Geek Confessions & Blasphemies

Prederick wrote:

Oh, and MUSICALS. I don't know if this entirely qualifies as "geeky" but considering the overlap with Dr. Horrible and Community and the like more and more often, and the term "Theater Geek", i'm going to claim it does.

I find them utterly insufferable. Again, I don't care if other people want to enjoy them, I just don't know how in the hell they sit through 140 minutes of hokey-ass schmaltz with the histrionics turned up to 16. I don't hate all the music, I can certainly enjoy a song from a musical, if it has been otherwise removed from the context. But watching the whole damn thing? No thank you.

Could not agree with this more.

On Joss Whedon, while I enjoy most of his work, I cannot comprehend the massive fando-wait.

Wait.

I've said these words before.

Nevermind.

Don't think it's going to be controversial, but I no longer have any interest in attending San Diego Comic-Con ever. It used to be one of those "Man that would be so awesome things", but every time I see photo and video it always looks so damn congested. Too many people packed too tightly in too small a space. Even E3 looks to have areas that are more open than San Diego Comic-Con.

More than that, though, I read articles about a bunch of guys actually grabbing at women and groping them and other trash, and it just disgusted me to the whole culture of attendees. I've heard of poor treatment of women at E3, and I imagine similarly poor treatment happens at places like PAX even though I've yet to hear of it, but it seems so much more open and common at Comic-Con that I just don't even want to be associated with that sort of geek.

Which reminds me...

Even though I long to have a community of nerds in real life I can always sit and chill, like a comic book or board game store I could frequently visit, I tend to hate the sort of geeks and nerds that hang around there. I usually think of myself as being the stereotypical male nerd that's always wearing the sort of clothing you'd see someone have on during Big Bang Theory or something, but every time I walk into my local comic and board game shop I end up feeling like punching everyone's lights out and taking their milk money.

There's just some special level of obnoxious I've found these guys to have, one that surpasses any notion of being pretentious. It just annoys the Hell out of me.

ccesarano wrote:

Don't think it's going to be controversial, but I no longer have any interest in attending San Diego Comic-Con ever. It used to be one of those "Man that would be so awesome things", but every time I see photo and video it always looks so damn congested. Too many people packed too tightly in too small a space. Even E3 looks to have areas that are more open than San Diego Comic-Con.

More than that, though, I read articles about a bunch of guys actually grabbing at women and groping them and other trash, and it just disgusted me to the whole culture of attendees. I've heard of poor treatment of women at E3, and I imagine similarly poor treatment happens at places like PAX even though I've yet to hear of it, but it seems so much more open and common at Comic-Con that I just don't even want to be associated with that sort of geek.

Having done SDCC once, I'm cool with not doing it again any time soon. I didn't really come across any of the openly misogynistic behavior, apart from one creeper hitting on my wife, but she also had an even worse creeper at PAX. What you've said about the crowding is completely accurate; on the other hand, the celebrities are also as thick as flies, and I'm never going to forget having random hallway conversations with Rob Paulsen and Patrick Rothfuss, or walking past Jane Espensen. The cosplay is also a level of magnitude beyond what I've seen at PAX and NYCC.

Prederick wrote:

Oh, and MUSICALS. I don't know if this entirely qualifies as "geeky" but considering the overlap with Dr. Horrible and Community and the like more and more often, and the term "Theater Geek", i'm going to claim it does.

I find them utterly insufferable. Again, I don't care if other people want to enjoy them, I just don't know how in the hell they sit through 140 minutes of hokey-ass schmaltz with the histrionics turned up to 16. I don't hate all the music, I can certainly enjoy a song from a musical, if it has been otherwise removed from the context. But watching the whole damn thing? No thank you.

Story time: I feel pretty much the same way about musicals, but decided to see [em]Dancer in the Dark[/em] anyway. Because I had to suppress my disbelief so hard just to deal with it being a musical, it turned into an amazing experience that utterly crushed my soul. I was shaking for more than an hour afterwards.

Most classic Disney movies and just about every Matt and Trey movie is a musical. I think the issue is that a lot of musicals on screen suck (I am looking at you Johnny Depp).

I think if you folks saw a musical in New York or Toronto, or the ones that tour the major cities in theaters you might have a different attitude.

ccesarano wrote:

Even though I long to have a community of nerds in real life I can always sit and chill, like a comic book or board game store I could frequently visit, I tend to hate the sort of geeks and nerds that hang around there. I usually think of myself as being the stereotypical male nerd that's always wearing the sort of clothing you'd see someone have on during Big Bang Theory or something, but every time I walk into my local comic and board game shop I end up feeling like punching everyone's lights out and taking their milk money.

There's just some special level of obnoxious I've found these guys to have, one that surpasses any notion of being pretentious. It just annoys the Hell out of me.

