Geek
Of 19th Century origin, deriving from the English dialect word geck, meaning 'fool' which is of Germanic origin, and relates to the Dutch word gek, meaning 'mad' or 'silly'*.
Noun. An unfashionable or socially inept person*.
As we all know, Hollywood has the ability of taking something such as a geek, and turning it into something a little more "desirable", and henceforth, the term Geek Chic was born. Geeks became cool, and hip!
So, to celebrate all that is good and geek, here is my Top Six Film Geeks. Enjoy :)
6. Sam Witwicky
Character Name: Samuel James WitwickyPlayed by: Shia LeBeouf
Film: Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon.
Geek Appearance: Bank t-shirts, messy hair in his Ebay picture!
Example of complete Geekness: Bullied by the school jocks, not very good with the ladies (and yet, still manages to pull two really very hot birds??) Trying to be cool and making a complete fool of himself!
If this was a Top Six of Hot Film Geeks, then Sam Witwicky would most likely take the leadership.
5. Ron Weasley
Character Name: Ronald WeasleyPlayed by: Rupert Grint
Film: Harry Potter etc, etc
Geek Appearance: Messy ginger hair, old-fashioned robes, lovely home-made jumpers!
Example of complete Geekness: Ron isn't the super intelligent type of geek, he's more the socially inept, doesn't know what to say kind of geek, who is more likely to put his foot in his mouth than anything. He's not very good at sport, or most academics really and breaks things!
Ron Weasley is the character that girls secretly fancy. He has something about him that Harry doesn't....lack of angst, perhaps, and an ability to move his mouth!
4. Peter Parker
Character Name: Peter ParkerPlayed by: Most notably Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield (left)
Film: Various Spiderman films
Geek Appearance: The glasses are the most obvious sign of Peter Parker's Hollywood geekery.
Example of complete Geekness: The fact that he makes his own Spider Man outfit is pretty geeky! How many ordinary people would know where to even start on that one!
He's a bit clumsy, doesn't know how to be with women and generally lacks confidence. He's a bit of a loner.
To be fair, Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker is starting to look like he's more verging on the cool side, than proper geek. Tobey Maguire's Parker, however, was very much in the geek category.
3. George McFly
Character Name: George McFlyReal Name: Crispin Glover
Film: Back to the Future
Geek Appearance: Oh, where to start really. The glasses (missing unfortunately in the image, but c'mon that picture is not a good look!), the slicked over hair, the mannerisms, social awkwardness, bullied, doesn't know how to talk to girls, loner and a little bit creepy.
Example of Complete Geekness: Hanging from trees watching girls...erm, who actually does that...? Well, other than George McFly of course!
Where Peter Parker kind of makes being a loner "cool", George McFly successfully makes being a loner actually kind of creepy. I mean, watching girls from a tree? Really?
2. McLovin'
Character Name: Fogell or McLovinReal Name: Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Film: Superbad
Geek Appearance: Bad haircut,
Example of complete Geekness: I think the picture is most definitely McLovin's example of complete and utter geekness. Anyone who has seen the film will get what I mean. Oh, and probably the whole calling himself "McLovin" too....!!
McLovin is one of the very few (in my opinion) classic Hollywood geeks, who actually looks like a geek and acts like a geek. He doesn't really fit into the geek chic category either.
1. Napoleon Dynamite
Character Name: Napoleon DynamiteReal Name: Jon Heder
Film: Napoleon Dynamite
Geek Appearance: The glasses, the hair, the goofy teeth, the social ineptness, the awkwardness, bullied, inability to speak to practically anyone in a normal way, and pretty much everything about Napoleon really.
Example of complete Geekness: It's really hard to pick just one thing about Napoleon, because he really does summarise the ultimate geek!
One thing that I've never liked about Hollywood Geeks, is the way that they are always good kids. They have good manners, don't do anything wrong (not really anyway), are always polite to their parents, and are just little Angels really. But, in reality, geeks are not like that. Geeks are exactly like every single other teenager no matter what clique they come in. And Napoleon really sums that up. He's rude, he's arrogant and he's generally not a nice person for the majority of the time. As a character, that was incredibly refreshing and could play a huge part in why Napoleon is just such an amazing character. Well, that and perhaps this scene too:
The One That Didn't Quite Make The List:
So, that is my Top Six. Buuuut, there was one other person that I wanted to give a wee mention to here. And that is of course Michael Cera.Cera is one of those actors that I would wholeheartedly refer to as a "Samer", because practically every role that he has played has been this doe-eyed anxious geek. Roles have included: Juno, Nick and Norah, Superbad etc etc. But, with so many geek characters under his belt it was a. difficult to choose just one to use in the Top Six, and b. it makes you wonder who is actually the geek, in this case at least, the character or is it in fact Michael Cera himself?
All of the mentioned characters have several things in common:
- Social anxiety
- Useless with girls
- Unlucky in love
- Geek Chic Fashion sense
- Get walked all over quite a bit
Who is your favorite Hollywood geek?Do you think Hollywood shows a true representation of what it's really like to be a geek?Personally, I don't. But I'd love to hear your thoughts.
*Taken from the Oxford English Dictionary.
