I like to listen to sports radio in the car when I drive.  Most folks who participate in that particular world were the same ones who liked to beat up the nerdy fantasy/sci-fi/goth/comic book fan-boy (or fill in the blank of your choice) back in high school for liking those sorts of things.

I had to laugh today when a caller was speaking to the host and made the following comment - "Who knew that local athlete who is always injured was going to have the healing powers of Wolverine?" when talking about how the team was going to fare this year.  And the host laughed and agreed with him.

Back in the day, we would have received strange looks - mostly likely with a "Who?" and then get stuffed in a locker for making such a comment...

With the movies, i place the comment based off the movie, rather than comicbook.

Even though movies have always had influence  - it was unpopular to be a Star Wars fan in the 80's & 90's (other than when the movies came out '77-84'ish and again in '99 - but that seems to be when the move started to take place).  I still find it surreal that nerdy pop culture has moved into the mainstream and seems here to stay.

Eh. I think the point is though that if you start talking about stuff that only happened in the comic books; that the movies hasn't touch, you'll still feel it.

FOr example; I've been a Doctor Who fan since before it was popular. But whilst talking about the modern series is now cool and popular; if you start talking about the older Doctors much, you'll still get a certain amount of ridicule.

This is because we 'Geek/Nerd' people have finally out numbered the jocks (or converted the jocks in to US).

In reply to willvr (msg # 4):

But 6 years ago if you talked Dr. Who to anyone (but fans), you'd get - WHO?

Unfortunately that is so very true - I remember seeing the original shows on tv - PBS only. They were good and got me hooked. Wish we have VCR's back then, as many of those shows have been lost to time (and cellophane degradation) [Doctor Who]
This message was last edited by the user at 23:48, Mon 18 Aug 2014.

Yeah; but it's less that it's become popular; as the people who were geeks growing up are now taking on major roles in TV/Moviedom. ANd they've adapted; meeting the general population halfway.

There are people horrified by what's been done to the Marvel universe in the quest to make it popular. I think it's less that Nerdom is cool/popular, and more that those Geeks and Nerds who now run stuff; also are making changes to make it seem more cool.

In reply to ShadoPrism (msg # 5):

I can assure you that's not the case. It's just that geeks now have more money than jocks. Funny how disposable income influences culture.

I think a more precise way to put it, and least offensive, is thatvthe things you thought were cool has gained more mainstream feels.

Geeks and nerds, in my definition, were those who obsessed in different ways towards things people as a general whole did not share appreciation for. Hipsters if you will.

An episode of Recess (Disney cartoon) highlighted it best. When the main protagonist, TJ, was forced to miss recess and stay inside with "the nerds" to his horror, he found they were not so bad and they had one common trait: Appreciation for Señor Fusion, a comic book. From there he got inducted into the analogue of dnd. Yet, you would not call TJ a geek or nerd in any sense.
This message was last edited by the user at 04:14, Tue 19 Aug 2014.

Creativity is always shunned before it is appreciated.  Many times a nerd/geek gets beaten is due to the words coming out of their mouths before they consider the situation they are in.  Sometimes the best RPGer considers the impact of their words in a fantasy setting far more than they do the impact of their words in real life.

If you don't live in a city, it's still the case in lots of places. In Seattle for instance, everyone knows all the scifi pop culture icons. However if you talk scifi to anyone outside of the bigger cities, you'll still get a 'what the fruit is that?' sort of message.

It has come into the mainstream but not everywhere.

In reply to spectre (msg # 12):

Totally disagree.  These days the internet has introduced those scifi icons to everyone with a connection to the internet.  Which is everyone.  I live in a town of 5000 in the Midwest of the US and I still know 5 people who declare themselves bronies.  And those are just the ones who admit it.

Just because you're in a city doesn't mean you're more in touch with popular culture these days.

... no.

I have been in small country towns in rural Australia where admitting you read comics; or play DnD; or whatever, would still lead to ridicule at the least.

I also live in the largest city in Australia; and do not know a single person who considered themselves bronies. In fact; that's one of the few things that will still have people raising an eyebrow at.

In reply to willvr (msg # 14):

So... because Australia?

I guess I'll take your word for it.  I just never saw a lack of population determine the IQs of those around you.  Not to mention that ridicule of people occurs everywhere.  Pretty much any behavior pattern outside any personal norm will be ridiculed.  I just have never seen the persecution factor attributed to the original post.  Do people laugh?  Hell yeah.  But is that bad?  Does it hurt?  No.  They just don't like the kicks you like.  That sort of thing is everywhere.

Roleplaying games aren't mainstream yet, not like video games.  Most people I know would think it very strange if they knew I played D&D, and they'd have no idea what GURPS is.  It's cool to like Star Wars or play a video game RPG like Knights of the Old Republic, but not to play a SW tabletop RPG.  That's definitely not mainstream.  The SW miniatures games are probably somewhere in the middle.  Most people would probably be open-minded about playing them.  They're not that far removed from board games like Risk.
This message was last edited by the user at 05:10, Tue 19 Aug 2014.

