When did geek become chic?

[Caraccioli]

First off, if you think being labelled a geek is an insult, you probably shouldn't read this. It'll just irritate you. Personally I think it's a badge of honor of sorts. It means you don't quite fit in and that is something for which I believe we should all strive. Fight the power.

So we're all pals around here, right? Even if pals isn't the term, we at least maintain a healthy respect for each other as many of us are known to carry long sharpened implements on our person as an expression of what we believe is good wholesome fun. Yet a bunch of us (me included) who post in this particular forum are what would have traditionally been defined as geeks. Am I right or am I right?

But it's cool now - at least it seems cool (Nobody's told me differently, so I am either ignorant or right. Perhaps I am ignorantly right. Or rightously ignorant. Possibly both.) Look at the sort of topics do we have floating around in here. There are some on Star Wars fans (definitely geek chic), Star Trek (off the scale), D&D playing (You do what?), LOTR (the new g-c movie), a movie quotes game that I should be embarrassed to know so much about, Bond, Conan, Indy, chaos theory and particle physics (ok, those last two are mostly me talking to myself. Hey, I figure if you can't entertain yourself, you're in trouble). This isn't the kind of stuff Paris Hilton does. At least I don't think she does. (If any of you are actually Paris Hilton, fess up.)

Not that I'm recommending that we act like Paris Hilton (keep your home movies to yourself, thanks), but she's apparently cool. (This is the sort of notion you get when you read the purple section of USA Today for four days running.) Even if she's not cool, the media wants us to think she's cool and they should know what they want us to think.

So I'm wondering a couple of things.

First, are we pirate fans (including AF collectors, GURP players, miniture-makers, Disney addicts, costume detail fanatics and pop-movie fans) just the sort of people that just like this stuff and hanging out here is a natural extension of ourselves?

Second, is the coolness implied just a function of the web, where all the chic geeks can gather and discuss such notions while all the 'cool' people (at least that's what they probably think they are) are off doing whatever it is they do and are unaware of the pirate web communities? (Although I did read in the purple section of USA Today that Paris has a Blackberry.)

Third, is there a significant shift going on in society and we're all becoming so fascinated with such things that it is now what's cool and I just didn't happen to notice since I started out on this road anyhow?

Fourth, now that I no longer have to read USA Today, can I go back to not giving an flying flip about Paris Hilton?

[Capt Grey]

The "geeks" of previous generations have been breeding so that now we have multiple generations of "geeks". We shall overcome!

Also, geeks - formerally called "nerds" in my day - are running multi-billion dollar software companies, changing the face of our society with technology, and being some of the most brilliant minds are finally winning the respect they deserve.

The recent slate of comic books being turned into movies has won us more publicity and certainly high-profile projects like Lord of the Rings and the upcoming Chronicles of Narnia will create more converts.

Geeks Rule!

[Dorian Lasseter]

Hmm...

I seem to be one of the folks caught unawares...

Then again, I work at a Science Center (geeky/nerdy in itself), work on/with robots, computers, etc., all the time.. (Geek-o-meter is going up!)

used to play all them RPG's and paint the miniatures... (Geek-o-meter is in the red!)

Yet... I've never been called a geek/nerd... maybe it's the long hair... no, no that can't be it.... leather jacket, maybe?

Dunno... I give up...

Gonna go put together some new Pirates of the Spanish Main ships now...

[Caraccioli]

I have personally never liked the term "nerds. " I rarely use it.

Just imagine trying to write poetry and rhyme that one...

[Bonnie Red Weasel]

I quickly thought up words, birds, Kurds, thirds, and herds...

And I'm not sure what you're talking about. I'm not a geek! You all are? Maybe I'm too cool to hang out here...

[Pirate Petee]

I think there is a big difference between geek and nerd. Geeks liking the RPG's, star wars and the such, while nerds venture off into techy type stuff. Now the word "cool" has way different meanings, for example; jocks and indi rockers, both kind of considered cool, well from a high school mentality, but both very different. Also region determines cool, what is cool in Southern California may differentiate then what’s cool in say Topeka Kansas. Age as well, the older you get the less cool matters. Yeah, I'm a cool geek.

[Duchess]

I think you actually argued yourself out of your main point.

When the likes of Paris Hilton put on "funny" costume clothes and go to a renaissance festival or con then geek will be chic.

[Rumba Rue]

Well for someone who changed his name from Mission to Caraccioli - which by the way sounds like some kind of stuffed pasta- ( ), me thinks you be thinking too much.

