patton oswalt on geeks vs. nerds

Patton Oswalt, one of my favorite comics and one of the nicest I've ever met (he was a frequent guest on the J. Keith vanStratten show) and is a serious geek, as this comment to Wired illustrates:

Wired: There's a great line on your new album, Werewolves:  "My geekiness is getting in the way of my nerdiness." What's the distinction?

Oswalt: A lot of nerds aren't aware they're nerds. A geek has thrown his hands up to the universe and gone, "I speak Klingon — who am I fooling? You win! I'm just gonna openly like what I like." Geeks tend to be a little happier with themselves.

Awesome. There is nothing to be ashamed of, my fellow geeks! Embrace your encyclopedic knowledge of The Village and how many Redshirts died on the original Star Trek!

Patton also says that his mid-life crisis involves D&D instead of a sports car, and mentions that his wife wants him to put down the dice and go to a strip club. I'm going to give that angle a try and see how it goes.

Hey, Wired: if you want to talk to another geek about geek stuff, I sort of know a guy.

Comments

[Mad Monk]

I am not alone!

It's like the time my wife came home to find a Master Replica light saber.

I just couldn't resist buying it...I felt like she finally knew me that day!

But she still can't be in the room when I'm watching ST:TNG. I just can't get her to like that show no matter how much I explain it. But it does give me an exit on Oprah.

Choose your battles, right?

[R Filyaw]

Yeah, Patton's a pretty cool guy. You usually see him hanging out with guys like Brian Posehn, Zach Galafianakis, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, etc, etc.

They're all pretty dorky, although Patton and Brian have the market cornered on geekdom.

[nvdaydreamer]

On http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13&prgDate=28-Jun-07 you will find a link to Mr. Oswlat and some guy named Brad Bird talking about some new movie... a very geekly and entertaining affair it was. -- Bob P.

[Noda]

I always understood it more to be with the nature of the obsession - nerds were the ones who studied real hard, and devoted themselves to their intellectual pursuits, whereas geeks are smart, sure, but it's all about the games and the pop culture (and, apparently, Dickensian sentences).
There's some crossover: nerds play games because it works their brains too, and usually provides a more level playing field than sports; geeks tend to be well developed intellectually, usually as a byproduct of playing lots of games and exposing themselves to "alternative" media.
That said, as a Geek, I firmly agree that we're the happier end!

Oh and spare a thought for the poor, lowly dweeb...

[kidcharles]

Oswalt does this great recurring bit on Reno 911! where he plays a RenFair participant who gets into various forms of trouble. It is very much funny.

[GeekessDaisy]

I love J. Keith vanStratten, he's making geekiness funny. He hosted a lot of shows that I didn't like the content of, but I would watch just to hear his comments.

[LinksMonkey]

Hey, Wil: if you want to talk to another magazine about geek stuff, try Geek Monthly - http://www.geekmonthly.com - issue 4 is on the stands and features Greg Grunberg and Star Wars on the cover - and I'm not getting a cent for this plug.

[starshine_diva]

More reasons to subscribe to Wired? :D

[Mad Monk]

Noda wrote:

"Oh and spare a thought for the poor, lowly dweeb..."

Aye, the dweeb. According to National Geographic, the dweeb is without intellect or a love of science, and can barely survive on its own, surrounding itself with geeks and nerds, hoping no one will notice.

[justme]

We are huge Patton Oswald fans.

Brad Bird and he were on Fresh Air this week. At one point in the interview, Brad used the word "grok" and, in an embarrassing display of ignorance, attributed the term to Steve Jobs. This caused further embarrassment when Terry Gross tried to attribute it to Kurt Vonnegut. Patton corrected them both, of course.

But overall, the interview has some hilarious stuff - both of them are pretty entertaining guys.

[Myshtuff]

Patton is great. I would say I am in between. I would call myself a Neek or a Gerd. I tell people I love Star Trek, but I secretly hide that I know the name to all the movies. Whenever someone asks me about a particular one I just say, "Oh it was one of the later ones like 8 or 9."

