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December 11, 2025 • 17 mins

What is fanilect? The often funny shared language between fans is being studied by linguists.

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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Sanny and Samantha. I'm all your stuff,
will never told you, protection of iHeart Radio, and welcome
to another edition of Happy Hour. As always, if you
choose to drink or whatever you're choosing to do, please
do so responsibly. Samantha, what are you doing anything?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Keep it up with my caffeine intake right now.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Oh my, I'm at caffeine in a long time. Oh wow, yeah,
I guess, I guess, but I am drinking red wine, so.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Okay, you're doing it.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Was like not the no, no, no, I was I,
as listeners know, I was having a problem with heart racing,
and so I just had to stop stop doing it. Anyway,
we are getting tour the end of twenty twenty five
and Samantha and I are trying desperately to have some

(01:06):
lighter topics during this time, and I have to say
it's difficult, but this is a fun one, although it
required more research than I was anticipating, and we're gonna
have to come back and do a whole episode on
it because I was like, oh, a fun, easy one,
and then it was like, actually, all these research bakers
have been written about this, all right, So today we're

(01:32):
talking about Fanelett, which I'll get into in a second.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
I also don't know what that is.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
I know, I'm so excited to explain it. So the
reason I wanted to talk about this, This has been
on my list for a while because I'm a huge nerd,
but I recently have dipped my toes and a fandom
that's new to me. Because I was just curious what
was going on over there, okay expanding and it was

(02:02):
funny to me how much I didn't understand about what
they were saying. I was like, I don't I don't
understand what this means. A lot of that fandom is younger,
so they have a lot of both the youth slang
I don't understand, but like it's a new fandom to me,

(02:23):
it's true, it's true. Also, they have all these edits
and that made me laugh. We did I used to
do that too before, like social media. We would do
it on YouTube and you know, you would sync it
up to songs.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
And people who do edits amaze me because that is
a skill and that it takes a lot of time,
so to do it as a hobby is a fascinating
Maybe it's because me I quit obviously soon into so
like that just seems like such a commitment.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Kudos, but keep going.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
I have loved it. I I've honestly like completely lost
my mind. And I'll talk about that later. But so
fan elect is it's like a private language between fans
of something. It's in a fandom, okay, where you know.

(03:15):
So I go into this new fandom and I'm like,
what does this mean? Because I can tell it means something,
and so you can just quote something or say a
word and it has a huge It has a much
bigger meaning than just that word. And this is related to,
but different from lore. So lare is sort of the

(03:35):
if you've watched this, you know that it means this.
This is like actually a language, and in fact, it
has been studied. There are a lot of research papers
on it. There are other things like family Act, which
is something between family. So if you just say a
word in your family and everybody knows what that means,

(03:57):
but no one else would know what that means, okay,
Or like when you're with your best friend or even
a partner of you know, I could say to my
best friend Katie Chapstick, she would know what that means.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
So this goes beyond just like inside joke.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yes, okay, it's like a the research papers are saying,
this is almost a different language that is happening. It
does relate to things like Easter eggs, which I'm sure
most of you know, but it's just like kind of
a little nod to something that the creators put into

(04:33):
entertainment where you're supposed to be like, oh that, I
know what that is. It also a lot of initialism,
which is just like very long initials. That's what got
me interested in this because I was like, what the
hell is this initial thing?

Speaker 3 (04:49):
So because I see that a lot in like social media,
does that transfer over into like crossover to both those
things and one came from the other.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Uh well, it's very easy to share it quickly on
social media, so I think that is where it shines
the most, or on the Internet. It's just like a quick, easy,
almost shorthand you can share with other fans. And the

(05:19):
thing is, I've talked about this with fan fiction, but
when you're playing in the same sandbox, you don't have
to explain the basics. You can just be like this right, yeah,
and everybody knows what you're talking about. It's amazing and
it will not surprise you to hear that linguist did

(05:42):
start looking into this thanks to Taylor Swift. Thanks to
Taylor Swift fandom, it really develops this fanele act by
scrutinizing things, finding patterns, and having a shorthand for it.
When Taylor's which was named the Person that Year in
twenty twenty three, Time mentioned fanellict and how that happened.

