what makes a nerd a nerd and not a geek
and a geek a geek and not a nerd let's
talk about that good mythical morning
all right yesterday we released a new
music video on our main channel it's
called epic rap battle nerd versus King
I look so good and chain it's not fair
thank you for checking that out
commenting for sharing that amongst all
of your peoples especially if they're
interested in the worlds of nerd demand
geekdom which as we discovered in the
research of the writing of this song and
producing of the music video are two
distinct worlds which cozy up to one
another
perhaps they overlap in some day you're
quite a bit of crossover well let's give
you a little background first so this
video was sponsored by tigerdirect
thanks to talking direct responsible for
letting us shoot in the store and giving
us the stuff that we use in the video in
miami government too many bad but the
original concept that we talked about
was the epic rap battle of nerdiness
because you know we have the original
epic rap battle we have the epic rap
battle of manliness and then we're like
let's do epic rap battle of nerdiness
and then in the very early stages of
developing the idea we started doing
some research on like what makes you
nerdy and all of a sudden we saw these
different articles about geek vs. nerdy
we're like oh that's even better because
now there's a battle between the geek
and the nerd well I mean like yeah it
once it occurred to us that there was
more of a story there and and and those
the two characters being different and
not being nerds kind of thing it made it
more interesting I mean I certainly had
a point of reference that nerds and
geeks aren't the same thing
I know I know that yeah I was like that
but it seemed I seemed like a better
thing to have a rap battle about was not
who's more nerdy but the geek versus
nerd dichotomy but what I didn't
understand was how intricately you could
parse the differences between the two
and I'm using words like parse in order
to be a little bit more nerdy or is it
not really oh is it a guy name this is
the do's name
her settles which is also a sin does
it's also a sentence but you should
never settle man don't settle this guy's
arrested your last name and then just on
it
this guy's a nerd I think because he
developed he actually went in and did
this global search of Twitter and saw
how often certain subjects were
associated with the word geek or the
word nerd and then he created a graph
that has a bunch of words on it that
we'll put up here that shows uh it's
basically a function you know of things
to become more geeky or things becoming
more nerdy on this scale and then
whether or not things are nerdy or geeky
and I first of all I will say the fact
that someone went through all this
trouble like you said I'm pretty sure
that makes him a nerd especially because
the presentation of the chart it doesn't
look cool graphically that would be
something that a geek would do a nerd
would parse all this data and and figure
out how to segment it and compile it and
all this type of stuff that you do with
data but then a geek would be the one
who would make it cool-looking and this
one looks very nerdy and it's like
illegible as you get into the more geeky
maybe because he knows he's an earning
is like I don't care about how geeky you
get that's one you can't read it anymore
here's what I want to do because we did
some research and I know you have looked
at this but I want to see if this stuff
is still with you I'm gonna just name
some of these things that are right
along this line whether they're geek or
nerd I want you to tell me whether or
not this is a geeky thing or a nerdy
thing well let's start further out first
okay
further out uh cellist someone who plays
the cello
that's a nerd now it's that's
interesting because I've never heard the
term band nerd I've heard the term band
geek but when I think of someone who
plays the cello I picture a nerd well
you happen and you were right listen
it is the nerdiest thing on the scale
which is again this is so difficult
because band geek what do they play they
play brass yeah yeah they if it's if I
said tuba you would you would go a geek
I don't know no I wouldn't I'm just
listening I'm not I'm just I'm the
messenger here okay what else uh
webcomic geek of course okay here's
here's some
a little let's go with genius nerd nerds
are just you know they're typically very
much centered in being smart
geeks kind of they had they're smart but
they have social sense more they're more
socially aware maybe to a fault
Microsoft geek how did you know that
because it typically is Mac is actually
I meant I meant to say nerds what you're
wrong
Microsoft is on the line but he has its
