http://defamer.com/362628/mariah-carey-and-kenneth-the-page-hottest-new-unicorn+wrangling-couple

Geeks are the new heroes. Geeks are cool. There’s a fine line between being ostracized for uncoolness and being admired for one’s unique self-expression.

That independence, refusal to follow the mainstream norms of popularity, insistence on being true to yourself, even if it looks dumb or risky — that’s the essence of hero geekdom. Geeks with a heart of gold, geeks with a hero streak, geeks who are action heroes and sex gods in disguise. That’s the new geekdom, and it’s all over TV/movies/pop culture.

The new “players” (ie Vegas types) are just one flavor of geek, IMO. Take the Ocean franchise. Each of the Ocean characters is a geek — each has an abnormal talent (for tech, for acrobatics, for plotting etc) and each has their own quirky personality. Gambling, card-counting, the statistics that drive gambling success — it’s just another geeky mathmatical skill. After all, Silicon Valley and tech IPOs are really just one big gambling game — it takes both tech smarts and luck to hit that jackpot. (there’ve been several recent articles in NYT that mentioned the psychological issues from the incredible wealth that’s the result of a highly random/unpredictable process.)

Money is part of geek hero-dom. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are the icons of wealthy ubergeekdom. And Bill Gates is now trying to changing the world through his philanthropy: that’s the modern ubergeek for you. The driving psychology of Silicon Valley and modern geeks everywhere is to become an ubergeek, and if you’re lucky and smart, turn that into riches and respect. Yesterday’s grad student geek eating cheap burritos is today’s multimillionaire ubergeek eating cheap burritos with his hot geek girlfriend.

The hero geek has been a trend in popular culture for awhile, but I agree that it’s everywhere now. Examples:

- Rubert Giles, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Going back to the late 90s: bespectacled middle-aged British librarian, knows upteen dead languages, adorably stuttery when flustered. Also knows weaponry/swordsmanship, kicks evil vampire butt as required, self-effacing, self-sacrificing. And sexy: millions of fangirls can’t be wrong.

- the new Nancy Drew (of the recent movie). How do you redo classic Nancy Drew? By making her into a geek: a brilliant, kind, modest, plucky (and pretty) girl who wears 1950s style clothes, overachieves in school and sports, and is oblivious to the trendy rich kids who mock her (but eventually come to respect her).

- Hiro, Heroes. Japanese geekboy, son of one of the richest families in Japan. Truly believes in the superhero code: the responsibility to serve humankind. Carries samurai sword and tries to protect world from evildoers. Makes mistakes but his naive sincerity and smarts will triumph. The Japanese Peter Parker (see below).

- Peter Parker, Spiderman. It’s no accident that PP is one of the two most popular superheros of our age (Batman being the other, for obvious reasons). Peter’s a science and photography geek who secretly saves the world on a regular basis. He does dumb doofus things but is always redeemed when he recommits himself to the memory of his dead uncle (“with great gifts comes great responsibility”).

- Hermione Granger, the Harry Potter books. Brilliant and (perceived as) dowdy — then shows up at the Yule Ball looking stunning. (It’s part of the modern geek stereotype that they’re homely at first glance, but really sexy when seen in the right circumstances.) The “brightest witch of her generation,” she can also sling fighting spells like nobody’s business and give a bad guy a roundhouse punch.

Ok I’m all in fangirl mode now…must run off and catch up on the Dr Who and Torchwood gossip.

BTW, I left out “A stranger comes to town” as a repeated template. At an episode level, each Chuck story has involved this device.

steve, i would love to be proved wrong on this one but i think the “fish out of water” ( also in the variation of: “secret prince rises from obscurity to claim his true heritage”) topic may be an old theme, but i cannot remember it being extremely present in pop culture until just recently.
today it is omnipresent – hatty potter, spiderman, everybody in all wes anderson movies, and so on and so on and so on… even classics that might have touched this genre like “the graduate” or the one with the young guy falling in love with the granny (forgot the name), or the peter falk “columbo” series had much more linear characters as protagonists. even the infamous “forrest gumb” was more about a fool than about anything else.

maybe it is an older theme, but i for one, did grow up with “boy meets girl” and “good meets bad” stories more than with anything else.

I think the non-geek audience also appreciates the self-consciousness and awkwardness of the geek hero–they suppress that part of themselves as much as possible, so for many of them it’s easy to sympathize (or at least empathize) with somebody like Chuck. It allows for a little vicarious self-pity, an emotion as easy to enjoy as it is hard to justify.

I have a sibling who is an early Milennial and a child who’s a late Milennial, and they share a number of things in common:

* an open embrace of diversity (cultural, physical, geographical, intellectual, spiritual)
* a total dependence on technology and “being connected” constantly
* a need to be free of stereotypes — or better said, part geek, part jock, part sophisticate

Their willingness to embrace diversity, I think, results in a generational drive NOT to be categorized so blatantly. So programs that show characters out of their stereotypical context functioning well, albeit humorously, seem to reinforce the need to operate “outside the box.”

They were all dressed like typical high schoolers — blue jeans, t-shirts, etc. — except one of them was wearing a blue cape (and an endearing smile). I asked him what was up with the cape, and one of his friends turned to me and remarked, matter-of-factly, “He likes to wear it.” The others all nodded in agreement.

I asked if anyone at school gave him a hard time (e.g. the football players), and they all looked around and then shook their heads. “Nawww.” one answered. “Everyone knows him.”

After the boys left, I asked my daughter if she liked the football players. “They’re alright,” she answered. “Are they a little rough; a little crude?” I asked. “Well, they do use their heads to crash into each other,” she replied.

I really don’t have a point, other than I absolutely love the acceptance today’s youth seem to have for each others differences. At least in my neck of the woods.