[Hated Trope] Nerdy characters who don’t understand nerdy things

[u/BlackHandKUR]

There are too many examples of movies and tv fumbling basic nerd knowledge but the one that particularly bugs me is whenever we have nerdy characters not understanding basic DnD lore or mechanics.

Big bang theory is probably one of the worst offenders when it comes to not understanding nerdom but how they do dnd is especially insulting. They don’t understand any of the basic concepts, lore, mechanics or even how races look. Theres a scene where they do a steamy dnd thing and they describe an orc with multiple arms and breasts. Not a single part of that was even remotely close to correct and Sheldon being the atypical rule lawyer type should know that.

Abed from community isn’t much better. Either he doesn’t know the rules or fragrantly allows his players to ruin a session. There is never a mention of initiative, contesting rolls, or scaling. Pierce, a naked hermit of a character, over powers a high level fighter then charms a high level creature to pose this great threat to the party. What?

Stranger things, and possibly the one the gets me the most, off the rip we have a character who misses a fireball attack by rolling low. That’s not how fireball works, that not how fireball has ever worked. Fireball is an AoE spell where everyone in its radius has to have a save to have the damage halved. These are kids that name the monsters after DnD creatures yet they don’t know the difference between fire bolt and fire ball?

[u/Writeloves]

The majority of nerds I know are multi fandom like that. There’s only so much content per fandom.

[u/KFrosty3 → u/Writeloves]

Yeah, but as a nerd myself, there's only so much you can learn about something before you truly run out of things to learn. 

I can see that argument for things like Indy and GoT, but for the most part, every franchise they name drop have such deep amounts of content that you would have to let some fall by the wayside to get as deep as they claim to be.

Then again, the fact that everything they "know" about most things is surface level probably means they're all just posers

[u/PrometheusMMIV → u/KFrosty3]

Dead name? Do you mean name drop?

[u/KFrosty3 → u/PrometheusMMIV]

Yeah, sorry. I thought of the wrong words for the term. Thanks for pointing it out :)

[u/TimSylvester_ → u/KFrosty3]

Not to mention just because you like a specific namespace doesn't mean you're obsessed with it or that you know everything you possibly can about it.

[u/Badass_Bunny → u/KFrosty3]

there's only so much you can learn about something before you truly run out of things to learn. 

Is that not how you end up with a bunch of fandoms you're into like in BBT?

[u/iPoseidon_xii → u/Badass_Bunny]

I think they’re saying some IP’s are so deep and so full of content that by the time you’re through you don’t really have time for many others

[u/KFrosty3 → u/iPoseidon_xii]

Exactly that 

[u/RivenRise → u/KFrosty3]

It's also a preference thing. Like sure there's only so much content for each franchise and genre but it doesn't mean that I'll like a different genre or even a different franchise in the same genre.

[u/Famous_Author_2264 → u/Writeloves]

Yeah, but 4 full time employed nerds aren't gonna grind 4 mmos, do a halo skulls challenge, play paintball, read every comic book, binch every sci-fi show multiple times, read every fantasy from Harry Potter to GoT, while still being successful, and have a social life.

[u/Angry_Scotsman7567 → u/Famous_Author_2264]

To be fair, they didn't have a social life. At least not one that wasn't entirely dominated by doing those things with each other. Which is a big plot point.

[u/Writeloves → u/Famous_Author_2264]

The nerd stuff was their social life.

[u/Writeloves → u/[deleted]]

Agreed, those games are literally designed to take up hours of your life grinding to make progress.

Honestly, the way the writers portray the characters as super-fan experts in every single field makes them come off as shallow posers who learned just enough trivia to compete for superiority rather than a group of friends with diverse nerd interests.

Groups who bond like that do exist, but they tend to be more specialized. They also tend to be assholes who use shared media as a shortcut around adult communication and who don’t love the thing so much as the social status it grants them.

[u/_SpidErik_ → u/Writeloves]

I am not saying that nerds can't be multi fandom. Heck, I am as well. But the characters in BBT are ridiculously obsessed with EVERYTHING that is slightly nerd coded

[u/PoxedGamer → u/_SpidErik_]

Aye, I'm into plenty of nerdy things, but there's like zero way to know/remember and be 100% obsessed with all of them. Even if you had an eidetic memory, there's only so much time to crsm info into yourself.

[u/Turbulent_Host784 → u/Writeloves]

Yeah but the same person that will have that type of love for nerd shit will probably find a deep hate for some other aspects of nerd shit.

For me it's "muh realism" types.

[u/Eightiesmed → u/Writeloves]

Multi fandom I can buy, but being a nerd about comics, roleplaying, science, fantasy, scifi all at ones doesn’t really sit right with me. It’s a similar trope than a heavy metal fan liking every rock band under the sun.

[u/Writeloves → u/Eightiesmed]

The list you gave is pretty limited/generic to the point I can name several people in my personal acquaintance who are fans of everything you listed.

That said, the fact they never say “I’m not really into X” is pretty ridiculous and I agree that the extent of expertise in all those things is also very Hollywood.

[u/Eightiesmed → u/Writeloves]

To be more clear: Those genres are very doable, but same people don’t tend to like every series in every genre.

[u/Writeloves → u/Eightiesmed]

True. If they were being accurate, there should have been more scenes of characters acknowledging “Sheldon memorized the canonical event dates and made a comprehensive Doctor Who timeline, but he won’t watch the spin off series” and warning each other, “Howard won’t shut up about X. Since we watched the movie he read the novel and started learning mandarin to better understand the original manga.”

[u/gogeri2632 → u/Writeloves]

Ya same. They might not be the biggest nerds in each but most people who like comics also like Star Wars and also like Indiana Jones for example.

[u/MonteCristo85 → u/Writeloves]

But its not multiple. Its all of them.

[u/Writeloves → u/MonteCristo85]

That is nowhere near “all” nerd fandoms lol

[u/Astecheee → u/Writeloves]

You're thinking of 'nerds' in the colloquial sense, but what you mean is a geek - someone who is obsessed and socially awkward, but not book-smart.

True nerds like Sheldon (if you believe the premise of the show) don't behave that way. They have a single fandom they obsess over, and they might occasionally branch out to see the new stuff.

The reason for this is a requirements for being a nerd are obsession, social awkwardness, and smarts. Nerds aren't satisfied with surface-level sci-fi - they want technical diagrams of the Enterprise and the sublight speed of an X-Wing.

Nerds might watch other things, but they're only obsessed with one fandom.