Three comics about nerds
June 26, 2010 8:58 PM Subscribe
I guess I'm not the only gravy nerd out there any more.
posted by heurtebise at 9:28 PM on June 26, 2010
posted by heurtebise at 9:28 PM on June 26, 2010
"Are you coding during a party?"
I actually kind of did that once. We were all on ecstasy and someone wanted me to set up their PC laptop as a "hackintosh". Yay Google instructions!
posted by Pseudology at 9:42 PM on June 26, 2010
I actually kind of did that once. We were all on ecstasy and someone wanted me to set up their PC laptop as a "hackintosh". Yay Google instructions!
posted by Pseudology at 9:42 PM on June 26, 2010
"Everyone working here real PhD in physics!"
Heh.
But yes it's annoying that everyone calls themselves nerds now. Maybe it shouldn't be annoying. But it is.
posted by delmoi at 9:47 PM on June 26, 2010
Heh.
But yes it's annoying that everyone calls themselves nerds now. Maybe it shouldn't be annoying. But it is.
posted by delmoi at 9:47 PM on June 26, 2010
Somewhere along the line I lied about being friends with Steve Guttenberg and borrowed five hundred dollars from my neighbor’s sketchy uncle, which money the dog ate twice. I am fairly certain about that last part.
posted by joedan at 10:29 PM on June 26, 2010
posted by joedan at 10:29 PM on June 26, 2010
It's true what it says on that site: Party Down is hillarious, far funnier than you have any reason to expect it to be.
posted by paisley henosis at 10:43 PM on June 26, 2010
posted by paisley henosis at 10:43 PM on June 26, 2010
Ooh ooh while we're on comics about nerds, I bring your attention to the ever amusing Kate Beaton and Nerd Town.
posted by WalterMitty at 11:01 PM on June 26, 2010
posted by WalterMitty at 11:01 PM on June 26, 2010
when that one guy said he's a metalhead, i could immediately tell he wasn't.
posted by rainperimeter at 1:12 AM on June 27, 2010
posted by rainperimeter at 1:12 AM on June 27, 2010
"Beer Nerd"
Yes, exactly! "Nerd" has become almost devoid of meaning now. It's watered down and pretty much pointless, like three-two from the convenience store.
posted by jiawen at 2:07 AM on June 27, 2010
Yes, exactly! "Nerd" has become almost devoid of meaning now. It's watered down and pretty much pointless, like three-two from the convenience store.
posted by jiawen at 2:07 AM on June 27, 2010
Nerd means obsessively interested in a specific subject, possibly to the exclusion of other subjects such as social skills. But if I meet an adult who is self applying the nerd label, it's embarassing if they are still playing the bad at people game, so his GRAR about socially competent people using the word seems weird. For me beer nerd, if they homebrew is valid 'Lost' nerd when self-applied by a co-worker who just watches it and doesn't hunt down forums to theorize about potential plot lines with other Lost nerds is invalid.
posted by edbles at 4:18 AM on June 27, 2010
posted by edbles at 4:18 AM on June 27, 2010
Party Down is hillarious, far funnier than you have any reason to expect it to be.
Look at the cast list. It is exactly as funny as I would expect it to be, hilarious and wonderful and probably going to end this season, which is the worst thing ever.
posted by edbles at 4:24 AM on June 27, 2010
Look at the cast list. It is exactly as funny as I would expect it to be, hilarious and wonderful and probably going to end this season, which is the worst thing ever.
posted by edbles at 4:24 AM on June 27, 2010
The banner ad at that Hark, A Vagrant link invited me to join Zoosk and meet other sexy nerds.
posted by ghharr at 6:13 AM on June 27, 2010
posted by ghharr at 6:13 AM on June 27, 2010
Pictures for Sad Children presents three comics about nerds.
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:26 AM on June 27, 2010 [11 favorites]
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:26 AM on June 27, 2010 [11 favorites]
Thank you, Pope Guilty, for the second PfSC link. I am going to throw that at every single person who babbles on about the singularity (replace "throw" with "cram down their pontificating droning annoying oh christ do you realize how silly you sound throats").
posted by a small part of the world at 6:35 AM on June 27, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by a small part of the world at 6:35 AM on June 27, 2010 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I'm thinking of switching from "nerd" to "misanthrope."
posted by lore at 6:37 AM on June 27, 2010 [4 favorites]
posted by lore at 6:37 AM on June 27, 2010 [4 favorites]
I do that thing from the third comic. I self-identify as a nerd not because it is the hip new thing to be (I live in South Carolina, that won't hit here until 2025) but because I was told that was what I was incessantly throughout my childhood and teenage years by people who now send me facebook friend requests which I ignore and I enjoy reclaiming the term "nerd" as a positive thing. However, I now have social skills and look fairly normal and sometimes suggest my neckbeard friends try to at least attempt to get their shit together. I do not gather other apparently normal people around said neckbeards and poke fun at them though. I also will not give up a moniker I have no doubt of my rightful claim to because someone thinks they deserve it more than me. There are great things about being a nerd and then there are people who really like buying newer thinner iwhatevers. You gotta be something.
posted by ND¢ at 7:17 AM on June 27, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by ND¢ at 7:17 AM on June 27, 2010 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I'm thinking of switching from "nerd" to "misanthrope."
