fanwank

fanwank noun: explanations invented by fans (of a film franchise, television series, etc.) to gloss over mistakes in continuity.

Noun

fanwank (usually uncountable, plural fanwanks)

(derogatory, slang, usually) Explanations invented by fans (of a film franchise, television series, etc.) to gloss over mistakes in continuity.
- Its just fanwank with no support in the lore - and not even good fanwank. As you said yourself, Malal does not exist in 40k - and he's never existed. And no, that's not a joke in the vein of 'I've never seen a stealth aircraft' either.2017 April 19, Agammamon [username], “An interesting theory regarding Guilliman and Malal/Malice”, in Reddit, r/40kLore
(slang, usually) Elements added to a television program or similar entertainment that appeal to avid fans but are of little interest to outsiders.
- Fan-producers seem to have integrated 'fanwank' into the new series, but not in a way that reproduces the show's 1980s history, or alienates non-fans.2010, Matt Hills, Triumph of a Time Lord: Regenerating Doctor Who in the Twenty-first Century, page 61
- What they favor is good old fanwank: continuity references, old monsters, and overcomplicated explanations of trivial plot details. If these are perceived as the voice of fandom, then catering to the fans means producing texts that the general audience would find at best boring, at worst impossible...2012, Leora Hadas, Limor Shifman, “Keeping the Elite Powerless: Fan-Producer Relations in the 'Nu Who' (and New YOU) Era”, in Critical Studies in Media Communication, Taylor & Francis, →DOI, page 7
Synonyms:

fanservice

fanwank (third-person singular simple present fanwanks, present participle fanwanking, simple past and past participle fanwanked)

(slang) Of fans, to invent explanations to gloss over mistakes in continuity.
- See above on Charlie's Angels. They never seemed to have lives of any sort and weren't interesting to me; they always seemed like soft porn for the guys, but a lot of girls fanwanked and fanficced them into more, so I guess they could qualify.2005 March 9, him...@animail.net, “Re: First Time Buffy Watcher”, in alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer (Usenet)
- She accepts, and tell Dwight that Philip was his son all along, but she needed to know he wanted to be with her for her, and just to have a child. Which completely contradicted the DNA test Dwight took at the end of last season, and is also just a crappy thing to do to someone. I almost started...2013 May 10, Michael Tedder, “The Office Recap: Second to Last Dance”, in Vulture

What they favor is good old fanwank: continuity references, old monsters, and overcomplicated explanations of trivial plot details.2012, Leora Hadas, Limor Shifman, “Keeping the Elite Powerless: Fan-Producer Relations in the 'Nu Who' (and New YOU) Era”, in Critical...
I almost started fanwanking the first time I saw this ("Maybe The Senator had the DNA tests switched?") before throwing my hands up.2013 May 10, Michael Tedder, “The Office Recap: Second to Last Dance”, in Vulture:
I cannot be fanwanked past the point that Chewie and Leia not acknowledging each other as he got off the Falcon was a fairly large mistake.2016 January 11, AFK42 [username], “A possible explanation for why Leia hugs who she does at the end of TFA, regardless of potential...
Sherlockians term their light‐hearted conjectures the “Writings upon the Writings,” but the Great Game in some respects resembles the contemporary pan‐fandom practice of fanwanking.2018, Roberta Pearson, “Janeites and Sherlockians: Literary Societies, Cultural Legitimacy, and Gender”, in Paul Booth, editor, A Companion...

Noun
plural	fanwanks
Verb
third-person singular present	fanwanks
present participle	fanwanking
past participle	fanwanked
past	fanwanked

From fan + wank. See fan (“fanatic, enthusiast”). British writer Craig Hinton claimed to have coined the term in the context of Doctor Who fandom.

What does fanwank mean?: Fanwank means explanations invented by fans (of a film franchise, television series, etc.) to gloss over mistakes in continuity.
How do you use fanwank in a sentence?: What they favor is good old fanwank: continuity references, old monsters, and overcomplicated explanations of trivial plot details.
What part of speech is fanwank?: Fanwank can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of fanwank?: The plural of fanwank is fanwanks.

Adapted from Wiktionary: fanwank (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “fanwank.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fanwank. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.