Comments on: GEEK MADNESS: Lobot Region, Round 2

By: GypsyHoney

GypsyHoney — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:55:49 +0000

“With a face like a monkey…”

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:55:36 +0000

Does anyone else feel like they’re consistently voting against the grain? I was crushed when Patton Oswalt was eliminated!

1) Bill Nye, all the way. I like JoCo, but I grew up watching Bill. Anyone with the rare gift of making learning as fun as he did must be praised without end.

2) Dr. Who. Whedon is okay, but I feel like his tendency to write things to specifically buck certain cliches has, itself, become cliche. That, and his terrible eye for certain details all through Buffy and Angel drove the OCD geek in me to frustration.

3) John Lasseter. I recognize Stan Lee as important, but I recognize Pixar as good. Stan Lee may have helped push comics in the right direction, but his writing was awful. Go back and read any of his dialogue. I adore Pixar.

4) MST3K bots. I really liked Day in Dr. Horrible, but I HATED HATED HATED The Guild. For some stories, I just can’t get over the initial plot hump. The fact that she didn’t just call the cops right off the bat and have the creepy guy carted off drove me crazy. I can’t stand plots that are entirely contingent on, “everything would be fine instantly if Character A did this one simple thing.”

By: Colleenky

Colleenky — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:58:36 +0000

I think maybe I’ll just let mrgordon vote for me from now on. Exactly my picks.

By: MrHacks

MrHacks — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:28:36 +0000

The elimination of the Mythbusters is the shocker in the Jor-El Region. Belmont may be the underdog, but the Woz will finish her off!

Lobot Region:
JoCo
Joss
Lee
Day

JoCo has some tough competition ahead against Joss, Lee, or Day.

My inital pic of Penultimate Four in the Lobot region was Lee, but I’m starting to think JoCo who will battle Randall Munroe in the Finals.

By: Naomi

Naomi — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:13:43 +0000

After both Sagan and the Mythbusters were booted out last round, if the Doctor (yes, the Doctor, not Doctor Who and NEVER Dr Who!) loses, I’m going to… give everyone very disapproving looks.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:47:27 +0000

Gingerlink: They are from a show called “Mystery Science Theatre: 3000″ in which they watch OLD movies (black and white style, most of the time) and they just critique them the whole time. They just say random nonsense sometimes, too. It’s basically you watching a movie with these random characters making their own commentary.

By: Gingerlink

Gingerlink — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:52:56 +0000

You know, looking back over the match-ups, you gotta appreciate that Paul and Storm actually made a really good job of making it interesting throughout!

So well done!

P.S. I’m British and as such have never heard of Tom Servo & Crow T. Robot before…

By: Dean

Dean — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:30:51 +0000

There’s no way JoCo should’ve beaten the mighty Big Mac, so Bill Nye gets my vote!

By: Ace

Ace — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:05:35 +0000

Crow & Servo will have much wiser things to say, and can reference hellsa more movies, pop culture nuggets, and show tunes at a higher rate than Felicia. If this were merely a looks contest, then yes Felicia. We’re going for all-around geekiness however.

ROBOT ROLL CALL indeed..

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:28:44 +0000

My correspondents have lead me to believe that Jonathan Coulton should win the second round, as well.

Dr. Who wins for being English.

John Lasseter wins for making cartoons that I’ll actually watch.

Tom Servo and Crow win because they affected my childhood, where Felicia Day did not. Also, I had never heard of her before.

By: Robin

Robin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:47:18 +0000

@Tim C: The nickname “Joss” is actually twofold. It’s (kinda) short for Joseph (his full name), but he mostly uses it because it’s also Chinese for “lucky”. [/Whedonite]

And @three08, before you yell at me, that matchup was particularly difficult for me. I grew up on classic Who and I love the new series, but I had to go with Joss because A) he’s real, and B) I saw firsthand how hard he fought during the Writers’ Strike.

This whole round was rough, actually, except for the last one. I’ve never been that fond of MST3K (please refrain from throwing virtual stones, thank you), and I find Felicia to be a really sweet, hard working person. The Guild, FTW!

By: three08

three08 — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:21:11 +0000

i would just like to state for the record that i hate everyone who voted for joss big-ugly-bald-head-and-face-it-buffy-was-pretty-stupid whedon over david goddamned tenant, THE doctor. you are all tools.

that is all.

By: Tim C

Tim C — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:51:01 +0000

1. JoCo. Bill Nye has been dead to me ever since “The Eye of Nye”. Stick to real science Billy boy!

2. Joss. Yeah, still not sure what the hell kind of name Joss is, but nothing in the ‘verse can stop him.

3. Stan Lee. Even if he was just some guy on the street I’d pick Stan because I’ve never seen him wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

4. Felicia Day. Because I love robots but I’m not robot gay!

By: Marco

Marco — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:36:58 +0000

I can safely say that whoever is voting Felicia Day is making the wrongest choice ever. Crow and Servo are older, wiser, and are way more resistant!

