The Very Real and Sometimes Awkward Relationship Between Celebrities and Their Parody Accounts

Since the dawn of social media, there's been a tricky relationship between celebrities, artists, athletes, and their legions of fans and supporters. There are those of us who are cool with sending a quick tweet of encouragement to our favorite famous person, and there are those of us who take online stanning to another level. This article is about the people who take stanning to another level.

Creating a parody account is possibly the most confusing route one can go to express their adoration for a celebrity. Yet it was, and is, one of the most popular ways to gain attention. The latest example of a celebrity catching wind of a parody account based on them is Mac Miller. The account in question is @MacBible, which sounds sus enough based on the handle alone. But then you get to the actual tweets, and...

Pardon me while I try to force this vomit back down.

Late Sunday night, Miller spotted the above tweet, which was posted in early July. The Pittsburgh rapper had quite an appropriate response.

Miller actually took a minute to check out other posts the account had tweeted, and seemed to express something reminiscent of respect or even admiration for the account.

Respect for the craft aside, Miller raised a valid question:

TDE singer SZA would probably want to know the answer to that question, too. In July, parody account @RealSZA was driving the actual real SZA crazy with its cornball statuses about love and relationship advice. 

At the time, SZA said Twitter wasn't planning to take action.

But the account was suspended soon after.

Around the same time, Metro Boomin was having his own issues with an overzealous parody account.

He had been aware of it since last March, but it wasn't suspended until this summer.

On an information page dedicated specifically to fan and parody accounts, Twitter explains that it "provides a platform for its users to share and receive a wide range of ideas and content," adding that it greatly values and respects its users' right to expression.

There are requirements that must be met in order to comply with Twitter's parody policy. According to Twitter, "The bio should indicate that the user is not affiliated with the account subject by stating a word such as 'parody,' 'fake,' 'fan,' or 'commentary,' and be done so in a way that would be understood by the intended audience."

Additionally, the account name "should not be the exact name of the account subject without some other distinguishing word, such as 'not,' 'fake,' or 'fan,' and be done so in a way that would be understood by the intended audience."

Twitter reviews the accounts on a case-by-case basis, and suspends violating pages that are reported and non-compliant with the parody policy. Twitter did not immediately respond to Complex's request for comment.​

Fan accounts, on the other hand, can have a different kind of relationship with their chosen celebrities. This is where stanning comes into play. Off top, there's the Bey Hive, Rihanna's Navy, Nicki Minaj's Barbz, and the newly assembled Bardi Gang. To bring up SZA again, the singer regularly interacts with @DailySZA, an account that posts performance clips, photos, and general information that stans of the TDE signee like to be aware of. 

Aside from giving celebrities the opportunity to humanize themselves and engage with their supporters, the most fun thing about fan accounts is the fact that they're run by everyday human beings like you and me, except these folks have just a little extra time on their hands. Because they're human, they have opinions. And opinions change—even the ones about the people you look up to. 

Take, for example, @knjdaily, a Kendall Jenner fan account that made an unexpected, but incredible statement in July:

In a lengthy thread, the fan account broke down each contributing moment of Jenner's problematic history that ultimately made them decide to discontinue their daily updates and support. (They ended up listing 14 reasons, and you can read them all here.)

@knjdaily is still up, but its latest activity has only consisted of reposts of media coverage about the account's decision to "unstan." Jenner ended up blocking the account (oops) and that's pretty much all she wrote. 

When done right, parody accounts and fan accounts can be a tribute to deserving celebrities and their respective brands of personality and humor. They can also be the perfect platform to take our faves to task when they mess up and need to be called out. But let's keep it 100: most of the time, they're just fucking creepy.