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| Gilbert and Lewis: Our Heroes |
The age of
the nerd is upon us. Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Scott
Pilgrim vs. The World, Battlestar
Galactica, Glee, Pixar movies, vampire
movies, video games – heck, the entire freakin’ Internet – all of these things
are evidence of the arrival of the Nerd Age.
The Information Age is the Nerd Age in most aspects. EBay anyone? E-Trade? B2B? Need I continue? The real question is, are you 1337 or are you n00b? And, furthermore, “Are
you ready for some football?”
To quote Wikipedia – another nerd invention,
BTW – “nerd is a term that refers to a person who avidly pursues intellectual activities, technical or scientific endeavors, esoteric knowledge, or other obscure
interests, rather than engaging in moresocial or conventional activities.” Star Wars, Star Trek, and D&D jokes
aside, the “obscure knowledge” is a phrase I would take issue with. In the age of blogs, podcasts, and the global
information economy, there is no such thing as obscure knowledge – simply knowledge
that has a very specific market for people who, well, want to go really really
deeply into a subject.
The best example the explosive growth of the nerd ethos into new
and surprising areas is fantasy football.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, The Football Nerd. Last year, ESPN estimated that each year some
27 million people play fantasy football of one sort or another – and one would
assume that the vast majority of them are US citizens. This means that some 9 percent of the
population of the country is playing, with an average of 9 hours a week spent
on watching games, following players and stats, and working out trades and other
player transactions within fantasy football leagues. Perhaps, dear reader, you are already
lost. This only proves just how far nerd
culture has penetrated into the lives of those of you who, as they say, have a
real life.
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| Keep the Faith: Mint in the box. |
I must admit to my own nerd tendencies. I am 41 years old. I have a comic book collection tucked away in
the closet. As I type this, I am
surrounded by several hundred jazz and blues CDs. Nearby sits my 2004
commemorative Boston Red Sox World Series Champs Monopoly game and my Red
Sox-Yankees rivalry chess set. I have
played fantasy baseball for some 12 seasons, although now I belong to one
competitive league and, aside from draft day, I don’t obsess over it too much.
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| NERRRRRRDS! |
I played fantasy football for one season, and that was
enough. As fun as it was, and as good a
group of guys as I played with, a seasoned nerd like me simply could not keep
up with the serious Football Nerd. They
move fast, they hit hard, and they take no prisoners.
Some might say that it’s the ultimate revenge of the nerds. That specialized, obsessive approach, after
all, is what led to the ultimate triumph of Lewis Skolnick, Gilbert Lowe
and their pals over the jocks and preps from Alpha-Beta House in the
now-legendary 1984 film. The profound impact on nerd self-esteem was
documented in the 2003 film, American Splendor, based on
the life of the late, great comics nerd Harvey Pekar. In that film, the character of uber-nerd Toby
Radloff, played by comedy nerd Judah
Friedlander, speaks to the impact of Revenge
of the Nerds.
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| Toby and Judah: White Castle rocks. |
“It's about
a group of nerd college students who are being picked on all the time by the
jocks. So they decide to take revenge. . . I consider myself a nerd. And this
movie has uplifted me. There's this one scene, where a nerd grabs the
microphone during a pep rally and announces that he is a nerd and that he is
proud of it and stands up for the rights of other nerds. Then he asks all the kids at the pep
rally who think they are nerds to come forward, so nearly everybody in the
place does. That's the way the movie ends.”
Nearly everybody in the place.
Right on, Toby.
And now we have 27 million Football Nerds gearing up for the NCAA
and NFL seasons. There’s an FX comedy series – now in its second season, The League,that
is about a group of guys who play fantasy football. Oh, the wackiness! Who watches the show – Football Nerds, or the
people laughing at the Football Nerds? Some
men – and most of the players are men, sorry – are okay in their pigskin
dorkiness and have come out to their families, have given notice that they will
be unavailable on draft day and every Sunday from now until January. Others, sadly, keep it obscured or secret,
like Paul Rudd’s sad character in Knocked Up, a man who is
not cheating on his wife, but is in fact trying to get away for his fantasy
draft with his buddies. “No wives,”
shouts one of his friends when Rudd’s wife barges into the draft room. “No wives!”
And that’s just wrong.
So, to return to the original dichotomy of the cinematic classic, Revenge of the Nerds: Who wins
here? Also known as Nerdworld.
Gilbert and Lewis would be proud.
When you’re finished with your little pretend football team, big
guy, why don’t you get off your butt and go shine the yacht? We nerds will be in the man-cave watching Iron Man on the 60 inch plasma.
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