The Evolution of Geek Culture

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Radio Network. Hi, this is Gary Chalk and you're

listening to the GeekCast Radio Network. uh sage

arbis is it that time the house party protocol

sir correct hello and welcome to geek cast radio

this is episode 62 i am one of your hosts tfg

on mike and joining me is steve megashon hello

hello and returning to the cast radio network

you've heard him twice on the pull bag he is

now on the flagship show positively nerdy mr

ryan porter hello sir hey guys thanks for having

me on uh... so for people who have a listen to

your to pull back episodes your origins in the

wolverine episode uh... why don't you let everybody

know uh... what you're all about justin you know

brief oh and people go listen to those episodes

can i can i do that briefly uh... i love blog

and podcast both called positive energy is michael

did too and it covers everything from comics

and tv and movies and star wars and start trekking

disney and whatever the hell else i feel like

talking about so check it out Disney Wars episode

seven counting down I could I could so see them

doing a goofy Darth Vader movie oh boy only you

all right yeah I know right well they made a

toy of when they did the Disney Star Wars crossovers

goofy Darth Vader So we are here to talk about

geek culture in the mainstream. This is an idea

I had a while ago When we were all kids it was

Geek and nerd were basically derogatory terms

You could get beat up for liking Transformers

or you could get beat up for liking mask or you

could get beat up for liking silverhawks or whatever

and Now it seems like I would say the last 15

to 20 years There are geeks for every kind of

genre it doesn't matter geek culture almost Being

in the mainstream to me is like it's a subgenre

of pop culture Basically But I mean that you

know that There's no shortage of topics that

you can enjoy and you can be a geek about What

were some of the things that Steve, when you

were a kid, that you didn't really want to express

your opinion on? Funny thing is, just about everything

I'm into, I really didn't care what people thought

as far as showing it off. I carried these huge

Star Trek novels and would be reading them in

class during the reading time while everybody's

reading these tinier books. Basically... Shoving

the fact that I could read these giant books

in their face plus they're more intelligent and

stuff that kids read at that age Like try a second

third grade. I'm sitting here holding these three

four hundred page Star Trek hardcover books So

I mean I I kind of had that I had I had the Batman

Batman book bags and Watched the animated series

and had had the toys and everything and pretty

much any time I I talked to people I had I As

dumb as it sounds I still played with toys till

I was like 12. So I mean it's 12 13. I didn't

care I I didn't really hide from it really the

only thing I've kind of Gotten more open with

over the years is Freely expressing it with people.

I don't know Or don't know as well uh or or doing

the voice stuff which i i'm a huge voiceover

geek only because i i love discovering who voices

characters i i know over the years and um uh

so i mean that's that's one thing that i've gotten

more open with is just kind of walking around

doing the voices and not feeling like i'm embarrassed

to do it uh because i kind of grew up a shy kid

so If I found that friend that was kind of geeky

like me, I would latch on and have, we would

have good times. But then if it was people I

could tell, I just, some of the things I wouldn't

really bring up, but I, the Star Trek and the

Batman, I kind of full force flaunted those out

in the public. What about you, Ryan? Well, I

remember in elementary school it was a lot of

the things that I'm still into, quite frankly.

But Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Marvel

Comics boom of the early 90s, that kind of stuff

was something that everybody took part in. And

then somewhere late middle school, definitely

by junior high, it just wasn't cool anymore to

read comic books or to... you know watch cartoons

or this or that and unfortunately I took the

opposite approach and I hid I hid my fandom like

you would not believe I did not want I don't

I don't remember if there was a catalyst for

it I don't remember what caused me to completely

introvert my fandom but it was like I could not

let people know that I was reading both Star

Trek and Star Wars novels. I got into Star Wars

way late as a fan. I think I might have told

that story on the Origins episode, actually.

But I got into it way late. And by the time I

discovered it, it was smack dab in the middle

of the dark period. And people didn't really

think Star Wars was ever coming back. And that's

when I discovered it and got really into it just

in time for Air to the Empire to come out. And

like Steve, I was way ahead of the curve on reading.