own he isn't on the geek side what's on
the line uou that's in the overlap
vegetables what I like I mean foodies I
think you can be a foodie geek so I
would say geek vegetables are nerdy why
um awkward there's a gray area awkward I
would say more nerd definitely zombies
geek it's more anything more pop culture
II I considered it being more geeky
Doctor Who geek with pop culture Zelda
still geek we've got Zelda as nerd and
he has the Hobbit as a nerd which
incidentally we had the a geek in our
rap battle become Gandalf because this
is so right on the line because we
thought that you know a guy I don't
consider myself to be smart enough to be
a nerd I respect nerds because they're
smart I'm just not smart enough I can't
achieve nerd dumb and I'm a big fan of
Lord of the Rings so I think that I mean
I'm I don't know if I'm a geek I'm just
you know I'm just an everyday man well
I'm it you're a hipster I I think that
the I think that the fact that there are
some YouTube channels we talked about
this a little bit in our research to
that toe this line illustrates how much
of a line this is you've got geek and
sundry Felicia Day right which that
makes sense that boardgames pop-culture
type stuff that's very much in geek geek
but then you've got the Nerdist channel
which is Chris Hardwick and when I think
of Chris Hardwick I and in the Nerdist
Network
I think of geek stuff I don't think I
don't think of nerd day because he's a
cool guy I know he the guy he knows how
to dress still very much pop culture
would say definitely Nerdist is deep
they should have been called geekus not
Nerdist but I think they called
themselves Nerdist because they were
socially aware enough to know that if I
call this Nerdist it's so uncool it
becomes cool again so as a socially
aware geek I'm going to call us Nerdist
because it's a better type which is why
I think that your character clearly won
the rap battle I think and I'm totally
comfortable admitting that what we
collectively wrote the whole rap is
right like on Iran carbo was saying that
your character won because it's so much
easier to pull for the nerd and there's
so much more irony in the nerd rapping
versus if they own it a geek might tend
to be so socially aware that it's you
know it's uh just kind of not not being
totally honest no here's a nerd Hank
green Hank green is a bonafide
nerd and he knows it yeah super smart
like legitimately smart about all the
things that he speaks to it isn't just a
guy who's really into things it's a guy
who totally knows what he's talking
about when he talks about something and
that it's appropriate the nerdfighters
are the people who are fans of the
vlogbrothers idol nerds um so we
appreciate you guys sharing in the
comments what are your thoughts you know
this is this is an opening discussion in
gray area I know we may have entered a
hornet's nest with this one but we don't
want to turn anybody against this where
we love nerds we love geeks and if you
like the song we want to make the
instrumental version available we're
going to do a contest little community
building exercise if you want to take
that and do a cover of epic rap battle
nerd versus geek you can do that and you
can share it make a youtube video but
then share it with us on the
rhettandlink community we got a link
down there in the description on how you
can get to that and then your deadline
is Sunday October 27 to make your cover
video and the best one is going to win a
mythical prize pack consisting of a
mythical show t-shirt a mythical show
signed poster and and up to this point
CD our CD with 27 songs on it so take
part in the instrumental don't just you
have to cry though do it to have some
fun you know fun it up over there it
community you know what time it is this
is Rob and Celia and we're coming to you
from Saskatchewan and it's time to spin
the wheel of mythicality if you don't
want to participate in the community
building exercise and you just want to
buy this stuff it's all available over
at rhettandlink.com/store we'd
appreciate that all of these are signed
or just participate the contest and buy
something that's in this episode Rhett
is shrinking and link is growing oh I'm
starting to feel kind of weird
man to man huh what wasn't happening
with shoulders but Mitchell up like
taller it's so getting bigger getting
bigger
Brewer look at me I'm girl I'm not
moving closer to the camera I'm just
getting larger this is not an illusion
this is really getting larger this is as
small as I can get
I got any smaller then I would disappear
wow this is a noise I make when I'm
getting on yeah you saw that first oh
can I spit show and wherever it lands
and we will make a music video before we
die in the location where it lands okay