Ditto for me as well. Less the urge to punch people, but the local FLGS is usually the sort of place where I prefer to spend as little time as possible in. Hygiene people, seriously.

So I guess that makes this is my "geek" confession:

I shower on a regular basis. With soap and shampoo too!

I cannot stand The Big Bang Theory and find it insulting.
I do not understand the appeal of this show. It stereotypes not only geeks and nerds, but also jews, Indians, and blondes. That Sheldon character is just an awful human being. I lied, I know why this show is so popular. And it's because it let's the rest of the population laugh at the "nerds" again and say to themselves "Gosh, look at those nerds, they are so awkward and weird. Isn't that funny." The best description I've heard of it is "nerdface". Rant over.

Not sure if Big Bang hate is taboo, I have heard more negative than positive with how it portrays nerds and scientists and women.

maverickz wrote:

And it's because it let's the rest of the population laugh at the "nerds" again and say to themselves "Gosh, look at those nerds, they are so awkward and weird. Isn't that funny."

That's not common knowledge?

KingGorilla wrote:

Not sure if Big Bang hate is taboo, I have heard more negative than positive with how it portrays nerds and scientists and women.

Is it any worse than any other show on TV that deals with science? My stepmother regularly compares me to TV geeks on shows like BBT and NCIS :\

Macs are better than PCs

nel e nel wrote:

Macs are better than PCs

IMAGE(http://cdn.styleforum.net/b/b8/b834f2bb_for-me-to-poop-on.jpeg)

Numbers had a good balance in there of the real science and math but with a hollywood flair. When Dexter used to be a crime drama, their portrayal of forensics was a lot closer to reality compared to CSI.

Sherlock, BBC, hits many of the notes.

Check out the BBC series starring Patrick Stewart, the 11th Hour. It is a series of 4 mini movies.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462097/

I would warn you the 11th hour can be gruesome at times.

But certainly, by and large US television tends to fail at science.

I have a brutal like/hate relationship with Big Bang Theory. That it was created by the same person who made Mike & Molly (know what would be funny? A sitcom about two fat people falling in love!), Two & A Half Men (all misogyny, all the time) and most recently Two Broke Waitresses (I've done my best to avoid this).

Chuck Lorre isn't the most unfunny person and he at least tries to create sitcoms with a different angle than "dysfunctional family trying to work together", and Big Bang Theory has a bunch of consultants to help make the more obscure academically nerd gags, but every time I watch I feel like I'm seeing nerds through the lens of a forty year old man that used to give them weggies in high school. Just recently watched an episode where Leonard was trying to learn to enjoy Football so he could be friends with Penny's friends, and he ended up narrating the entire game in an effort to look like he understood what was going on. The guy is a supposed genius, but he is completely oblivious to the most basics of human interaction. Basically, he is constantly given the Idiot Ball.

Also hammered home was when Penny brought in a pop culture trivial pursuit style game to ask questions, and neither Leonard nor Sheldon knew any of the answers. Not even "Tweety Bird tawt he taw a what?" They responded with "Romulan". So the basic joke is "Ha, genius nerds know so much about comics and sci-fi but know nothing about common pop culture mainstream!"

Which is dumb. Beyond dumb. It is insufferably dumb. The sort of child that would get into comics as a kid would most certainly know about Looney Tunes.

This is nothing to say of the latest new episode where the entire B Plot involving the women was Bernadette and Amy having a fight over their significant other's fight. They couldn't even have their own conflict, it had to focus on the guys.

And yet, I can understand why the Chuck Lorrie shows are popular. My family tend to enjoy Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory, and as horrible as the shows really are, it does have clever moments of writing. Plus, when the show ISN'T being insulting, it CAN appeal to geek humor in a delightful way (Sheldon's hatred of Wil Wheaton, the ensuing (fake) card game tournament to get revenge, and then Wil Wheaton's ruse to trick Sheldon into losing and thus secure his place as a rival).

So the show has its moments. It's just mixed in with a whole lot of horribleness. At first I liked Leonard, but I've grown to hate...well, the writers, really. On paper Leonard is a good character, but as I said, he is frequently given the idiot ball so he could make basic mistakes in his relationship with Penny that "Tee hee, only a nerd would do that!" The most redeemable character in the whole damn show is Raj, and he is frequently used as the comedic side kick within a sitcom. Dignity? Out the window.

shoptroll wrote:
maverickz wrote:

And it's because it let's the rest of the population laugh at the "nerds" again and say to themselves "Gosh, look at those nerds, they are so awkward and weird. Isn't that funny."

That's not common knowledge?

I'm sure it is. But I gotta vent somewhere.

I also think that Big Bang Theory is a festival of grotesque, unfunny, offensive stereotypes.

I think Game of Thrones is dull, poorly written and acted, and has the sexual politics of an FHM shoot.