Those books were everything to me. I I wrote

Star Wars fanfiction before there was a term

Before the term fanfiction existed because I

wondered who I mean I like write down to like

details of who would take over the power vacuum

of Jabba dying which apparently I totally missed

because obviously that was telling card in those

novels but I guess I I missed that part maybe

my reading comprehension wasn't quite as good

as I'd like to pat myself on the back for being

but but um and it was like I still I never I

kind of left the action figures behind but I

never stopped playing with Legos and that to

me was still like that kid thing that you didn't

let anybody know about you didn't let people

know that you watched You know, movies like Star

Wars and you lived for, you know, episodes of

Star Trek to come. I remember when like I remember

being so excited for Do Space Nine and Voyager

and, you know, well, you know, half of that turned

out all right. But, um, I just won. Well, I'm

actually I'm actually in the middle of a rewatch

of Voyager. And despite everything that's wrong

with that show, I really like it. Like somehow

it's better than the sum of its parts, but I

don't want to get on a whole Voyager digression

here. But I just I loved all that stuff always,

but was like terrified to show it. And it wasn't

until college that it started to creep back in.

And then my junior year of college, I had a couple

of roommates that I really didn't get along with.

But. we all were kind of into the same thing

anyway and that kind of was kind of the beginning

of me kind of coming back out and going to conflict

shops again and talking to people about it and

it was very I don't want to say it was I don't

want to paint myself as this this complete loner

because I had friends and stuff but most of my

friends didn't know I was into these things as

much as I was and it was just it was very lonely

and you kind of you know this is Well, high school,

the internet started to become a thing. But I

mean, you hope that somebody writing in the back

of the letter pages in comics shared your viewpoint.

It was a very lonely existence. I think the internet

is probably a big part of the reason that...

we're having this discussion about why geek culture

is more prevalent, that people realize they weren't

alone kind of thing. So it wasn't until college

that I started to embrace it and now it's, you

know, full -fledged. I mean, the tagline of Poundsteel

and Nerdy is celebrate your fandom. You know,

say it loud, say it proud. But it took me a long

time to get there, admittedly. For me, there

were... Now Steve was saying that by the time

he was 15 or so he kind of grew out of the action

figures and stuff like that I was I Have one

traumatic experience that that I've told on I've

told this story for the last six years that I've

podcasted So I know Steve and I know exactly

what you're talking about I'm gonna get to it,

but I'm just set it up here. Okay, so I have

one traumatic story, but Oddly enough that story

that event didn't like I think the reason why

that event didn't scar me for a life like a Michael

Bay movie would as a child would be that the

year after that event happened the turtles came

out and I was all gung -ho again I think for

my stopping point on action figures as a kid

uh... say preteen was probably fifteen years

old once i had the falcon zord i was set uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh uh uh uh uh uh uh

uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh

uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh

uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh

uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh the good

guy playsets not the good as in quality playsets

were at my mom's and all the bad guys and the

bad characters and the bad guy playsets were

at my dad's. I have no idea why it ended up being

that way. No clue. And one time when I was six

in 1986, I went down to my dad's and my Snake

Mountain set, all of my Evil Warriors, every

piece of He -Man thing I had at his house, poof,

gone. He sold them. His reasoning, you're too

old to play with toys. I was six years old, damn

it. So, well, like I said, there's that. would

say 95 I kind of get out of toys and then when

I had Some more disposable income by the time

I was 28. I really got back into it And then

a couple years ago. I got out of it again as

far as collecting toys For me when I was little

Because I wasn't into comics. I wasn't in the

know on the comics aspect. I was into cartoons,

television shows, movies, that kind of thing.

And my mom would let me watch anything. She really

would. I remember by the time I was eight or

nine, I had seen Lethal Weapon 1 at least four

times. And it was just one of those things where

for me, books were my geekdom. I had up to that,

up to the point I would say by the time I was

13, I had read every single Hardy Boys Case Files

book they ever put out at that time. I read all

those books. That's a collection I would love

to have back. Now I learned recently that, and

I think I kind of knew this as a kid, but those

books are a lie. What I mean by that is, um,

the author. It wasn't just one author, it was

a whole consortium of authors, and the author's

name, Franklin W. Dixon, basically, the person

does not exist. It was a bunch of different people

writing under that name. Which is kind of sad.

