A Suggestion
Today’s comic was inspired as a reaction to the following skit from Portlandia:
To go on a bit of a nerd rant here (feel free to skip), I just don’t get why people want to exclude ANYONE from being a nerd/geek/dork. If someone is taking part in and enjoying something you also enjoy, isn’t that a reason to celebrate? Don’t you want as many people as possible to be able to talk video games, comics, D&D, or whatever with you? I know I do.
Why is everything a pissing contest? Why can’t women join in? I’m not very good at First Person Shooters, do I need to return my geek card? Why do cosplayers scare me?
Bleck…the whole thing rubs me the wrong way (and I know I’m probably preaching to the choir), but rejecting people because they aren’t enough of something to fit in reminds me of why and how I became a nerd in the first place.
</nerdrant>
In other news, I have choosen a winner for this week’s “Name This PC” contest, and the winner is Raise Dead with the name “Dratch Glubmantle, Servant of the Deep Ftagh”, download a high res version of Dratch here and check out the other winners on the freebies page.
See you tomorrow!
Hipster’s shouldn’t be shunned from the nerd culture, just from society as whole until they can collectively agree to wash their freakin’ pants. I work with several hipsters who have a weird denim fetish/cult, where they put their skinny pants in the freezer instead of water, pretending this “cleans them.” I don’t care about the live culture tests these people use to defend their habit/hobby. Your refrigerator will not remove biofilm (schluffed off skin cells, oil, body hair, dead bacteria, etc.) from your clothes, no matter how much PBR you drink. Disgusting. The nerd-set has enough hygiene image issues. Convention centers would do well to hang a forest of air freshener trees from the ceiling when we get there, dice in hand.
Hey there! Fellow “bad geek” here. The long list of things I’ve never watched and/or dislike are pretty jaw-dropping to most people I talk to (online at least). Star Trek, Firefly, Dr. Who, Anime, Monty Python, Pokemon…the list goes on.
The point is, I somehow don’t fit into any of these molds but I still consider myself a pretty damn nerdy person. Nowadays, sure it’s kind of trendy to be a “self proclaimed” geek/nerd/dork/whatever but even if people are ‘faking it’ who gives a shit? They are ‘faking’ a culture that centers itself around being informed and intellectual…what is wrong with this? I’d rather have everyone walking around wanting to affiliate with the ideals of putting thought into everything around them, than to just want to be the next Jersey Shore cast member. The more people that want to be “nerds” the faster we can squash that whole “being smart is for losers” vibe that permeates so much of society.
I grew up in the punk rock scene and there were always so many jackwagon elitists trying to gauge how “punk” someone was. “Do you even like that band? Why do you have their T-shirt?” “Name some of their songs”. Seriously fuck people like this, it’s the same shit with nerd culture or any subculture/movement/FuckingThing. I’m not totally sure why people do it, but I’m especially taken back with how vocal they can be about it.
Just find stuff you love, and go do that stuff, simple enough. I’m done clogging up your comment section, have a good day sir!
I am a true authentic NERD. I know because I paid $250 to be certified by the International NERD/GEEK Authentication Consortium. I have a card and everything!
But in all seriousness….do you think I paid too much to be certified? Because they told me to make the check payable to “cash” and the card they sent me was clearly just printed and cut out from copy paper.
But really being serious now, be proud of who you are, don’t take shit from anybody, but also, “live and let live.”
Well it is kind of complicated. Part of being a nerd is being looked down upon by mainstream as ugly, uncool, etc. The thing is those people came up with some pretty good ideas about how to enjoy themselves. As it became marketable, it attracted a more diverse array of people, but the nerd tag still applied to those activities so people could say they are nerds. And certain phrases, like “nerds are the new cool” and “nerds are sexy” became more common, there is probably still a segment that don’t feel cool or sexy and thus feel disenfranchised by it. Overall I think recognition of nerd activities as being fun and interesting is a great thing for society and even for us nerds who are ugly, zit-encrusted and painfully socially awkward. But I can understand how some might feel threatened. I think lots of sincere nerds are sincerely cool, but I sometimes feel like sighing when I hear “nerds are sexy.” That’s not really what nerds are about and a mirror is enough to keep me level anyways. Not saying a nerd can’t be sexy, but that is not the image I want cultivated in a group I feel I belong to. Else I feel I don’t really belong to it.
I was waiting for “Shun the non-believer” from the Charlie the Unicorn animation.