We Are All Nerds Now

Anonymous Slob Nerd. writes "The Guardian has a good review of something close to all of our hearts. We are all nerds now discusses how the popularity of the internet, video gaming, comic-book movies (Spider-Man, Hulk), the sci-fi epics (The Matrix, Star Wars) and the wizard fantasy (Harry Potter), not to mention The Lord of the Rings has made nerds, and nerdish behaviour, cool."

Comments

Rise up, my brethren!

[grub]

If the "Nerd" moniker is now the baseline for the general populace then the True Nerds will have to come up with something to differentiate us from Them. Maybe it's time to go back to black glasses with tape, flood pants and pocket protectors. Perhaps a secret handshake too!

Re:Rise up, my brethren!

[boy_afraid]

You mean, all this time I was cool, BUT I DIDN'T KNOW IT?????

Re:Rise up, my brethren!

[dasmegabyte]

Fuck you, man. I'm not gonna change. I was a nerd BEFORE it was cool!

Re:Rise up, my brethren!

[akaina]

no, not really - it's just that the nerd chicks got alot hotter. Sorry brother, they're still out of your league.

Re:Rise up, my brethren!

[MxTxL]

No, the slashdot crowd is going to have to start playing football and wearing letter jackets everywhere. They steal our culture, we'll steal theirs.

Re:Rise up, my brethren!

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps a secret handshake too!

Yeah, we can call it Diffie-Hellman.

Re:Rise up, my brethren!

[FurryFeet]

Do we also get to bang the cheerleaders?
Please, oh please, please...

Re:Rise up, my brethren!

[dasmegabyte]

Piss off. Tools don't make the 'tronics nerd, because real nerds use their TEETH. I kept my braces two years longer than I needed to because they were perfect for stripping kevlar insulated 16 guage single strand. You know. For 'boxing. The ironic skill, because if you're an effective 'boxer, you get free phone calls, and then have nobody to call.

And as for respectable nerds knowing less than 10% of the names...this is utter rubbish. Hello? Harry Knowles? Comic Book Guy? Trekkers who know all the guest stars and their entymology? IMDB itself is an extension of nerd aprocrypha.

I do own a pocket protector. Several, and a slide rule. I wore them in middle school as a badge of courage. I figured if I was going to get beat up for being on the math team (they still display the plaque from the 1991 Math Olympiad...Props to my homies from Team Graymalkin), I might as well solidify my identity.

Re:Rise up, my brethren!

[g1zmo]

Yeah, we can call it Diffie-Hellman.

I was picturing guys walking around making goofy modem noises to each other.

I hadn't even thought of the crypto-nerds. Good line

geek chic?

[Kris Thalamus]

What is the default level on the geek hierarchy that the new trendy nerds enter at?

Trekkies

[AtariAmarok]

And the nerds that will be looked down on are the ones who still like Star Trek.

So If We're All Nerds...

[LordYUK]

Where the hell is my hot cheerleader girlfriend?? And where are the disgruntled upended jocks?!

Sheesh... you all can be "nerds"... I'm happy being "geek".

I-P (Its geordi laforge... as a smiley!) ;-)

Ho-hum...

[tds67]

We Are All Nerds Now

Great...now no one will get laid.

Well now what do I do?

[burgburgburg]

I joined the New Enterprise Regarding Destroying Sociability (NERDS) specifically to avoid the masses. Nerd stuff was sure to keep 99% of the population away. Now what? I don't want to join the cannibal cult, I'm not interested in trepanation. What do I do?

nerds aren't cool,

[lanswitch]

geeks are. Nerds are just geek wannabees. One is born into nerdness, but it takes an effort to become a geek.

There's still something that separates us

[Gizzmonic]

While we might be consuming the same media, there are still some things that distinguish a true nerd:

1)Superiority complex

Don't worry, you're still smarter than everyone. You knew about Spider-Man back when it was a crappy 80's cartoon!

2)Poor hygiene

"I don't want to waste my time primping and preening," says the nerd. "It's societal bullshit!" You're like Rosa Parks, except the bus is the underwear you've been wearing for the last 3 days. Keep it up, faithful nerd...you shall overcome!

3)Passive aggressiveness

You'd rather take crap from your boss and call him a "PHB" on some internet message board than to straighten him out once and for all! Instead of suggesting your own methods of getting work done, you sulk and try to invent ways to sabotage his ideas.

4)Fanatical Collecting!

You can't relate to most people, but things...things are easy. Whether it's Battlefield Earth action figures or indie rock 12 inches, don't kid yourself-you're still a fucking nerd.

And the rest of us will be waiting patiently for you outside the boy's bathroom, ready to deal out the wedgies, score with the ladies, or become transparently evil characters in your 800-page self published web fanfic about Dracula meeting the Ninja Turtles. Rest easy, nerds. Your position in history is safe.

secret handshake

[Anonymous Coward]

it's not really a secret and it's called 'masturbation'

Re:So Gandalf was a nerd ?

[Matey-O]

You musta missed that meeting: Reading is uncool, therefore reading is nerdy. Reading enough to stick through 250 pages of appendix doubly so.

Nerds

[iomud]

My favorite nerds were the pink and purple ones. Mmm nerds.

if only...

[silicongodcom]

now if only they'd make being fat and addicted to caffeine cool i'd be james dean!

oh crap!

[Savatte]

Some broad examples of my taxonomy: Nerds get A's in AP classes. Dorks play D&D. Geeks set up LANs

all these year's I've been calling myself a geek, when now I finally realize I'm a dork. That's both scary and depressing. We'll at least all the money I spent on Magic cards wasn't in vain.

Finally!

[ThePretender]

It was always said that the geeks shall inherit the earth!!! Or did I hear it wrong?

Re:They'll let anybody into the club these days

[escher]

I've got it! I'll fool them all!

Okay, first I need to craft some codefiles of power. Some will be simple PHP scripts, others will be optimized assembler... I'll give 3 files to the wannabe geeks, browsing comics or rushing to see the latest LOTR film, pretending to see past the special effects and cool artwork to the underlying story. 5 for the plain-old geeks struggling to comprehend init levels. 6 script-bots for the gamer geeks in their basements of stone. 7 files for the alpha geeks with their x10 wired households. And 9... 9 files for the BOFH's, who above all else desire power over others.

But all of them will be deceived, for I will craft a master program that can exploit backdoors and security holes in all others, and into it I will pour my malice, my terribly-obfuscated C, my hatred for all geek posers.

insert fancy-yet-cheesy special effect here

Like an overused cliche my processes will spread across the internet, kill-9'ing those who would pretend to be a true geek. Th... ooo! New Ultimate Spiderman comic! *read* *read* *read*

What was I talking about?...

Re:Preference for "geek" over "nerd"

[billimad]

i think douglas coupland said something along these lines...

Q: whats the difference between a geek and a nerd?

A: The geek is employable.

We already have that something.

[Chemisor]

We already have that something to differentiate Us from Them. It's called virginity.

Re:We already have that something.

[dasmegabyte]

I lost mine when I was thirteen. Granted, it was to a woman of my own design, but at least it was consensual...how many popular kids can say that!

sure we do...

[emilng]

Do we also get to bang the cheerleaders?

! the cheerleaders

ducks