First, not all of these screen-heroes are nerds – some are geeks. That out of the way, check out Popular Science’s all-time favorite on-screen nerds.
17. Chris Knight and Mitch Taylor (Val Kilmer and Gabe Jarret) in Real Genius A house destroyed by massive quantities of popcorn, the “Tanning Invitational” full of bikini-clad women, and a car taken apart and reassembled in a dorm room–Chris Knight and Mitch Taylor pull these stunts and more to prove that nerds can party as hard as anyone. Real Genius is like Animal House but with lasers and dry ice.
14. Bunsen and Beaker from The Muppet Show Despite the constant physical and–judging by the twitchy, panicked expression–mental punishment inflicted on him by Dr. Bunsen Honeydew’s experiments, Beaker keeps coming back for more. Clearly the Jackass crew grew up ingesting a healthy dose of these Muppet Show regulars.
I absolutely love some of the choices they made. I’d like to see number 8 dropped from the list, but otherwise I can agree with those listed. And the top three are totally right. Any extra geeks or nerds you think need to get on the list?
[tags]Popular Science’s all-time favorite on-screen nerds[/tags]