The Top Nerdy

December 26, 2014 8:43 AM

Yes, there are a LOT of Year-End Best Of Lists (some people say too many - at the same time they make up consensus lists).
But sometimes it just helps to give a 'Best Of' list a different angle, like THE TOP 20 NERDY THINGS OF 2014, which includes two appearances by Neil deGrasse Tyson (#14 and #6) and two "G.I.Joe-related" items (#16 and #8).

The notably absent nerdy things could easily make another 20-item list (I expect you to add some of your own, nerds), but some of them were on last year's list.

posted by oneswellfoop (15 comments total)

I really did love Creature Shop Challenge. If you liked it too, you may enjoy the Creature Geek podcast, also of 2014.
posted by Mizu at 8:57 AM on December 26, 2014

So "GI Jeff" is my winner, because everything about it with regards to GI Joe was perfect, and everything it was saying about facing your adulthood was also perfect, and I realised that, in my own nerdy way, I was Jeff, and adulthood sucks, and it's so much more awesome to be on a team of Joes than it is to deal with everything else.
posted by Katemonkey at 9:14 AM on December 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

As someone who enjoyed the campy Marvel GI Joe and Transformers comics of the 80s, I think I'm going to have to pick up the crossover.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:31 AM on December 26, 2014

Is there a list of the best of the best of the best of lists?
posted by dhartung at 9:34 AM on December 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

This nerdy appears to mostly involve passively observing the works of others. This must be a young people's nerdy.
posted by scruss at 9:44 AM on December 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Do you think that these works appear via magic from a vacuum? It takes a nerd to make a nerdy thing.
posted by Mizu at 9:49 AM on December 26, 2014

TBH the false drama of Creature Shop drove me right off.

Transformers/GI Joe is amazing though.

Also I have missed most of these, and have not watched most of the shows mentioned, leading to the shocking revelation that I am not very nerdy at all. Who am I????
posted by Artw at 10:17 AM on December 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

These are all games and TV shows! What about the real nerdy stuff - weren't like any new quarks or algorithms discovered?
posted by Flashman at 10:29 AM on December 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

There's a space robot landing on a comet, that's pretty cool.
posted by Artw at 10:33 AM on December 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

This nerdy appears to mostly involve passively observing the works of others. This must be a young people's nerdy.

These are all games and TV shows! What about the real nerdy stuff

Nerd culture is now about consuming scifi/fantasy pop culture.
posted by chillyvanilly at 10:38 AM on December 26, 2014 [2 favorites]

Speaking of GI Joe: 2014 is also the 30th anniversary of "Silent Interlude" the "silent" episode of GI Joe, featuring Snake Eyes. You can read an interview about it with Larry Hama (writer), here...
posted by symbioid at 10:47 AM on December 26, 2014 [4 favorites]

Largehearted Boy has been compiling all the "best of" book lists for 2014 that he can find. There's more than a thousand.
posted by waitingtoderail at 1:03 PM on December 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

#8: Whaaaaat??? General Flagg? But General Flagg DIED in GI Joe #19 back in the '80s! Major Bludd shot him in the back! It was one of those comics that I'd show to people to say, "SEE? People actually DIE in the comics! It's way better as a comic than that stupid fucking cartoon!"

Alas. A comic book character dead and back to life. I'm almost apoplectic.

Also: Guardians of the Galaxy was indeed Made of Win, and every time I hear someone complain about it, I write them off because they're clearly impervious to fun.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 3:17 PM on December 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Watching it with the kiddo right now. It is meeting with high approval.
posted by Artw at 3:50 PM on December 26, 2014

Nerd culture is now about consuming scifi/fantasy pop culture.

As much as I love sci-fi specifically, this pains me greatly, even though I think it's true.

Consuming this kind of media has never been why I've self-identified as a nerd; it's always been something that's tangential and caused by my love of learning and ideas. Isn't that what being a nerd is about?

Maybe we need a new word for people who would prefer to spend their time reading astronomical data to watching Harry Potter.
posted by unknownmosquito at 11:23 PM on December 26, 2014