Um, let's see, what else for me? Uh, I was kindergarten,

first, second, and third grade. I was LARPing

before it was a thing of the now. I was LARPing

Transformers as, you know, an elementary schooler.

Same thing with He -Man, same thing with Ninja

Turtles when that came around. You know, so live

action role play is not a new thing, ladies and

gentlemen. It just isn't. Alright. I want to

talk about briefly here how the terms of geek

and nerd have evolved since we were kids I mean

back then they were basically insults and you

know like you said Ryan and like your your saying

says let your fandom flag fly or you know be

proud and share it and whatever else it's like

back then you couldn't I know Steve is a very

outspoken child, and I'm sure his son will be

that way as well, but back then, like where I

was living, it was very hard to do that. Really

was. I remember, because there were certain things

for some reason, and I don't know if it was my

school or just... I don't know what it was. There

were certain things at school you could not talk

about, and I have no idea why. and it was a regular

public elementary school it wasn't like it wasn't

catholic school it wasn't a private school it

wasn't anything like that but there apparently

there's just certain things teachers didn't want

you to talk about um whereas nowadays it's like

geek and nerd everybody you know i mean hello

title of our network is the key caster your network

the title of your stuff is positively nerdy i

mean it's basically a positive thing now both

of those terms so where do you guys see uh...

or how do you guys see those terms of all the

over the last twenty thirty years steve uh...

well i've seen the the fact that for one media

is kinda made a huge shift uh... i would Kind

of argue around the time that daytime or like

Saturday morning cartoons started fading to the

wayside So i'd say kind of close to mid 90s.

Everything started getting more, you know, you

started seeing more uh Kidly or kid. Yeah, kidly

kid friendly programming I i'd mix the two words

there. Um So you start seeing more of that you

start seeing more animation you start seeing

more superhero comics becoming live -action films

and I think that I mean yeah Batman and Superman

had had it and they were pretty much the only

ones By that point and that's kind of where the

the Batman films kind of died off But you started

getting the resurgence of Star Wars In the late

90s, which you know I mean granted there were

special editions to begin with and and you know

you got the prequel trilogy that started and

So I mean it that would I would argue that that's

possibly the the tipping point Where everything

started kind of gushing back in and and you have

all these parents with their nostalgia from from

the 70s of watching this stuff Yeah Trek was

going on and you know it kind of never really

stopped after the films and after TNG kicked

off but I would argue when Star Wars came back

to theaters is when the tipping point took place

because then you started getting things like

X -Men and Spider -Man and then everything else

kind of snowballed from there and It became an

acceptable term to be called a geek or a nerd,

and let people know how much you love these various

franchises, and whether you were popular or not,

you pretty much were able to find common ground

with people by that point. Oh, yeah. I mean,

the whole thing with specifically high school

and the cliques and groups, the jocks, the cheerleaders,

the outcast, the this, the that. By the time

I was a junior and senior in high school, all

that crap was out the window. You found your

own friends. You found your own people that enjoyed

what you enjoyed. And that's what we kind of

do now online. True. Ryan, thoughts? I was getting

ready for this. I was really looking for that

sort of zero hour moment you could point to and

say, this is when geek culture exploded and became

a little more mainstream. I think that Steve

probably nailed it with the re -release of the

Star Wars trilogy and getting ready for the prequels.

Because I think it was that thing that kind of

people started to come out of the woodwork. Like,

people all of a sudden were Star Wars fans that

you had, or at least personally, that I had no

idea were Star Wars fans. And because, either

because they had hidden it the way I had hidden

it, or it just hadn't come up, or you just don't

realize how important these movies are to people,

or it's the generational thing, which Steve also

touched on, that so -and -so's dad never thought

to show them Star Wars before, but now that it's

coming back, you know, you can go to the movies

and see it together. And... We're actually kind

of coming around to the third generation of that

when the sequel trilogy comes out love You know

18 months or so from now whenever that is You

know that's I mean I won't be able to take my

son to episode 7 But he'll be old enough for

me to go to maybe 8 and definitely 9 You know

that's that you know because it was a big deal

for me to go with my dad to see the re -release

of the Star Wars movies and Star Wars has kind

of always had that Trek Trek will As much as

I enjoy the new movies and as much as they've

revitalized Trek, Trek will never be cool. It

just won't. I'm staying out of this discussion.

