The Onion: 20 pop-cultural obsessions even geekier than Monty Python

[flvegan]

11. World Of Warcraft

Similarly, the vast number of variables in complicated video games like World Of Warcraft call out for serious wankery, as players choose races, classes, professions, specializations, guilds, abilities, and strategies, then grind their way obsessively toward becoming the ass-kickingest of the virtual ass-kickers. Five minutes in a room with any two World Of Warcraft players will drive any non-player mad, amid jargony babble like "Next time we run MC, sheep one of the core hounds while I rush in and pull aggro. Damn, I wish they hadn't nerfed paladins." That's if the players are actually talking, rather than editing together funny little WoW videos for YouTube, reading the WoW comic, shopping online for WoW collectable figures, playing the WoW board or card game, or, more likely, silently hitting their 14th straight hour of playing WoW.

19 more at:

http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/the_knights_who_say_nerd_20_pop

No offense, WoW players, this entry just struck me as funny. And for the record, I LOVE Monty Python, and I'm not a geek.

No, I'm not.

[DS1]

1. I have 2 WoW players in my office

in cubes next to each other, and it sure can be maddening.

[BarenakedLady]

2. *sob*

Imzadi weeps



Liesl too



Yes, I am.

[Inchworm]

21. Imzadi is hawt!

jest sayin :)

Flirt- Flirt- Flirt- :loveya:

Cool drawing on the Liesl Gnome :)

:hug::hi::hug:

[BarenakedLady]

25. Thank you

I did it for my drawing class sketchbook last semester. My professor was a gamer geek, so I thought he'd get a kick out of it. He did. :D

[Runcible Spoon]

69. A FREAKIN GNOME WARLOCK???!!!???!!

WHAT SERVER ARE YOU ON I WILL XFER MY UD LOCK AND GANK YOU AND CAMP YOU AND ALL OF YOUR GUILDIES!!!! :rofl:

[HuskerDU]

3. Haha- that was some funny stuff flvegan.

I gotta add one that zings people like me. Fansites for obscure cult rock-n-roll figures. I am a member of the Johnny Thunders forum, Chatterbox. Some of the stuff over there reads like that old SNL skit about Mr Belvedere fans, "It is ok to be a fan of Johnny, but it is not ok to buy his old clothes off eBay and pretend to be Johnny!"

Gotta laugh at yourself once in a while!

[mitchum]

10. I've never visited Chatterbox, but I used to drop into the Thunders...

Cyber Lounge
There was also some hilarious stuff over there. I would always get a kick out of people who asked if anyone had the guitar tablature for specific songs. Tablature? It's a Thunders song...it's gonna be some variation on I IV V! And that's what makes them great.

[HuskerDU]

11. The Cyber Lounge was great. Chatterbox pretty much took

over when the CL went dead.

There are so many great JT stories over there. I like the one where JT asks Steve Stevens up on stage. Stevens plugs in his guitar and starts wanking a bunch of crap. JT grabs his guitar and says, "It's not what you play, it's what you don't play." Yup, that's what made JT so great.

[mitchum]

13. "It's not what you play, it's what you don't play."...a-freakin'-men!

That awareness is another thing that Johnny had in common with Chet Baker and Miles Davis

[HuskerDU]

14. You should drop into Chatterbox sometime mitchum. I wouldn't

be surprised if you bumped into some old friends. Lots of good eggs over there.

[noonwitch]

4. That's funny-I have a friend who is both a Star Trek and Rocky Horror geek

I went to see Rocky Horror with her once during my freshman year of college. She asked me the next day if I liked it and what I thought of it. I said "The music is fun, and it was a great spoof of lame 50s horror and sci/fi flicks." She asked me if I got a deeper meaning out of it, so I said "conformity to social mores is constricting for some people". She then told me I was still a virgin to the Rocky Horror experience because I didn't get the deeper meaning of the movie.


About 10 years later, we were watching ST-TNG at her mom's house during a family party. She and her sister's boyfriend got into an argument about the episode-I don't remember which one (I liked the show but am not a geek about it), but I remember the sister's boyfriend was right. I made the mistake of arguing on his side.

[Chovexani]

7. Margaret Cho once said

That you'll run into exactly the same people at Trek cons, Ren faires, and kink bars/parties. And she's right. :rofl:

[momophile]

24. this is so true except add Society for Creatism Anachronism

to the Ren Faires.