[angie k]

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=401

Not exactly the same definition but one that makes me laugh. :)

You know, I never knew how many redshirts died in TOS until the other day but my geek cred started when I didn't have enough money to buy the Star Trek Encyclopedia or the Star Trek Chronology: The History of the Future so I hand transcribed the parts I thought would be useful to me (I was going to write episodes, you know?) and photocopied the pictures I wanted and stuck them all in a spiral notebook. I still have it. I used to shudder at it but now I just love to break it out. :)

[Rikki]

Hahaha, so what do you call people like me, an aspiring geek? I think the term would be dork? Haha!

[Witchsistah]

Yeah, I knew I was a geek when I no longer fought the fact that I had a favorite medieval siege engine and would ask questions like, "Who would win in a fight, the Roman army or the Spartan army in their prime?" and expect a real answer. Luckily, I found a man who does answer it seriously (he says the Roman army, but I'm not so sure) and has the same fave siege engine as I do (trebuchet-chuck rocks, biatch!).

[KPatrickGlover]

Completely off topic, Wil, but I'm spreading the misery. Consider yourself tagged...

http://kpatrickglover.wordpress.com/2007/06/30/revenge-of-the-meme-or-curses-ive-been-tagged/

[BobApril]

For mega-bonus points - find a stripper who plays D&D, or possibly develop rules for Strip D&D. "The orc hits you for six..off with your blouse!"

[barbarakitten]

This has nothing to do with this post (although you may envy my senior husband has he is the DM for an all girl gaming group, including his beautiful young lab assistant) but you got a link from the Bad Astronomy blog!

[kilveyshaman]

I remember going through the phase of trying to deny my geekness just to be able to fit in. Since I gave up and embrassed it more fully I am having a lot more fun. Actually going to my friends house every week just for Doctor Who night is sort of my highlight now, beer, snacks and Dr Who, what a combo. Alas however this season has ended so we will have to resort to cult films instead, we are thinking either Rocky Horror show or Flash Gordon next week, just so we can laugh at all the cheesy one-liners.

[Becky..Absent Minded Housewife]

I'm not a nerd. I guess I'm not a geek either.

I'm a dork. I'm a Jules and Vincent Vega dork...minus the F-bombs and the heroin.

[uneedaklu]

I am evenly split between geek and nerd, with a small portion of dork thrown in. Curious whether you are? Go here. It's one of the best ways I've found to explain the subtle differences between geekdom, nerdiness and dorkiness to my geeks-in-training.

Hope you and the family have a great holiday, Wil!

[Smello]

This post has made me feel so much better. I am an occasional reader of this blog & first time commenter.

I came here today to search the archives to see if I could find insight as to why Wesley Crusher attended the Riker/Troi wedding (Star Trek: Nemesis) in a Star Fleet uniform when he had resigned his commission to explore the galaxy with the Traveler. While I have not yet found the answer, I at least feel a little less dorky for asking it.

[Medbob]

So, if my midlife crisis involves SecondLife, does that demote me to nerd?

[LizS]

Thanks for the link to the test, uneedaklu. I'm a Modern, Cool Nerd and I never knew! :)

[Jun Falkenstein]

Well Patton did a fine job in Ratatouille - BTW, go see it, everyone. I guarantee it's not what you think it is! It's a must-see for anyone with a smidgen of artistic soul who's tried to make it despite the odds.

Speaking of Geeky things, I'm surprised Wil that you haven't yet mentioned the World Series of Video Games, especially since A. one leg of the tour takes place in Los Angeles, and B. one of the major games in competition is Guitar Hero II. :)

http://www.thewsvg.com/games/guitar-hero-2/

[Beth]

That's so true. I'm a very proud Geek. And I do speak Klingon...*coughs* well, one sentence from "The Bonding" that I learned because it was Gabriel Damon saying it, but still!