The geeks are cool?

[Samhaine]

This thread is inspired by a thread I was reading from a couple months ago, the "I need a boyfriend who likes Batman thread". While reading it, I was thinking about my recent trips to the mall, the mainstream attention of things like Heroes and Spider-Man and DK2, and also the popularity of Smallville.

So I'm reading it, and I see alot of comments about how we're a little niche, the comic geeks that is, and that nobody likes the stuff we're into.

I gotta say, in the last month I've seen the exact opposite.

We are the cool people now.

Lord of the Rings is one of the most anticipated movies of this year. Comics have been getting plugs on major television programs. Everywhere I go, I see tons of superhero clothing and accessories. Hell, ATARI shirts are cool.

People know about my comic/cartoon obsession, and they are constantly asking me about the mediums, wanting to know more. I've found myself lending comics to hallmates. Monday nights have become party nights in my room, because people want to join my roommate and I in watching Justice League. My room is decked out with superhero stuff, from posters on the wall to action figures hanging from the ceiling, and all we've ever got were compliments about it.

More people are interested in our hobbies nowadays. They want in, somehow, someway. Heck, I met a girl, and at one point during our first date we watched The Tick. That's gotta mean something.

So, every geek out there, guy or girl, go out into the night, and hang your head high. It's never been a better time to be a geek.

[DR. BELCH]

--to find a girl who shares my passion for the twisted, or whom I can have a meaningful conversation with outside of designer clothes and what boy band she went to see over the weekend, who can appreciate jogging, sunbathing, collecting aluminum cans, and long walks on quiet county highways, and who won't want to change me or try to force me to shave my beard/body hair for her. What can I say? If this is the Year of the Geek, I don't want to spend it alone....

[zero zero nine]

now that we're cool... we have to find a way to stay here :wakko:

i know i'm a comic geek too... but i hope my obsession with high speed cars cancels it out... :p

GO SUPRA! woo hoo!

[kiddiesunshine]

"geek" is a label placed by people with no imagination.

[pencilsharp]

Geek is as Geek does. At least you're not one of those guys on the Comedy Central game show. Those aren't geeks; them's jerks.
Anyways, if you think comix are heating up in the mainstream, just wait a bit. We've still got the ten-cent Batman in January, and "Free Comic Book Day" in May right after that little old funny book movie. Y'know... Spider-Guy.
The fun has just begun! :bosko:

[DR. BELCH]

kiddiesunshine
"geek" is a label placed by people with no imagination.
Actually, a geek is one of those guys in circus sideshows that bite off chicken's heads for the rubes' amusement.
I personally prefer the term "self-styled", or perhaps "disenchanted with the current pop-culture norms"....

[Danielle]

I always thought that a geek was someone who was obsessed with one thing or another. That means ANYONE could be a geek..............even..............even YOU!! (points maniacally to a regular ol' Joe Shcmoe sitting in the corner. He shrieks and runs out, screaming at various people not to look at him.}






There be my moment of extreme insanity for the day. Expect another in.........oh.........five minutes?

[pencilsharp]

Jeez, Danielle, and after I showed you pity in that Bad Advice thread... you could wrench out my heart and just throw it on the floor and step on it and twist your precious little foot like that?!?!

<Runs out door, slamming it>

[pencilsharp]

<sheepishly comes back in>
Actually, that was kinda fun. Wanna do it again? ;)

[Danielle]

{pause}



I didn't know your name was Joe Schmoe! (yup, I misspelled it....)





And.......um......sure, let's do it again! (takes out an object.....one that looks suspiciously like a heart.) Catch!


(sheesh.....we could do a whole play out of this! "Here! Here! It is the beating of his hideous heart!" :D Not saying your heart is hideous, pencilsharp......it's just a quote)

[pencilsharp]

Oops! That one ain't mine.
Say, I just had two thoughts...

One: are we gonna have to take this to the Creative Lounge's Story Board...

