The culling continues, and decisions only get tougher as the second half of Geek 16 voting begins, ending next Sunday, February 22. Survivors graduate to the Reasonable 8, and all four battles to determine the Penultimate Four will then commence.
All results to-date are on the main Geek Madness page.
Review all the matchups and go vote, after the break.
click for larger image
MATCH #1:
Wil Wheaton vs. Stephen Hawking 
Multi-platform phenom, or Visionary physicist?
Wil Wheaton: Writer, actor; blogging pioneer; most widely known for roles as Wesley Crusher (Star Trek TNG) and Gordie LaChance in Stand By Me.
Notes: Parlayed his much-maligned portrayal of Wesley Crusher into a multi-platform second career; blog/website is a hub for geek discourse; poker player and fan; has his own tag on Fark.com. Defeated Bruce Campbell in Round 1 and Wesley Crusher in Round 2.
Stephen Hawking: Theoretical physicist and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.
Notes: Best-selling book A Brief History of Time brought advanced cosmology and mathematics to the masses. Masses might learn a thing or two if they actually dusted it off and read it. Defeated Cory Doctorow in Round 1 and MC Frontalot in Round 2.
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MATCH #2
Steve Wozniak vs. Veronica Belmont 
Innovative, good-natured billionaire, or Hot geek media princess?
Steve Wozniak: Co-founder of Apple Computer.
Notes: One of the original Geeks Who Made It Big. Engaging personality and contributions to the early development of the personal computer more likely to elicit shouts of “Good on ya!” than sour, jealous comments. Defeated Ira Glass in Round 1 and Dr. Carl Sagan in Round 2.
Veronica Belmont: Internet personality; co-host of Tekzilla podcast and Qore (Playstation3).
Notes: Strong credentials with stints at CNET and former host of Mahalo Daily; 40,000+ Twitter followers can’t be wrong; “hot chick” factor cannot be discounted, may help get agenda passed by old-boy network in Congress. Defeated Professor Frink in Round 1 and Jamie Hyneman & Adam Savage in Round 2.
[poll id=79]
MATCH #3
Jonathan Coulton vs. Joss Whedon 
Singer of songs about monsters and robots, or Creator of shows about monsters and robots?
Jonathan Coulton: Singer/songwriter known for tech-savvy music with high geek appeal, most notably through his “Thing A Week” project and the end credits song from the video game Portal (“Still Alive”).
Notes: Earned title of “Internet Superstar” by gathering a large, loyal following by employing online tools to enable his audience to find him; among his viral hits are “Code Monkey” and an acoustic cover of Sir Mix-a-lot’s “Baby Got Back”; major advocate of Creative Commons. Defeated Angus MacGyver in Round 1and Bill Nye in Round 2. [FULL DISCLOSURE: Tournament hosts often tour with Mr. Coulton.]
Joss Whedon: Writer/producer/director; creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film/TV), “Angel” (TV) “Firefly”/Serenity (TV/film) and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (interwebs)
Notes: Has strong track record of creating television shows marked by clever dialogue, smart and interesting characters, fantastical elements, and extremely short lifespans; ridiculously devoted following; as if geek cred wasn’t strong enough, was one of the co-writers of Toy Story. Defeated Ken Plume in Round 1 and Doctor Who in Round 2.
[poll id=80]
MATCH #4
Stan Lee vs. Felicia Day 
Comics elder statesman or Newly-minted Internet idol?
Stan Lee: Comic book writer, editor and former driving force of Marvel Comics.
Notes: Co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Daredevil, Doctor Strange; pioneered new storytelling forms throughout his career; major player in transforming a format previously written off as “kids’ stuff;” also, “Excelsior!” Defeated Danica McKellar in Round 1 and John Lasseter in Round 2.
Felicia Day: Actress/creator/writer of geek-centric internet show “The Guild“; broadened recognition with role in Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.
Notes: A genuine gaming enthusiast (not some Hollywood pretender) whose geek profile exploded in 2008; a genuine grass roots new media success story of a “homemade” internet show that, offered for free on YouTube, garnered a large following and eventual media sponsorship that manages to maintain a geek-friendly distribution model; also an accomplished violinist; has noticed us. Defeated Ernie Kovacs in Round 1 and Tom Servo & Crow T. Robot in Round 2.
[poll id=81]
43 Comments
ARGH Jonathan vs. Joss… not easy in the slightest.