I don't see anything wrong with a non-British person not getting Dr Who. It's very British in a way non-British people don't realize because they think Britishness is something else entirely. You have to like that it's a bit shambolic and hammy. If you don't, that's okay.

I dislike that in order to be a geek you apparently have to know/like every single geek thing in existence.

I don't have the time or inclination to watch that much TV.

I believe the 5 geek social fallacies are still true.

I used to go to ComicCon...before the money grubbing, profiteering gluttons overhyped it and turned it into crap that has sh*tall to do with the original purpose of the convention. Seriously, do you know what it was originally? Fully half the people I talk to have no freaking idea how it started, or why. Just like E3.

I have a signature with my Geek code embedded in it. I try not to use it. Sometimes...that's really hard
------BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK------
GCS/IT$ d+ s+:+ a C++ UL++++$
P++$ L+++$ E- W++ N o? K? w+ O?
M V PS(+) PE Y+ PGP t 5++ X R tv+
b++++ DI++ D++ G e h---- r+++ z+++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK-----

I like both Star Wars and Star Trek for what they are - Space Opera a.k.a Soft Sci Fi

I'm with the others on the Dr. Who thing.

I liked the TV Show Chuck.

Maq wrote:

I don't see anything wrong with a non-British person not getting Dr Who. It's very British in a way non-British people don't realize because they think Britishness is something else entirely. You have to like that it's a bit shambolic and hammy. If you don't, that's okay.

I'll admit it took me about 5 episodes or so of the Eccleston season before the show "clicked" in my mind. I also suspect the shows caters more toward the female audience than the males. Could be wrong on that one though.

Also, Rose can go die in a fire. Utterly insufferable character.

Here's another blasphemy:

The first Bayformers movie had a good premise/setup. Except they absolutely squandered it. A movie about humans caught in the middle of a war between two waging alien armies (a subtle theme from the original cartoons)? Yes, please! Just not the way they did it.

I was never bullied by older/bigger kids. It's a part of the assumed geek shared consciousness I can only stand back shake my head at.

Ditto the above thoughts on SDCC. Ten years ago I would have loved to go, but it is way too crowded and overhyped now. I'm happy to attend smaller cons in Houston or Austin.

The Smell of Geeks. I like going to my LCS and browsing the trades and board games. I prefer to do this when there is not a Magic/Warhammer/Any event, really, going on. This is less of a problem now that they've moved to a larger space with nice, high ceilings, but before that the stink of humanity was eye-watering. I have always bathed at least once a day. Soap and water will not kill you or make you less geeky.

I've come to prefer doing my 'reading' via audiobook. I have a long commute and home life is busy with a new baby. I would love to curl up by the fire in my smoking jacket with a snifter of brandy and read an actual book, but I just don't have time. My time on the road is perfect for knocking out some of the books I've been meaning to get to. Maybe the experience is a little different for not seeing the words, but it's not like the old days of audiobooks when everything was the abridged version that only gave you the gist of the story.

Joss Whedon sometimes makes bad shows. This has been covered previously. I liked Firefly, but since we had less than a season to explore the story and characters, meh. Buffy was average schlock. I disliked Dollhouse actively. Cabin in the Woods has been sitting in my queue for some time now. I have no burning desire to watch it.

I can turn off the part of my mind that I use for the real world and enjoy a movie or show as it is presented. I don't need to dissect every aspect of a show and hold it up to ridicule if it isn't logically consistent or asks for a larger-than-normal suspension of disbelief.

I enjoy the novels and short stories of Stephen King.

maverickz wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
maverickz wrote:

And it's because it let's the rest of the population laugh at the "nerds" again and say to themselves "Gosh, look at those nerds, they are so awkward and weird. Isn't that funny."

That's not common knowledge?

I'm sure it is. But I gotta vent somewhere.

It's classic stereotyped subculture exploitation entertainment, carefully packaged for a mainstream American audience. Of course it's going to be filled with mean spirited, wholly inaccurate characterizations of geek/nerd protagonists who want nothing more in life than to be "saved" by bleached blonde, white bread culture. Duh!

athros wrote:

I liked the TV Show Chuck.

This is neither a confession nor blasphemy.

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:
athros wrote:

I liked the TV Show Chuck.

This is neither a confession nor blasphemy.

You should see the looks on peoples faces around here when I say that. Not pleasant.

Ugh. Now "Chuck" is insulting. It offends both my geek cred and my national security wonkery.

The world would have been so much better off had Jake 2.0 (played by the awesome Christopher Groham) been picked and "Chaz" been sent packing. Not that I feel strongly about this at all.

I like Sheldon Cooper and the Big Bang Theory.

I like the actor, I like the character, and generally enjoy the show in spite of the stereotypes. Also... I love the addition of Amy Farah Fowler. I think she is great in her role as Sheldon's "girlfriend".

