Stereotype, Identity, and the Hegemony of Geekdom:
Head of the Class as An Anthropological Study of the American Nerd
Head of the Class as An Anthropological Study of the American Nerd
Delivered by T.J. Gillespie, Philadelphia, November 3o, 2007
When ABC first debuted the pilot episode of Head of the Class in September 1986, the focus was clearly on the teacher, Charlie Moore, a struggling actor who decides to try substitute teaching while awaiting his big break on Broadway, rather than on the pupils. Moore, an aging pony-tailed bohemian, is immediately thrust into conflict with the principal, Dr. Samuels, over his unorthodox approach. The formula owes much to the success of an earlier ABC sit-com set a New York high school, Welcome Back, Kotter. That highly popular and controversial show (it was banned for a time in Boston) starred Brooklyn-born Gabe Kaplan as Brooklyn-born Gabe Kotter, a wise-cracking history teacher with a Marx Brothers fetish who returns to his alma mater to teach a group of difficult students nicknamed the Sweathogs and battles an irascible assistant principal, Mr. Woodman. Just as the popularity of John Travolta’s Vinny Barbarino and the inimitable Horshack seemed to steal the show, the engaging ensemble in Mr. Moore’s classroom did much the same thing. Except of course, there are no Sweathogs in the Individualized Honors Program. Only nerds.
Much of fictionalized vision of the American classroom seems to focus on one type: the troubled inner city school. It is a place where cynicism and apathy rule; sometimes the dangers are explicit—guns, drugs, violence, abuse—other times the menace is atmospheric. During the pilot episode, Charlie, arriving to school late, is stopped by a sympathetic assistant principal Bernadette Meara, who warns him to be careful of his first period class. “Warn me?” he scoffs, “I’ve taught at the toughest schools in New York City,” and then he opens the door as if preparing to battle. This reaction is expected; after all, this is the reality presented in movies like Blackboard Jungle, Class of 84, To Sir With Love, and continued in later incarnations such as The Substitute, Boston Public, 21 Jump Street, and most recently, in Freedom Writers. What is shockingly incongruous, and hence funny, about the opening scene of the pilot, is that when Moore opens the door he sees a roomful of students sitting quietly, books open, willing to learn. This is the other end of the spectrum, yet it works on many of the same underlying principles employed in traditional school-set dramas.
When ABC first debuted the pilot episode of Head of the Class in September 1986, the focus was clearly on the teacher, Charlie Moore, a struggling actor who decides to try substitute teaching while awaiting his big break on Broadway, rather than on the pupils. Moore, an aging pony-tailed bohemian, is immediately thrust into conflict with the principal, Dr. Samuels, over his unorthodox approach. The formula owes much to the success of an earlier ABC sit-com set a New York high school, Welcome Back, Kotter. That highly popular and controversial show (it was banned for a time in Boston) starred Brooklyn-born Gabe Kaplan as Brooklyn-born Gabe Kotter, a wise-cracking history teacher with a Marx Brothers fetish who returns to his alma mater to teach a group of difficult students nicknamed the Sweathogs and battles an irascible assistant principal, Mr. Woodman. Just as the popularity of John Travolta’s Vinny Barbarino and the inimitable Horshack seemed to steal the show, the engaging ensemble in Mr. Moore’s classroom did much the same thing. Except of course, there are no Sweathogs in the Individualized Honors Program. Only nerds.
Much of fictionalized vision of the American classroom seems to focus on one type: the troubled inner city school. It is a place where cynicism and apathy rule; sometimes the dangers are explicit—guns, drugs, violence, abuse—other times the menace is atmospheric. During the pilot episode, Charlie, arriving to school late, is stopped by a sympathetic assistant principal Bernadette Meara, who warns him to be careful of his first period class. “Warn me?” he scoffs, “I’ve taught at the toughest schools in New York City,” and then he opens the door as if preparing to battle. This reaction is expected; after all, this is the reality presented in movies like Blackboard Jungle, Class of 84, To Sir With Love, and continued in later incarnations such as The Substitute, Boston Public, 21 Jump Street, and most recently, in Freedom Writers. What is shockingly incongruous, and hence funny, about the opening scene of the pilot, is that when Moore opens the door he sees a roomful of students sitting quietly, books open, willing to learn. This is the other end of the spectrum, yet it works on many of the same underlying principles employed in traditional school-set dramas.