Didn’t have a problem with the other 3.
Wil, Steve, Jonathan, Felicia.
1) Hawking, ftw. He’s very very smart, and plus. HE BLINDED ME…. WITH SCIENCE!… SCIENCE!
2) Veronica – not because I’m conforming or anything, I think she’s more qualified.
3) Coulton – Again, not conforming, nor did he get my “automatic vote” – I considered the choices, and Coulton won. It may be tricky though, as he doesn’t like to make political statements….
4) Stan Lee for the same reasons I mentioned previously – his foreign policy credentials. Remember that while our own government was pursuing appeasement of the Nazis, Lee and his comic bookies recognized the danger and had their top heroes beating the snot out of Nazis, and sometimes even zombie Nazis.
No kidding. JoCo vs. Joss is a cruel choice, but in the end I had to go with the guy who gave us Doctor Horrible. Plus, I’d never have heard of JoCo without him.
Coulton vs Whedon…. cruel cruel bastards you are to make me choose…. love them both. Broke my heart to go with Whedon. I’ll apologize to Coulton in person if I see him at the NYC show in March.
What has Hawking done lately?
I would very much like to see a vote between Felicia and Veronica.
Aw, I’ve been supporting the geek girls all the way, but you put them up against two geek powerhouses! I second Molly’s wish for a Veronica vs. Felica match-up.
JoCo and Joss are formidable opponents, but I had to go with JoCo. In the end, cyborgs and monkeys beat out vampires and super-villains.
1) Hawking, all the way.
2) Don’t really know them that well, but I like my iMac. Steve.
3) Still annoyed that Bill Nye lost, but voting for JoCo.
4) Don’t particularly care about either of them, but I REALLY didn’t like “The Guild.” Goin’ with Stan Lee.
Joss vs. JoCo? Shouldn’t that be a Finals sort of thing?
Oh well, brackets often do this sort of thing… Had to go with JoCo, though if I had caught the premiere of Dollhouse, I might have voted differently.
Of course, now I expect my Dr Horrible DVD will get mangled in the mail or something… Karma is a bitch, as the saying goes.
Did I mention the Law of Stan Lee Cameos during previous rounds? If not, now is certainly the time.
I’m surprised at how a lot of the voting is coming out. As great as Wil Wheaton or Felicia Day are, it is trivial to argue that Stephen Hawking and Stan Lee have made larger (and longer) historical contributions to geekdom.
Think people. We’re talking Geeks. Not nerds (Hawking), not hot TV hosts that talk about geeky things (Belmont), or Writers who make shows about geeky topics (Whedon- as much as it pains me to say it, Coulton’s songs are geekier [so help me god I will destroy FOX if those rewrites of eps 1-3 of “Dollhouse” kill it]), nor cute, young, newcomer geeks (Day) beating out over the old-school, hardcore comic book geek of Stan Lee.
@PonderousMan – Let us not forget the articles of July 2008 when he obfuscatory stated FOX asked him to redo the pilot and possibly two additional episodes (http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=Whedon+dollhouse+pilot+fox+firefly&scoring=n&hl=en&um=1&sa=N&sugg=d&as_ldate=2008/07&as_hdate=2008/07&lnav=hist6). I believe he’s asked us to stick through the first 3 and it should be better from there. Hopefully he will find a way to communicate this through his various geek emissaries, many of whom have been in this Madness contest.
It is interesting to me that a tournament to determine the secretary of geek affairs has evolved into a very ironic popularity contest.
Notice there are no more fictional characters left?
I didn’t have any trouble with any of these… don’t know much about JoCo, but to have beaten both Bill Nye and MacGyver, he must be something special! Still, gotta vote for the man who gave us Firefly and Dr. Horrible!
one – At some point I suppose it should matter to me that Stephen Hawking is not a US citizen and therefore is probably not going to be allowed to hold this office – should it ever exist and the appointee chosen via online voting tournament. Since I am torn here, I will say that the time for this to matter is now.
two – The Woz. Because there may be no geekier nickname out there.
three – I am sure I should blame Fox for most of it, but there are Joss Whedon shows (episodes anyway) that I haven’t liked. I’ve never been to a JoCo show that I didn’t like. 4 for 4 (with another in 2 weeks!) beats most for many.
four – When Stan Lee starts offering me free comics online, I’ll change my vote. This is my revenge for the Marvel credo – “No character ever really dies.” I hate that.
