When did people start calling Star Trek for Nerds?

[Push The Button]

Most people are greedy, ignorant self-centered fools, and I stopped caring about being judged by them a long time ago.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Most people are greedy, ignorant self-centered fools, and I stopped caring about being judged by them a long time ago.

You've obviously sworn off judgment.

 

[Sector 7]

First episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series in 1970s. That is when my brother started teasing me. I WIN, because he treated me to both Abrams' movies... and he's the one who got me watching The Big Bang Theory.

 

[Lexx Shrapnel]

What is a nerd? Why was that word invented at the first place?

 

[Christopher]

What is a nerd? Why was that word invented at the first place?

Quoth Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerd

The first documented appearance of the word "nerd" is as the name of a creature in Dr. Seuss's book If I Ran the Zoo (1950), in which the narrator Gerald McGrew claims that he would collect "a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker too" for his imaginary zoo.[3][5][6] The slang meaning of the term dates back to 1951, when Newsweek magazine reported on its popular use as a synonym for "drip" or "square" in Detroit, Michigan.[7] By the early 1960s, usage of the term had spread throughout the United States, and even as far as Scotland.[8][9] At some point, the word took on connotations of bookishness and social ineptitude.[5]
...
The Online Etymology Dictionary speculates that the word is an alteration of the 1940s term nert (meaning "stupid or crazy person"), which is itself an alteration of "nut".[14]
The term was popularized in the 1970s by its heavy use in the sitcom Happy Days.[15]

So originally it was just an insult for uncool or unpopular people, and over time it came to be associated with being an intellectual, a science/technical type, or by extension a fan of science fiction or comics. These days, many have embraced the term with pride, since nerd culture has become so important and powerful -- computers dominating our lives, sci-fi and comic-book heroes dominating film and TV, etc.

 

[Nerys Myk]

In the 70s, if you wanted a pretty girl in your class to like you, there was no way under the sun you'd mention that you liked Trek.

"You like Star Trek???? LOL"

And that's the way it was.

My friends and I didn't have that problem. We took pretty girls to see TMP in 1979. I don't recall any social stigma attached to watching Star Trek in the 70s or at least I never experienced it. The 80s was when I first noticed it.

 

[RandyS]

Before Star Trek it was scifi literature. Nerds were reading Asimov long before they were watching Trek.

I think the reason scifi fans were ostracized has to do with classical gender roles. Men must act macho and manly, be interested in sports, spend their time making themselves appealing to women and preparing for a financially dominant career. The pursuit of science fiction does not further these goals that men are 'supposed' to have, and to the mind of a macho asshole, is therefore a sign of weakness.

My grandfather was a card-carrying member of this generation, and he would gently and affectionately kid me about my love of Star Trek and science fiction. But he also said to me that he thought it took a certain kind of intelliegence to like that stuff that he knew I had, but he didn't.

 

[urbandefault]

What is a nerd? Why was that word invented at the first place?

Quoth Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerd

The first documented appearance of the word "nerd" is as the name of a creature in Dr. Seuss's book If I Ran the Zoo (1950), in which the narrator Gerald McGrew claims that he would collect "a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker too" for his imaginary zoo.[3][5][6] The slang meaning of the term dates back to 1951, when Newsweek magazine reported on its popular use as a synonym for "drip" or "square" in Detroit, Michigan.[7] By the early 1960s, usage of the term had spread throughout the United States, and even as far as Scotland.[8][9] At some point, the word took on connotations of bookishness and social ineptitude.[5]
...
The Online Etymology Dictionary speculates that the word is an alteration of the 1940s term nert (meaning "stupid or crazy person"), which is itself an alteration of "nut".[14]
The term was popularized in the 1970s by its heavy use in the sitcom Happy Days.[15]

So originally it was just an insult for uncool or unpopular people, and over time it came to be associated with being an intellectual, a science/technical type, or by extension a fan of science fiction or comics. These days, many have embraced the term with pride, since nerd culture has become so important and powerful -- computers dominating our lives, sci-fi and comic-book heroes dominating film and TV, etc.

Not so bad, when you consider what a "geek" used to be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek_show

The billed performer's act consisted of a single geek, who stood in center ring to chase live chickens. It ended with the performer biting the chickens' heads off and swallowing them.[1] The geek shows were often used as openers for what are commonly known as freak shows. It was a matter of pride among circus and carnival professionals not to have traveled with a troupe that included geeks. Geeks were sometimes alcoholics or drug addicts, and could be paid with liquor – especially during Prohibition – or with narcotics.

