Nerd Prom 2017 Recap

Written by Scott Murray

When John asked me to come along and help him cover Nerd Prom 2017, I must have asked him at least three times: 'What is Nerd Prom?' His response, each time, was 'Exactly what you think it is.' This wasn’t exactly helpful, probably because the word 'Prom' conjures only one major theme for me: high school. And let’s face it: high schoolers go to prom because they don’t always have other ways to hang out with their friends and dance all night. Or at least, not ones their parents would approve of. The very idea of a prom for fully-grown adults, who have cars and jobs and spending cash and access to the typical variety of bars and nightclubs, seemed almost redundant.

The truth is that 'prom' is just a name, and the whole event is really designed to gather people in order to do what people do: talk, drink, dance, stumble, yell, and buy things. The chief draw here is that this event is designed for a particular set of interests. Instead of drawing the standard nightclub/live music/hipster/EDM/tinnitus crowd, they've gone out of their way to invite anybody interested in any facet of nerd culture. This actually creates what might be a surprising amount of overlap, and the continuing proliferation of 'nerd' and 'geek' culture into the mainstream means that, other than the costumes and video games being projected behind the bands, it doesn’t feel terribly different at first from your typical Saturday night in a nightclub or concert venue.

Standing by the merch stands surveying the crowd, it made me wonder: who exactly showed up? Did they draw the nerds who typically stay in their homes attracted by the promise of a lack of the typical crowd and the guarantee of others of their ilk? Or the normal live music crowd, delighted in a chance to combine some of their otherwise disparate interests? Perhaps they succeeded in drawing both? I certainly couldn't tell by observing the crowd; the one thing I could see was that everybody seemed happy to enjoy the event in their own way, to let others do so too, and to revel in the delights of a room full of people with whom they shared some common interests. There were people who like dressing up simply for the sake of dressing up, and people taking advantage of the opportunity to show off their efforts and fandoms. There were people who like music, or dancing, or bars, or who had been brought along by their friends. There were dumb jokes aplenty, of course, one host going so far as to declare: 'nerd prom every year is about us making terrible jokes.' And, really, what would any nerd event be without copious amounts of puns?

Something that was quite refreshing about this particular event was the breadth of scope: nerd culture encompasses so many things that, except for the dance floor taking up the center of the space, there wasn’t much of a singular focus, which made for a very relaxed atmosphere. Unlike a typical nightclub, you could feel free to do whatever you liked without worry. Don’t want to dance? Feel free to lean on a wall. Don’t want to lean? Feel free to sit. Don’t want to drink? They sell food! Don’t want your picture taken? Don’t step into the photo booth. However you like to socialize, I can almost guarantee there were others who liked it too, with at least some of them in costume.

The only truly prom-esque event was the crowning of a King and Queen, with impressive crowns constructed out of LEGO bricks.  Unlike a typical prom, where you know most people in your school by sight, this consisted of strangers voting for strangers, so instead of popularity it was perhaps more a contest of aesthetics. And, rather than being a dramatic declaration of who mattered, it was, like the rest of the event, simply another reason to laugh and cheer and revel in shared interests. Really, the whole thing made me think about just how much nerds are growing up. So much of what we associate with nerd culture, like 8-bit graphics and almost anything we now call 'retro,' originates from more than thirty years ago. The kids who liked this stuff in the first place are growing up and bringing it into the adult world with them. Some of it even survives simply by virtue of being 'old' in relation to the culture: The performers Mega Ran and MC Lars' song 'Infinite Lives' harkens back to the days when life counters and cheat codes were commonplace, and invokes fond nostalgia and retro cred simultaneously.

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That, combined with one of our hosts’ talking to us about the importance of acceptance, inclusiveness, and kindness, really hit home just how much nerds in general are growing up. Because I am in the generation who is now at the forefront of internet culture, I often forget that nerd culture is much older. (Since the internet has been awash in nerd culture for so long, it’s easy for me to associate them a little too closely.) But here was a group of people covering a wide range of ages, all joined together by their love of fun. Nerds were once trapped in closets and basements and back rooms, and lots of journalists and writers and others have spent time pondering what it means now that they’re growing up and becoming the norm. Would there be a 'revenge of the nerds?' Would they become the new 'cool kids,' pushing others into lockers for not being able to name enough Pokemon? Well we have our answer, and the answer is 'no.' They spent their time being kind to one another and exploring new interests, and they came out with big hearts, no fear about social conformity, and a love of diversity, and now that they are coming into the light and moving into the mainstream they’re bringing those ideas with them onto society’s stage.

One of the other big questions when these things were just getting started was always: 'What are you going to do when you grow up? Keep throwing dice around? Keep reading your funnybooks?' And the answer, un-ironically and with no self-consciousness, is 'Yes.' Whereas our predecessors came home from work and watched Jeopardy or Walter Cronkite or played Monopoly, we watch Game of Thrones or read the next issues of our favorite comic or play Fallout or Halo or Madden. Where they would go to the bar to watch the big game we go to the bar to play Cataan or Dominion or play group trivia. They would go to friends’ homes for barbecues and we go to play DnD. The hobbies are different but they fit into the same spaces, leaving plenty of room for the other things, like jobs, which must inevitably accompany adult life. Like so many generational changes before, (rock’n’roll, flappers, etc.) when the kids grow up they bring their interests with them, and society doesn’t collapse. If anything, the diversity of nerd culture has helped society grow.

It’s interesting that nerd culture encompasses so many otherwise different things: comics, film, books, television, board games, tabletop games, video games, writing, cosplay, photography, theatre, etc. Yet they were all brought together by their common marginalization, and this inherent diversity has helped to create an atmosphere of inclusiveness and outward appreciation. Rather than pushing away outsiders, nerds are happy to accept and absorb them. As a result, especially as nerdism becomes more commonplace, things which were previously unassociated with nerd culture have become things about which you can 'nerd out.' After all, nerd culture is about enjoying whatever you enjoy, whether it’s 'normal' or not. I am beginning a watch collection, and I can guarantee you I could probably find someone with whom I could discuss the aesthetic and practical implications of differently colored watch faces, and our conversation would be just as nerdy as if we were comparing cameras, or bookbinding, or crocheting, or different methods of faster-than-light travel in fiction. Would we not be 'watch nerds' just as surely as two people discussing Batman’s publication history would be 'comic nerds?'

What being at Nerd Prom 2017 really taught me was this: nerd culture is not about any particular collection of fandoms or entertainment mediums, but about acceptance, fun, and love. It is as much about bickering about the new League of Legends balance patch as it is about moaning that Nightwing’s New 52 costume was red instead of blue. It’s as much about pondering the impact of the new Hearthstone expansion as it is about speculating the content of the fourth Evangelion Rebuild film (assuming it ever comes out.) It’s as much about analyzing the recoil numbers on the guns in Battlefield as it is about analyzing the career stats for your favorite quarterback. It’s about bemoaning the book-to-screen transition of a novel even as you marvel at the visual spectacle of the adaptation.

It’s about loving the things you enjoy, and not worrying about what others think. It’s about sharing that with other people, and enjoying it together. It’s about letting people enjoy whatever it is they enjoy, and celebrating that we have the ability to do so. In the end, it’s about teaching others about the things you love and learning about the things they love, and rejoicing about the many different ways we have for people to express themselves and find happiness and fun. That’s the lesson I took away from Nerd Prom 2017, and I hope it’s one you/we can share with the world: come as you are, and celebrate the things you love with us.

Strange, really, that I learned more at a prom hosted by bands and a radio station then I did at a prom hosted by a school.

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