Wheaton vs. Hawking –
Love Wil and what he does but had to vote for Hawking. Pudding. ’nuff said.
Wozniak vs. Belmont –
Normally would have gone with Woz, but lost points recently by signing on with Dancing With The Stars.
Coulton vs. Whedon –
In spite of my love for Firefly, I went with JoCo on this one. Just couldn’t help myself. Musicians tend to get the edge with me.
Lee vs. Day –
This was a toughy… but I went with Day. Plays the violin.
Had to go with Day. She really is a geek.
Stan “the Man” has made undoubted contributions to geekdom, but really is not a geek himself, nor does he really understand geeks.
I think this is to his credit!
As tempting as it was to vote for Joss, I finally settled on JoCo. I don’t want to distract Joss from making Dollhouse.
1. Wheaton. If Hawking were American instead of (very, and proudly) British, I might have gone with him.
2. The Woz, although I like Belmont
3. Whedon, the hardest of the four choices. Coulton has tons of geek cred, and is more internet savvy than Wehdon (Whedon has internet savvy minions), ultimately, I’m a whedonista
4. Day. Felicia tweeted a reminder of this round, game over.
The interesting thing about this group is the emergence of a blog/twitter Good Young Boy network. Wheaton, Coulton, Belmont, and Day all follow each other on twitter.
Joss vs. JoCo? that’s so cruel, to ask us to choose. so cruel.
other choices are easy. Wil, Woz, Felicia.
In case anybody cares, I went Coulton over Whedon. I know that Joss has done non-geek stuff. I don’t know that about his nemesis. On the “lesser evil” principle (rather than “greater good,” I guess), mysterious nemesis wins.
Similarly, Wheaton over Hawking, because “normal” people know who the professor is and might even have read their books.
Day wins by definition.
I…know nothing useful about Wozniak or Belmont, and pretty much picked Belmont, figuring on the likely underdog.
1. You’ve gotta say something about a man who plain and simply will NOT stop thinking, reasoning, theorizing, and working, even with a level of paralysis most others would have given up on ages ago. While I respect Wheaton and what he brings to the table, I have to go with the Hawk here.
2. Three rounds later, I STILL don’t really understand what the hype is with Mrs. Belmont. Sorry, I just don’t. Woz, though, IS the Woz. He gets my vote.
3. While I agree with Roman V about JoCo’s seeming inability or resistance to making political statements, and despite some doubts by a few others as to his ability to represent the average Joe or Sue Geek, I still support his candidacy for the post.
4. I am amazed by the fact that we made it to the Geek 16 and there’s a bracket that hits the “meh” category with me. Unbelievable. But, I’m going with Stan Lee. A fair composition of the pillars of geekery are* built off of his works.
*: Or, if you consider “a fair composition” to be the subject, as I think is the case, “is”.
Ah, I see the Browncoats have arrived š
Seriously, this contest is skewed.
It makes me sad. There’s no universe in which Stan Lee is not a more accomplished, impressive driving force behind geekery for generations, while Felicia Day’s resume isn’t even a decade old. And if there WERE such a universe, Stan Lee would’ve created it.
Not that I’m discounting Felicia’s accomplishments, It’s just sad to see people whose 15 minutes of fame are peaking at the right moment overtaking those who have built serious careers on geekitude.
Oh well, at least Woz is beating out Belmont.
And JoCo vs. Whedon is still a sick choice.
How did I draw Hawking?!
Man, I can’t even vote for *myself* in this one.
so sad to be a nerd….
steve wozniak defeats both ira glass AND carl sagan!
HOW COULD YOU put my two all time geek loves together!!!!
joss and joco
joss
joco
joss
joco
firefly
ikea
dollhouse
creepy doll
buffy
re: brains
ahhhhhh it’s too hard *self delete*
looks like the Whedonites have come out in full force =)
I’m comfortable with this defeat. It was an honor to be nominated, or something š
@Wil: Hehe and you were against Wesley in the last round… certainly interesting, the people you keep going up against!
Seriously, Felicia Day is awesome and I love her work, but she should NOT beat Stan Lee. And I’m a little upset over JoCo losing but Joss Whedon also deserves to move on.
The JoCo vs. Joss decision was a lot harder before I remembered that in my recent viewing of Serenity, Joss mentioned on the commentary track that he’d given up on science at age fifteen.
