What if there were a place on the internet where civility reigned? Where anime nazi avatars didn’t descend like locusts on any attempt at rational thought? A place where time stopped in 1999, and the only thing worth living and dying for is Airheads star Brendan Fraser? Friends, such a place exists.

In most circles, Brendan Fraser has mostly gone forgotten, or at least pushed the recesses of the brain until the need for a manic clap GIF arises. But for 30-year-old Adele Mellish and the nearly 23,000 members of the Facebook group BrendanFraser1968, the B-list heartthrob of the early aughts has only improved with age.

Reading the page itself can be jarring. Where's the ironic distance? The random cruelty? Why is everyone being so nice? None of it makes sense. Scroll deep enough down BrendanFraser1968 and you find not just adoration for a lovable goof who made Encino Man (almost) worth watching. You find that rare slice of the internet where everything's not terrible all of the time.

Glory Daze

About six years ago, Mellish noticed that the Bren-heads of the world didn't have a dedicated space to gather on Facebook, so she decided to do something about it. "I wanted to start a fan page for Brendan, primarily because he doesn't have any official accounts on social media himself," Mellish says. "I feel like a lot more attention would and should be drawn to his work through a larger online presence."

That feeling panned out. Less than a year after the group's 2011 inception, BrendanFraser1968 hit 2,000 members. Another year or so after that, the member count shot up to a hearty 14,000. Against even Mellish's wildest predictions, the Brendan stans keep flooding in.

Despite the explosive growth (and a persistent problem of people thinking they're on the real, official page of Brendan James Frasier), the page has remained true to its core values. Then, as now, members predominantly use the space to talk freely about their favorite Brendan Fraser movies (The Mummy, usually), their favorite Brendan Fraser characters (George of the Jungle gets a surprising amount of play), and their favorite Brendan Fraser photographs (all of them).

Fraser photographs, in fact, make up the bulk of the posts, especially during slow news months/years. Photos of Brendan Fraser in his prime. Photos of a more current, puffier Brendan Fraser. Photos of Brendan Fraser smiling. Photos of Brendan Fraser frowning. Photos of Brendan Fraser looking slightly to the left. More photos of Brendan James Fraser than you could have possibly known existed.

And when some genuine, starring role, non-cameo Brendan Fraser news finally does surface—as it did when Fraser scored a role in the upcoming FX series Trust, or even this year's little-seen Behind the Curtain of the Night—the members of BrendanFraser1968 tend to lose their shit.

Bedazzled

Actors attract legions of obsessive fans all the time. But Brendan Fraser, even in his prime, never held the same sort of esteem other A-listers might—so why him?