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If we got angry about this kind of thing we'd be angry all the time

Perpetuating Geek Stereotypes – TLC’s New Show, Geek Love

by Jill Pantozzi | 4:03 pm, November 24th, 2011


Start your promotional video for a new documentary show about geeks with a grown man doing a Wookie impression and it’s safe to say you’ve already played your cards. TLC has ordered a new geek dating show called Geek Love that premieres next month and it’s safe to say, it isn’t doing anything to help break the stereotypes the general public have about geeks. 

Geek Love, produced by Authentic Entertainment, the lovely folks who subjected us to Toddlers & Tiaras, is planned as two, half-hour specials which if successful, could warrant an entire series. Take a couple minutes to watch the preview.

Did you have the same reaction I did? Did you find it uncomfortable to watch folks that look like people you know, who have a tough time in social situations, being put on parade? Because that’s how I felt. I’m a geek, this is how most people still view us, and it’s an incredibly wasted opportunity. Granted, this is just a two-minute preview, the rest of the show may show a wide range of geeks but I’m guessing they chose to focus on the ones people would gawk at rather than take actual interest in.

“Putting geeks and romance together has been tackled before,” writes Entertainment Weekly, “But unlike former CW series Beauty and the Geek, the new show pairs pop-culture loving socially awkward singles with each other via Ryan Giltch, founder of a service called Sci-Fi Speed Dating.”

Confession: I’ve attended one of Giltch’s speed dating events. It was actually my first speed dating experience so it was awkward to begin with. But you know what? I met a wide array of fellow geeks, some were easier to talk to than others and some fit that general geek stereotype but it was a great experience.

The tone and editing of this preview does not strike me as inspiring or completely truthful but demeaning. Why do they show the Wookie gentleman staring in uncomfortable silence for four seconds after hearing he has something in common with the woman sitting across from him? Why isn’t the moment where another woman pulls out her own Wookie impression played for more drama instead of skipping right over it? And hey, let’s get a guy talking about how much he loves Slave Leia! That’s sure to surprise audiences!

Don’t even get me started on the play made to associate geeks with serial killers. Just. Don’t.

Look, I understand how television works but I also know it doesn’t have to be made for the lowest common denominator. Awkward geeks are what people expect to see. Instead of making a spectacle out of them, how about changing the way people view geeks? Perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps this is just a way to lure in viewers who want to laugh at and mock these people but TLC will pull out something unexpected instead. I doubt it but I feel like I need to put that out there.

Not all geeks are uncomfortable with the bar scene. Some of them find love online, some of them meet through friends. I applaud Giltch for what he’s put together with his speed dating events and I hope he keeps it up but I’m terribly disappointed TLC has chosen to perpetuate the tired geek stereotypes for the general public. I’ve been filmed as part of another geek documentary project and what the producers made clear was that it was a celebration of fandom and absolutely not being made with the intent to make fun of us or make us feel foolish. I can’t say that for Geek Love.

Not all geeks are created equal, TLC

(via Entertainment Weekly)

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  • Lisa Jonte

    My god, that preview was painful to watch.  Funny how they don’t do the same kind of series on say, rabid football fans.

    Yeah, funny.

  • Anonymous

    This made my stomach hurt! It’s so mean! I think the idea behind Sci-Fi Speed Dating is amazing and I wish they would make this show an honest portrayal. I also feel like the geeks are becoming the more obvious part of society – we all have our vast diverse interests. You can like BOTH football and Star Wars. I just feel as if the editors are trying to draw those viewers in for “trainwreck television” – where they just intend to mock those who are trying to seek love. Not cool TLC, not cool.

  • http://twitter.com/peyj_turner Paolo Jasa

    There’s already a word for it on Urban Dictionary: an ‘Uncle Tron.’