Thank goodness Best Buy isn't sending the Geek Squad to people's homes to bite the heads off their chickens.

 

[FormerLurker]

^^ The one where Frasier ends up making his son's Bar Mitzvah speech in Klingon instead of Hebrew thanks to Noel is one of my favorite episodes of TV ever. Also, it was a nice touch that Freddie's friend was named Jeremy Berman.
A little bit of geek is a nice seasoning to life, we all have our things that we really get into and that's a good thing to embrace.

Noel? You mean Nile?

Nerd didn't become mainstream until a variation of it, nurd, was used in the mid '70s on a sitcom set in a penitentiary as a substitute swear word so they could show how inmates interact without running afoul of the FCC.

 

[Sector 7]

What is a nerd? Why was that word invented at the first place?

Quoth Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerd


So originally it was just an insult for uncool or unpopular people, and over time it came to be associated with being an intellectual, a science/technical type, or by extension a fan of science fiction or comics. These days, many have embraced the term with pride, since nerd culture has become so important and powerful -- computers dominating our lives, sci-fi and comic-book heroes dominating film and TV, etc.

Not so bad, when you consider what a "geek" used to be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek_show

The billed performer's act consisted of a single geek, who stood in center ring to chase live chickens. It ended with the performer biting the chickens' heads off and swallowing them.[1] The geek shows were often used as openers for what are commonly known as freak shows. It was a matter of pride among circus and carnival professionals not to have traveled with a troupe that included geeks. Geeks were sometimes alcoholics or drug addicts, and could be paid with liquor – especially during Prohibition – or with narcotics.

Thank goodness Best Buy isn't sending the Geek Squad to people's homes to bite the heads off their chickens.

Our Geek Squad had some of the cutest guys around. If I didn't work on my own computers, I'd definitely want them showing up here.

One advantage of being a "bookworm" meant finding my best friend in 6th grade. By 7th grade, he was also my boyfriend through high school. He was a fellow science major who competed with me for top spots in science, Spanish and chemistry. He was number one in science, I was the same for chemistry... we both lost out to a smart girl for Spanish. I was the only one of us who trumped English, even winning the Creative Writing Contest, where I got to know Daniel Keyes. We became lifelong friends, back when people wrote actual letters to keep in touch. He passed away a month before my mom.

 

[Christopher]

Nerd didn't become mainstream until a variation of it, nurd, was used in the mid '70s on a sitcom set in a penitentiary as a substitute swear word so they could show how inmates interact without running afoul of the FCC.

I was a pretty regular sitcom watcher in the '70s, but I don't remember one set at a penitentiary. I definitely remember Happy Days using the word routinely, usually to describe Potsie. And it was definitely spelled the usual way, because I distinctly remember an episode where a female character reassured Potsie that he wasn't a nerd, but the opposite: a "dren."

 

[Greg Cox]

In the 70s, if you wanted a pretty girl in your class to like you, there was no way under the sun you'd mention that you liked Trek.

"You like Star Trek???? LOL"

And that's the way it was.

See, this is what science fiction conventions are for. That's where you went to meet girls.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I wasn't around for when it started, but I know more-or-less when it ended (as a bad thing, anyway) around here - some time in the years between my son entering school ('98) and my daughter doing so ('02). My son was ostracized for being a nerd and weirdo all through school. But my daughter's friends are all fairly popular at school and are a bunch of cute girls and guys in skinny jeans who all know what house they belong to at Hogwarts and LOVE Trek and Star Wars and Doctor Who and on and on. I feel bad for what my son went through, so familiar, and fairly irritated by my daughter's friends when I realize that teenaged me would have RULED her school. Oh well, at least I'm the cool dad.

 

[urbandefault]

In the 70s, if you wanted a pretty girl in your class to like you, there was no way under the sun you'd mention that you liked Trek.

"You like Star Trek???? LOL"

And that's the way it was.

See, this is what science fiction conventions are for. That's where you went to meet girls.

I went to a con in 1975. No pretty girls there.

There was a guy in a red dress tunic and kilt with a homemade phaser and bagpipes. That was annoying.