I used to know several people involved in all three - Star Trek, SCA and Rocky Horror.

[petronius]

26. So what is the deeper meaning?

:shrug:

I've never seen the movie, but I'd like to know what life-changing lesson I'm missing out on...

[lastliberalintexas]

32. The river is deep, but you can swin it

so long as you are wearing your special frankencreated transvestite garters. Plain as day.

[petronius]

53. Good to know - I'll meditate on that until it becomes part of my psyche

In fact, I think I'll get it tattooed on my coccyx. :)

[Fox Mulder]

5. My god...I'm a geek...

[baldguy]

6. Trek in nerdier than Who?

I don't think so.

[muriel_volestrangler]

57. The widespread obsession with 'Klingon' as a language?

That's nerdy. Very, very nerdy.

[HughBeaumont]

8. You could probably add Tool's fans to this.

Some scary, bordering-on-Trekkie bastages there.

[bicentennial_baby]

12. Hey now...

:spank:

[HughBeaumont]

15. You have to concede that some of them are WWAAAAAY the hell over-obsessive with anything May-nerd.

Spankings hurt. Especially since it looks like he's getting spanked in the BACK!

To me, they're just Neurosis/Lysol-era Melvins lite. Not the next coming of Led Zeppelin, but OK for this era.

[Phillycat]

9. Wow, the original Trek only had 80 episodes?

That's amazing, considering some people who've woven an entire life's tapestry from those 80.

[krispos42]

16. Yup, only ran three seasons.

Powerful stuff, huh?

[Dukkha]

37. Futurama had the same length of series run

and it is a certified cult classic now with a huge following. Except anyone can be a Futurama fan without fear of ridicule.

[LeftyMom]

40. But Futurama fans don't have conventions and write Zoidberg/Professor slashfic.

At least I hope they don't. If they do, I beg you not to tell me.

[Phillycat]

60. Oh, REALLY.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=futurama+slashfic

[LeftyMom]

17. I resemble that list a bit much.

:blush:

/me hides ren fair garb

[philosophie_en_rose]

23. Me too

Hides the dalek in the TARDIS...

[xmas74]

54. You have a TARDIS?

You bitch!

Just wait 'til you fall asleep. I'm breaking in and releasing that damn dalek on you. Once it exterminates you (and it will) I'm stealing your TARDIS and I'm traveling through time and space on my own-preferably while wearing Tom Baker's scarf. (The only reason I learned how to knit!)

//now time to shut the hell up and quit proving what a geek I really am.

[philosophie_en_rose]

55. Just a very little one.

It's bigger on the inside, though.

And I fling John Simm's metal round things at you. :P

[xmas74]

58. I bet it's quite a bit bigger on the inside.

And I just promised John Smith that I would be his new companion so you can't do that!

[philosophie_en_rose]

59. Good luck with that.

Are you sure you wouldn't like a nice job in Cardiff?

[xmas74]

63. I don't think so.

Sarah Jane seems to have done just fine for herself, thankyouverymuch. She traveled and then became a reporter.

[philosophie_en_rose]

68. Fine. Trust Mr. Smith, then.

See how that works out for you, then. *cue evil music*

[xmas74]

72. I plan on becoming one of the lucky ones.

Think of the fantastic stories I could tell!

I prefer the classic Mr.Smith but the current Mr. Smith is rather hawt.

[TheMightyFavog]

18. No MST3k DAPers and tape/disc traders on this list?

For shame! MST3K is as about as geeky as you can get! Throw in the Digital Archive Project and the tradition of tape trading, and it would be right up there!

Damn, I'm actually complaining about this list, right after I published a note about this on my facebook.

[Deja Q]

19. Which is why the new WHO will never qualify

13. Doctor Who

As nerdy as a Star Trek fan can be, the potential nerdiness of the Doctor Who fan is far greater. That's not a knock on the quality of either show (please, let's not start that debate), but the result of two other factors: Trek's much greater mainstream success, with half a dozen TV series and 10 feature films boosting the brand, means that when someone says "Beam me up, Scotty," at least people know what the hell they're referencing. The relative obscurity of Doctor Who, especially in the days when it was only viewable in America on PBS, kept it further underground. And the fact that the central character of Doctor Who is a flamboyant eccentric who wears things like a 25-foot scarf or a piece of celery on his lapel, whereas Star Trek favors dashing ladies' men in uniform—well, at best, you can say that one encourages individualism where the other encourages conformity. But dress like the Doctor in real life, and your ensemble is only barely missing a KICK ME sign. (That's less true of the new BBC series, at least.)

