The Dork Scale
The girls and I got to talking on our way to breakfast about the "Dork Scale" or the Dork Hierarchy as I like to call it. Basically, if you have ever heard the song by Weird AL Yankovich "White and Nerdy", you know its a list of all the nerdy things the singer is into, like knowing how to speak Klingon.
At first I thought the song was funny, and then I got kinda insulted, because most of my friends know that Im into comics, computer games, and sci-fi. But I've always considered myself apart from "those" dorks. You know who I'm talking about now: anyone who speaks and/or reads a made up language, like Klingon. If you are 45 and still live with your parents...and your complete Transformers collection. The guy who turns his living room into the bridge of the Enterprise. Hard-core Ren Faire addicts-who use bogus English accents. People who dress as their favorite Anime character when its NOT Halloween. People who cant tell you anything about current events, but can debate Marvel vs. DC comics for hours. Live action role players. The 40 year-old virgins of the world. You know who they are.
So we have decided that there is a sort of Dork Aristocracy in the world. Its Kings and Queens are those people who can get away with being dorks in some respect by virture of other "cool" factors. Vin Diesel comes to mind...he's a good looking (Fucking hot according to the women I know) action hero. So his D&D playing is outweighed by that. He can run around, monster manual in hand, debating the finer points of 20 sided dice and no one blinks.
Next up are the everyday people who have some dork in them, but its well-hidden. They might only have one dork habit, like comics or Star Trek. Slightly below this are people who have multiple dork habits, like Battlestar Galactica AND going to comic conventions, but still lead non- dork daily lives. (I fall into this category myself)
At the bottom are the reallllly dorky people. Watch some of the documentary films on the Trekkie culture and you'll see what I mean.
What I think is funny, is that dorks at the top look down on the ones at the bottom. Dante and Randal talking Star Wars in "Clerks" = indie film cool. Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons = Biggest. Dork . Ever.
Comments Welcome.
At first I thought the song was funny, and then I got kinda insulted, because most of my friends know that Im into comics, computer games, and sci-fi. But I've always considered myself apart from "those" dorks. You know who I'm talking about now: anyone who speaks and/or reads a made up language, like Klingon. If you are 45 and still live with your parents...and your complete Transformers collection. The guy who turns his living room into the bridge of the Enterprise. Hard-core Ren Faire addicts-who use bogus English accents. People who dress as their favorite Anime character when its NOT Halloween. People who cant tell you anything about current events, but can debate Marvel vs. DC comics for hours. Live action role players. The 40 year-old virgins of the world. You know who they are.
So we have decided that there is a sort of Dork Aristocracy in the world. Its Kings and Queens are those people who can get away with being dorks in some respect by virture of other "cool" factors. Vin Diesel comes to mind...he's a good looking (Fucking hot according to the women I know) action hero. So his D&D playing is outweighed by that. He can run around, monster manual in hand, debating the finer points of 20 sided dice and no one blinks.
Next up are the everyday people who have some dork in them, but its well-hidden. They might only have one dork habit, like comics or Star Trek. Slightly below this are people who have multiple dork habits, like Battlestar Galactica AND going to comic conventions, but still lead non- dork daily lives. (I fall into this category myself)
At the bottom are the reallllly dorky people. Watch some of the documentary films on the Trekkie culture and you'll see what I mean.
What I think is funny, is that dorks at the top look down on the ones at the bottom. Dante and Randal talking Star Wars in "Clerks" = indie film cool. Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons = Biggest. Dork . Ever.
Comments Welcome.