I AM NOT A STAR WARS GEEK! Just because I have the license plate that says StarWrs, doesn't mean I'm wierder that swiss cheese! I'm not a sci-fi book reader, I don't have every friggin' toy associated with the movie, I don't even have a costume (though I'm sure Capt. Grey would like to remedy that situation for me) or lightsabre stuff.

I am not technically smart either, but I do like the technical camera things that have evolved from the original movie to what we have now, that's why I have the plate! I appreciate how far we have come and how far we have yet to go!

To infinity and beyond!

[Caraccioli]

I had a main point? Paris Hilton has the weirdest looking eyelashes. They've got to be fake or something and wouldn't be period. You know, I used to subscribe to USA Today. I can't remember why... I know it wasn't to read about Paris or Josh Holloway.

I'll have you know that Caraccioli was Captain Misson's spiritual and amoral guide. He was an ex-priest. Sah there. (Besides, it sounds a little like a dessert to me.)

[Durty Mick Moon]

owch!...there ye be off goin' agin' givin' me a headache, askin' me ta be thinkin' agin......I be sidin' wi' Rumba here.....methinks ye think too much...meybe ye aren't drinkin' enough, mate, 'r drinkin' at all.....but ye shows imagination 'n I likes that....now I not be any kind o' geek, freak, nerd 'r turd....but I be jes kind o' a cool dude 'n a loose mood, 'n Paris ain't cool in me own book, too skinny 'n stupid....but geek to me sounds sort o' eccentric 'n I like that . 'N "coolness" is all relative anyway, I be thinkin', a yellow frog be lookin' way cool ta another yellow frog, know what I be meanin'?....now ye gots me soberin' up agin......

[Bonnie Red Weasel]

I think there is a big difference between geek and nerd. Geeks liking the RPG's, star wars and the such, while nerds venture off into techy type stuff. Now the word "cool" has way different meanings, for example; jocks and indi rockers, both kind of considered cool, well from a high school mentality, but both very different.

Hmmm....I like RPGs, StarWars, techy type stuff, and I sang, for a very short time, with an indie rock band. What does that make me?

[Dorian Lasseter]

SO... to stray a bit...

Caraccioli... how ye pronounce tha'?

Ka-rah-kee-o-lee?

Ka-ratch-ee-o-ly?

Had a fella I went ta school with... named Caracciolo

pronounced Ca-ra-cha-low... but got Ca-ra-ki-ol-ee-oh alot....

I ain't I-talian, but I c'n figure it out.... I think... looks I-talian...

[Durty Mick Moon]

I think there is a big difference between geek and nerd. Geeks liking the RPG's, star wars and the such, while nerds venture off into techy type stuff. Now the  word "cool" has way different meanings, for example; jocks and indi rockers, both kind of considered cool, well from a high school mentality, but both very different.

Hmmm....I like RPGs, StarWars, techy type stuff, and I sang, for a very short time, with an indie rock band. What does that make me?

flexible?.....pliable?......versatile?....well developed?.....jill of all trades?....

renaissance woman?.....easily coerced?....indecisive?.....confused?...

[tishsparrow]

oh, i fit into geek quite well... im that girl who sits in the corner near the window and can write in elvish (still cant speak it... working on that though). i'm even in the middle of writing a local LARP rulebook (granted, its not half as complicated as most of them, but it still is hard to create a quasi-fictional semi-nonexistant world, especially as i havent really been to a larp event).

my geek accomplishments include: belonging to a cartoon club (and volunteering my rainbow brite video for the last meeting), reenacting history, knowing more than my history teacher ( ), compulsive collecting of random junk that i know will be valuable eventually, miniatures, knowing the true meanings of classic nursery rhymes, and the many volumes of random trivia that is of no real use and is a direct result of how i spend half my time at home on the internet.

[Bonnie Red Weasel]

flexible?.....pliable?......versatile?....well developed?.....jill of all trades?....

renaissance woman?.....easily coerced?....indecisive?.....confused?...

a number of those terms describe me quite well

[Pirate Petee]

I think there is a big difference between geek and nerd. Geeks liking the RPG's, star wars and the such, while nerds venture off into techy type stuff. Now the  word "cool" has way different meanings, for example; jocks and indi rockers, both kind of considered cool, well from a high school mentality, but both very different.

