HALIFAX – It’s long been the cliched and tired symbol of bespectacled, pen-toting geeks.
So when comedian Andrew (PigMonkey) Dorfman set out to create Geeks versus Nerds, a live comedy-debate show in Halifax, he decided to reclaim the pocket protector for every self-professed nerd out there.
“We’re taking it back!” says Dorfman, sporting a black T-shirt bearing the show’s logo: the outline of a white pocket protector, replete with pen and pencil.
“I like challenging people’s presumptions.”
Raised on comic books and science fiction, Dorfman, 39, is among an aging generation of self-described geeks and nerds who are proudly embracing their quirks and obsessions.
Dorfman came up with Geeks versus Nerds in 2008 after musing about who would win in a fight: Boba Fett from “Star Wars” or Batman, the Caped Crusader.
The show, held monthly at Dalhousie University and recorded for podcasts, pits panellists against each other as they debate the merits of superheroes, villains and everyone in between.
More than 100 fans typically show up to cheer on their pick, whether it’s the best modular hero (Marvel’s Iron Man versus Transformers’ Optimus Prime), or the whiniest teen prodigy in space (Anakin Skywalker of “Star Wars” versus Wesley Crusher of “Star Trek.”)
The goal was to reach out to like-minded people and bust stereotypes.
“If you listen to the show, you will learn that geeks are eloquent, they’re smart, they’re funny,” says Dorfman, the show’s host and producer.
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“They’re just really good people who cross all stratum of society and you wouldn’t know.”
With the popularity of sitcoms featuring nerdy characters, series that delve into the realm of fantasy and science fiction, and conventions like Comic-Con, some say geeky has finally gone mainstream.
As a high school student in the late 1990s, Florence Hansen lamented the lack of nerdy knick-knacks available in New Brunswick and longed for anything related to science, comic books or video games.
She just didn’t talk about it.
“Back in the day it wasn’t popular, so I kinda kept it on the down low,” Hansen, 30, says with a laugh. “But I was always a geek at heart.”
Four years ago, Hansen and her science fiction-loving husband, Luke, opened the Geek Chic Boutique in downtown Fredericton in the hopes of drawing out closeted nerds.
The shop – which proudly dubs itself the geekiest store in Canada – sells everything from Battlestar Galatica board games to belt buckles that look like original Nintendo controllers.
“Geeks are becoming popular,” says Hansen. “There’s been a huge response, from four-year-old kids to people in their 90s. We seem to have a huge geek population that supports us.”
Dorfman, an affable character with a mop of tight brown curls, is loathe to admit that geekiness is suddenly on-trend.
“I would argue that being a geek is never cool,” he says. “Otherwise you’re no longer a geek. But it is more acceptable.”
He attributes much of the progress to the fact that geeks have grown up. An entire generation who got hooked on Star Wars as children and devoted hours to playing Dungeons & Dragons are now adults who are no longer inhibited by insecurity and school bullies.
Furthermore, Dorfman says grownup geeks want to spend money on geeky things. Cue businesses like the Geek Chic Boutique, which has established an in-store and online customer base.
“I think nerdiness is becoming cool to the extent that it can become part of the consumer culture,” says Christine Quail, a professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, who has researched how nerds are represented in popular culture.
“If there is something there to be commodified and consumed, it becomes more palatable to a mainstream audience.”
In some ways, Quail says that has been positive. As an example, she says some geeky male characters on TV have successfully challenged society’s traditional, if not antiquated, image of masculinity.
On the downside, she says it’s not always clear whether viewers of sitcoms such as “The Big Bang Theory” are laughing with – or at the expense of – nerdy characters.
Even if stereotypical nerdy things are becoming mainstream, Quail agrees with Dorfman that high school can still be an unforgiving place for geeks.
Hansen, who no longer hides her nerdy leanings, says it’s easy to be a geek as an adult because people are more comfortable embracing their individuality.
She says she’shopeful younger generations will catch on to that acceptance.
“It’s just being yourself,” she says. “Showing you love what you love and not having to hide what you are.”
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