No. 43: The Curious Rise Of Jobromance

Kate Richardson | December 18, 2008 10:00 am

2008 will go down as the year that fan fiction and tribute videos finally realized their inevitable, terrifying synthesis. “Jobromance” is a generic term for a mashup of sorts, one made of a video consisting of Jonas Brothers content (which could consist of a picture, several pictures, or a video clip) and a corresponding narrative featuring the Jonas Brothers and other various teen stars, which is pasted into the clip’s “about” field.

For the month of April I followed emogurl810’s Jobromance saga. It was both entertaining and harrowing, and by the end I was only just barely staving off raging insanity. Depending on how you look at it, this new phenomenon is either a charming way for bored teens to exorcise their crazed hormonal obsessions and hone their creative writing skills, or it’s a gaping black hole of vapid, celebrity-obsessed idiocy and terrible grammar. I’m still not sure which, but it’s an interesting facet of culture either way, and if there’s anything that defines 2008 it’s the mass proliferation of YouTube and bewildering JoBro fandom.

Earlier: Crucial Recapping 80 ’08 (and Heartbreak)