Fed up with people on tv who like to make fun of nerds!

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I live in Holland but as I mentioned before on this forum, I can receive a lot of different channels, including the BBC. About a week ago I was watching the talkshow Graham Norton. This time the guests were two actors who both starred as Doctor Who and a brittish comedian who looks like a ventriloquist doll. At the end of the program some people of the audience or some people who volunteer for that part of the show, I don't exactly know how it works, take place in a red chair (one by one) to tell a funny story or to ask the celebrities a couple of questions. This time all of the people who took place in the red chair were Doctor Who fans and ofcourse they wanted to ask some questions about the series. These guys were apparently perceived as nerds by both Graham Norton and his guests, probably because the guys in question were wearing glasses or something. As soon as the first guy took place on the red chair the prejudiced and annoying comments started. I shall give one example out of many to clarify myself. The brittish comedian obviously found it necessary and funny to ask one of these guys if he knew what if felt like to touch a girl. This weird comment had nothing to do with the subject and the typical question a so called "normal" person would ask a nerdy guy who may have a couple of asperger traits. Annoying and inappropriate. The two actors were just as bad as the comedian. A lot of people seem to think that most Doctor Who fans are nerds with aspergers which is a prejudice in itself. I do have aspergers and I have never been interested in Doctor Who.
People who don't live in the UK who have never seen that show probably haven't got a clue what I am talking about when I am mentioning the red chair. My apologies for that. I have nothing against Graham Norton by the way, he can display a witty sense of humor when he is at his best.

The whole point of my story is that I find it insulting and also quite cruel that folks who appear on tv as well as people in everyday life find it necessary to make fun of nerds and people with aspergers. I think it's out of the vague fear they may resemble us in one way or another. Maybe we show them aspects about themselves they are in denial about. I do wish they would shut up though ! Making fun at the cost of others is kind of cheap in the end isn't it?

I think it's indicative of their own insecurities. Same goes for their writers. Science fiction in general gets associated with us in a negative light, but NTs can't seem to reason their way through the evolution of research and technology without its' anecdotes. You need only look at Iron Man, the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies, Judge Dred, Fringe or any number of terrible FOX cable shows to see this process in action. Most of the shiny new technology demonstrated in today's mass-marketed sci-fi is either completely half-cocked or only a few years away.

That said, were it not for cheap jokes I might've been dead a long time ago. Here's to them. I adore Dr. Who anyway.

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I have Asperger's and I have no interest at all in this Dr. Who nonsense. I once watched a few of the old episodes years ago when I was still a teenager and that was it. I thought Aspies were supposed to have special interests that are different from what the rest of the world is raving about, or stopped raving over at least a few years ago.

those "comedians" were just making bad karma for themselves.

I'm not a Dr. Who fan. I've seen an episode or two but it did nothing for me.

Yeah. Nerds are an easy target. We've always been. Real easy to pick on us. Still, it's acknowledged that nerds can get to be rich and smart ala Bill Gates or technological/scientific folks.

I am not a dr. who fan but I am intrigued by what the video wizards are doing to restore the old kinescoped episodes, in terms of restoring their full motion and color.

For some illustration, here's the red chair segment from that episode:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi7K22QRaUM[/youtube]

The comedian is Jimmy Carr.

I watched Graham Norton that night and it did make me feel a little uncomfortable. Jimmy Carr was poking fun at the Doctor Who fans, who may well have had Aspergers (I suspect very strongly that most of those people did have autistic traits). It's as if it's somehow acceptable to poke fun at people, so long as 'autism' isn't mentioned, although sometimes even that can happen and it's still regarded as OK. Poking fun at nerds, geeks and the like is accepted, horrible as it is. Sadly, we know that many of these people are actually on the spectrum and have spent a lifetime being mocked for being as they (we) are. But, I don't know if that knowledge has reached the general populace as yet. If it became common knowldege that geek or nerd might mean 'autistic person', perhaps it would become less acceptable to ridicule. However, we also know that geek or nerd might not mean 'autistic person'. How do we know who has autism and who doesn't. Not that it matters. No-one should be poking fun at either personalities or neurological differences. But, how do we stop it from happening?

That's how Jimmy Carr is, so we expect it from him. He presents a panel show every week and one of the team captains, John Richardson, has mildish OCD. The jokes about him are in relation to not having any friends or girlfriends. He takes the jokes well and even instigates some of the mickey taking. This seems fine there, as he's in on it. But, I can imagine it must be hard on viewers who don't have many friends, but would like some, and, for them, it's no laughing matter. I don't know for sure if John truly is like how he presents himself to be, although I know he definitely has mildish OCD (he did a documentary about it).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldsvwzc4zKs[/youtube]

And then nerds everywhere rejoiced at the vengeance that they deserved, (kidding)!

Yeah, I get sick of it, too... But what are we going to do about it? Hollywood clearly thinks that this kind of humor is a goldmine to them!

I honestly wonder if there will be a turning point someday when making fun of "Nerds" will lead to you getting hacked.

I honestly wonder if there will be a turning point someday when making fun of any identifiable group will not be met with such whining.

They tease us to watch us cry.

Stop crying.

Thanks for adding the segment Cyclops.

I have seen a lot of Brittish comedians (on tv) for some time now and I am beginning to wonder how many of them actually have a conscience. Some of them clearly do but unfortanetely that is not the case for most of them.

I wish comedians like Richard Pryor were still around. They are badly missed.

the problem is not so much with the insensitive tv blowhards but with the insensitive tv audience they attract. those "comics" are a spectacle which reinforces and indeed lowers the ethics of the people who watch them as entertainment.

I dont know, from my opinion it depends simply on the viewer himself, who is the one that is made fun of. There was a weird show in german TV a while ago, it was called "The model and the freak" or something like that, with some bitchy so called B-promi womn, that I have never heard of (actually they shall have gotten famous about some reality TV shows I have never heard of.) "counceling" geeky/nerdy boys, to become cooler/socially more acceptable. I think the show was created in the meaning of making fun of the boys, but in the end it was that model-girls, that presented themselve as really weird.

Any hobby or interest, needing more then two braincells, was already to weird and complicated for them to be bothered ("Oh so you are studying mechatronic technology...Ihihihi...thats sounsd weird! People studying something useful instead of presenting their boobs on TV and becoming a wannabe moderator in a weird show....Ihihihi...") with and their oh so holy advicing and counceling always involved the two same things: Lets go to the hairstylist and buy some cloths. O_o With the always same result of "Wuhuhuhu! *giggle* NOW you have become a total other person!"

Yes, absolutely. I think buying someone a new pullover, will definitly have a life changing impact. O_o Sorry, but how empty must your life be, if thats all that you can focus your personality.

With that interview its the same. You see a moderator let geeky people look bad. I see a moderator, let himself look bad with his behaviour and intention.

Having a couple nerd-hobbies is perfectly fine as long as the person doesn't look-the-part. People that mock nerds on television are probably making fun of ones that give it away from a very brief visual-observation of themselves.

By the way, one of the nerds on here should start a thread about how WP makes fun of nerds with the "nerdy" emoticon.