Geek Reference Pool: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"A thousand stories, tens of thousands of families ... yet the newshacks couldn't wait to hustle up the dozen or so real freaks in costumes, the literally .001% that gave them what they wanted. Not even the kids in the [[Harry Potter]] outfits, or the Japanese anime kids, or even the clever unfolding [[Transformers|Transformer]] rigs -- no, they found every empty-eyed overweight forty-five year old [[The Flash|Flash]] or flab-rolled part-time stripper [[Catwoman (comics)|Catwoman]] and latched on tight for the creepy interview. In the American media there are two constants. [...] [[Acceptable Hobby Targets|In '''culture''', anyone who decides to poke their head out of the cultural world of the CBS primetime line-up is a sad, basement-dwelling loner]] screaming into his [[Hello Kitty]] pillow as crackling video dubs of [[Spider-Man (1967 TV series)|the original Spider-Man cartoon]] flicker on his television."''|Screenwriter '''[http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2007/07/sdcc-07-wonderland-monkey-and-boing.html John Rogers]'''}}

And by nerds, we mean [[Most Tropers Are Young Nerds|us]]. In the course of [[Acceptable Targets|mocking us endlessly]], the media seem to have developed an interesting [[Hollywood Nerd|set of stereotypes]] about the common geek. No, not the glasses or the acne or the pocket protectors or [[Always Male|the phalli]], I mean the things we actually get geeky ''about''. For some reason, Hollywood seems entirely ready to accept the idea of a person developing an interest in something that is not as popular with the mainstream as it is with their own little group.

=== [[Anime]] &and [[Manga]] ===

=== [[ComicsComic Books]] ===

* There are no [[X-Men]] other than Cyclops, [[Wolverine]], Professor X, Nightcrawler, Storm, Jean Grey (A.K.A Ms. Marvel), and, if we're lucky, Gambit and Rogue. Because everyone remembers [[X-Men (animation)|the animated series]] and some people saw [[X-Men (film)|the movies]]... more often than not, however, [[Wolverine Publicity]] wins out every time. There exist no X-Villains besides Magneto, Sabertooth and Mystique, and they are always affiliated with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.<ref>Mystique was in '''a''' Brotherhood only once and it quickly turned into the government-sponsored Freedom Force. She mostly operated solo after the 1970s ended, Sabertooth never was in ANY iteration of the Brotherhood, with or without the name, but [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]] does not make good referential jokes, does it?</ref>

* Thanks to the movies, ''[[The Lord of the Rings]],'' ''[[Harry Potter]],'' and ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'' exist. Fanboys can be heard occasionally complaining about someone named Tom Bombadil who was apparently cut from the movie. More often, they can be seen clutching some prized collectible and calling it their "precious", but that's [[Rule of Funny]]. The main thing known about ''Harry Potter'' is that dressing up as the title character consists of drawing a scar on your forehead, putting on round glasses, and constantly raving about being a wizard.

=== Mathematics and Science ===

=== [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]] ===

* The only MMO Geeks ever play is ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. Older shows will occasionally do something loosely parodying ''[[EverQuest]]'' or a more general parody, but...well, as expected, any video or computer game parody will be [[Pac-Man Fever|to a real video game what]] ''[[Pac-Man Fever|A Trip to the Moon]]'' [[Pac-Man Fever|is to the Apollo program]]. They might as well just call them ''[[Seltzer and Friedberg|Video Game]]''. Judging by subscriber stats, this one is borderline [[Truth in Television]].

** ItsIt's also common to depict the death of a player's character as having an unusual level of finality to it. There is no resurrection ([[Death Is Cheap|very common in D&D]]) or even rolling up a new character. Similar to the way when your character dies in ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'', the cartridge permanently self -destructs and you kill yourself out of grief. This is getting better with the widespread popularity of MMO'sMMOs and Console RPG'sRPGs helping more writers and audience members realize how ridiculous this is.

** What the hell is ''[[GURPS]]''?

* In ''[[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial|ET the Extraterrestrial]]'', Elliot's older brother and his friends have a remarkably realistic session of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''. (At least, they call it that. Careful attention will reveal that while it's a fairly realistic portrayal of a tabletop RPG, it's not ''quite'' D&D.) No funny clothing or strange language, just arguments about pizza and whether the [[Dungeon Master]] is allowed to bend the rules. They even have all the right sorts of dice. ''D&D'' hadn't yet caught the eye of [[New Media Are Evil|hysterical news pundits]] back in '82, so they had few negative stereotypes to work with.

* ''[[House MD(TV series)|House]]'': Kutner is depicted as a geek, referencing ''[[Harry Potter]]'' and comic books, collecting action figures and stuff. He also used to be quite a popular person and also a bully at school. Far from stereotype. It doesn't count as "made by geeks", does it? Considering how many Internet/meme references House makes on a regular basis (especially in the most recent{{when}} seasons), the show could be classified as at least "written by geeks" a lot of the time.

* ''[[CSI]]'' had an episode about a murder at a Brand X ''[[Star Trek]]'' convention, which may seem bizarre at first; CBS and Paramount, which owns the ''Trek'' rights, are both Viacom subsidiaries (sort of. It's complicated). Turns out they needed to obscure the name for plot purposes. Also turns out [[Shown Their Work|they did their research]] into ''Trek'' [[In-Joke|In Jokes]]s and culture, as well as cameoing ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' producer Ronald D. Moore and Ellen Tigh.

* On ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', resident geek Hiro Nakamura usually stays within the Geek Reference Pool (which is a little odd, since he's Japanese and originally spoke no English, yet almost all his references are to ''American'' media). However, when he used his [[Time Stands Still|time-stopping]] ability to mess with Daphne, he taunts her by saying, "Muda muda muda", the catchphrase of Dio Brando, another time-stopping character from the very obscure (to Americans) manga series ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]''.

* ''[[Leverage]]'' goes takes the ''made by geeks'' [[Up to Eleven]]—including arguments about ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' raids and if CGI or puppet [[Star Wars|Yoda]] was better, [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]]s to ''[[Star Trek]]'' when [[Wil Wheaton]] appeared as a [[Special Guest]], and using [[Fanfic]] vocabulary:

::(inIn fairness, she was talking about Hardeson's combining the photo-IDs used in their covers for different members of the team when he had to adapt one he set up for Elliot to work for Sophie).

* ''[[Freaks and Geeks]]'': Written by, well, freaks and geeks. Including, among other things, period-accurate ''Dungeons and Dragons'' played accurately. Interestingly enough it doesn't really stereotype any particular group with everyone from jocks to hippies to somewhat naively well-meaning guidance counselors all getting enough depth and understanding to explain them as more than just a poorly understood straw[[Straw manMan]] for their particular subculture.

* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'', written by two tried-and-true geeks, to the point where almost everyone in the cast makes references far geekier than anything that would be considered geeky in another show. This is even mentioned in the commentaries during the episode O.R.B. From [[Aleister Crowley]], to [[Fantomas]], to [[Oscar Wilde]]. It's a love-letter to late-19th / early 20th century culture; or, as they say, "things that [[Doc Hammer|Doc]] likes."