I love nerds. Comic-Con junkies are the tastemakers of tomorrow. Isn’t that funny? The tables have turned.
- Kristen Bell, star of Veronica Mars
This year, Third Rail sent a few of its lucky members to Comic-Con. What is a political magazine doing at nerd-fest 2010? Reporting on the rapidly expanding cultural phenomena… nerds. Well, that actually isn’t entirely true. We don’t like to label people here at Third Rail, so excuse the unnatural amount of labeling that is about to happen in this article.
This past Comic-Con NYC was very different, and very crowded. This lucky reporter has been able to go to the past Cons, but this year they combined two huge groups together, Comic-Con and New York Anime Festival. While this may be cheaper and easier to house these two conventions together it created a massive over-crowding problem. It was odd at first: Superman rubbing elbows with Catgirls, squealing hordes of Naruto cosplayers posing for pictures with Orcs. It went from amusing to terrifying when I found myself wandering in the deep booths of NYAF, pinned to the wall of a “furry” vendor; I can still hear the yiffing.
If we forget about the addition of NYAF (let’s all try to forget it exists together!) this Comic-Con was still one of the largest. A few years ago it did not have the turn-out or the media attention that this convention received. This Comic-Con was all about the big names, be it within the video game industry or Hollywood. What happened to the quiet nerd subculture that used to occupy this convention?
Money. Movies. Television. Basically, the mass sell-out of all the franchises that were protected by a tight-knit community. Why are nerds being courted by society these days? Did everyone forget the days of wedgies and exclusion? Everyone can agree that franchises like Batman and the other big names within the world of comics and video games were always fairly well-known by the rest of society. Nowadays, everything is turned into a comic or a movie. Hit TV shows are created to show a positive “nerd” character, a dashing man or woman who embodies all that is nerdom. These are all contributing factors to the new appreciation for nerd culture. But why now?
I got to sit down with a real life nerd, and I got to learn a few things about this growing nerd subculture. My interviewee, who has asked to remain anonymous, was very helpful in clearing up a few misconceptions: the differences between nerds and gamers, what a “nerd” is considered these days and how the genre has changed.
Third Rail: How would you classify yourself in nerd culture?
Anonymous Nerd: Before the genre got destroyed, I would consider myself a gamer. Professionally, I would consider myself a computer nerd.
TR: How do you feel about the influx in popularity involving the nerd culture?
AN: There’s two ways to feel. One, we are being recognized as a culture and accepted... Not frowned upon, which is fantastic. However, the other side of that is the fact that our general unacceptance is what gave us our characteristics... We were outcasts. We had a strong, small community and we stayed in it. A small aside, most nerds do not label themselves as nerds. Labeling in general is pretty dated.
TR: What parts of nerdom do you currently subscribe?
AN: Star Wars, roleplaying, board gaming, video games, computer interests, science, math, comics.
TR: What do you think is drawing in the rest of society to embrace things like sci-fi and superheroes etc, on this mass scale?
AN: Like what drives most people, money and power. The nerds of yesterday are growing up and they have larger demands from these genres. If you’re smart enough, you would profit off these things. You’d become an inventor or a programmer etc. Go to a Star Trek convention... Look at how many of these people are influenced to become inventors because of shows like Star Trek. Short story, nerds are where the money is right now.
TR: What about these mass produced comic book movies? They are all generally terrible, and produced on a yearly basis. Isn’t this just making the genre more popular to the lowest common denominator?
AN: As I said, nerds equals money and they’re just running it dry.
TR: What is the difference between gamers and nerds, in your opinion?
AN: A gamer is someone who plays video games. You don’t have to be intelligent to be a gamer. A nerd is someone who takes interest in the nerd culture... Such as science, math, and other intellectual interests.
TR: In this day and age of everything becoming a movie, what would you actually like to see up on the big screen?
AN: A science movie that actually has real science in it. I’m tired of pseudo science. I understand that sci-fi movies aren’t necessarily a hundred percent accurate. But don’t present this as a real life scenario.
TR: Does all of this commercialization make you angry? When you go into stores and see star wars shirts, or kids wearing beloved nerd icons without a clue to who they are, how does that make you feel?
AN: It’s not for me to judge. You can be an avid fan, or a passing one. It’s when you start to act like you are superior to others that it becomes a problem. Nerds, generally, are inclusive.
TR: What was your opinion of Comic Con, you last went in 2006, what was your impression?
AN: The NY one, it had a small crowd. Many indie vendors. They had a few keynote people from Marvel and DC. But for the most part, they had comic celebrities.
TR: How do you feel about Comic-Con these days?
AN: Comic-Con is starting to be more commercialized, which is expected. I also don’t believe in nerds being in the same place at once… some of them smell. It is actually becoming more about pop culture than about actual comics and gaming.
TR: Does anime fall under the category of nerd? NYAF was recently housed with Comic-Con for the first time ever. Many were not pleased with the combining of cons.
AN: (He doesn’t respond, simply rubbing his fingers together to indicate “money”.) That’s all I can really tell you. It’s popular, and it’s cheaper to house the two at the same venue than do two separate conventions.
TR: Do you think that the popularity nerd culture has recently received will be a long one, or is it a passing fad to the main public?
AN: Hopefully, it will be a merger of acceptance. It will just blend and we won’t have a need for things like nerd, jocks, and labels whatever. People can just be people.
TR: So is the old saying true? All nerds are just smelly fat guys in batman costumes? That they’ve never even felt the soft touch of a woman?
AN: It makes up maybe about 2 percent. Most nerds don’t like interacting with other people. There are outcasts within any culture or society, we just happen to have outcasts that have sadly become the poster boys for what “nerds” appear to be.
TR: Do you think people will ever move past that pathetic image of the nerd?
AN: Probably not this generation, but maybe the next. If you’ve noticed in the media the nerd jokes have lessened, to an extent. And actually, you’ll find more examples of the jock being humiliated. Glee is a great example of this.