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Do you watch Lost and find yourself imagining Jack and Sawyer throwing themselves into each other's arms? Did you live for the day Spike and Angel would forget Buffy and realize they were each other's dream date? Do you watch House every week screaming at House and Wilson to just get over themselves and kiss already? Were you always convinced Star Trek: The Next Generation's Picard and Q were meant for each other? Well, why not make it so?

That's just what some fans do, creating ingeniously edited videos starring their own dream couples from television shows and movies. Growing out of fan fiction, where fans write their own stories based on the characters and events of television shows, films and just about any other form of media there is, including comic books, fan videos are compilations made using clips of television shows and films. Just as in slash fan fiction, slash fan videos put favorite couples, mostly two men, together in a romantic pairing. (The name comes from the slash mark placed between the names of the two characters in the pair, as in “Jack/Sawyer.”)

There are two kinds of fan videos considered “slash”: Those based on the actual relationships in the show or movie, and those based solely on the fevered (and almost exclusively homoerotic) imaginings of the fans. The former are well-represented by Queer as Folk's Brian and Justin — the subject of literally hundreds of fan vids from the ridiculously romantic to the outright raunchy — and everyone's favorite same-sex movie couple, Jack and Ennis from Brokeback Mountain.

The latter, however, is where the really creative thinking gets done, where perceived subtextual longing (Angel and Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) or outright animosity (Lex and Clark from Smallville) are transformed through the magic of home video editing and suggestive music into the greatest love stories never told.

While not limited to male/male pairings — Xena/Gabrielle may be the most slashed couple in the history of fan vids — pairing two guys, usually straight guys, and setting it to music is part of the glue holding YouTube together.

1. Where It All Began
Slash fiction has its origins in Kirk/Spock erotic fan fiction, which began appearing decades ago at Star Trek fan gatherings. There are plenty of Kirk/Spock fan videos out there, with themes ranging from reunion after a five year separation, to a totally twisted, campy vid featuring manipulated images. Going boldly where no fan had gone before, there are also those who champion not a pairing but a threesome: Kirk/Spock/McCoy, from one of the few men making slash fan vids.

Kirk/Spock aren't the only pairing in the original Trek universe. Pansy Division's “Cowboys Are Sometimes Secretly Fond of Each Other” is just about the perfect soundtrack for a comedic gem about the Trek love that dare not speak its name. And don't worry that the rest of the Star Trek franchise is being neglected. The Next Generation, Voyager, and the others have their slash fiction and of course, slashy fan videos.

No matter how many women Next Generation's Jean-Luc Picard romances, all true fans know his heart really belongs to Q. And remember: The love of Voyager's Janeway and Seven of Nine is, as this winner of the Festival Fantazie 2006 Star Trek Video Contest illustrates, a force of nature.

2. A Blood-Sucking Good Time
The Buffyverse is rife with pairings both canonical and otherwise, mixed-sex and same-sex, and of course, the supernaturally incompatible. While there's some debate over which Buffy pairing is the most slashed, there's little debate that sisabet's Spike/Angel fan vid, set to Nine Inch Nails' “Closer,” is a fandom classic. This pairing has the tongue-in-cheek approval of fan-friendly and gay-friendly Buffy creator Joss Whedon, and “Closer” makes it hard to believe that the boys were just good friends — er, vampires with souls.

Of course, there are many other Spike/Angel fan videos out there, including this quirky little one, set to Madonna's “Erotica,” in which the actual sex scenes are edited in from Queer as Folk footage. Extra credit for creative thinking goes to vidder Fallen Angel.

3. Twisted Pairings
Spike and Angel were, over the course of their long unlives, both enemies and friends. For some reason, homoerotic pairings of outright adversaries are extremely popular in many fandoms. The infamous “Clex,” or Clark/Lex, pairing from Smallville, is particularly popular, as is the Harry/Draco pairing from the Harry Potter books and films.

The undying romance between Superman and his arch-enemy Lex Luthor may not be the stuff of legends, but the bond between the teenaged Clark and Lex is definitely the stuff of slash. The young, bald Lex and the curly-haired, dewy-eyed Clark star in fan videos so romantic they push the envelope toward satire, and others that are just plain intense.

The Harry Potter universe is probably second only to the Buffyverse for sheer number of slash pairings, many of them a lot more twisted than Harry/Draco. Still, it's not unusual for Harry/Draco vids to be made with songs like Prozzak's “Strange Disease” or Three Days Grace's “I Hate Everything About You,” although videos like one set to Atomic Kitten's “Eternal Flame” make the case for a straightforward teen romance between the two.

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