There are so many lovable geeks out there on TV that I compiled my own list. High on my list of adorkable geeks includes:
- Abed (Community) – His Inspector Spacetime, his blanket fort, his idiot savant popular culture knowledge, his Imaginarium, and his geektastic relationship with Troy all speak to a kickass geek.
- Sheldon (The Big Bang Theory) – His anal retentive nature, his iconic cartoon t-shirts, and his encyclopedic knowledge of all things comic and physics related mark him as the original geek.
- Jess (The New Girl) – Come on — her love of blue flats for sundress AND Christmas evening wear, her tendency to burst into song, her love of Walter Matthau and Lord of the Rings, as well as her utter adorkable nature mark her as a kickass geek.
- Amy (The Big Bang Theory) – OK. So, Amy doesn’t like comics or, you know, most humans, but as Sheldon’s female counterpart, her enjoyment of harps (which someone people could categorize as geeky), her neuroscience brilliance, her recognition of comics’ tendency to draw women as flotation devices, and my utter love of her all mark her as geeky.
- Penelope (Criminal Minds) – Her hacker knowledge, her quirky clothes, her chunky glasses, and her rainbow colored hair all mark her as a kickass geek.
- Abby (NCIS) – Her knowledge of all things science related from cybertechnology to biology — Abby inexplicably knows it all while simultaneously rocking goth wear.
So, I put it to the CliqueClack gang to see what they thought. Below, find what we came up with:
An: Who’s your favorite TV geek? Because there are so many lovable geeks out there, I’m going to limit it to current shows.
Deb: How about Brennan from Bones? Masuka from Dexter? Park from House?
Rachel: Some other ideas: Kenneth from 30 Rock and “Other universe” Astrid (the statistician) from Fringe.
Brett: Elf-lord.
An: I’m not familiar with Masuka or Park. I caught the latter in a couple House episodes; but, I suspect I want to call her a geek because Park’s speech patterns remind me of Charlene Yi‘s uber-geeky Paper Heart character.
However, does Bones qualify as a geek or a nerd? Outside of her scientific brilliance, former discomfort amongst humans, and her squinty sidekicks, she doesn’t seem into any subcultures, and both her best friend and lover seem absolutely normal (compared to Abed’s best friend/Sheldon’s best friends & lover/Jess’ ‘old guys’ & former lovers).
Julia:
- Ben Wyatt from Parks and Recreation (“Nerd culture is mainstream now. So, when you use the word ‘nerd’ derogatorily, it means you’re the one out of the zeitgeist.”)
- I think Leslie also qualifies as a political dork (“This is how Ruth Bader Ginsberg would kiss…”)
- Max from Hawaii 5-0 (His car! His movie nights! He solves cold cases for fun!)
- Claudia from Warehouse 13 (Her… everything.)
- Gus from Psych (He seems to have a passion for pretty much anything obscure, like rare coin collecting, and one of his pickup lines is “Did you hear about Pluto? That’s messed up.”)
- Ted from HIMYM (“Architecture fun fact number 24…”, always correcting people, how he pronounces the word “encyclopaedia”)
- I’d argue Liz is WAY more of a nerd than Kenneth. I mean, she dresses up as princess Leia repeatedly, we’ve flashbacked to her “partying” by going to natural history museums and staying up late designing dungeons, and she has lines like “I don’t care! Rejection from society is what created the X-Men!”
I am sure I will think of more.
Rachel: I agree that Liz is more of a nerd, but I think Kenneth is more of a geek. There is a slight distinction in my mind.
Keith: I’ll nominate Alec Hardison of Leverage.
Julia: Thank you! I knew I was forgetting someone important. Age of the geek, baby.
Katie: Henchman 21 from Venture Bros. Between the Batman sequence in season 2 and his ardent opinion of Smurf biology in season 1 (plus the larping and the comic book store), how could he not be in this poll?
Ivey: I second Keith. Can’t have this poll without the guy whose catchphrase is “Age of the Geek, baby!”
Do you agree/disagree?? Who’s YOUR favorite TV geek? Poll ends on December 30th at midnight, one vote per person per day.
Photo Credit: Fox
Some posts that may be related to this:
As Julia said, Claudia Donovan from Warehouse 13. Eureka‘s Douglas Fargo also belongs on that list.
Age of the geek, baby!
Age of the geek, baby!
WHERE IS CLAUDIA! I mean, if you’re gonna do a poll about Geeks, how can you leave out a show that is totally for the Geek crowd. Strange artifacts made up from real events in history, time travel, conspiracy lore, and Claudia using her crazy computer and science know-how to blow all the old-school Ware-house systems aside. Come on! Sure it’s nowhere near as popular as say, NCIS (yes, sans Claudia, I voted for Abbey) but she should be on the list just to honor the whole Geek factor.
PS – I agree with An: Brennan was never a geek. Bones does have a legit geek: Jack Hodgins. Now, HE’S a geek.
*POST AUTHOR*
Gah. Good catch, Joy. I utterly dropped Julia’s suggestion. Don’t worry, she’s back on the board now :)
Gotta love the age of the geek! Although I may have always been into the macho kind of guys on TV, I have a new fond intrest in geeks. Best male geek to me is and always will be the elf lord, Tim McGee (Sean Murray) Best female geek is a bit harder. Always been a big fan of Abby (Pauley Perrette) but have a new found intrest in Claudia (Alison Scagliatti). Hmm.. so many great geeks to chose from!