Two: Aren't two flirting online posters about as geeky at it can get? :cool:

[Danielle]

Where're the flirting online posters?! Where?! Lemme at 'em! {starts growling and making....well.....dog hunting sounds, what can I tell you?} :D Yah, that's pretty geeky...but what's even geekier is if they both have a fetish for Star Trek. :cool:


Nah, this don't have to go to the story board...I think. {shrugs} Some people just like to do actions to emphasize their posts. For instance... (throws heart [whoever's it is] to pencilsharp, who gets it right in the face) See?

[pencilsharp]

That's funny. Hearts taste like chicken!

Anyways... There was a reason to this thread, wasn't there? Anyone else want in before some certain somebody pulls the plug on the "Danielle and PencilSharp Show" (although it's starting on Adult Swim in January! :D)

Beam me up, Dani! ;)

[JustJack]

back on subject...

This is REALLY true. My girlfriend really likes Smallville. Naturally, knowing the Superman saga, she always asks me questions about "whats next?". hehe. Its cool. She also likes Sci Fi, & such.
Plus she enjoys the occasional X-Men things(which is my favorite, as of late). So, in the end, my geekiness seems to work FOR me, most of the time. Infact..I don't know of a time where it works Against me? Except for when I'm talking to someone about something, then suddenly spaz out about how "Wolverine's hair looks nothing like that!" "No! SuperMan needs his undies!" or the ever popular..."Captian Kirk sucked" :p !

Geeks rule!! Not to mention, the latest show "Beat the Geeks". While the geeks themselves...are..hm..."overdoing it"?, I think the host of that show is more of what geeks today look like..thats just my opinion...

[Fantasie117]

Originally said by DR. BELCH
I personally prefer the term "self-styled", or perhaps "disenchanted with the current pop-culture norms"....

Yeah, I think that sounds better.

Where I go to school, I think I'm still considered a geek. All those teenage girls who obsess about Dawson's Creek and their boyfriends... gah! get them away from me! Give me a West Wing marathon any day.

[langden alger]

that's really cool that you've all found some girls with all of the sci-fi and comic interests..i've done the same, thanks to the internet..of coarse they're all millions of miles away from me :( so it doesn't really help me all that much lol..

[Naraht]

I'm not seeing it, I'm still unpopular...


I'm also cranky cause I gotta air the 2nd half of Titanic tonight, which bytes. It bytes hard.

[optimal321]

Originally posted by naraht
I'm not seeing it, I'm still unpopular...

Yeah, me too...

But i guess at times it pays to be a geek.

[Captain Caps]

that we use this word about ourselves now? Probably. If blacks can call themselves "n***ers" and women can proudly call themselves "b****es" and the gays can call themselves "F**gots", then we should call ourselves geeks proudly! (Heavy sarcasm)

I never liked being called a geek or any other insult, but they did it anyway. Now I have to be proud to be called one?

Sincerely,

John "Captain Caps" Kilduff...

And the girls still don't like me. So much for this being my year...or my life.

[Trent Lane]

This is totally true. I want to see LOTR, I'm not a big fan or anything but it looks intresting. My girlfriend really wants to see it. That's just the tip of it. She doesn't mind going to the comic book shop with me. THAT'S pretty rare, me thinks. Altho I could be wrong. But, hey, as long as things are looking up, why worry?....

[kiddiesunshine]

**bites off a chicken's head and hands it to danielle**
here, lovely. for you.
**blushes**

[Naraht]

You ppl are weird.






Not that I'm not....but you ppl are weird.

[joker]

Originally posted by naraht
I'm not seeing it, I'm still unpopular...
popularity is something you have to get by pissing on anyone who isnt "cool" so i have no desire to be popular.


as for the comics being cool thing, it kind of annoys me when some wears a shirt of some random hero/villian and they cant tell you the first thing about them

[Joe Tully]

Originally posted by joker
popularity is something you have to get by pissing on anyone who isnt "cool" so i have no desire to be popular.


Well, in high school, yeah. Once you graduate from high school, you'll find out that things are different. There aren't any cliques in the real world.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Originally posted by Joe Tully


Well, in high school, yeah. Once you graduate from high school, you'll find out that things are different. There aren't any cliques in the real world.