By: Molly

Molly — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 09:48:03 +0000

1. Bill Nye. Hands down.
He’s The Science Guy. He’s got a subtitle on his name with “science” in it.
He has giant solar panels on his roof that he goes out and POLISHES BY HAND several times a week.
He was the resident expert on BattleBots.
He wears a fucking lab coat and a bow tie.
JoCo is like this hipster-geek hybrid that will power the future. Bill is just classic nerd. I don’t know, call me old-fashioned.

2. Joss, only because I know little to nothing about Dr. Who.

3. Stan Lee really ought to win this one, but I am a child of the 90s, and Toy Story was HUGE when I was in kindergarten.

4. ROBOT ROLL CALL. Not even a question.

(I feel that this might not be the most neutral forum for this vote, as the Paul&Storm crowd is pretty pro-Coulton and pro-Felicia by default.)

By: Reid

Reid — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:02:57 +0000

1) Had to go with JoCo. Bill Nye seems sort of like Al Gore: well-credentialed and a good guy, but overall just too quirky to be a national frontman.

2) Dr. Who is a time lord. A TIME LORD. With that much experience under his belt, this is like hiring the TARDIS to taxi you to Taco Bell; they’re almost too good for the job.

And besides, Joss Whedon’s too funny to be doing anything other than making movies and shows. A government career would hurt production.

3) Same as above, really. Lasseter is the better manager and could really lead the geek world, but we need him in the trenches, making movies. Geeks don’t really need a leader anyway. They can and are pioneering new technologies all by themselves. The Secretary of Geek Affairs would be more of a public and Presidential advocate, and Stan Lee would do that much better.

4) Really had to think on this one, but then the obvious answer came to me: it’s Secretary of Geek Affairs. Singular, not plural.

By: Howard

Howard — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:29:27 +0000

This is such a lopsided 2nd round, you got two inside horses (Coulton, and Whedon), a comic god vs. much weaker opponents. The only close match up is number 4, but Felicia Day is dominating her opponents anyway.

By: Nic

Nic — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:21:45 +0000

I love joco to death but if there was one person who was solely responsible for the formation of my love of science it’s Bill Nye. Joco just can’t boast that. Dr. Who (im assuming new who cause that’s what the picture is of) is waaay better than some of the crap Joss Wheedon has put out, the creative force of Pixar is greater than the staleness of 90 percent of what Marvel puts out (taking those two men as representatives of their brands/employers) and cute or not MST3K is better than Felicia Day. sorry. I seem to be in the minority on every single one of these. at least im fighting the good fight

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:12:30 +0000

“Tom Servo & Crow all the way. They were part of my childhood every Saturday morning and love them to death” -Candance
same for me to. I would watch it in the mornings with my dad. I remember becoming really upset when I realized it wasn’t on anymore.

By: Sveden

Sveden — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:08:18 +0000

If Felicia Day beats Tom and Crow I’m kicking 2 puppies and 5 kittens.

By: superpuppy

superpuppy — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:13:39 +0000

Let me jump out ahead here and predict JoCo vs Felicia Day for the finals! Also, agree with Wendy on the nearly impossible choice of the Doctor vs the Joss.

By: Angelastic

Angelastic — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:35:36 +0000

1) Well, let’s see. I have 382 songs by Jonathan Coulton and one by (well, about, at least) Bill Nye. I have also met Jonathan Coulton several times, and he seems to be a pretty nice guy, who also is a good role model what with the whole quitting-his-job-right-after-his-baby-was-born thing. Wait, that didn’t come out right. Anyway, I have absolutely no other exposure to Bill Nye, so JoCo wins by more than 382:1.

2) I don’t think I’ll vote here. I don’t think I particularly liked Doctor Who, and Joss Whedon is another one of those people in the easily-confused-triangle (along with Wil Wheaton and Will Wright) so I can’t really vote for him. I’ve seen some Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and maybe I’d vote for Buffy if she were up against Doctor Who, but there’d be low enthusiasm on both sides.

3) John Lasseter. As I’ve said before, I love Pixar movies, I respect Lasseter as somebody who can stand up to Steve Jobs (but would probably lose a round to him nonetheless, if they were put up against each other in this competition) and although I do like superheroes, I never read comics and hadn’t really heard of Stan Lee.

4) The only thing I’ve knowingly seen Felicia Day in is Still Alive with JoCo at PAX. That was good. Not exactly something to win the entire competition with, but easily enough to win against a couple of characters in a show I’ve never seen which seems kind of boring from its wikipedia description. And anyway, it’s obvious she’s going to win another round, she seems to have a large following. At least partly because she’s female.

By: MikeW

MikeW — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:57:58 +0000

I had to vote against Lee because he defeated Danica in the first round. Unfortunately, Dr Who also beat Lessig, who I had picked to win the whole thing. But I have to go for the Dr. I mean, they’re playing a whole marathon for him on SciFi right now. I mean, they could play the entire Firefly series in the same amount of time (zing!)*. I take that as a sign from Science that I am to vote for The Doctor today.

* The “zing!” is supposed to be taken in humor, as Firefly, much like Farscape, was a show canceled way before its time.

By: Mat Montgomery

Mat Montgomery — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:53:44 +0000

There were some soul crushers in this round. If I had a gun to my head and I had to choose between Jonathan Coulton and Bill Nye, I’d let the gun go off.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:42:35 +0000

Doctor Who vs. Joss Whedon? *whimper*