I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
Not according to my therapist! 
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We are being laughed at. A ranty article purely for debating purposes.
- Thread starter Leviatham
- Start date
Henry
Autoexreginated
Though I missed if someone mentioned this, in Big Bang Theory, the main protagonist is going to get the pretty girl. He and Penny are likely going to wind up together in the end. Despite the geekery, the lactose intolerance, and the social awkwardness, HE WINS. That alone takes it from the realm of geek ridicule to a different level of acceptance, in my opinion.
Oh, and as for Felicia Day, back off - nobody insults my geek crush. Seriously, though, I find The Guild a strong love letter to MMO culture that is mixed with a lot of understanding of the culture and many of the people who inhabit it. I suspect she and Kim Evey are "writing what they know" to a large extent.
Oh, and as for Felicia Day, back off - nobody insults my geek crush.
Seriously, though, I find The Guild a strong love letter to MMO culture that is mixed with a lot of understanding of the culture and many of the people who inhabit it. I suspect she and Kim Evey are "writing what they know" to a large extent.
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wingsandsword
Legend
I think The IT Crowd, Big Bang Theory et al. are great for geekdom.
Yeah, we're being laughed at, but it's on a different level than it used to be. We're being laughed at the same way jocks get laughed at, that any group gets laughed at.
They are comedies, they are going to laugh at people. It's a matter of it being an affectionate laugh, or a scornful one. This is far more towards the affectionate side.
It used to be worse, a LOT worse.
I remember watching old episodes of Married: With Children. Geeks were something they loved to pick on. That show always depicted them as wearing 1950's style plaid polyester shirts with huge coke-bottle glasses patched with masking tape on the bridge of the nose, wearing pocket protectors stuffed with pens and using way-too-big words in every sentence, and they'd always be mocked, belittled, and usually physically attacked by the protagonists. I remember one episode that involved the Bundy family outright attacking a High IQ society party with the battle cry: "If you're stupid and you know it, punch a nerd!"
The Simpsons has as its resident geek Martin Prince, always portrayed as effeminate, utterly socially clueless, teacher's pet that does things like lobby to have the school day extended or reminds the teacher to assign homework if she hasn't already, and when he gets bullied it's usually depicted as a good thing.
Geeks were always the comic sidekick, or the running joke that was an acceptable target for the cool kids to beat up. In shows nowadays, we see geeks as the protagonist, not the sidekick, and they often get the upper hand at the end of the episode.
Yeah, we're being laughed at, but it's on a different level than it used to be. We're being laughed at the same way jocks get laughed at, that any group gets laughed at.
They are comedies, they are going to laugh at people. It's a matter of it being an affectionate laugh, or a scornful one. This is far more towards the affectionate side.
It used to be worse, a LOT worse.
I remember watching old episodes of Married: With Children. Geeks were something they loved to pick on. That show always depicted them as wearing 1950's style plaid polyester shirts with huge coke-bottle glasses patched with masking tape on the bridge of the nose, wearing pocket protectors stuffed with pens and using way-too-big words in every sentence, and they'd always be mocked, belittled, and usually physically attacked by the protagonists. I remember one episode that involved the Bundy family outright attacking a High IQ society party with the battle cry: "If you're stupid and you know it, punch a nerd!"
The Simpsons has as its resident geek Martin Prince, always portrayed as effeminate, utterly socially clueless, teacher's pet that does things like lobby to have the school day extended or reminds the teacher to assign homework if she hasn't already, and when he gets bullied it's usually depicted as a good thing.
Geeks were always the comic sidekick, or the running joke that was an acceptable target for the cool kids to beat up. In shows nowadays, we see geeks as the protagonist, not the sidekick, and they often get the upper hand at the end of the episode.
Kingreaper
Adventurer
I wouldn't say you have to be smart at all. Being a geek is more a personality/interests thing than an intellect thing; it tends to correlate with higher intelligence for a number of reasons, but I wouldn't consider the intelligence to actually be a necessary aspect.
Bagpuss
Legend
Yeah intelligence is required to be a nerd, not a geek, to be a geek you just need to be socially awkward and into something that isn't traditionally viewed as popular. Although with the rise of geek culture even that's not really true any more. There a people that aren't socially awkward into geek stuff, and some geek stuff (like computer gaming) is becoming more mainstream.
If you have to ask you aren't a geek
FickleGM
Explorer
Yeah, I would definitely remove "socially awkward" from being a "requirement" and instead place it under "typical trait" or even "typical stereotype".
