Introduction

Here I would like to discuss the essence of what I believe "Humanity Fuck Yeah" stories are essentially meant to be, as well as addressing several common mistakes made about it. Of course there are no hard set rules here and this is somewhat up to opinion, nevertheless I think this discussion will be useful.

Also, TV Tropes Warning for the whole post.

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Genre Analysis

To start, let us first consider the name itself.

The first point to make is that this is a humanity story. Any story that wants to properly pass itself off as HFY must be about either humanity as a whole, or perhaps about humans as a species. Plenty of science-fiction stories out there focus on humans. You have your Flash Gordon, Captain Kirk, Buck Rodgers, you know the drill. However, these cannot be considered "Humanity Fuck Yeah" stories because their focus is on these characters being awesome specifically because they are these characters. Their humanity is incidental to the plot, not essential. These stories, in contrast, really emphasize the humanness of our characters, and without it would be lost entirely. Typically this is done by setting up a contrast between humans and other alien species in the universe. Something is different about humanity that really sets us apart from other races. While all other races are (blank), humans are (blank).

But how is humanity different? This question is answered in the next part of the name, "Fuck Yeah". The aspect of humanity that the story focuses on must be spun in a way to make humanity look like the most badass, hardcore race in the galaxy. No other race could hope to even come close to reaching our level of cool. Contrast this with the more popular "America Fuck Yeah", which emphasizes America as the "God Tier" country, more awesome than any other nation could hope to be, with the toughest men, the most beautiful women, and we're here to kick your ass! However, while "America Fuck Yeah" is usually tongue-in-cheek, parodying extreme versions of patriotism, "Humanity Fuck Yeah" is usually played straight. Within the context of the story, humanity really is the most badass race around, and even if we're not then we still act like we are and look genuinely awesome doing it. Regardless, HFY stories are still meant to try to strike the same kind of emotion that "America Fuck Yeah" is meant to evoke.

Thus, this is the root core of HFY. We are here to talk about how Humanity is badass.

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Cardinal Sins

So now we know what HFY is, let us consider what HFY is not by addressing a few of the basic mistakes people make when writing HFY.

The first problem is the sin of scope, making your story focus on an awesome character rather than an awesome human. So you've got a story about the most radical dude this side of the galaxy, and OMG he's just a human!! That's great. However, we can only consider this kind of story a genuine "Humanity Fuck Yeah" if this level of badassitude is something other humans would consider typical or commonplace, or the actions of this one badass human are seen as reflective of the entire human race.

The second problem is the sin of normality. So you want to make Humanity seem like badasses in comparison to everyone else, but you can't think of a good way to do this. So to get around this, you just decide to make everyone else weak so that humans seem amazing in comparison. The human army can simply wade through alien armies without really even trying. The problem with doing this is it's a crutch, an obvious cop-out that fails to make humanity seem awesome. HFY is not about humans being normal and everyone else being weak, it's about everyone else being normal and humanity being awesome! Remember, these stories are meant to be idealized science-fiction.

This is not to say that you can't make everyone else weak relative to humanity. However, the way this must be played is as Humans as having some kind of super-strength, not in everyone else just being lame and weak. That's a tough line to walk, and I'd personally to suggest avoiding this kind of trope in general because of it.

The third problem is the sin of bizarreness. This works as a kind of inverse of the second problem. Whereas the problem there made humans too normal to be considered badass, here the problem is trying to distort the species into something so badass that they can barely be considered human anymore. For example, suppose some alien race decides to use earth as a prison colony, dumping its worst criminals there, and humanity evolves into hardcore killing machines in order to survive. Or suppose you right a story where humanity goes around invading other planet just to start killing all of them off and eating their delicious alien babies. While those things are certainly badass, if you transform humans to such a great degree that they are no longer recognizable as such, you are no longer celebrating humanity as a badass race and therefore not inspiring a "Humanity, Fuck Yeah!"

However, I would argue that this is a less grievous sin than normality however because it is usually closer to the HFY spirit. The sin of bizarre is bad because it creates only a very weak link between humanity and badassitude. The sin of normality on the other hand fails to establish a badass situation in the first place, and is therefore more further removed from a HFY story. We can give a lot of leeway for embellishment on the nature of humanity if it follows the Rule of Cool. So if you must default to one extreme here, this is the one to go to.

It's also worth noting here that these sins do not necessarily make stories that commit them "bad", but rather moves them away from the HFY genre. There are plenty of stories out there that I would critique on these grounds that I still highly enjoyed.

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The HFY Mentality

Now let me address why these kinds of stories are important. HFY is essentially an attempt at an inversion, and I believe understanding this is perhaps the most important part of grasping the HFY frame of mind. What is it an inversion of? First and foremost, we are here to oppose these silly, hippy, nonsensical environmentalist movie portrayals of "Man".

We all know it. We've seen the horrors of the logging industry taking down Ferngully, we've seen a highly advanced human military being taken down by the bows and arrows of giant blue cats in Avatar, we've been shamed by the Speaker for the Dead for daring to defend our planet. Man is the real monster.

We've heard this, and we call bullshit.

Yeah sure, humanity cuts down the rainforest. But all that means if the rainforest is too weak to defend itself against us! Giant smurph-cats that haven't gotten past the stone age are going to stop us? Please, we'll just nuke those suckers from orbit. And if those space-bee buggers want war, then by God will kill every last one of them and cheer. And then for lunch we'll go out and kill Bambi's mother, just for the hell of it. We are here to turn these stories on their head, turn every one of their vices into our virtues. We are the evil alien empire! We are the Xenomorph! We are Space-Cthulhu! We are not here to live in harmony with the environment, we're here to conquer it in the most brutal and efficient manner imaginable, and the same goes for any xeno that stands against us.

We are here to turn these stories on their head, to turn every one of their vices into our virtues. We will have our way with the galaxy, and no one can stop us. And that is why we cheer "Humanity, FUCK YEAH!"

For further reading, I suggest looking at these tropes:

Humans are Special

Humans are Survivors

Humanity is Superior

Humans are Warriors

Muggles do it Better

And here are a few bits of inspirational material:

Our Glorious Vision

Our Emperor

Our Commander

Our Strategy

Also make sure to read through Starship Troopers.