Tropedia

  • All unique and most-recently-edited pages, images and templates from Original Tropes and The True Tropes wikis have been copied to this wiki. The two source wikis have been redirected to this wiki. Please see the FAQ on the merge for more.

READ MORE

Tropedia
WikEd fancyquotesQuotesBug-silkHeadscratchersIcons-mini-icon extensionPlaying WithUseful NotesMagnifierAnalysisPhoto linkImage LinksHaiku-wide-iconHaikuLaconic
Cquote1
OK, now you've crossed over into the realm of supernerds, whereby even regular nerds steal your lunch money and throw rocks at you.
Ethan, Ctrl+Alt+Del
Cquote2


Basically this is the notion that Nerd interests can be tiered, and that what's on the lower tiers can make other nerds glad they aren't that nerdy.

Sometimes expressed in the form of "You're the kind of nerd that other nerds would beat up and steal your lunch money". Often when Nerds Love Tough Schoolwork, the regular nerds will mock those nerds.

This can also stem from the idea that Nerds Are Virgins doesn't apply to moderate or light nerds. The more nerdy you are, the more You Need to Get Laid.

In Real Life, this can lead to Broken Bases accusing the other side of being more geeky, but we don't need to note that here. Besides, articulation of such arguments tends to be, well, geekier than either side.

A Sub-Trope of Everyone Has Standards.

Compare with Acceptable Hobby Targets, Hypocritical Fandom.


References to Nerd Standards:

Comics[]

Fanfiction[]

  • In "The Strange Change of Veruca Salt" (a story ironically removed from that website due to the spamming by fans, but seen in archive of your own), Dory Wilke (despite being Veruca's "only friend") annoyed the nerds due to being a Motor Mouth as Helen and Rebecca annoyed Veruca as she was a Fish Out of Water.

Film[]

  • Roger Ebert described the title character of Napoleon Dynamite as "the kind of nerd other nerds avoid."
  • Welcome to The Dollhouse: Dawn "Weiner Dog" Weiner sees some kids beat up some nerdy kid. She goes over to him, asking if he's okay. His response: "Get away from me, Weiner Dog!"
  • In Shrek the Third, even the school nerds pick on class loser Arthur.
  • Ted: John is even told to get lost by a bullied classmate.

Literature[]

  • When Douglas Adams revealed that the question which produced the Ultimate Answer (42) was What is six times nine?, somebody pointed out that the math actually did add up... if you use base 13. Adams responded, "I may be a sad individual, but I don't make jokes in base 13."
  • Stanley Howler from the Discworld book Going Postal is so obsessed with his pin collection, even the other pin collectors in Ankh-Morpork think he's "a bit weird about pins". Then Moist von Lipwig invents the postage stamp, and Stanley proceeds to obsess over those, inventing stamp collecting (and becoming incredibly dismissive about people who are "still" collecting pins).

Live Action TV[]

  • When Buffy fails to get on the cheerleading squad early in Season 1, her mother suggests that she join the yearbook staff. Buffy responds, "Have you seen the people that work on the yearbook? Nerds pick on them."
  • Some of the Krelboyne kids in Malcolm in the Middle.
Cquote1

 Dabney: I know you think I'm a mama's boy.

Malcolm: No, Dabney, the mama's boys are getting together and laughing at you. With their mothers!

Cquote2
Cquote1

 Mary Kate: Dad, you know those kids who blow their nose and then spend just a little too much time looking at it in the tissue?

Kevin: Yeah...

Mary Kate: Well, even THEY won't talk to Ethan!

Cquote2
  • In Red Dwarf, Arnold Rimmer maybe an Extraverted Nerd, but he even believes that Dwayne Dibbley “so geeky, he couldn't even get into a science fiction convention”.
  • In Lizzie McGuire, even former school nerd Sam McGuire was unaware that he turned against his daughter's nerdy friends. He did not exactly mention it.
  • In a season 2 episode called "Bunkies", the nerds reject Lizzie, Miranda, and Gordo from the group involving the handprint miracles.

Video Games[]

  • Backyard Sports' Dmitri, a nerd who loves statistics, thinks Reese, who is a nerd who plays way too many video games and collects way too many stamps and action figures, is way too nerdy.
  • Ratchet & Clank: In the first game, Ratchet calls Al a “nerd” when Al talking about robotics despite being curious about space travel and wanting to meet Captain Qwark himself.