    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Uncle%20Tron

  • Talia

    Ugh, this makes me wish for the days when we were misunderstood and shunned and no one wanted to be like us. At least we were our own culture. I hate it that being a geek is “cool” now. It has become a marketable lifestyle, and anyone who identifies even a little bit as the stereotypical geek labels themselves as one. -_-

  • Frodo Baggins

    A lifestyle that, by its very essence, involves such massive consumption of popular culture can’t help but become marketable.

  • Frodo Baggins

    Reading the history of TLC meteoric drop in quality and rise in ratings is the most depressing thing I’ve experienced today http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TLC_(TV_channel) . And I woke up at 2 PM and had diet cranberry juice for breakfast.

    This nerd-baiting is especially insulting, as TLC is owned by the same company as Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and The Science Channel. Come on! Geeks and nerds are your peoples! Why ya gotta be like that?

  • Alexander K.

    An incredibly offensive program on TLC you say? Wow, I never thought I’d see THAT.

  • http://profiles.google.com/mkjonese Emma Jones

    I’ll ask again… why don’t networks like good TV?

  • Anonymous

    linkhide.com.ar/47632

  • http://www.facebook.com/karen.gulledge Karen Gulledge

    I admit, I laughed. Like, genuinely laughed, but not AT them. More like with them, I suppose? I think part of being a geek is understanding that we, as geeks, are not going to be viewed in any spectacular or positive light and thus, we kinda have to run with it. However, I hate to say it, but even if these geeky guys found a geeky girl with their interests, they probably still wouldn’t have a chance with the girls. Geek or not, girls be picky bitches. And with the exception of the girl at the end, they were all pretty good-looking. Yeah, those two can do Wookie mating calls at each other, great. He’s still gonna get friend-zoned hardcore.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1705628571 Nichole Filbert

    “Geek or not, girls be picky bitches.”

    Damn right. “Boys I’m Takin’ CHarge”. Also, would appreciate it if you would cut it out with the sexism. Also also, people don’t deserve to be bullied. “Rolling with” someone treating you like crap doesn’t stop them from treating you like crap. Why not challenge the idea that “everyone is like this”? WHY do you have to put up with abuse?

  • http://www.facebook.com/karen.gulledge Karen Gulledge

    Totally. The stereotype perpetuates for the same reason all the others do: because people don’t do anything to combat it. Yes, there’s always gonna be an unifying element when it comes to geeks and the like, but it doesn’t have to be negative. Geeks are fun-loving, easy-going people. Why not show that face to the world instead of the one that just spent an hour detailing the mechanics behind the Death Star at a mixed company dinner party?

  • Anonymous

    TLC, if we haven’t offended you yet, just give us time.

  • Anonymous

    linkhide.com.ar/47632

  • Stephanie Cole

    Ew. I’m not surprised, given this is TLC. But still, are they really boxing us in with polygamists, people with 40 kids, and pageant moms? We aren’t THAT weird. And of course, they aren’t representing the not-awkward people who just happen to love Star Wars. All the geeks I know are well adjusted, confident, fun-loving, and mature. I know there are a few who fit the “comic book guy” mold, but who cares!? Don’t be mean.

  • Anonymous

    / I hate to say it, but even if these geeky guys found a geeky girl with
    their interests, they probably still wouldn’t have a chance with the
    girls. Geek or not, girls be picky bitches./

    Of course the guys deserve a hot nice chick, not matter what they look like or how they act.

    Fuck off, nice guy.

  • Anonymous

    Oh yay, another Nice Guy dating show where the men can bitch about how the ‘nice guys’ do not get the girls.

    You know what? Nothing turns a girl off faster than you thinking you DESERVE her.

  • Anonymous

    linkhide.com.ar/47632

  • Carmen Sandiego

    “Geek or not, girls be picky bitches.”

    You obviously need to get to know more women if you believe that sentiment.

  • Victoria Penna

    I hope she talked to him long enough to realize he’s Casey Jones – a man who would passionately defend her from serial killers using various sporting equipment.

