trying to understand my reaction
bohunk, who always has great LJ entries IMO, posted a link to a story about some hipsters who organized to dress up as zombies and attack a local LARP/SCA/D&D (duct taped swords) group.
[Sidenote: please write in a vote for the rat city rollergirls for best mac 'n' cheese on NWSource's popularity contest. I did!]
I'm going through my reaction to this story. One of the first ones, is that for a bunch of hipsters, this seems really unoriginal. But maybe that's just from my perspective. Not to defend the duct tape warriors, but aren't they too easy a target? And for me, before there was Trekkies, before the Mr. Show sketch (which is one of my favorites, as it sends up Ken Burns, Star Trek fans, Civil War re-enacters, and SCA nerds in one fell swoop), before Triumph took the piss out of Star Wars geeks, before all that, I actually worked a Renfest with SCA folk and we actually did have a Trekkie landing party visit once a year. And yes, they fight with duct tape, but it's such an old joke. I've seen a one-armed juggler do a gag with a sword-swallowing rubber chicken. The sword was wrapped in duct tape. Now that's funny.
Another reaction I'm having is disgust that self proclaimed hipsters (I could stop right there, really) seem to have such a sense of superiority. I present exhibit A, from the message board where this was organized:
"this got to be the best idea ever.
i find those dungeon and dragons nerds so embarassing for the human race.
can we hurt them for real?"
That was posted by this guy:
I shit you not. [Note: to be fair, there were some folks on the message board who said, "hey, there will be no hurting..."]
OK, next, and I'm shaky on my zombie authenticity, so I need someone to back me up on this, but zombies eat brains, they don't have them, right? Zombies don't think, let alone plan, organize, or have potlucks. I wish this had gone down a few weeks ago because I was in Edmonton with a lot of Zombie movie nerds and there was enough detailed talk about them that one of the Belgians went out and bought an encyclopedia of sorts about zombies. I remember learning that they don't need air, so our oceans are actually filled with zombies walking around on its floor. I would have respected the zombie attack as clever and unique under the following 2 circumstances:
1) Rather than organizing, a single zombie went and attacked one day. Word spread, and without planning or a damn message board, more zombies joined the battle every week until the swordsters were overcome by zombies. That would be the zombie way.
2) Scrap the zombie angle all together. Attack the Rennies as the various gangs from Walter Hill's classic, The Warriors.
Alright, and this is just a stupid ad hominim attack, but these hipsters are from Montreal. Oh, and in case you're wondering just how cool these hipsters are, did I mention that part of the plan was meeting for a potluck two hours before the "MASS MOBILIZATION" (caps and phrasing theirs, not mine). Mmmm... I'll bet they downed some nice vegan Quebeçois cuisine before putting those D&D nerds dans leur place. Or maybe not vegan... check the pictures, it looks like they hit a McDonald's after the nerd smackdown.
See, if the hipster's point was to say "hey you D&D retards, we're gonna pull a prank on you because your stupid dress up game is lame," I think their message ended up actually saying "you know, it is fun to dress up in some ridiculous costume, pretend your someone/something else." A passerby of the Zombies vs. battlenerds scene probably just thought, "oh, the SCA nerds found some lesser nerds who were willing to be zombie bad guys for their little game."
"They do stupid crap like this to feel special. It's a scam. Nerds were doin' it twenty five years ago and new nerds are doing it again"
-Merrill Hess in Signs
"Who is more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?"
-Obi-Wan Kenobi
[Sidenote: please write in a vote for the rat city rollergirls for best mac 'n' cheese on NWSource's popularity contest. I did!]
I'm going through my reaction to this story. One of the first ones, is that for a bunch of hipsters, this seems really unoriginal. But maybe that's just from my perspective. Not to defend the duct tape warriors, but aren't they too easy a target? And for me, before there was Trekkies, before the Mr. Show sketch (which is one of my favorites, as it sends up Ken Burns, Star Trek fans, Civil War re-enacters, and SCA nerds in one fell swoop), before Triumph took the piss out of Star Wars geeks, before all that, I actually worked a Renfest with SCA folk and we actually did have a Trekkie landing party visit once a year. And yes, they fight with duct tape, but it's such an old joke. I've seen a one-armed juggler do a gag with a sword-swallowing rubber chicken. The sword was wrapped in duct tape. Now that's funny.
Another reaction I'm having is disgust that self proclaimed hipsters (I could stop right there, really) seem to have such a sense of superiority. I present exhibit A, from the message board where this was organized:
"this got to be the best idea ever.
i find those dungeon and dragons nerds so embarassing for the human race.
can we hurt them for real?"
That was posted by this guy:
I shit you not. [Note: to be fair, there were some folks on the message board who said, "hey, there will be no hurting..."]
OK, next, and I'm shaky on my zombie authenticity, so I need someone to back me up on this, but zombies eat brains, they don't have them, right? Zombies don't think, let alone plan, organize, or have potlucks. I wish this had gone down a few weeks ago because I was in Edmonton with a lot of Zombie movie nerds and there was enough detailed talk about them that one of the Belgians went out and bought an encyclopedia of sorts about zombies. I remember learning that they don't need air, so our oceans are actually filled with zombies walking around on its floor. I would have respected the zombie attack as clever and unique under the following 2 circumstances:
1) Rather than organizing, a single zombie went and attacked one day. Word spread, and without planning or a damn message board, more zombies joined the battle every week until the swordsters were overcome by zombies. That would be the zombie way.
2) Scrap the zombie angle all together. Attack the Rennies as the various gangs from Walter Hill's classic, The Warriors.
Alright, and this is just a stupid ad hominim attack, but these hipsters are from Montreal. Oh, and in case you're wondering just how cool these hipsters are, did I mention that part of the plan was meeting for a potluck two hours before the "MASS MOBILIZATION" (caps and phrasing theirs, not mine). Mmmm... I'll bet they downed some nice vegan Quebeçois cuisine before putting those D&D nerds dans leur place. Or maybe not vegan... check the pictures, it looks like they hit a McDonald's after the nerd smackdown.
See, if the hipster's point was to say "hey you D&D retards, we're gonna pull a prank on you because your stupid dress up game is lame," I think their message ended up actually saying "you know, it is fun to dress up in some ridiculous costume, pretend your someone/something else." A passerby of the Zombies vs. battlenerds scene probably just thought, "oh, the SCA nerds found some lesser nerds who were willing to be zombie bad guys for their little game."
"They do stupid crap like this to feel special. It's a scam. Nerds were doin' it twenty five years ago and new nerds are doing it again"
-Merrill Hess in Signs
"Who is more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?"
-Obi-Wan Kenobi