I definitely have to agree with you there. I

as much as I because I love Star Trek as much

as the next geek. And even in Future Imperfect

myself and Mike Dodd, we kind of talked about

it on there, too, and said that it actually the

last episode we we mentioned the fact that Star

Trek is pretty much, the only place that it lives

is on television. The films, I mean, yeah, some

of them are great, like the original series and

the TNG ones, but yeah, the rebooted ones, they're

trying to go in a Star Wars -y direction, which

yeah, they brought them back, but it just doesn't

work. But it's not, people love the Star Wars

films when it comes to that. people love the

Star Trek shows when it comes to that so I mean

it's and films always trump TV so it's it's kind

of I totally get it yeah and that might be what

it is but there's always been this this resonance

with Star Wars that just wasn't there with Trek

and it makes me upset because I was a Trek fan

long before I was a Star Wars fan and as much

as I'm a Star Wars fan it I get very personal

and protective about Trek because I think most

of the people that dismiss it don't understand

it. But Star Trek to me is kind of it is what

it is. And you need to, you know, you either

enjoy it or you don't. Star Wars is is more you

get out of it, whatever you want to get out of

it. It's either a fun action movie, or you can

go deep and get philosophical and like all the

cool stuff that Yoda says and Empire Strikes

Back. You can get really into that if you want.

But you kind of you're going to get out of Star

Wars what you put into it and Trek is what it

is. Take it or leave it. that's kind of always

been my, you know, quick pitch on what the difference

between the two of them is. But I think when

that kind of and then the the Phantom Menace,

you know, 1999 was really to when the Internet

started to kind of become a lot more prevalent,

like it existed before that. But I mean, I remember

spending. How long did it take to download that

first production still of that shuttle flying

over the Coruscant skyline? Like, how long did

I sit there and wait for my computer to download

that frigging picture? But that was also, you

know, chat rooms back then. That's what the ask

your parents, kids, you know, that you were able

to start communicating with other people about

it. Like there was somebody, even if there wasn't

somebody in your house or in your class or on

your street that wanted to talk about Star Wars,

there was somebody online. who wanted to talk

about Star Wars. So I think that kind of coincided

with the internet really just taking off. And

personally, for me, two years later, I'm at college

with what at the time was the fastest internet

connection in the history of forever. And it

was so amazing. And it just probably pales in

comparison to what they have now. But it was

just out there. And there were people to talk

to about it. And there was... More and because

just like Star Wars influenced pop culture in

the 70s. It was influencing pop culture all over

again and at the at the new Millennium and it

was it was just it was it was there and then

you know, I To jump ahead a little bit. Maybe

I shouldn't but I don't know if that fit into

the rise and conventions or vice versa But that

has got to be a big part of it too is to actually

go out there and meet other people that are into

the same stuff that you are into. So that might

be jumping ahead a little bit though, so I guess

I should hold off a little bit. Well, no, I mean,

I think you're right. I mean, it's one of those

things where Star Wars was a jumping off point

for a lot of people. I remember watching... I

want to call it episode one, but it isn't. I

remember watching episode four and I'm like,

wait, where's the first three? When I was a kid,

I was like, am I missing something here? I remember

watching that, and when I got to the end of that

movie as a kid, I was like, wait, that's it?

Where's the rest? But yeah, no, I mean, Star

Wars has got, you know, say what you will about

Lucas and his constant tomfoolery with the reissues

and the requels and the whatever else. as far

as fooling with his original films, they are

still damn good films. You just gotta find the

version that you wanna watch. I think for me

it was, there were so many paradigm shifts when

it comes to geek culture then and now. You know,

cause there's so many, like I know our good friend,

He only has one toy collection, Transformers.

