Poke the geek, why don'tcha?

If you have to descend to sterotypes and cliches to get a laugh, I suppose you could do worse than Fear of Girls.

It has a couple of funny moments, and I will admit to giggling almost uncontrollably at one point (God knows she's sterile - master retort), but once it had run through the credits and the distraction had ended, I realised just how insidious it is. What, it's not enough that role-players have this stigma, but now we have to laugh about it as well? It would hurt more if we role-players gave a damn what the rest of the world thinks, but since we get to shape our own reality anyway...

And I know that I'll get comments about how it's an intentional parody, or witty self-mockery, or some such other justification, so I'll say it now. Bollocks! It's poking the geek, just with a more technologically-advanced stick. Our ignorant forebears did it for generations for fun, and ignorant hicks everywhere still do.

Not cool. Funny as hell, but still not cool.

This is what a morning of reading The Ranting Gentlemen has done to me. Instant vehemence and bile. Thanks, guys.