geeky is as geeky does
I should be more explicit with that title. A more effective headline for this piece would be ‘Geeky Is As Geeky Does, or, Why Dungeons and Dragons is like The Strokes.’
Unlike other cultural phenomena like, say, Ugg boots, which burn themselves out in a blaze of ill-conceived glory, the idea of accepting geekiness has been on a slow boil for a while. Evidence: the recent season two of ‘Beauty and the Geek,’ the eminently geeky Tiger Woods pulling Elin Nordegren, the above picture of Bill Gates from a 1983 Teen Beat photo spread.
LIke I said, this geek movement has been on the back burner for a loooong time.
I’m on the train yesterday when come across this story about references to Dungeons and Dragons cropping up in everyday culture. Wow. Vin Diesel played fantasy games. The guy from My Chemical Romance too. Huh. I thought about it for ten seconds and turned the page to do my crossword.
But one stop before I get off, I look up at the station advertisements: Apparently the Dummies series has taken a break from Brewing Coffee for Dummies and Proposing to Your Pregnant Fiancee Because It’s The Right Thing To Do for Dummies to bring you Dungeons and Dragons for Dummies. And has decided the best plan of action would be to advertise this on public transit. On a sign. To yuppie professionals.
While I won’t comment on the company’s marketing strategy - please, please, please click here and watch the commercial, then tell me if it’s brilliant or wretched, because I’m still on the fence - I was struck by the fact that in a five-minute period around 8:10 a.m. on a train in a pre-coffee fog with headphones on, I was confronted with two Dungeons and Dragons references.
Which brings me to The Strokes.
Frankly, I’m not sure if it’s cool to like The Strokes again. Yet. Or ever. See? I’m confused. Sure, the band came out with a great debut album, but once it was too big, you were vilified for even mentioning those poseur wannabes. Don’t even talk about that second album. Nobody bought that.
But then The Strokes might, just maybe, be hip again after the release of their third album. So while you may be accepted for liking D&D today, that situation could change immediately. In a few years, all the D&D geeks will cease to be cool again, much like The Strokes. I suggest dropping your 20-sided die now and hitting the beach.
Or pose for Teen Beat and 23 years later become the world’s richest man. Whichever.
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
Dave
Wow. Just wow. You could write a weeks worth of blog entries on that video alone.
So are they saying…?:
A) That D&D makes for a good date-night activity
B) That playing D&D will make you more attractive to supermodels
C) That supermodels secretly long to be geeks
D) That interracial couples are the epitomy of hipness
or
E) That there is such a thing as “epic-level dungeon master” (whoops, might be revealing knowledge of the game)
And then the centerpiece of it all is this bizarre trip into someone’s “imagination” hosted by a woman that seems bored to tears. If you listen really closely, you can hear the subtext of “this is not what I had in mind while spending all that money on acting classes and headshots”. How does someone recover from that and go on to oscar-worthy work?
This seems like an attempt to make us all believe that D&D is a fad that’s currently popular and all the hip kids are doing it - the ad is (I assume) intentionally wretched (ala Heat Vision & Jack), the subject matter is not ripe for El passengers, but the irony within makes it cool… all this adds up to an ad agency trying too hard. But they’ll probably sell a few more copies, so… good for them!
Mar 31st, 2006
Rita
Anyone else remember the D&D game for Intellivision? No? wow…that game rocked my world when I was like 7. To think that thing scared the crap out of me. Thank god I wasn’t 7 when Mortal Combat and Eternal Champions came out.
Apr 10th, 2006
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