And he has almost every single Transformer that

was ever made, except for maybe some of the rare,

rare stuff. But I mean, his office in his basement,

the whole wall is giant cabinets filled with

Transformers from every generation. uh... so

there are people out there that would just do

one fandom and there's people like steven i who

we like a lot of stuff uh... you know i i mean

i i can't count on my hand how many cartoons

i like you know i can't count on my hand how

many films i like or how many tv series i like

uh... i'll say as a kid my imagination was very

vivid because every time as a kid i would see

a helicopter like who airwolf you know uh...

so there is that uh... alright so how has uh...

how has everything that is geeky now uh... basically

how do you guys feel about the fact that almost

every flake almost everything is geeky i mean

geeky is basically become the fan word for anything

and everything you like. What do you guys think

about that as far as the evolution of geek culture,

Steve? Well, I don't mind it. And yeah, there

are, you know, fake people out there that are

doing it just because, you know, just because

it's the cool, popular thing to do. I don't think

it's as prevalent as what people think. I think

that more people like to just slap it on there

just because, you know, based on their appearances

sometimes and some of that other stuff. But I

think that a lot of a lot of geek culture in

general is it's that constant You know ability

to Just be enthusiastic for what you you care

about. I mean they everybody has different interests

You know I mean you can be a car geek you can

be an audio geek you can be you know a film buff

You can you know any of that stuff. I mean everything

kind of falls under those titles It's it's more

so just kind of being comfortable being you And

and I think that sometimes being that it's the

the cool thing and you you've got you know All

these networks including ours, you know that

are kind of around You know, you have some that

are you know doing it for the love of it and

other ones not doing it You know, they're just

doing because that's what everybody pays attention

to But I think that in general Geek culture is

is very important and sometimes people kind of

overlook the fact that you know everybody has

interests and it's just what matters to you what

about you ryan i think it's just the kind of

the blanket term for you know enjoying and not

being ashamed of the things that make you happy

you know like you said you can be a car geek

or a sports geek or any other you know and i

think the i don't think it's as uh Geeks rule

the world quite as much as we're making it out

to be at the moment But it's it's certainly better

than it used to be but it's you know it's and

it's Shifting a little bit away from the stereotype.

It's actually gotten to the point now when people

point out the stereotype There's backlash which

which I enjoy I actually just saw a tweet today

at some Goodwill billboard that said he finally

got a girlfriend now We have all his toys or

something like that basically advertising their

toy department Yeah, exactly. And before that

would be accepted. And now there's backlash when

something like that happens, which is awesome.

But you know, we're not we're not there yet.

But I think it's just this thing that, you know,

it's enjoying what makes you happy and realizing

that you can't make fun of the guy dressed up

as a stormtrooper. If you're that guy at the

football game with his face painted, it's the

same thing. You're one of us at a convention,

the other ones at a football game. But it's really

the same thing. And I think that that those barriers

and those stigmas have broken down through everything

we've already talked about. And it's just being

a geek is admitting that you are unabashedly

in love with something. Oh, yeah. Absolutely,

I mean it just there's so much and what really

interests me nowadays is like if I listen to

a podcast which these days since I produce a

lot of them is very rare when I listen to a podcast

and someone brings up something a topic that

I Wouldn't think that they that that show might

cover And they cover it, I listen, and I'm like,

hey, I kind of like that too. Not because I'm

jumping on a bandwagon per se, but it's... There

are certain things that I've liked that I might

have forgotten about because I like so many different

things and do so many different things. But,

you know, I mean... I mean, it's gotten... Sorry

to interrupt. It's gotten to the point where

you're doing these geek things to fit in. where

before those geek things kind of ostracized you

from other people, whether it was self -inflicted

or not. Now you have people seeking out Marvel

comics so they can fit in with all the people

seeing the Marvel movies. You know what I mean?