  • Anonymous

    This was ridiculously painful to watch. Of course I know how this kind of television works, they pick the worst moments I person has and puts them all together to make the audience think that that’s all that person does. These people could all be extremely intelligent and otherwise eloquent (which, when most nerds/geeks are in their element, they tend to be), but if TLC wants to show them as awkward and socially stupid, they will find all the moments to do so.

    But what really pisses me off is that I know this is just going to be rife with sexism, “nice guy” syndrome, and girl-geek-bashing from the viewers. It’s already been touched on in these comments, and we’re on /their/ side. I might check it out just to see if maybe TLC tries to actually make these stories about real people (instead of stereotypes) but I’ll be steeling myself against the waves of rage and subsequent misanthropy that will probably be caused.

    The only thing that made me laugh was the definition of nerdgasm, because it’s pretty accurate :D

  • Anonymous

    linkhide.com.ar/47632

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AOFTU2AM7WRZZFDC6SPN4XF6KQ Null

    Remember that due to the vagaries of Hollywood marketing, they will always put cute girls on but the guys can look like schlubs. Then all the male geeks (still the majority by far) can fantasize that they could do better than the losers on TV, and course could get the cute nerdy girls on the show (and tune in, and watch the commercials).

    The female audience can laugh at the male geeks, and the male geeks will tune in to fantasize about the cute nerd girls. There are plenty of losers in this situation, but the network wins.

  • http://www.facebook.com/shelleybear Shelley Adrienne Mimi Belsky

    Another “Sex Change Hospital” (but without the penis inversion). Oh look,freaks,and lot’s of ‘em!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000513348128 Kate Karlson

    I am absolutely 100% boycotting this show.

  • Anonymous

    Thank you for using the term “meteoric” accurately.

  • Anonymous

    They can still save this.

    Make this the theme song.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCXsDmvvzjw

  • Samantha Haeger

    I feel a drinking game starting around this show
    take a drink when:
    - A girl doesn’t get a nerdy reference
    - A guy makes a Star Wars joke 
    - there is a mountain of akward silence between two people
    - when they have to define things like nerdgasm
    I wouldn’t recommend doing this under any circumstances because I’m guessing those rules would make it easy to OD with this show. And I’d put money on people watching this and then claiming nerd status because they saw this and episode I of Star Wars. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=805586 Jen Rock

    I’ve been to two of these speed dating events, in cosplay no less, and the last one I went to, at NYCC, was taped for this show.  I liked attending both times, I was completely at ease, met a wide variety of geeks, and just as your experience was, some were in the stereotypes, some weren’t.  It was altogether positive for me.  So I was dismayed when I saw this preview.  None of my experience really encompassed the interviewees.  Asian obsessions and wookie calls were a very small part of what was otherwise a time for me to talk about mutual interests with a variety of men.  I already haven’t liked TLC’s turn as a multiple-pregnancy-obsessed television channel, it looks like they took the cheap road of “LOOK AT THE FREAKS” rather than tear down misconceptions about geeks who are quite capable of dating.

  • Anonymous

    phlpn.es/829r8s

  • Diana Turetsky

    Meeting someone is made even harder if you’re socially awkward, but it can be quite entertaining after the fact. My new husband and I met in university 7 years ago where we both studied Computer Science. Although we were in the same class together, we didn’t talk to each other the whole semester. When we finally did meet it was a very awkward encounter. Now it’s a great story that makes everyone laugh every time we tell it. Read about it in my blog: http://www.beehappy.ca/beelog/?p=523

  • http://www.facebook.com/ryan.t.glitch Ryan Thomas Glitch

    Just saying, I run the company that does the speed dating, and the show isn’t mocking.  at all.  So hate all you want, and then watch the show, and enjoy

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for commenting Ryan. We’re not hating on the show per se, just hating on how TLC is making it appear. If you’ve seen the completed work and it’s not mocking then I’m happy to hear it but the trailer does it no favors.

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