In reply to Tlaloc (msg # 13):

 Of course your mileage may vary, but I live in a smaller town than you where the predominant population is mill workers. They make fun of people who like to play video games, so I'm telling you that macho is still alive and well in small towns where they don't know how to use those computers and those guys that do, well, they aren't to be trusted. They are 'computer people' and even though everyone needs a computer these days to use 'the Facebook', why do they have to cost so dang much...

 That's the town I live in, in one of the most progressive states in the union, Washington state. ^_^

I'll debate, to some degree, the fact that being a Star Wars fan in the 80's and 90's got you ridicule...because other popular films were routinely making references to Star Wars (Beverly Hills Cop 2--"So, are you driving?  Or are you, like, using the Force or something?!", Twister--"That's no moon, that's a space station!", etc).  A lot of the 'traditional terrain' for geeks and nerds has been slowly gaining in popularity over time.  I'd just started working at an amusement park when the first X-Men movie came out...and all of these otherwise 'cool kids' that were singers, dancers, actors, in rock bands, etc were all chafing at the bit to go see it.  We've had a whole string of highly successful comic-book-based movies (not just the Marvel ones...there have been several that started out as titles under DC's 'Vertigo' imprint) that have made a lot of people go, "Wait...that's what comic books are?  Man, maybe I should check that out..."

And then there's the TV shows...Smallville put Superman back in the mainstream spotlight again, and paved the way for a lot of successors.  Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly both got the attention of a lot of people who would otherwise likely have steered clear of 'geek country'.  And I've lost track of how many seasons of Big Bang Theory we've had now, which has popularized almost everything in the world of geek-chic.

The long and short of it, though, I think, is that pop culture is steered, largely, by geeks, now.  They/We write the scripts for TV, run many of the production facilities, have infiltrated Hollywood, and control most of the entertainment sites online.  We have become a major force in telling the world what 'cool' is supposed to be.  I'd even argue that something like playing D&D, while still regarded as geeky, is becoming accepted in the mainstream, because there are a lot of people in Hollywood who've fessed up to being gamers...if Vin Diesel can play D&D, it's not THAT 'alternative' anymore.

It's the Information Age...and it's pretty much always been the geeks and nerds that have controlled, in some measure, the flow of information.  So it seems only natural that their hobbies and interests have colored mainstream culture.  And it's not like it's a universal thing, either...I mean, I've always considered myself something of a geek, from way back when, and all of my friends were.  But there are still people I meet, work with, etc that make me sit back and go, "Wow...you are REALLY a geek, aren't you?"

I'd like to state that while I am both, a 'jock' (if you will, due to my later decisions in life) and a very overt nerd (always have been) I would have and still would shove you in a locker for mentioning Dr. Who.  I absolutely despise that show's fans.  NOT the show.  Just the fans.

I never counted nerd and geek as the same thing.
"Nerd" to me means the obsessive, socially inept guy who lives for the numbers/science.
"Geek" is a person who has an enthusiastic niche interest like RPGs, computer games, sci-fi and fantasy movies.

So, nerdom is still not popular. Some things from geekdom have been popularised because, in my opinion, the writers are fans targetting the mainstream. It's written by people who care for people who have no base knowledge of the canon.

I think some proper geeks kick up a fuss purely out of jealousy: they don't want to share this prized thing with the undeserving. On the other hand 'casual geek' is okay in most areas now because my generation has grown up on computer games and movies. But they're not really geeks; not the trebuchet building, cosplay constructing, fanfic writing, theory spinning, trivia font geeks. It's just not considered childish or frivilous any more to like sci-fi.

Eh, the definitions of geeks and nerds overlap in a lot of areas.  Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are called both geeks and nerds.  Both words are associated with a love of technology and things like comic books and science fiction.  When I was a wee lad, the terms nerd, geek, dork, and dweeb all represented different subspecies of the same broad species, the outsider.  Band nerds and band geeks are basically interchangeable terms, as are comic book nerds and comic book geeks.  In fact, the surest sign I know of someone being a need/geek is the tendency to want to talk about how nerds and geeks are similar or dissimilar.  =)

In reply to Mad Mick (msg # 21):

Exactly.  I may be a geek/nerd, but I'm not the same as those geeks/nerds.  They're much more geeky/nerdy than me.

And as Bill Gates said in his rules for life speech for teenagers - Be nice to the nerd in your class, the chances are you will end up working for them.

Truth.

But I cannot condone the cosplay fanatics.  Key word in that being fanatics.  Sorry folks, just can't do it.  Cosplay itself is fun, but some people take it way too far.  It's just like LARPing.  Who doesn't want to be a big kid and go smack another big kid around with a foam sword?  I say keep stats all you want, throw your magic missile, become the game for a day or two if that's up your alley.  But there's a difference between good old fashioned fun and being weird.