While films like Stand and Delver and Dangerous Minds center on a group of tough, jaded delinquents (often relying on stereotypical assumptions of urban minority students held by white suburban viewers), the films’ structures serve, often in cloyingly sentimental ways, to humanize the students and to inspire the viewer to sympathize with them. In this way Lou Diamond Philips’ Angel becomes the gang-banger with a heart of gold, thanks to the Calculus teaching of Edward James Olmos; Michelle Pfieffer brings out the inner Bob Dylan in a roomful of juvenile criminals; Kotter and Barbarino remind us that Sweathogs are real students too, no matter what Mr. Woodman says.
So, what of the nerds? In what ways are they stereotypical caricatures and in what ways are they humanized? When we laugh at them are we taking the role of the bully jeering at the effete intellectual? Is the nerd a stock character in today’s teen comedies the way earlier generations laughed at the boor, the drunk, the fool, and the fop? Or do we find ourselves sympathizing with the television nerd, rooting for him to not only solve the equation and get the girl, but find dignity?
So, what of the nerds? In what ways are they stereotypical caricatures and in what ways are they humanized? When we laugh at them are we taking the role of the bully jeering at the effete intellectual? Is the nerd a stock character in today’s teen comedies the way earlier generations laughed at the boor, the drunk, the fool, and the fop? Or do we find ourselves sympathizing with the television nerd, rooting for him to not only solve the equation and get the girl, but find dignity?
Case Study 1: Archetype
One of the interesting points that seems to arise in any discussion of HOTC is the common—and erroneous—assumption that Arvid Engin is the nerd of the show. What is so funny about this is, of course, that they are all nerds. Viewers of the show, both fans and critics, and the other characters of the show seem to view Arvid as “the nerd” because he is the most traditional, stereotypical image of the nerd as portrayed by popular media. With his pocket protector, glasses, ill-fitting pants, his love of math/science/computers, Arvid is a direct descendent of "Revenge of the Nerds" archetype: physically clumsily and socially awkward. Dan Frischman, an actor who seems born to play Arvid, shows an eerie similarity to a young(er) Lewis Skolnik, the iconic nerd played by Robert Caradine. (The influence of Revenge of the Nerds and its three sequels cannot be overstated, and is much deserving of its own lecture and critical panel.) But just because he looks like the Platonic ideal of Nerd-ity, doesn't let the others off the hook.
One of the interesting points that seems to arise in any discussion of HOTC is the common—and erroneous—assumption that Arvid Engin is the nerd of the show. What is so funny about this is, of course, that they are all nerds. Viewers of the show, both fans and critics, and the other characters of the show seem to view Arvid as “the nerd” because he is the most traditional, stereotypical image of the nerd as portrayed by popular media. With his pocket protector, glasses, ill-fitting pants, his love of math/science/computers, Arvid is a direct descendent of "Revenge of the Nerds" archetype: physically clumsily and socially awkward. Dan Frischman, an actor who seems born to play Arvid, shows an eerie similarity to a young(er) Lewis Skolnik, the iconic nerd played by Robert Caradine. (The influence of Revenge of the Nerds and its three sequels cannot be overstated, and is much deserving of its own lecture and critical panel.) But just because he looks like the Platonic ideal of Nerd-ity, doesn't let the others off the hook.