Emphasis added, of course...

[Deja Q]

20. Game show tape traders?!

15. Game-show tape trading

Pity the poor game-show fans, who've been either pandered to or ignored by the major networks for the past decade, and have seen their one TV refuge—the Game Show Network—gradually shed its retro programming in favor of less appealing originals. So the stalwarts gather on the Internet, offering videocassettes and DVD-Rs of Classic Concentration and The Joker's Wild, and comparing notes about the greatest hosts, the greatest contestants, the greatest celebrity guests, and the greatest eras of long-running series. And the really faithful gather in person at the Game Show Congress in Los Angeles, where they attend panels, meet legends, and play the games themselves. The ranks of those who remember Bullseye and Blockbusters may be dwindling, but they're all going to go down together.

:wow:

:cry:


Star Trek sux!

[Inchworm]

22. That is funny to read

and soooo true if you've ever been around someone or ARE the one activly playing a MMORPG, you'd know. :D

:thumbsup:

[pokerfan]

27. The University of Washington

plays the most WoW:

http://mapwow.com/blog/2006/05/university-of-washington-plays-most.html

That is just sad.

[fudge stripe cookays]

28. OK, I just pissed myself laughing at this one...

re: zombies

Zombie Walk
by Javeyjoe

There's a zombie walk in Vancouver that was crazy when I saw it, like 500 "zombies walking all over a busy street, stopping traffic and pounding on windshields. They had a chant, I swear to God, that went like this:
What do we want?!
Brains!
When do we want it?!
Brains!!!
I walked by an old lady who was utterly dumbfounded by what she was seeing and a guy walks by her and goes:
"It's fucking Zombies, lady! Don't worry about it."

[Chovexani]

45. I've never been to a zombie walk, though I've been invited

I WAS a human dot in a giant live action Pac-Man game in Manhattan once, though. :hide:

[fudge stripe cookays]

29. multiple post

[fudge stripe cookays]

30. ack-- multiple post

[Chovexani]

31. I fit into so many of those fandoms/categories it's pretty sad

:rofl:

Let's see...

-Star Trek
-Ren faires
-Wikipedia (except it's not the actual Wikipedia, but the Wiki for the shared fanfic world I write in so--god I think it's worse :P)
-Battlestar Galactica
-Rocky Horror
-Joss Whedon
-Media-specific roleplaying (in various Final Fantasy universes)
-Magic: the Gathering (I played the summer it came out and a couple years more but then quit, but I still have metric buttloads of cards, many of which are signed by the artists).
-The Simpsons
-Doctor Who
-Anime (before it was mainstream, dammit.)
-Cosplaying
-Live action roleplaying
-Facebook/social networking sites (though I'm mostly on Livejournal and its various clones, and no I don't have a godsforsaken MySpace)

aaaand...

-Fanfic (and slash fic, at that) :hide:

The ONLY reason I have dodged the World of Warcraft bullet is because I play a MUD and didn't have time. I've had at least six people begging me to come play with them on their servers, though.

...holy god that's all of them except like, three isn't it? And I love Python too. Dear lord. :rofl:

[LeftyMom]

33. That list totally made me think of you.

You have me beat by a few.

I don't larp though, only tabletop. I'm into hobbies that I can do while sitting down in my pajamas and eating (come to think of it, sitting and eating ARE my hobbies.)

[flvegan]

38. Look, it's really

hard to behave here now.

I mean you and...you know, her...

I know...I'm an evil, bad person.

with an active imagination. w00t!

Yeah, going to hell. No biggie.

[LeftyMom]

39. Shut up.

:spank:

[Chovexani]

42. BAD FLVEGAN

NO SOUP FOR YOU!



:rofl: :hug:

[flvegan]

43. C'mon...I'm human

And you're really hawt.

I'm a victim I tell you!

[Chovexani]

44. Victim, my Drow ass!

:spank: :rofl:

[flvegan]

47. I have no response until I see your Drow ass!

Okay, I admit it. I have NO idea what a Drow ass is. This post was really just a cheap, pathetic ploy in hopes of seeing your ass.