There's a desire to know what everybody's talking

about. Look at a TV show like Lost, which I think

was huge in kind of expanding on geek culture

because it was this... good or bad you maybe

liked it maybe didn't but it was a great character

show first and foremost it had awesome characters

that that had compelling backstories that they

made you care about them oh by the way there's

also all these bizarre supernatural elements

so it's also you know it's also a sci -fi show

but it's disguised as a character piece so it's

it shows like that i'm struggling off the top

of my i guess game of thrones right now would

be another example that is for the walking dead

or breaking bad or any of the current television

shows. Well, they have to have some sort of sci

-fi edge to them. I don't know. I haven't watched

all of Breaking Bad. I don't know that Breaking

Bad does. No, Breaking Bad is not sci -fi. The

sci -fi or fantasy or something. It has to have

some sort of something outside of the norm. And

that's kind of what I mean with Marvel, because

now people want to know who that purple guy was.

So they're either going to go seek out, you know,

a quote unquote, a comic book nerd, or they're

going to go. get pick up a comic book. Now the

numbers have proven that just because somebody

saw Spider -Man doesn't mean they're going to

run to their comic book store and all of a sudden

sales of Spider -Man are going to go through

the roof. I know we've talked about that before.

That market that they keep pandering to just

does not exist. But those people become interested

and they want to know more and they want like

I said they want to know who the purple guy is.

They want to know. you know what's coming next

and they want to know is that the way it was

in the comics and as comic book readers usually

it's yep borrow this and read it and you know

that's that's how you're going to find out about

it kind of thing so i think it was with the transformers

films the michael bay transformers films that

i kind of found out about like prequel comics

or prequel novels or tie -ins. Now I know tie

-ins have been around for a long time before

2007, but that's really where I found out about

them, and I'm more interested in some of the

Marvel, like if they do a comic tie -in, like

to bridge Avengers to Iron Man 3, they did a

two -issue run for Iron Man 3 Prelude where it

was a story about what Rhodey was doing while

Tony was in the Battle of New York. And I kind

of like that. I don't mind it so much if they

do like a two or three issue run for a comic

to tie the films together. Alright, let's see

here. What else? i don't know maybe i should

look the term up actually but pop culture to

me i get the i get the general gist of the term

it's basically whatever's popular in culture

um at the time but i mean like i said earlier

geek culture is essentially a subgenre of pop

culture now there's not really a lot of difference

i don't see much because like you said ryan you

know all the marvel movies are popular Despite

what we fans may think of the transformers movies.

They have been wildly popular I'm sure those

Shrek looking turtle movies are gonna be popular

You know, so I'm not sure where the line is drawn

between pop and and geek culture I think I don't

know how or why but I think that that pop culture

has been The become the replacement for nerd

culture, and I don't know if that's just because

people don't want to say nerd culture And it's

and it's more socially acceptable to say pop

culture but now when people refer to pop culture,

they're usually not referring to music or Top

40 radio or something like that They're referring

to movies and comic books and TV shows and again

a lot of TV shows now have that sci -fi and or

fantasy spin I'm not watching it, but there's

the resurrection on the NBC with people coming

back from the dead, not zombified, but some.

You mean Revolution? No, no. Well, Revolution

Revolution is another example, but that's not

what I'm referring to. No, it's the it's the

one where they come back from the dead. It's

the revival show. I can't remember the name of

it. It's got Clarence Bodegaard in it. I don't

remember. I don't or Red Foreman's dad or Red.

He is Red Foreman. Sorry, Eric Foreman's dad.

Yeah, but anyway, I don't subscribe to that candy.