He is still my dramatic master, but JoCo totally wins with geek ability.
Oh no — he’s losing. NOOOO!
Also, I can’t believe I cast the deciding vote (at the time) between Wil and Hawking. I didn’t even vote for the one I’d met!
Since some of these were very hard, I voted for the ones that I would rather make out with. Needless to say, this means Wheaton, Belmont, Coulton and Day. Sorry Stan.
Coulton vs. Whedon?!?!?!?!?!! NO!!!!!!!!
That is just cruel. I’d say I’m not going to justify it with a response, except I did. But I’m still not happy about having to choose. Like, there was a serious moment of panic which was only contained by the fact that I’m at work. (Uh… which I should get back to now.)
Darn you, sadistic Fates. Darn you to heck. :p
Come on folks! JOCO NEEDS A REBOUND! Its bad enough we lost Randall Munroe to Simon Pegg. (Why not make Bruce Campbell be SGA while you are at it!)
Go see Hodgeman in Coraline! (The fact that this is a 3D film, you can keep the glasses and be a geek!) But the Woz will be the winner for sure!
Dollhouse SUCKS!
Picks this week:
Hawking
Wozniak
Coulton
Day
Wozniack for SGA!
Easiest round yet… Hawking, Woz, JoCo, and Felicia Day (though I don’t really care much about the last matchup, having had little exposure to either of them.)
It just occurred to me that I’ve seen the first three of my picks live, though, through no fault of his own, Stephen Hawking live appears much the same as a photograph of Stephen Hawking and an audio recording. Woz and JoCo, however, are considerably more awesome in real life.
JoCo vs Joss? That’s easy! JoCo FTW!!
Wil, Veronica, JoCo, Felicia
Hawking, Joss, and Stan Lee are not as fully rounded in their geekitude – they excel in one or two areas of geekosity but their opponents are geekier than thou.
I can’t say the same thing about Wos though. He has geek cred out the wazoo and onto his segway. But Veronica has a Shaman in our guild so she’s alright by me.
MrHacks, how can you say dollhouse sucks? there has been one episode!
I’m afraid I went with Joss on this one. I was a browncoat long before I knew of Joco’s existence. I am a loyal man.
Wheaton and Hawking are neck in neck, but in terms of geek I can’t in good conscience go with anyone other than Wheaton, the high priest of the geek blog.
Whedon and Coulton, “Still Alive” vs. “Firefly” – damn that’s a tough call. Gotta be Coulton though since Whedon once again has made the poor judgment to work with Fox.
Veronica and Felicia for the others – Lee and Wozniak are less geeks and more people who created things that became geeky.
Well, the Wheaton/Hawking contest is going to the wire, but with all the other slots pretty much settled, I’m doing some handicapping. I’ve totaled all the votes thus far (establishing that yes, I am a geek), and am proceeding under the assumption that total votes cast indicates interest, thus the folks in rounds that were in rounds that drew more votes are probably more interesting than than the ones that drew less.
Do’Urden Pegg(1593)/Kaylee(1875): Kaylee has pulled almost 300 more votes, and is the only one in the region to pull 1000 votes in a round. Kaylee advances
Lobot Whedon(4064)/Day(4171): Day has already said that people should vote for Whedon, but she’s consistently pulled more votes in the first three rounds (she’s the top vote getter overall), and while the Whedonistas and Browncoats love Whedon, the internet loves Day. I think Day will win, but this one will be close (I’ll be voting for Day).
Bombadil Hodgeman(1489)/Gabe & Tycho(1730) The weakest region. Gabe & Tycho have pulled more votes than Hodgeman in every round, and will win the honor of losing to the Jor-El region winner
Jor-El [Wheaton(4159)/Hawking(3917) winner]/Wozniak(3628): Wheaton is 2nd overall in votes, Hawking is 4th and Woz is 5th. Whoever wins this will walk over Gabe & Tycho. I’ll pick Wozniak to emerge from the bloodbath (my upset prediction)
In the other round of 4 contest, I predict Day over Kaylee, and in the final, Day over Wozniak FTW.
The heck with VOTE between Felicia and Veronica. How about a catfight, or better yet, a hot love scene. . . .
Much love for the Red-headed Geek Goddess. . .
it’s past 2/22… we’re waiting excitedly!
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