Web Comics[]

Cquote1

 Even more reviled than a typical roleplayer is a roleplayer who insists on roleplaying. When the dorks need to feel superior, this is the guy they denounce as a dork. Honestly. The only person worse than him is the DM himself.

Cquote2
  • In this Ctrl+Alt+Del strip, Ethan said that Lucas had "crossed over into the realm of supernerds, whereby even regular nerds steal your lunch money and throw rocks at you" over his excitement on having discovered the A Song of Ice and Fire CCG.
  • The hierarchy is referenced in this page of Weregeek.
    • Despite this one instance though the comic in general averts this showing all forms of Geek as people out to have harmless fun (who also may or may not be monsters of some kind).
  • Dork Tower has a running joke about furries being the absolute bottom rung of the gaming community.
    • And then there's...
Cquote1

 Ken: The geeks beat you up in school when the jocks were finished with you, didn't they...

Matt: The math club developed a special 'take a number' system just for me!

Cquote2

Web Original[]

Cquote1

 Graham: They're LARPers. It's like what Jer does with the dice and the bits of paper, except the people Jer hangs out with look down on these guys.

Cquote2
  • The Cracked series After Hours is entirely about four geeks who sit around a diner discussing pop culture as Serious Business. Nevertheless one of them, Daniel O'Brien, is even geekier than the others and tends to get a lot of looks of mixed confusion/scorn/pity when he says something particularly nerdy. It's Self-Deprecation, of course, Dan is the show's writer.
  • The Angry Video Game Nerd: Atari Sports episode, the nerd calls out on sport fans.
    • He also appeared never wanting to play ET: The Extraterrestrial – Atari Game as seen as the end of Spielberg Games. This was before a team of research actually found the cartridges in a New Mexican Desert.
  • In the web video series called Doppelgänger, Victor isn’t allowed to join a clique of nerds.

Western Animation[]

Cquote1

 Lisa: (picks up a pencil holder) Ooh, I want to get the krünk.

Marge: Mmmm, you don't want something that overshadows the pencils. (holds up another pencil caddy) How about this pöpli?

Lisa: Mom, no! Everyone at school picks on the pöpli kids - even I do. (under breath) Just hate them so much.

Cquote2
    • And when Bart accidentally revealed that he has a stamp collection, even Lisa laughed at him.
Cquote1

 Nelson: Stamp collection? Ha ha!

Cquote2
    • Lisa also laughed at Bart when he accidentally joined the Junior Campers during a Squishy bender
Cquote1

 Lisa: The few. The proud. The geeky.

Cquote2
    • In Diggs, even Millhouse didn’t want Bart to sit next to him after eating a dead frog through he’s already shared a comb with the boy who had thrown up on a boy who wet his pants the winter carnival… in other words, he wouldn’t gave Bart 20 dollars for the stunt.
  • On Phineas and Ferb, even Baljeet considers Irving to be a nerd.
  • In The Fairly Odd Parents younger Cosmo, who is apparently the biggest loser in his school, gets beat up by every clique group, even the nerds.
  • Family Guy: Meg Griffin may as well be the black sleep of the family, but even she won’t date Neil Goldman, a classmate who’s a geeky outcast like her.
  • In the South Park episode "Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers", the kids are playing like they are characters in Lord of the Rings, but Cartman then makes fun of kids who are playing like they are in Harry Potter.
  • In the end of the Danny Phantom episode "Lucky in Love", the nerd calls Danny, Tucker, and Sam "losers".
    • In the early season, Tucker himself hates being called a "nerd" and "Techno-Geek". In one episode, he has gotten sick of it, but by the end he started to like being a "Techno-Geek".
  • In the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Canned", Rocko passes two comic book geeks, one of which is gushing about how he thinks the "elf wenches" in his favorite fantasy comic are way hotter than real women. The other geek responds "Wow... you're an idiot."
  • Total Drama inverts this--according to his online bio, the reason Cody thinks of himself as cool is because he hangs out with a bunch of friends even geekier than he is.
  • In The Looney Tunes Show, there's a flashback to everyone's high school days, and we find out that even Pete Puma and Marvin Martian, established losers in this particular continuity, refused to sit with Daffy.
  • Static Shock: Nerds even attacked Eddie Felson, known as Weird Eddie, who would later become the villain, Speedwarp.