It's uh, it's just I think it's just because

it's so prevalent now that it's taken over what

pop culture means Because comic books are I don't

want to say they're popular because the numbers

aren't really there to say that they're popular

but the what they've inspired and what they've

created and and what they've You know developed

through comic books and through this wealth of

stuff that's been there for a long time But now

all of a sudden is getting its due for the first

time Well, I shouldn't say it for the first time

in a long time. I guess first time in 20 years

And it's it's nice to see that that's again I

guess I just kind of I'm circling back now to

you see people going to nerd culture things to

To fit in where before it was the nerd culture

things that separated you What about you Steve

any opinions? No, I mean, I think you guys pretty

much summed it up there And I love how some people

just basically say oh well that that show plays

to the lowest common comedy denominator it makes

fun of geeks or it does this and people don't

really see the the full potential because they're

and i'm this way to their there a lot of stevie

shows out there that i do not watch because i

just have zero interest in them uh... i'll tell

you one thing that like it doesn't make me mad

all the time but there's one thing more recently

that I am so sick of in geek and nerd culture

is zombie apocalypse this vampire hunter that

everything else this that what kind of a robot

apocalypse Barbie apocalypse for crap sake or

whatever the hell it's like oh god get over it

but yeah I mean Geek culture is here to stay,

folks. It's not going anywhere. And as we've

already said, you may like something and not

even realize you're a geek about it. There are

tons of, like Steve said, there are audiophiles,

there are music geeks, there are people who enjoy

putting podcasts or videocasts together and all

that good stuff. it's just it's a very wide world

of interests and we should all be able to get

along no matter what our opinions are for the

most part there are certain things like the fact

that Megatron and Galvatron are two separate

people or in some cases the same guy that people

might disagree over but I don't know I just I

felt like having this discussion because it just

seems like it's the norm now to be geeky or nerdy.

Like you were saying, Ryan, it's taken a 180.

Where when we were kids it was kind of, ew, don't

do that. Any final thoughts, Steve? No, nothing

else from the peanut gallery. Ryan? uh no i don't

think so i mean it's it's it's just it's nice

that you know well yeah no nothing else to add

i'm just gonna start getting redundant and rambling

and no i'm good i think i've said we're gonna

take a quick break and we'll come back uh to

close the show after this Pixels in the Animation

is the Geekcast Radio Network's video game cartoon

review show. We are covering every episode of

nine different video game cartoons. Join TV's

Mr. Neil and myself, TFG and Mike, as we trek

through multiple Mario tunes, Zelda, Captain

N, Mega Man, Sonic, and we are also driving through

Donkey Kong Country. Pixels in the Animation

is 100 episodes of video game cartoon goodness,

so tune in to help us find the Pixels in the

Animation which you can find every Wednesday

on iTunes and www .geekcastradio .com All right,

we are back. Ryan, where can the people find

you and all of your Positively Nerdy stuff? The

easiest place is, of course, PositivelyNerdy

.com. That's the home of everything, the podcast,

the written reviews, the weekly features, including

the Tuesday top five and Friday's box office

time machine. And you can subscribe to the podcast.

You can listen to it right through PositivelyNerdy

.com. You can go to iTunes and download it there.

Subscribe. Leave me a review, please, please,

please. I hate begging for reviews, but I'm going

to do it. And I'm also on Stitcher, which that's

your preferred listening method of positive narratives

on Stitcher. So check it out. Awesome. Whatever

you got coming up, can you give us a preview?

Well, in a couple of weeks, I'll be at C2E2 hoping

to have a blast for three days down in Chicago

and talking to a bunch of people. Both the creative,

you know creators professionals and anybody that

I bump into that I feel like showing a microphone

in their face Really really looking forward to

that that time and then two weeks later. It's

the Motor City Comic Con that a month later I'm

going down to North Carolina for Heroes con Big

big summer lots of summer movies coming up very

excited. Just saw a cap Captain America The Winter

Soldier, and we've got Spider -Man right around

the corner, and X -Men after that, and Godzilla,

and man, it's, yeah. And all of that will be

covered in great detail, believe me, on Positively

Nerdy. So it's gonna be a good couple months.

Awesome, awesome. Steve, what have you got coming

up on AGU? It's kind of one of those random things

that... I never know until we sit down and record.

I find it keeps the show a lot nicer that way.

Just because I don't ever know what I'm doing.

Kind of like every other night. But besides that,

we will have information about a GeekCast radio

contest. For the year five celebration details

will be on the site Yeah, and the announcement

will also be in the next episode of geek cast

radio, which I'm not sure what it's gonna be

just yet I have several ideas written down, but

I'm not set on any one of them at this point

Alright, so I have been TF2 and Mike with Steve

Megatron Phillips and Ryan Porter Unleash the

geek in you and we will catch you next time.

Geekcast Radio. Four, become a fan on Facebook.

Go to Facebook .com slash Geekcast Radio. Call

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