how nerdy are dedicated fans?

[rone]

tongodeon created a poll that asks which TV/movie franchise is the nerdiest, using the "caliber of nerd associated with its dedicated fan base" as the metric.  I am not convinced that this is a helpful exercise.  First off, followers of a particular fandom will attempt to play down their own nerdiness in order to somehow legitimize what they're doing (look at the low Buffy score as proof).  Also, it is difficult to separate the nerds one knows that love a particular creation from one's own opinion of the creation, but more crucially, from one's opinion of such nerds.  For example, i react with intense aversion to the Rocky Horror Picture Show because, holy fuck, that is one goddamned stupid movie, and the subculture that arose around its festering dungheap is inexplicable, massively annoying, and ugly.  I think the Brunching Shuttlecocks' geek hierarchy is missing the RHPS fans below the erotic fanfic furries.  But i digress...

What makes a fandom nerdier than the other?  Well, what's nerdy behavior?  Obsessing about details in the canon, buying merchandise, attending conventions (in costume, for bonus nerd points), writing fan fiction... am i missing anything?  Is a fandom that lacks action figures, for example, less nerdy than one that has them?  (Can i stop asking questions in this paragraph and write an actual statement?)

ikkyu2 speaks truth in the comments: separate the fandom from the nerd and how much nerd do you have left?  It's a very open question.  And his point about needing to be quite a nerd to even attempt to gauge the question hits the nail right on the head.  OW LORD HELP ME THERE'S A BEAM IN MY EYE.

I can't even keep it simple by making something that's more mainstream less nerdy; the Simpsons and Harry Potter are two of the most mainstream items in the poll, but HP is, by almost any measure, much nerdier than the Simpsons.  What's nerdier, being a Vlad Taltos fan or a Wheel of Time fan?  OK, yeah, the Wheel of Time, duh.

Anyway, i revisited my "all 9s and a 10 for RHPS" vote and gave the Simpsons an 8.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Comments

[opadit.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that one helpful way to determine how to score each franchise's nerds is to think, well, how well does the average fan/nerd/enthusiast of this show function outside of a group of other fans? Are fans of this particular franchise more likely or less likely to live in their parents' basement than fans of another franchise? (I think I'm saying basically the same thing as ikkyu2.) Is the average Dr Who fan generally more functional than the average RHPS fan, for instance? khaosworks, for example, is a primary author of Wikipedia articles on Dr Who and he also happens to be a barrister in Singapore and has an advanced degree in American history from the University of Georgia. Is the average Prisoner fan more of less functional in daily living (holding a job, raising kids, paying bills, hygiene) than the average Buffy fan? Are they comparable?