Yeah, the show makes fun of nerds and geek culture, but I always see it more as laughing at ourselves. I will say I think the earlier seasons were better and Leonard and Penny is pretty tired at this point. Howard and Bernadette's evolving relationship has been amusing and Sheldon and Amy are great.

Demosthenes wrote:

but I always see it more as laughing at ourselves

I feel that acts like MC Frontalot (which I actually enjoy) do that sort of thing a lot better. The biggest problem I've experienced with BBT is that some people watch it and think they suddenly understand geek culture. But that might be less of an issue with the show and more with the target audience.

I like geeky things, but I hate anything that feels like it's consciously aimed at a "geek" demographic. I sort of feel that fannishness has "ruined" (not actually ruined) the culture of some things that I love, like science fiction and videogames.

So the "Geek & Sundry" media brand pisses me off, for example. They're just pushing the "WE'RE GEEKS YOU'RE GEEKS" button so hard. That's not how I like being related to. A lot of Joss Whedon dialog is I think self-consciously nerdy in a similar way.

I guess the high-minded way of putting this is, I don't want art & entertainment to succeed because it flatters my (our) identity politics. I want it to succeed because it's great!

Maybe this is kind of a silly feeling. Getting angry when your subculture becomes popular and commercially viable is one of those perverse foot-shooting things people do, and maybe I am doing it here. But that's how I feel.

shoptroll wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

but I always see it more as laughing at ourselves

I feel that acts like MC Frontalot (which I actually enjoy) do that sort of thing a lot better. The biggest problem I've experienced with BBT is that some people watch it and think they suddenly understand geek culture. But that might be less of an issue with the show and more with the target audience.

I didn't much care for BBT, mostly because it felt very shrill and loud, but it also feels very written from and for a mainstream culture's idea of geekery, so the references are very common, and to me, lazy--Star Wars, Star Trek, geek cornerstones no doubt, but so well known, you don't really need to be "of the tribe" to make a joke or reference. Just about anyone in the world can make a Darth Vader or Mr Spock joke.

My contrast is the episode of Community where the gang goes drinking, which has super-obscure references to The Last Starfighter ("Do any better at that and you'll be recruited by the Star League!") and Farscape ("Uh, was Scorpius half-scarren, half-Peacekeeper? Yes, I own that!"), which have a specificity and obscurity that signal those writers are of the tribe.

That said, disliking BBT doesn't seem a confession or blasphemy. It's a Dad Show, like the CSIs.

I really don't understand the geek hatred for Big Bang Theory. This is apparently now blasphemy.

I know those guys. Or, rather, I know the real world incarnations of those guys. That's why it's funny to me. Of course they're all exaggerated caricatures. That's because it's a sitcom. There are very few sitcoms that aren't chock full of exaggerated caricatures. I guess, to me, all the hate and... well, butt-hurted-ness seems like folks that can't stop feeling like everybody is still making fun of them.

I wonder if fora for dysfunctional families hate sitcoms?

SpacePPoliceman wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

but I always see it more as laughing at ourselves

I feel that acts like MC Frontalot (which I actually enjoy) do that sort of thing a lot better. The biggest problem I've experienced with BBT is that some people watch it and think they suddenly understand geek culture. But that might be less of an issue with the show and more with the target audience.

I didn't much care for BBT, mostly because it felt very shrill and loud, but it also feels very written from and for a mainstream culture's idea of geekery, so the references are very common, and to me, lazy

Hey if we're piling on BBT... I unsurprisingly think it's a terrible show for all the reasons listed above. I think The IT Crowd is a much more successful show for laughing at ourselves. It's still a sitcom and Moss and Roy are larger than life, but it feels so much truer than BBT. Like SpacePP says about that episode of Community, The IT Crowd is for the tribe, by smart, knowing members of the tribe—from the tiny details like the MC Frontalot (there's that name again) poster, the EFF stickers, specific board games over Moss' desk (Memoir '44!), all those things that are familiar because they're real, and don't shout "GEEK STEREOTYPE"—to of course the stories, the football episode being IMO the series' best illustration of what it's like being a geek among men.

Chumpy_McChump wrote:

I really don't understand the geek hatred for Big Bang Theory. This is apparently now blasphemy.

I know those guys. Or, rather, I know the real world incarnations of those guys. That's why it's funny to me. Of course they're all exaggerated caricatures. That's because it's a sitcom. There are very few sitcoms that aren't chock full of exaggerated caricatures. I guess, to me, all the hate and... well, butt-hurted-ness seems like folks that can't stop feeling like everybody is still making fun of them.

I wonder if fora for dysfunctional families hate sitcoms?

As someone who spent 6 1/2 years getting a PhD in chemistry...the people in BBT *do* exist, and in some cases, the characters are not that far removed from people I *actually* know.