I would argue that there are. Especially in the workplace.

[Clayface]

Originally posted by Leaping Larry Jojo


I would argue that there are. Especially in the workplace.

Actually, I'd agree with Joe on this - I never saw that sort of crap again after I left high-school. Maybe you're just working in the wrong places! ;)

[Clayface]

Originally posted by DR. BELCH
--to find a girl who shares my passion for the twisted, or whom I can have a meaningful conversation with outside of designer clothes and what boy band she went to see over the weekend....

Well that's easy! Just stop dating 14 year olds!! :eek:

J/k!! ;)

[Trent Lane]

Man, keep from hitting below the belt there, Clayface! ;) Just kidding, it's all in fun I know....

[Clayface]

Sorry, I just couldn't resist! Hehe. :cool:

[DR. BELCH]

--write a country song about it: "[She's Got An] !8-Year Old Body But a 14-Year Old Mind". ;)

[Clayface]

LOL!

[Danielle]

Don't we all have fourteen-year-old minds? Well, 'cept for me, who's got a seven-year old mi---OOOOOHHHH!!!! CRAYONS!!! {rushes offscreen}


I actually hate crayons. Don't give me crayons for my birthday. ;)

Originally posted by kiddiesunshine
**bites off a chicken's head and hands it to danielle**
here, lovely. for you.
**blushes**


Um....................thanks. I think. :eek:


(reminds me of that scene in the Willy Wonka movie, in the tunnel...)



pencilsharp:
Rehearsals for the show are Sunday. Be there or you're fired. :D

[pencilsharp]

Oh, I'll be there... but nobody told me this was an ensemble show!
I HATE ensemble shows! I don't WANNA be on "A Very Special Episode of 'Friends'"! :mad:

... Besides which, how many ladies don't have 7-year-old minds? How do ya think the diamond cartel stays in business?! :D

[Lachesis]

Of course geeks are cool. It's all those nerds and dweebs that are draggin' us down. :D

And cliches only exist if you acknowledge them.

[Naraht]

What if you're both a geek & nerd though....=\

[DerekPowers]

I totally agree, bloondone, geeks and geek culture is working it's way into the mainstream.

i, while not considering myself a geek (i like to think of myself as an artist, and besides, i'm too perty, hehe) emerse myself in dorky fine art stuff and animation/comic stuff, and seem to get alot of praise for it.

BUT i wonder if it is an age thing. id say for people around college age the whole cartoon fetish is alot more attractive to a "mainstream" audience, since it is the transition to adulthood and we seem to have been able to hold onto a peice of our childhood.

plus, i think as society gets more complex and corporations start to take over more and more, any kind of artistic expression is welcome by most people, especially if you want to be an artist as a career. it seems girls really like to hear that i'm an art major, as opposed to the business majors or the like.

soooo, i'd say its a combination of people in their late teens/early 20s wanting to hold onto their childhood (sometimes overly nastalgic) PLUS retain an individual voice via artistic expression in this corporate comoditized culture. and as the comoditization of our society grows, i think its inevitable that the embrace of "geek" culture will grow as well, almost as a counter weight or rebellion of sorts. and also, as our society gets more liberal, more and more people find it acceptable to enjoy such formaly kitch art as comics and the like, so more and more un-stereotypical fans are coming out of the woodwork.

but, as for high school kiddies and even jr high kids, i think theyre still in the boat of being "un cool". sorry guys, correct me if i'm wrong, cause i've been out of hs for a few years, but when i was a high schooler not too long ago, even I didnt consider it "cool" that i was home watching the new batman/superman adventures or something like that as opposed to being out somewhere. but as a teen (i was a teen up untill yesterday, sob), i was more synical and pissed at the world (i guess i was your average angry teenager, or not so average, depending on your outlook).


i think the key is balancing it all out. being too obsessed w/ anything is never good, and everyone is obsessed w/ something, and i think comics/animation is one of the best obsessions. just dont make it run your life. PEACE!!!