I've been listening to "It's hip to be square" by Huey Lewis And The News and it's just added to some thoughts I've been having lately. Has the whole "geek" / "nerd" thing suddenly become much more.... popular? It's just it seems like popular culture seems to be going through a massive faze of celebrating things that wouldn't have been so accesible before.
I suppose the main thing that's braught my attention to this is the massive amount of Comic book films that are getting made. Now I know this isn't a new type of film by any means but the sheer volume of characters getting big screen time has got me thinking. It seems that while a love of comic book characters may not have seemed "cool" before but now, thanks to these big budget blockbusters no one is hiding their love of these amazing characters. Everywhere I go theres superhero t shirts being worn proudly.
When I think of the Spider-man movies, the first two in particular gave us a lovable geek in Tobey Maguire. The massive appeal about Spider-man in his comics was that he was meant to be a symbol of the average reader. So his appeal was always very large among the comic book fan world. The films acted as an even larger medium and braught him to the attention of a larger audience and it was mostly considered a success. People liked the sweetness of the awkward guy cursed with responsibilities beyond his control. They liked it because they could see themselves in him.
The Dark Knight is being hailed as a film that's not just a good comic book adaptation but just a good movie! It completely transcends the genre and works as a crime thriller. People aren't seeing it as somewhat handicapped because of where it has come from. So many times I've heared people say this about a comic movie; "Yeah it's good.... for a comic book movie" but not with The Dark Knight.
I realise my ideas about this are a little bit all over the place. It's just been on my mind lately how the whole "geek" culture is seeming to be celebrated lately.
However I am also considering the counter arguement to this, maybe it always has been this popular. When I think of the 60's Batman series, that was really popular and not just to the average comic book fans either. Maybe my point is completely pointless and I'm prepared to accept that perhaps I'm looking at this way too generally. It's just a thought I've wanted to share and I'd like to see what you guys think about this?

I think to some extent, it is becoming more socially acceptable to be a bit nerdy.

Although with comic books, they've always been fairly popular with a huge number of people. And the people who are obsessed with them are still looked on as weird.

The same thing applies with video games. Saying you play them is almost the norm for a guy in America (and a lot of females too). But it's still considered really weird if you're a hard-core gamer. Not just someone with one game that they spend too much time on, but someone who owns almost every gaming system, and played hundreds of hours on hundreds of games? Still thought of as weird.

And some nerdy things haven't been main streamed (much or at all). TCGs such as Magic the Gathering, World of Warcraft, etc are all still viewed as very nerdy. Chess still falls into that category. Dungeons and Dragons does too.


(Just for the record, I do all of those (except chess) a lot... )

I never really thought of it as "geek" before. It was more a "child" thing for me, given that they were often used in selling children's items. Now it has become more and more common for items targetting adults to come out - giving it a more serious image and not just some childhood hobby. Even the movies, although the kids can still enjoy it, weren't completely trashed to fit the children's super hero idea...they show the depth of the characters too (something that is skipped when you make cartoonish versions).

You're right, it was also often viewed as a kids' thing. For that matter, a lot of things are considered okay for kids, and nerdy for adults.

People are often saying that TCGs are for little kids, even though most of the people at tournaments are high school age at the youngest.