When fan fiction goes even more horribly awry

If you aren't a raging geek (usually grappling with gender identity problems), you probably know nothing about the world of fan fiction. This is when obsessive fans of a fictional storyline and its characters decide to write their own stories. These range from TV shows to movies, book and comic books (among other things, I'm sure).

Some fan fiction can be quite good (I'm an unabashed fan of Minsinoo's X-Men FF at The Medicine Wheel)...but more often than not, it can rank among the worst thing sone can ever read. Once in a great while, a good writer can make a good story out of anything, but I've found that most of the FF online is nothing more than disturbing softcore porn between fictional characters.

I thought it was harmless. But apparently, it isn't. Turns out some people have started writing fan fiction about REAL PEOPLE.

Today I found a Livejournal fanfiction community about....the Daily Show? That's right: Bad fiction written by lonely teenage/college girls about Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and the gang getting into various misadvantures, but mostly just eachothers' pants. Oh ew.

Though you could make the argument that they are playing TV characters, you can't make any excuse for when non-actors enter into the fictional foray. For instance, there's one story I saw that details an illicit affair between Jon Stewart and Anderson Cooper. As much as this blogger would happily engage in illicit affairs with either of them...I do not...DO NOT have any interest in even imagining them together, let alone reading about it through the eyes of a girl who has never had sex.

Moreover, I'm disconcerted about the legality of these stories. T As despicable as stories about Harry and Ron gangbanging Hermione (actual horrific Harry Potter fan fiction) may be....at least they aren't real people who have real personalities, reputations and lawyers. I'm a journalist myself and you can bet I'd get pretty upset if I found out someone was writing a softcore porno about my private life.

There's simply no excuse for it. I know someone could get all weepy and First Amendment on me, but I stand by this: If you write fictional stories about TV news anchors having sex with one another, you need help. End of story.