From the story about fandom:

Yeah for star wars it’s definitely the light saber. The extent to which people wield these at conventions, weddings, premiers and jedi-themed bar mitzvahs clearly illustrates the symbolism of this weapon. It’s not a costume but it’s definitely a totem

made me laugh (jedi-themed bar mitzvahs?)

IO9 had a post about craxiest fandom, and I really should have voted for Star Wars. I forgot about how much they'd encroached into religion.

I dunno. I'm not sure anything beats LoTR.

Strong contenders were Twilight, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Firefly (although I think they should have rolled it all up and called it Whedon). LotR wasn't even on their poll. Supernatural got write in votes.

I'm not sure anything beats LoTR.

Tolkien, never underestimate the appeal of a cunning linguist.

Yeah, I'm thinking they didn't take the tinhat contingent of LoTR fandom into account. I guess it's the difference between external and internal perception of fandom.

Harry Potter, also a strong contender in my book.

Twilight won, now that I look it up again. They had some inane choices. Neil Gaiman? Penny Arcade? Seriously? Crazy how?

I think the pervasiveness and persistence of Star Wars speaks to a lot of crazy. But the tin hats of LotR scared me more than any bit of any other fandom did--but I'm not sure if it would have if I hadn't been a bit of a fan.

I feel like LoTR has the advantage of old-school crazies who speak Sindarin (not that there's anything wrong with that) and new-school tinhats. And then the factions argue.

I wonder if Twilight won simply from being the "uncool" fandom among fans in other fandoms. I don't know much about the Twilight fandom, or some of the others for that matter.

LoTR has the advantage of old-school crazies who speak Sindarin

That seems like a contest right there. Are you geekier if you speak Sindarin or if you speak Klingon?