Case Study 2: Cyber/Tech/Obscure Knowledge Nerd
Dennis Blunden represents a new kind of nerd that didn't exist before the 1980s: the techno-sexual, computer hacker nerd. The kind of nerd that, in the 80s, would have been talking RAM and ROM, hacking and “phreaking,” and today writes code and blogs, plays on-line games, and knows the difference between black hats and blue hats. One must remember that the 980s was the golden age of computer games (Mario, Spy Hunter, Frogger, Tron) and the moment when the p.c. became mainstream. Matthew Broderick in War Games is one of these nerds. The thing is, to other nerds, these hacker nerds, rebellious by nature, are kind of cool, kind of dangerous. The fact that Broderick would eventually play the most popular kid on campus (Ferris Bueller), undermines the inner nerd of his War Games character. This type is also closely related to the Gamer nerd, comic book nerd, Lord of the Rings Nerd, Dungeon and Dragons nerd. Blunden is also a member of two other stereotypical nerd subsets: the overweight nerd and the sarcastic funny nerd.
Dennis Blunden represents a new kind of nerd that didn't exist before the 1980s: the techno-sexual, computer hacker nerd. The kind of nerd that, in the 80s, would have been talking RAM and ROM, hacking and “phreaking,” and today writes code and blogs, plays on-line games, and knows the difference between black hats and blue hats. One must remember that the 980s was the golden age of computer games (Mario, Spy Hunter, Frogger, Tron) and the moment when the p.c. became mainstream. Matthew Broderick in War Games is one of these nerds. The thing is, to other nerds, these hacker nerds, rebellious by nature, are kind of cool, kind of dangerous. The fact that Broderick would eventually play the most popular kid on campus (Ferris Bueller), undermines the inner nerd of his War Games character. This type is also closely related to the Gamer nerd, comic book nerd, Lord of the Rings Nerd, Dungeon and Dragons nerd. Blunden is also a member of two other stereotypical nerd subsets: the overweight nerd and the sarcastic funny nerd.
Case Study 3: The Immigrant/Child of Immigrant Nerd
Jawaharlal Choudhury is known to most of us in attendence simply as the Indian kid, which is clearly unfair. Typically Asian, although they may be African, Middle Eastern, Brazilian, or simply ambiguously "other," the foreign nerd displays an intense drive and social awkwardness that is seen as coming from parental pressure/cultural identity/or a outdated (and possibly racist) idea that they are more intelligent, better behaved, more motivated. Perhaps the most famous example of this type of character is Long Duk Dong, the heavily accented and hypersexual exchange student in Sixteen Candles.
Jawaharlal Choudhury is known to most of us in attendence simply as the Indian kid, which is clearly unfair. Typically Asian, although they may be African, Middle Eastern, Brazilian, or simply ambiguously "other," the foreign nerd displays an intense drive and social awkwardness that is seen as coming from parental pressure/cultural identity/or a outdated (and possibly racist) idea that they are more intelligent, better behaved, more motivated. Perhaps the most famous example of this type of character is Long Duk Dong, the heavily accented and hypersexual exchange student in Sixteen Candles.
Case Study 4: The Freakish Child Prodigy
If the rest of the class was made up by 26-35 year olds playing teenagers, twelve year old Janice Lazaratto was played by an actress who actually looked twelve. The highwater mark for the prepubsescent genius is either Gary Coleman in The Kid with the 200 I.Q. or Kurt Russell in The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, both of which ranked as my two favorite movies at age eight. For fans of drama, Jody Foster’s Little Man Tate is a serious exploration of these themes. These characters are clearly nerds, but the nerdness can be excused, or at least understood, by their emotional and physical immaturity.
Case Study 5: Yuppie Nerd
Tony O’Dell’s WASPy Young Republican character Alan is the type of nerd that hasn’t been seen lately. A rip off of the Alex P. Keaton mold, Alan could only exist in the 1980s where being financially driven and overtly ambitious, while maybe not cool, was not social suicide. Undoubtedly the jocks and punks have mocked him, but Alan and his (love of conservative politics aren’t his flaws; it is his arrogance, his egotism, and his materialism. He is, certainly, a nerd, but it is not his nerdiness that defines him.
