Okay I realize that’s a long title, but it is what I am going to be talking about and I wanted the title to encompass all of that.
I should preface this with how I felt when I started watching Community and what I felt when I watched the one and a half episodes of tBBT that I watched.
When I watched tBBT I felt vaguely uncomfortable, and I didn’t connect with it, I didn’t find it funny, and I wondered why anyone watched this show. I was genuinely confused as to how it had a following. Later, when I saw someone’s opinion on the internet I could identify why I didn’t like it. It was because they made fun of the nerd, and as a self identifying nerd, I did not like that.
I started watching Community last semester and watched the entirety of season three the week before finals which perhaps was not the best idea that I’ve had in my short life. But from episode one, I loved it. I didn’t question it, I just kept watching.
Now we’re going to jump to a lecture I had tonight in my Writing Fiction class. It’s normal taught by Brandon Sanderson, but he’s on tour for his new book for a couple weeks. Howard Taylor came to guest lecture, he is the author of a web comic and has been for several years. He talked to us about humor, how it works and when it works. He mentioned something called a ‘comic drop.’ Essentially, a comic drop is when someone’s status changes, which does not sound exactly funny. Here’s the example he gave: he and Brandon were interviewing a fellow author for a podcast. Of course, they were talking up the author, saying how everyone should go read his work etc. Then Howard Taylor says, “All the men want to be him, and all the women want to be with those men.” It’s funny because they were building this author up, and then he took him down a few notches with his joke.
Later, during the Q&A, he stated that he watches Community because he finds it funny. There was an enthusiastic response from the class because a lot of people there like Community. He gave us a couple guesses as to the show he wanted to compare Community to. (It will be obvious from the title.) The guesses that were thrown around the classroom were Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother, etc. He shook his head and said “Big Bang Theory.”
The confusion was evident from everyone else, and was met with none of the enthusiasm that Community was. I turned to whisper the the guy next to me, “I hate that show.”
“Here’s the thing about Community and the Big Bang Theory,” Howard Taylor said, “they both use comic drop, but they use it differently. In the Big Bang Theory they use the comic drop on the nerd. In Community, the nerd delivers the comic drop. As a nerd, I’m going to like Community much more than the Big Bang Theory.”
It felt like all my opinions on these shows were suddenly validated and it suddenly made sense to me. But then it got me thinking about the status of nerds.
Nerds, as a whole are actually getting more popular. Professing yourself as a nerd now gives you somewhat of a status. But if shows like tBBT are still the public popular shows then how many people are actually nerds when they say they are?
Community is considered a cult show, in that it has a close following and the people who like it really like it. They watch every episode, usually multiple times and finding another fan always makes them smile. I would argue that fans of Community are, generally, nerds.
I personally define nerds as people who are unironically enthusiastic about the the things that they love, and they are not afraid to show that enthusiasm. But where is that line drawn? Are all readers of Harry Potter nerds or are only the people who can tell us what scene the only vampire in the series is in a nerd? Harry Potter is a very mainstream pop culture trend, but the people who love it really love it. I consider myself a Harry Potter nerd, because I can tell you where the vampire shows up, I can also show extensive fanfiction that I’ve written on the series as well as quote certain passages. I’ve never felt more like a failure in life than when I don’t know something about Harry Potter.
But most people are not nerds to that extent. In fact, some people watch tBBT and then turn around and claim they themselves are nerds. My ultimate question is if these two trends can be reconciled, or if nerds becoming cool is essentially a faux trend.
If I had to argue for one, I’d argue for the second one. Mostly because I, as a nerd, cannot feel comfortable sitting through and episode of tBBT because it feels like they are insulting me, and how are they not when they are insulting the things that I enjoy most out of life? (I’m sorry, but if you thoughtlessly insult my favorite book series or television show I will mostly likely want to maim you.) So the idea that nerds are becoming cool feels fake to me, because society cannot accept them as cool if they don’t accept that people like me are actually nerds and talk for hours about the character development in Battlestar Galactica or how Firefly should not have been cancelled.
I’m not saying that nerds aren’t accepted, I’m just saying that they are not a pop culture phenomenon like the world seems to be trying to say. I think that nerds have a lot of metaphorical social ladders that need to be climbed before they get into the vicinity of cool.
