Over at the Onion A.V. Club, they have a listing of the "20 pop culture obsessions geekier than Monty Python". And they should know geeky because what is geekier than being the serious offshoot of an organization that devotes its time to writing fake news articles because it's funny. It's named the A.V. Club for a reason.
Anyway, I decided to take this as a test to see how geeky I am. I will give myself five points for any of the 20 that I am a fan of, have attended, or have participated in. I don't dress up so I am not the rabid fan I believe they are talking about, so take that into consideration if you are scoring at home. Here we go:
1. Star Trek:
Yeah, I'm a fan. Mostly of the first series. I did a little happy dance when I got volume one and three of the original series at a store's going out of business sale. I'm even down loading the Gold Key comics off of WOWIO. So, this is one strike against me.
Verdict: Guilty.
2. Renaissance Faires:
I have attended more than one. I could make the argument that I only went because someone I knew was in the cast, but that wouldn't be fair, since I enjoy them.
Verdict: Guilty.
3. Fantasy Sports Leagues:
Yeah, I'm in these big time. Multiple sports and for every sport I am in multiple leagues. The A.V. makes a point of how bad it is that you have to root for a player to do well against your favorite team, like it's a sin. The point is, I always root for the player to do good, but for my team to do better. That's the secret.
Verdict: Guilty
4. Michael Jackson:
I own a greatest hits album of his and also of the Jackson 5. Outside of that, I couldn't be bothered.
Verdict: Not Guilty.
5. Wikipedia:
I'll cop to this one. I am not a habitual updater of the site, but I use it a lot in my writing (with everything I take from there taken with a grain of salt). So I'll cop to this one.
Verdict: Guilty.
6. Battlestar Galactica:
I own the first season but have yet to watch it. Will I become obsessed with it? Probably. But as of yet I am not.
Verdict: Not Guilty.
7. The Rocky Horror Picture Show:
I have seen one, ONE, midnight showing of the movie in my life. I did not dress up in character, but I had a good time. I will probably never dress up (because I look awful in fishnets) but I may go again. So, I'll cop to this one too.
Verdict: Guilty
8. Joss Whedon:
Yes, yes, yes. Love Firefly. I have the full run of Buffy on DVD waiting to be watched, and Astonishing X-Men, Buffy and Runaways in my comic pull list. So, yes.
Verdict: Guilty
9. Media-specific role-playing:
I have role-played about a grand total of twice in my entire 36 years. Not that I have anything against it, but the crowd I hung with in hish school, geeky though it was, wasn't big into it. If I played, I would probably be obsessed with it, but I'm not.
And that goes for media specific too.
Verdict: Not Guilty
10. Magic: The Gathering:
I never got into card-based role playing either. A little after my time (although my wife, who is the same age, used to collect Magic card, so that argument doesn't hold water)
Verdict: Not Guilty
11. World of Warcraft:
It's a streak of role-playing games I never got into. The reason I never got into WoW is because my internet connection speed was dial-up for most of the game's existence, which precluded me from joining in.
Verdict: Not Guilty
12. The Simpsons:
We are back in the Guilty column. Love the Simpsons. I quote the lines, sing the songs, and imitate the voices. At the aforementioned going out of business sale, I completed my set oif DVD set of the series. I did another happy dance.
Verdict: Guilty
13. Doctor Who:
Yes. I love Doctor Who, and I love the mythology. I watch the show whenever I can.
Verdict: Guilty.
14. Frank Zappa:
No, unfortunately. I have heard a song or two, but I am not a humongous fan.
Verdict: Not Guilty
15. Game Show Tape Trading:
No. I didn't even know this existed. It sounds somewhat intriguing, but no.
Verdict: Not Guilty
16. Anime:
No. I like Anime better than Manga, but neither really cut it for me.
Verdict: Not Guilty.
17. Coplay:
Again, this involves dressing up. And I will never dress up. Because I am too fat and there aren't a lot of fat characters in pop culture for us fatties to dress up as.
Verdict: Not Guilty
18. Live-Action Role Playing:
See above, about role-playing and dressing up. Although I do find this interesting is a "so-crazy-it-might-be-fun" sort of way.
Verdict: Not Guilty
19. Second Life/MySpace/Facebook:
I am not obsessed with these in a "getting as many friends" sort of way, but more in the functionality of it. I love the games in Facebook and getting in touch with bands on MySpace. I am not on Second Life, but I am in Friendster and ComicSpace. Look me up.
Verdict Guilty
20. Fanfic:
I have nothing against fan fiction, I just don't participate. I feel my efforts would be better spent to try and get a job writing the characters for real than writing them for free.
Verdict: Not Guilty
Let's see. That's 9 out of 20, so I am 45% geeky, according to the A.V. club.
I am thankful they didn't include Comics, Action Figure collecting, Sci-Fi novels, video games, music or anything else I am obsessed about. If they did, that score would be much higher,
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