Case Study 6: Art/Literature Nerd
Most high school geeks forgive female nerdness because, well, they are just glad to be in the presence of an actual breathing girl. Red headed Simone Foster, attractive in the 80’s Age of Ringwald kind of way, is one of the few female regulars. Simone is particularly appealing because she is marked by a certain sensibility. Poetic, philosophical, sensitive, she seems as if she were the type of girl who’d play the cello or write poems in imitation of Rilke or, most importantly, listen to something you’d say without rolling her eyes. For most teenage nerds, Simone is the ideal woman, and for most mature, college graduate nerds, she has a lot of qualities we (I include myself in the first person pronoun here) find interesting. But I know a lot of pretentious fifteen year olds who resemble Simone and you know what their classmates call them? Nerds. Granted, they are the kind of nerds that can become very cool later in life (like Tina Fey), but not necessarily (Diane Chambers from Cheers).
Case Study 7: The Anti-Nerd Nerd
Any serious discussion, and I wonder if there is any other kind, of Head of the Class must eventually deal with the problem of Eric, clearly the red herring. Almost everyone cites Eric as the example of the cool intellectual, the bad boy who had the street smarts to balance the book smarts, the anti-Arvid. Leather Jacket. Cool (in the day) rock and roll haircut. He smoked (I'm sure) and didn't break out into hives around girls. Except that he is quite possibly the biggest nerd of the bunch, the poseur who tries so hard to distance himself from his classmates that it can’t help but seem, especially in retrospect, to seem pathetic. Why try so hard, Eric? Why fight who you are? Eric, more than anyone else, seems to be lacking self-confidence, afraid of the judgment of his peers. Eric is an interesting character as he is the most aware and the most resistant of the label “Nerd.”
The only non-nerd? Darlene, the rich girl. The problem is that almost from the beginning Darlene was overshadowed by the celebrity of the actress Robin Givens. It becomes almost impossible for the viewer to construct a nerd identity for Darlene knowing that off screen she was getting freaky with Mike Tyson. Come on, that girl in high school? Who is buying that!
Ladies and Gentlemen, you have been more than indulgent, and while I would certainly like to talk about the change in cast, Janice’s suddent departure for Harvard, Dennis Blunden’s weight loss, Howard Hessman’s return—presumably back to a radio station in Cincinati—as well as the addition of Rain Pryor and a Scotsman, I think we should save that for another day.
I could also easily spend another day discussing how HOTC's groundbreaking episodes in Russia singlehandedly brought an end to the Cold War. While Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and Gorbachev are often credited, Kremlin documents indicate that it was the 1988 Head of the Class two part episode "Mission to Moscow" that may have done the most to tear down that wall! Another time perhaps.
As you can tell, I can proudly say that I woud the biggest nerd of all for writing this much if it weren’t for your attentive listening. I thank you.
Addendum:
See the premiere episode in its entirety here:
http://video.aol.com/video-category/head-of-the-class/103174
2 comments:
Thorough, brilliant, and very funny. Well done, Sir.
Case Study 2: Cyber/Tech/Obscure Knowledge Nerd
Dennis Blunden represents a new kind of nerd that didn't exist before the 1980s: the techno-sexual, computer hacker nerd. The kind of nerd that, in the 80s, would have been talking RAM and ROM, hacking and “phreaking,” and today writes code and blogs, plays on-line games, and knows the difference between black hats and blue hats. One must remember that the 980s was the golden age of computer games (Mario, Spy Hunter, Frogger, Tron) and the moment when the p.c. became mainstream. Matthew Broderick in War Games is one of these nerds. The thing is, to other nerds, these hacker nerds, rebellious by nature, are kind of cool, kind of dangerous. The fact that Broderick would eventually play the most popular kid on campus (Ferris Bueller), undermines the inner nerd of his War Games character. This type is also closely related to the Gamer nerd, comic book nerd, Lord of the Rings Nerd, Dungeon and Dragons nerd. Blunden is also a member of two other stereotypical nerd subsets: the overweight nerd and the sarcastic funny nerd.
Sweet mother of crap, I'm an archetype.
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