How The OC Made Nerd Culture Mainstream
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"Nerds" are as dead as punk. I've internalized this.
Pretty much. Same in the world of software, although we still do get the types that will enjoy their weekends solving a very specific technical problem that has bothered them for ages, then give the source code out for everyone to see their genius. They used to be very common. These days you get folks who enter the field hoping to make the next Instagram or big hit app. :(
https://youtu.be/wu7220RuByI
We are still a "nerd culture" community, right?
tl;dw:
We blame tv shows like TBBT for ruinning nerd media, but before that there was the O.C., it incorporated nerd interests into a soap opera-like show aimed at female teenagers and starred Adam Brody as a quirky hot nerd. That may be the reason you see so many nerd culture shows reworked to appeal to female demographics: Captain Marvel (Miss Marvel), Harley Quinn, Star Wars, almost all The CW shows, etc. It also made "the quirky nerd" character mainstream.
What do you think KiA?
Edit:There was a study that concluded women were more likely to participate in Social Justice. So, there's that too.
Also, it was easier for shows aimed at women to incorporate superficial elements of nerd culture aimed at men while keeping their structure and tropes than the other way around. At first glance is highly beneficial for networks because they "hit" more demographics with a single show
I’ll check it out. I always considered MCU movies and Big Bang theory to be what ruined it
Yeah, I was under the exact same impression
There really wasn't. The OC was aimed more at proto-CW groups given how insular and drama focused the interactions were. Seth wasn't really geeky in the slightest, Ryan wasn't actually "big" enough to come across as the credible or believable threat from Chino he was meant to be, Marissa was almost as one-dimensional as the actress that played in and even when they killed her off it didn't really do much to the show because the show was shit. None of this of course stopped the audience harping on about how it was the best thing ever, along with Lost which came out around the same time, and both shows were regular topics of social circles and, unfortunately, housemates back then.
For a few years you [I] couldn't go a day without someone trying to speak to me about this show but because everyone was speaking about it so much passive awareness of the show meant I know far too fucking much about a show I never even watched myself!
Also don't forget it spawned this meme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmd1qMN5Yo0
Unironically "the oc" of the meme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYIb-acZwk4
Oh, for fuck's sake. Not this shit again. We get it, you liked a show for teen girls 20 years ago. That doesn't make you gay.
Nerds have been 'popular' since before Revenge of the Nerds.
I hate it when the modern media throw the world "culture" everything, just to see where it sticks.
You know it is done by the people who don't know what the culture actually is.
He was only cool until he started smoking weed and burned the school down, while the adopted kid became a square but was really the cool one all along.