Hmmm....I like RPGs, StarWars, techy type stuff, and I sang, for a very short time, with an indie rock band. What does that make me?

Cool geek, played rythm guitar in a band and was jock and RPGS.

[Caraccioli]

"Some years ago, the late Nobel prize-winning Dr. Albert Schweitzer was asked by a reporter, “Doctor, what’s wrong with men today? The great doctor was silent a moment, and then he said, 'Men simply don’t think!'"

-Earl Nightingale, The Strangest Secret

I never want to be guilty of that. I'm paid to think. It's also my hobby.

I haven't a lick of Italian blood in my veins. So I called the only Caraccioli I could find in the phone book and they said it as Car-ah-chi-oh-li. Only the chi-oh were kinda merged together, almost as one syllable.

I should join a cartoon club. I never knew they existed. Has anyone ever seen the much reviled Coal Black an' de Sebben Dwarfs? How about Der Fuehrer's Face with Donald Duck? I'd like to see them just to see if they're worth all the fuss that's kicked up over them.

[Red-Handed Jill]

I tend to differentiate geek and nerd thusly: a geek is someone who is into something esoteric, that the "mainstream" people aren't into (or into so much.) A nerd is someone like that, but who is also socially inept.

I was a professional "computer geek" for nineteen years. That got to be considered "cool" during the 90's, when everyone wanted to work in the computer industry because that was where the perceived the money was. The market was flooded with all these hopefuls and then the Dot.com became the Dot.bomb and these hopefuls then ran over to real estate and now the market is flooded with an over-abundance of beginner realtors. I haven't seen whether the "realtor geeks" have gotten the same cache that the "computer geeks" got.

[Diego Santana de la Vega]

the first time I ever heard either expression (Geek / Nerd) was forty years or more ago. Pencil necked geek! But I too remember by definition Ozzie Osborne making the saying very popular in the early seventies. (you know when he did that geek thing on stage) but nerds were pocket protecting geeks in high school they were ALL on the chess team and in post trig classes as well. Most were developing entries for the science faire by age nine. Pencil necked geek or a pocket protecting nerd? I believe they be similar but they aren't the same....

Thanks Oz

[tishsparrow]

nerd usually is associated with smart kids, and geek is usually anyone who doesnt fit in.

and Caracciolli, the cartoon club i was talking about is an after school thing i go to. we sit and eat doritos and drink soda and watch mostly 80's and 90's stuff that got cancelled, like rainbow brite and rocko's modern life and stuff like that.

[Caraccioli]

Oy. There's a reason that stuff got cancelled... The early 80s were the era of the half-hour product placements disguised as cartoons. It looked to me like was a vast cartoon wasteland until '93 when the Animaniacs premiered. And things didn't really get truly good until Pinky and the Brain were spun off and Freakazoid and Batman the Animated series appeared. (IMO, of course.) The Smurfs were ok...but they were just ok.

[The Doctor]

To me, nerds are socially awkward nebbishes that push their glasses up and grope for their tricorder whenever a member of the female persuasion approaches. I find myself apologizing for these poor souls by stating that they really don't know how to approach any woman that's not inflatable.

Geeks are anyone so into their own little world that they constantly relate anything anyone says or does into frame of reference that directly correlates to their said little world. Also, they don't reaaly get excited about anything unless it directly relates to their own interest in an unusual or essential non-mainstream way. To wit: I ran across a Christmas carol where they mention having sufficient powder and shot, cannon and ball, to spread their joyous Yuletide message. I'll look it up and post it for everyone's enjoyment.

Aye, that would make me a pyrate geek. And bloody proud of it!

[Deadeye]

Ok Petee.., what to call an avid Star War/ Pirate/ Comic Book Fanboy who greases his hair, listens to rockabilly and drives retro hot rods, Works for "the Man" (navy) and is obsessed with zoology?

I call him Deadeye..AKA Zac.

[Christine]

Anyone ever heard the word skippy? Means the same thing, nerd, geek, fanboy, etc? And what's worse than just a regular skippy......a rich skippy! Like Peter Jackson and his skippiness with King Kong. I was watching the remastered 1933 King Kong with friends on dvd last weekend. On the special features had Peter showing how he did a lost scene. He spent a lot of money to make it look authentic and all that. Such a skippy-lol!

[tishsparrow]

skippy? never heard that one. how about otaku? its japanese for someone obsessed or a fanatic. mostly only anime fans use this, but some people have called me it (in referece to the whole pirate thing)