly guys in masks who sing. Before the arrival of the internets, Phantom phans published a variety of fanzines and newsletters using the now defunct technologies of paper and snail mail.
The fevor of Phantom fans extends to legally changing their names (http://www.livejournal.com/users/cdaae), and erecting virtual churches to the Phantom. They do not think it is funny that his name in the book is Erik.
Phantom fans are prone to depression, self-injury, being goth, and singing. Occassionally a fan will extend their insanity to stalking Phantom actors.
Since the release of the 2004 movie the phandom has been inundated with 16 year old fangirls, who complain about the elitism of phans who have read the original novel. The phandom is split: saying that the movie is better than the stage show, or Gerard Butler is a superbly trained singer, will earn flames from one lot of phans; saying someone isn't a real phan if they haven't read the book, or fans of the movie are tone-deaf and insane, will earn flames from the other. This makes fertile ground for trolls.
Things that upset Phans
- Spelling the Phantom's name Eric
- Criticizing Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Criticizing Gerard Butler or Emmy Rossum, especially if you are a trained singer
- Pointing out that Erik is a murderer and has his own torture chamber
- Calling Christine a slut
- Insisting that you are the one and only reincarnation of Christine
- Telling them that real fans read the original novels
LJ Communities
Tons and bunches, including:
- phantomfans (http://www.livejournal.com/community/phantomfans)
- do_me_phantom (http://www.livejournal.com/community/do_me_phantom)
- notmyphantom (http://www.livejournal.com/community/notmyphantom)
- churchoferik (http://www.livejournal.com/community/churchoferik)
- phantom_movie04 (http://www.livejournal.com/community/phantom_movie04)
Fanfic:
- phandom (http://www.livejournal.com/community/phantom)
- phantomslash (http://www.livejournal.com/community/phantomslash)
- gerard_emmy (http://www.livejournal.com/community/gerard_emmy)
Rest of the Web
The oldest Phantom phan site is phantomoftheopera.com (http://www.phantomoftheopera.com), who purchased their domain name before Andrew Lloyd Webber thought of it, leaving him with thephantomoftheopera.com (http://www.thephantomoftheopera.com) for consolation.
See Also