That's pretty much the thought process of all the women who've ever dumped me.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:19 AM on June 27, 2010 [8 favorites]
That's pretty much the thought process of all the women who've ever dumped me.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:19 AM on June 27, 2010 [8 favorites]
Social dynamics don't change. Just words. When I was a kid, I was a nerd, which meant that I had certain traits and habits that made other kids treat me like an outcast. One of the ways those kids indicated what they thought of me was by calling me an "nerd" (or a "geek" or a "faggot.")
Okay, so now "nerd" is sometimes used to mean something neutral or positive. So what? There are still outcasts. I assume they're called something different these days. And one day THAT word will be recast to mean something neutral or positive. At which point there will be yet another word for outcasts.
A slightly more interesting phenomenon is the fact that what causes someone to become an outcast tends to change over time (and across cultures). When I was a kid, liking sci-fi or comic books did you in. Since those things have penetrated popular culture, I assume they're less likely to earn kids Scarlett As these days. I can even imagine some school run by "nerds" in which being into sports makes you an outcast.
The constant is the fact that there are outcast. Our culture (or species?) is rigged to make people form into groups and abuse outsiders.
posted by grumblebee at 10:19 AM on June 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
Okay, so now "nerd" is sometimes used to mean something neutral or positive. So what? There are still outcasts. I assume they're called something different these days. And one day THAT word will be recast to mean something neutral or positive. At which point there will be yet another word for outcasts.
A slightly more interesting phenomenon is the fact that what causes someone to become an outcast tends to change over time (and across cultures). When I was a kid, liking sci-fi or comic books did you in. Since those things have penetrated popular culture, I assume they're less likely to earn kids Scarlett As these days. I can even imagine some school run by "nerds" in which being into sports makes you an outcast.
The constant is the fact that there are outcast. Our culture (or species?) is rigged to make people form into groups and abuse outsiders.
posted by grumblebee at 10:19 AM on June 27, 2010 [1 favorite]
"nerd" "dork" "weird"
These three words were the refrain of my childhood.
posted by Ouisch at 10:26 AM on June 27, 2010
These three words were the refrain of my childhood.
posted by Ouisch at 10:26 AM on June 27, 2010
(Which is to say: it caused real damage. And I do I give a fuck now if people want to self-identify as nerds? Not really. I care more that people treat each other like civilized human beings.)
posted by Ouisch at 10:38 AM on June 27, 2010
posted by Ouisch at 10:38 AM on June 27, 2010
@Grumblebee: I agree with you. I wonder what the current name is, and what kinds have to do to get it?
posted by rebent at 12:05 PM on June 27, 2010
posted by rebent at 12:05 PM on June 27, 2010
Good question. Anyone know a high-school kid we can ask?
posted by grumblebee at 12:11 PM on June 27, 2010
posted by grumblebee at 12:11 PM on June 27, 2010
Am I the only one that thinks it is silly to expect paradigm shattering technology changes in 10 years? I regularly pick up conversations that I stopped in the middle of that long ago.
posted by DU at 5:45 AM on June 28, 2010
posted by DU at 5:45 AM on June 28, 2010
I wish I understood the force that makes people so wrong-headedly optimistic about the speed of technological change. I grew up and learned that "1984" was wrong; "2001" was wrong; "Space 1999" was wrong, etc.
KNOWING that, why would I choose to write a sci-fi story in which the whole planet had converted to using solar power, AIs were running businesses and we'd cured cancer -- and set it in 2050? MAYBE 3050 would be soon enough. 40 years from now the most likely thing is that the world will be largely the way it is now, with a few interesting changes.
(Yes, I get that those titles were largely metaphorical -- 1984 = 1948 and 2001 = dawn of a new era, but I'm guessing that the writers wouldn't have chosen those metaphors unless they'd felt they were also at least somewhat plausible on a literal level.)
posted by grumblebee at 8:26 AM on June 28, 2010
KNOWING that, why would I choose to write a sci-fi story in which the whole planet had converted to using solar power, AIs were running businesses and we'd cured cancer -- and set it in 2050? MAYBE 3050 would be soon enough. 40 years from now the most likely thing is that the world will be largely the way it is now, with a few interesting changes.
(Yes, I get that those titles were largely metaphorical -- 1984 = 1948 and 2001 = dawn of a new era, but I'm guessing that the writers wouldn't have chosen those metaphors unless they'd felt they were also at least somewhat plausible on a literal level.)
posted by grumblebee at 8:26 AM on June 28, 2010
Here's a Wired article about how the technology of Orwell's 1984 has panned out so far.
posted by smoke_morleys at 10:11 AM on June 28, 2010
posted by smoke_morleys at 10:11 AM on June 28, 2010
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(I just went to the 10-year anniversary today of the, ah, "nerd camp"—hate that phrase—whence I got my username. Our consensus on what the past decade has gotten us? Cellphones, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Maps.)
posted by limeonaire at 9:15 PM on June 26, 2010 [1 favorite]