I hope you can forgive.

[LeftyMom]

48. Oh Christ.

Drow= dark elves. They live underground. They're matriarchal.

People are going to think I don't teach you things. Silly boy.

[flvegan]

49. All I need to know, is that Chovexani mentioned her ass.

That very thought will carry me for a few days. Or weeks...months...depends, really.

[LeftyMom]

50. You must have missed her Halloween pic, or you'd know what Drow are.

It didn't include her ass (duh) but it's totally worth the fussing with advanced search to go find it.

[flvegan]

51. No, I saw it.

Wasn't really concerned with any terminology other than, "hot damn but that's a great looking woman".

[Chovexani]

65. You guys are seriously making me blush

And that's hard to do with my complexion. :P

[Chovexani]

62. LOL

Here's the long version on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drow_%28Dungeons_%26_Dragons%29

The short version: black-skinned, white-haired Elves with attitude. They're so mean and cranky that their hippie forest dwelling cousins banished them underground. The society's matriarchal and is ruled by bad ass, batshit insane priestesses of the Spider Queen, who resemble dominatrices. They carry whips even. :D

I dressed as one for Halloween this year and I tend to play a lot of them in RPGs, to the point where all my nerdy friends call me one. Which I take as a compliment. :evilgrin:

All's forgiven. But you'll have to ask LeftyMom about that other thing. :P

[Chovexani]

41. LOL!

I haven't larped in a good while, or even tabletopped...it's pretty hard with my work schedule and lack of car out here. :cry:

Sitting and eating are noble hobbies. I partake in those myself. :D

[RevolutionaryActs]

34. Gawd, according to that, I'm like uber nerd.

And should be sad or happy that LOTR isn't on there? :shrug:

[Dukkha]

35. I've been to quite a few conventions so I can say

Joss Whedon fans make Trekkies look socially evolved by comparison. Their obsession knows no bounds, perhaps because they are in denial of the fact that they do exist in the same social class. And I am an admitted trekkie. I've also dressed in Star Wars costumes too, which is why I'm surprised the 501st Legion was not on the list.

[Chovexani]

46. One word, my friend:

Browncoats. :scared:

They frighten me, and I've been known to gallivant about in public in Sailor Moon costumes. Complete with giant PVC weapons.

(PS: I got on the local news once in my Jedi robes. As a line nerd for Crapisode 1. :blush:)

[Random_Australian]

36. Aaaaagh! The main picture has an ALP sign at the back! I can't claim it is yanks bieng weird!

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

:cry:

[TZ]

71. ...BWAAAAAH!!!

You calling Yanks weird? I think I just busted a rib laughing........Talk about the pot calling the kettle black Mr. Nerd.....
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
(BTW..hows that crocodile working out as a mode of transportation...);-)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

52. I guess I don't qualify as a geek.

I don't read sci-fi, don't play computer games, don't tape game shows, don't watch Buffy, etc.

I am a Monty Python fan, and a Mel Brooks fan, but they can keep all of that list except for The Simpsons, Frank Zappa and RenFests.

[nadine_mn]

56. I have no idea what most of that list referred to

I get WoW, Trekkies, Rocky Horror...

but people still play Magic? and D and D?

Anime is creepy and what the hell is Dr Who


either I am not nerdy (yay) or super out of the cultural realm


sigh

[Mad_Dem_X]

61. I like fanfic.

I write fanfic. I'm part of a group that writes Brokeback Mountain fics, and some of us are really good. :)

[Chovexani]

64. LINK PLZ

:D :D :D

I write mostly crappy video game slash. http://bardic-dreams.livejournal.com is my fic journal and I'm on FF.net (http://www.fanfiction.net/~kylenne). My more explicit stuff is on LJ but ever since that purge/censorship thing I'm thinking of just buying my own domain.

[Javaman]

66. And here I thought I was a geek.

I don't do any of these things. Huh, go figure.

[LSK]

67. that list could include half the population

:shrug:

[Blue-Jay]

70. Of the 20, I only have 3 interests.

And I wouldn't call any of those "obsessions".

I'm something of a Trekkie (Trekker), but I've never dressed up like a ST character, or attended any of their numerous dork-fests.

[Neoma]

73. Uh oh, I like six of them.

And loving Monty Python is geeky? Who knew?