is a fan-made abridged

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

based on the animated television show '' My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic''. Created by Jenny Nicholson and Griffin Lewis under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

"Sherclop Pones," the series ran from June 2011 to January 2016 and gained popularity within the ''My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'' fandom, also known as ''bronies''.

Overview

The series reimagines the characters and storylines of ''My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'' with darker, more satirical themes. Episodes typically feature

voice acting Voice acting is the art of performing a character or providing information to an audience with one's voice. Performers are often called voice actors/actresses in addition to other names. Examples of voice work include animated, off-stage, off-sc ...

, original musical numbers, and comedic reinterpretations of scenes from the original show. In January 2013, ''Friendship Is Witchcraft'' was blocked from

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

due to a

DMCA The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or ...

claim by

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...

Reception and analysis

In a collection of essays on ''Friendship Is Magic'' and its

derivative works In copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major copyrightable elements of a first, previously created original work (the underlying work). The derivative work becomes a second, separate work independent from t ...

, author Jen A. Blue examined the series as an example of fan commentary on both the original show and its fandom. Blue argued that rather than simply parodying ''Friendship Is Magic'', the series functioned as a parody of the fandom's expectations and fan works themselves. She commented that the series incorporated elements characteristic of "cult shows" and meme-driven content, suggesting it transformed the source material into something resembling adult-oriented cartoon comedy. Blue wrote that the series mocked fan tendencies to impose darker interpretations on the original show and to approach it with the kind of conspiracy-theory viewing typically associated with more complex serialized television. As an

abridged series An abridgement (or abridgment) is a condensing or reduction of a book or other creative work into a shorter form while maintaining the unity of the source. The abridgement can be true to the original work in terms of mood and tone (literature), ...

, ''Friendship Is Witchcraft'' employed a process of

recontextualization Recontextualisation is a process that extracts text, signs or meaning from its original context (decontextualisation) and reuses it in another context. Since the meaning of texts, signs and content is dependent on its context, recontextualisation ...

, taking the visuals of the original work and pairing them with new audio to create comedic dissonance. Unlike many abridged series that focus on imperfections in audio-visual matching, the series primarily derived humor from showing familiar characters behaving in drastically different ways while maintaining their core personality traits. The series was known for its provocative humor and creative approach to the source material.

Episodes

References

External links

''Friendship Is Witchcraft''
on

{{My Little Pony American comedy web series My Little Pony My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom Fan films Fan fiction Fan fiction works My Little Pony fan fiction American web series 2011 web series debuts

Overview

Reception and analysis

Episodes

See also

References

External links