The Onion AV Club has posted their list of 20 Pop-Cultural Obsessions Even Geekier Than Monty Python. Now, are they saying Monty Python is the geekiest thing most people can think of, or that Monty Python is the zeroed out middleground for geeky obsessions? Python fans certainly distinguish themselves as some of the most quote-happy members of Geeksville, although I think at this point Simpsons fans have surpassed them in that department, as Python fans grow old and lose their memory along with their ability to reel off the Cheese Shop sketch in a horrible British accent (I'm not talking about myself, I've still got it). Here's the Top 20....- Star Trek
- Ren Faires
- Fantasy Sports Leagues (props for reaching out into non-traditional areas of geekiness)
- Michael Jackson (the article makes a good case for it)
- Wikipedia
- Battlestar Galactica
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Joss Whedon
- Meida-Specific Role Playing (like when you and your friends pretend to be Pokemons on AIM. Not that I did that.)
- Magic: The Gathering (w00t)
- World of Warcraft
- The Simpsons
- Doctor Who
- Frank Zappa
- Game-Show Tape Trading (this sounds like something Seth MacFarlane would do)
After this, the list gets really lazy and just starts hitting non-specific branches of nerdery. Hit the jump for the last five and some analysis on what is conspicuously absent.
16. Anime (All anime?! Really?)
17. Cosplay
18. LARPing (not exactly POP culture, but whatever...)
19. Second Life/MySpace/FaceBook (According to the Onion these are all methods of fake socialization and therefore basically the same. But I think we all know SecondLife outgeeks those other two by a mile. SecondLife is made up of the .001st percentile of the geekiest people on earth, serial killers, and Ron Paul supporters. And I'm not saying any of those things are bad, okay!?)
20.Fanfic
The article write-up includes this curious line: "Yes, there are also interesting scripts, like a Home Improvement where Mark gets addicted to drugs, or a Fight Club epilogue that finds Tyler Durden eerily resurrected, but who wants to read that?" Oh yes, those poor outsider fanfic artists who daringly reimagine what might have happened if Tyler Durden came back to life. Now, I have not had the pleasure of reading any Fight Club fanfic, but I'm willing to bet he comes back to life in all of them.
Notably missing from this list are:
Comics
Too hot right now to properly be considered a geeky fandom, I suppose.
Star Wars
While no one can deny Star Wars has some insane fans, those who start up Stormtrooper garrissons and don't not believe the Force is real, I'm guessing this fandom is too diluted by casual fans and widespread acceptance to get on the list.
DnD
I don't care if they do already have WoW and LARPing on there, there is no excuse for leaving off the grandaddy of them all that is still practiced today!
Anyone else's favorite fandom get left off?
3 comments:
So... Wikipedia is nerdier than Magic: the Gathering, which is nerdier than World of Warcraft, cosplay, and live-action role playing (keep in mind that the Simpsons is also nerdier than WoW, cosplay and live-action role playing)??
That list seems to go kind of backwards.
Facebook is as geeky as SecondLife?????? Is every college and high school student geeky? (Are every....no, is, because the subject is student - singular - and now I realize that I'm a geek. Or maybe a nerd. And that's why I read this blog.)
man, onion don't know shit about being a nerd
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