Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Less cool

Because it’s become so trendy to admit you’re a geek—and because you can now be a geek of things that were formally considered 100% cool (a sports geek, a rock music geek, an organic food geek, etc.)—the word has lost a lot of its meaning.

So there’s an opening for a word to describe people with south-of-mainstream taste. (Nerd doesn’t qualify.)

While you mull over that, mull over this: over the years I’ve come to notice that, whatever else I am, I am also a certain subset of geek—someone who tends to prefer the weaker, lamer, less edgy, or simply less cool member of a famous pair.

It started, appropriately, with me preferring vanilla to chocolate. But in pop culture terms:

Superman vs. Batman – I like Superman better
DC Comics vs. Marvel Comics – DC
Beatles vs. Rolling Stones – Beatles
John Lennon vs. Paul McCartney – McCartney
Fonzie vs. Richie – Richie
Simpsons vs. South ParkSimpsons
Brandon vs. Dylan (90210) – Dylan
Seinfeld vs. Friends Friends
Bruce Springsteen vs. Billy Joel – Joel (I don’t think many actually size up these two together but I did read a comparison at least once)
The Empire Strikes Back vs. Return of the JediJedi

This brings me to one pair in which I do prefer the cooler of the two:

Luke Skywalker vs. Han Solo

I trust you can guess which is which.

If you can add any such pairs to the list, please do so in the Comments.

2 comments:

Mel said...

star trek or star wars? Star Wars
Ginger or Mary Ann? Duh ... Mary Ann

madrid said...

vampires or wizards? there seems to be a minor divide between my students on the topic.

my halloween costume confirms my preference for the latter :)