(06:08):
And I have to say, when I watched a Taylor
Swift music video with my friend Marissa, who's a big
Taylor Swift fan, it was amazing. It was eye opening.
She was like, see this means this, and this means this,
and this means this. It was like she was speaking
a different language. I didn't understand. It was amazing. Also,

(06:28):
Taylor Swift is huge in fan fiction and fandoms, so
even if like in my Star Wars fandom, a lot
of they'll use it there. And that's actually how I
got into Taylor Swift. So I was like, I need
to understand this Star Wars fan fiction that's based on
the Taylor say fanellict that I don't get, And now

(06:51):
I get it, got it, and now you know, and
now I know, it's just a really it's just fun
and it's usually funny. It can be it can be
very toxic, like anything in fandom, right, but when it
is fun, it is so fun and it's really hilarious.
It's usually tongue in cheek. It's playful. It's easy to

(07:15):
share on the internet, and it does change with new materials,
so it can get confusing. And and also like depending
on what niche of the fandom you're in, it takes
a different meaning sometimes or the way people interpret it.
I guess yes, yes, and I have to say I

(07:42):
with my new absolute loss of mind, I feel like
I'm a conspiracy theorist. But the but you know the
way the shippers, which if you don't know, I'm sure
you do. But shippers are you know, people who ship
people romantically they do, and the analysis they do. It's

(08:03):
you're making a believer out of me. And I don't
know what to do about it. I feel I'm either
being gas lit or I'm being I don't know what's
happening right now.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
I know.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
This is I I'm having so much fun because it's
been a long time since this has happened to me,
and I've said before, Like, I like that anticipation of
learning more things. I know a lot of people don't
like that. I'm pretty sure you don't like that, but
I like the let me wait, let me wait a
week before this episode so I can have this beautiful

(08:42):
time where I can imagine anything can happen. And so
it's been fun. It's been really fun. But I have
to say, I really really was not anticipating how much
linguistic research has been done on this. I was shocked.
But it's true. I mean, if you get like a

(09:03):
group of fans who all know the same things, the
same Easter eggs, the same this means this, and they're
all talking and you don't know anything about it, it's
not even oh I don't know. Like I knew about
Taylor Swift with Burissa show me that music, right, but
she knew all of this other stuff and she was

(09:26):
just you even if you know about the fandom, if
you don't know the fanel act, yeah, you'll still be
kind of like, what are you talking?

Speaker 3 (09:47):
So Siria's question, because there was a lot of conspiracy
theory about Taylor's new album and her March like not great,
not great conspiracy theories and there's been like the article
did you see the article from Rolling Stone that just
came out about the bots that were actively campaigning against
this album and like that was the discovery so because

(10:08):
they were doing the same thing but in an opposition
to Taylor saf Swift.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Do so have you looked at what that is doing?

Speaker 3 (10:16):
Are these like inside bad players taking those types of
codes and like fanele ICs and using that in this
not for good for evil context rather?

Speaker 1 (10:28):
Uh honestly, I haven't seen that.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
Oh you haven't.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
Well, no, I know what you're talking about. I haven't
seen the fanele act parts. Okay, okay, but I would
be surprised because I think, I guess not surprised Taylor
Swift fanel act is. It's like on another level, the
bots would really have to Okay, what does the mean?

(10:59):
I mean what I guess if you know?

Speaker 2 (11:02):
You know?

Speaker 1 (11:04):
So it's I don't know that that specifically. I know
some uh like lyrics which can be fanelex right has
been used, but I don't a lot of what I'm
thinking of hasn't been used in that way. But I
don't know because I try to avoid all of that.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
Yeah, it popped up on my feet at random times,
and I'm like, I don't know what's happening. This feels weird,
Like this feels like it's such a one eighty from
what was happening previously that I'm confused. Is this like
the anti stands like the antis in UH Korea when
they get mad that you have a partner, that you've

(11:44):
settled down, so therefore they're going to do all these
things to you.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
It's a lot of things, And actually something came out
about that today about a very targeted tech against her
uh by these these bots. But I feel like fan
elect maybe I'm wrong. I feel like fanelect is so
specific to fans like you right to know what that means.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
So they're pretty gate kept, like you have to be
a fan in order to know what's going.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
On, or at least like it's not obvious. Okay, I
don't think it's gate because I learned this new fantom
I'm dipping my tone, and I learned in like a day.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
But I just you're also a different beast when it
comes to like obsessions.

Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah, yeah, that is true. That is true. But based
on I write essays, I never intend to publish or
anyone to read.

Speaker 3 (12:37):
Based on these obsessions and then intrigues and then research
that I have nowhere to go.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
It has Yeah, yeah except for hear about the hours,
that's true. We also have done episodes on shipping and
so related to that, I will say within fandoms, fan
elect can get weaponized. That's that's what I see more of.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
Okay on each other or like outdoing each other.

Speaker 1 (13:02):
Well, like if a ship you don't like uses a
certain fanele act, then you'll you can weaponize it in
a certain way. I think probably all of it happens.
I but that's what I've seen more of, Okay, is
that during like shipping wars, where people will take that Yeah,

(13:26):
oh it's it's a real deal man, as we talked
about in that episode. But yeah we did. We should
come back and do a full episode on this. I
wasn't expecting all of this research and then we can
we can look into all of these bots and stuff.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
That, well, we need to come back. We visit conversations
about bots now.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
But yeah, like it's interesting when like if they are
as good as that to get into something so niche.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
Yeah, yeah, interested knowing. Yeah, I definitely a topic I
would like to revisit. This is sort of related to
I've talked about it before, but in fan fiction you
do tagging, and that can also that's also kind of
a fan elect that can get weaponized. I usually don't

(14:20):
experience it because I through this new experience. Yes, I
have a very niche older fandom, so it's not like
that typically. I did get my first mean review. Oh yeah,
you're going too slow. I did get that one too,

(14:41):
but that one wasn't that mean. It was just like
when are you updating? I got one that was actually mean,
and it would have destroyed me if I in the beginning,
but now I kind of laughed at it. I was like,
that's really funny.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
I can't see. No, it's too much my hand.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
I appreciated the prose of it. Really took their time.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Okay, what are you and conning you like? This is
what I like? This is what I didn't like.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
No, it was just like, no, it's terrible, but a
long explanation of why. But a lot of the other readers,
oh yeah, I honestly laugh, like I'm not even exaggerating.
It made me laugh, and a bunch of other readers
came in and were like, leave her be I like this.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
Oh yeah, yeah, this is thee to see when people
can defend you.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah, I think you appreciated it. Critics, I don't know
how to because I usually respond every comment, so I
don't know what I'm going to do.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
Oh noted, that's why you put just putting noted.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
I think I'll just do you like a. It really
made me laugh? Are you okay?

Speaker 2 (15:51):
I cannot read yours? I might also be sarcastic.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
I also got into a super secret fan fiction discord.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
I know, how's that going? Did you figure it out
a little bit?

Speaker 1 (16:03):
Okay? I don't know how to work discord, but I'm trying.
I'm trying my best. So I've got a lot of
Fanish things happening. I have a lot of stuff, and
I'm having a good time. Good time. Yes, well, listeners,
if you have any fanele act you would like to share.
I love learning about it. It is so fun to me.

(16:26):
Tell me what it means, what's your favorite one? Or
any thoughts about this at all? Please write in. You
can email us at hello at Steffannever Told You dot com.
You can find us on zuokay at mom Stuff podcast,
or on Instagram and tiptok at Stuff I've Never told You.
We're also on YouTube. We have some new merchandise at
Cotton Bureau, and we have a book you can get
wherever you get your books. Thanks, It's always too our Supervidus,

(16:47):
senior executive producer My and your contributor Joey. Thank you
and thanks to you for listening Stuff I've Never Told
You Specture of I Heeart Radio. For more podcast from
my Heart Radio, you can check out the iHeart Radio app,
Apple podcasts orever you listen to your favorite shows.

Speaker 3 (17:04):
Ye

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