George Pal was scheduled to attend but couldn't make it. I did meet Bret Morrison (The Shadow), George McFarland (Spanky), and George Takei. Plenty of Georges there.

Sometime in the 70s there was a candy called "Nurds." I think the Wonka brand has revived it and changed the spelling.

 

[Kilana2]

I went to school in the nineties and there were only female ST fans, including me. One of them used to wear a blue miniskirt uniform and Spock ears, calling herself T´Pesh. It was rather the other way round, about meeting boys. Maybe it´s because there were 20 girls in my class and only 3 boys. But we didn´t stick out like a "sore thumb". I´m from a rural area.

 

[Push The Button]

Nerd didn't become mainstream until a variation of it, nurd, was used in the mid '70s on a sitcom set in a penitentiary as a substitute swear word so they could show how inmates interact without running afoul of the FCC.

I was a pretty regular sitcom watcher in the '70s, but I don't remember one set at a penitentiary. I definitely remember Happy Days using the word routinely, usually to describe Potsie. And it was definitely spelled the usual way, because I distinctly remember an episode where a female character reassured Potsie that he wasn't a nerd, but the opposite: a "dren."

I remember this show, it was on ABC and was called On The Rocks.. It was on either before or after Barney Miller and lasted for one season. It starred Rick Hurst and featured Tom Poston, probably the only two actors on the series that anyone would remember.

 

[Christopher]

I remember this show, it was on ABC and was called On The Rocks.. It was on either before or after Barney Miller and lasted for one season. It starred Rick Hurst and featured Tom Poston, probably the only two actors on the series that anyone would remember.

And it premiered more than a year and a half after Happy Days. So it definitely wasn't as influential at popularizing the word as HD was.

Hmm, apparently it was on opposite Rhoda and the David McCallum The Invisible Man, which would explain why I don't remember seeing it. I must've been watching one of those instead, though I'm not sure which. Although I could've been watching some syndicated show on the local independent station (which is now a FOX station); it's harder to find that information online.

 

[Greg Cox]

In the 70s, if you wanted a pretty girl in your class to like you, there was no way under the sun you'd mention that you liked Trek.

"You like Star Trek???? LOL"

And that's the way it was.

See, this is what science fiction conventions are for. That's where you went to meet girls.

I went to a con in 1975. No pretty girls there.

I confess I didn't discover organized fandom until 1980 or so. Logan's Run costumes were still fashionable so you had pretty girls in chiffon mini-skirts . . . .

 

[Kilana2]

See, this is what science fiction conventions are for. That's where you went to meet girls.

I went to a con in 1975. No pretty girls there.

I confess I didn't discover organized fandom until 1980 or so. Logan's Run costumes were still fashionable so you had pretty girls in chiffon mini-skirts . . . .

I re-watched Logan´s Run several days ago. And I don´t want to picture myself neither in that translucent outfit, nor in a TOS miniskirt .

 

[FormerLurker]

Nerd didn't become mainstream until a variation of it, nurd, was used in the mid '70s on a sitcom set in a penitentiary as a substitute swear word so they could show how inmates interact without running afoul of the FCC.

I was a pretty regular sitcom watcher in the '70s, but I don't remember one set at a penitentiary. I definitely remember Happy Days using the word routinely, usually to describe Potsie. And it was definitely spelled the usual way, because I distinctly remember an episode where a female character reassured Potsie that he wasn't a nerd, but the opposite: a "dren."

I remember this show, it was on ABC and was called On The Rocks.. It was on either before or after Barney Miller and lasted for one season. It starred Rick Hurst and featured Tom Poston, probably the only two actors on the series that anyone would remember.

And it premiered more than a year and a half after Happy Days. So it definitely wasn't as influential at popularizing the word as HD was.

Hmm, apparently it was on opposite Rhoda and the David McCallum The Invisible Man, which would explain why I don't remember seeing it. I must've been watching one of those instead, though I'm not sure which. Although I could've been watching some syndicated show on the local independent station (which is now a FOX station); it's harder to find that information online.

Well, premiering after "Happy Days" doesn't preclude it premiering a season or two before Joanie, Richie's little sister, told Potsie he was a 'dren', or nerd spelled backwards, because she had a crush on him.

No, "On The Rocks" didn't popularize the word like "Happy Days" did, but it put it into the kind of circulation that "Happy Days" producers would have noticed it and used it themselves, which did bring it to the attention of the world.