After my column on Doctor Who, I received two responses. The first response was “I love Doctor Who too!” The second and more common reaction was, “Wow, you are such a nerd and/or geek.” To the first one I can only respond with some sort of fist bump of Who goodness, and to the second I get a little frowny in the face.
Why is being a nerd/geek such a big thing? I’m proud to be a nerd/geek. Hell, I belong to one of the nerdist clubs on campus, and I just did the most nerdy thing ever for them: helped run a Role-Playing Game convention. (Yes, please insert your gasps of dismay here.) In many ways, being a nerd has become as cool as it always should have been. While people may quibble about the status of what constitutes a “nerd” or a “geek,” I personally don’t care; to me the terms are rather interchangeable. The truth is we are everywhere.
This past weekend, Project Theatre put on an excellent production of Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. Once upon a time, this Joss Wheaton penned web phenomenon would have been nothing but a show for geeks, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly before it. But something broke through and now the show is being performed by mainstream, amateur theater companies.
Nerds are becoming cool even on television. Following the ancient success of Adam Brody’s character on the craptastic O.C., we’ve had a selection of geeks in many different things, including the fantastic (and nerdtastic) show The Big Bang Theory. The comedy follows nerds through their lives and loves at Caltech. It consistently draws decent viewing numbers based upon the nerd cred that it holds. Granted, it might also be geek fantasy fulfillment given the stereotypical hot girl with the geek syndrome” it has going on as well.
This year Glee ran an ad campaign based upon the idea of fans calling themselves “Gleeks.” I like Glee a fair amount actually, though some of my love for it has gone by the wayside. The marketing campaign based itself around the idea that the glee kids were nerds and lovable losers. They co-opted the whole “L” finger point for the show’s symbol. I guess it’s meant to be a good thing and that something has changed about the representation of nerds/geeks in the media.
However, on the same note, around campus being a geek is apparently something to be frowned upon or hidden. Looking on The Confessional, (yes, please give me your hatemail, Confesh! I love you!) it seems we’re split about evenly between having some geeky interest and not having some. So, if you have a little nerd in ya, embrace it. If ya don’t, well, you’re probably lying.
Viva la geek!
Related posts:
- Get Your Geek On: Prepare to be Different
- Free Binns
- And That’s What She Said: Doctor Who?
- Get off campus: Ways to get your geek on in the Valley and beyond before summer
- A&E Pick of the Day: Viva la Betty
