 One of the first critical reviews of Friendship Is Magic , published shortly after the initial broadcast in October 2010 , was written by Amid Amidi for the animation website Cartoon Brew . Amidi wrote that the show was a sign of " the end of the creator @-@ driven era in TV animation " . Amidi 's essay expressed concern that assigning a talent like Faust to a toy @-@ centric show was part of a trend towards a focus on profitable genres of animation , such as toy tie @-@ ins , to deal with a fragmented viewing audience , and overall " an admission of defeat for the entire movement , a white flag @-@ waving moment for the TV animation industry . " Although the article said this concern was over the fact that more and more shows seem to be driven by company executives who want to sell their products , rather than creators . Though the show had been discussed on 4chan 's cartoon forum before the essay 's publication , the alarmist nature of the essay led to more interest in the show , resulting in a positive response for the series for its plot , characters , and animation style . This reaction soon spread to the other boards of 4chan , where elements of the show quickly inspired recurring jokes and memes on the site . Some of these included adopting phrases from the show like " anypony " , " everypony " , and " nopony " , instead of " anybody " , " everybody " , and " nobody " , or jokingly stating that they watch the show for the " plot " , a reference to the ponies ' flanks . 
