If anything was made clear in this week’s episode of “King of the Nerds,” it’s that nerds are pretty emotional people. There were a lot of tears shed by the ladies of Nerdvana. Who knew winning the title of this TBS gameshow meant so much to them?
The theme this week was comic books, with the Nerd War challenge in the form of a debate that pondered the topics of superhero realms in real life. Questions ranged from the inquisitive “Is it better to be born with a superpower or earn a genetically-altered one later?” or the practical “Should superheroes be exempt from the law or should they be treated like every other citizen?” It’s an interesting challenge since debating takes some form of, um, intelligence, to succeed – a quality most of the contestants have yet to show. Some comic book knowledge to back up a few theses also couldn’t hurt to add color.
The first tears shed came from Celeste after she admits to a fear of public speech and “embarrassing herself in front of people.” Girl, you should have remembered that fear when you signed up to be on this show! Over on Orange Team’s prep room, Danielle’s still not over the fact that Joshua lied to her. She becomes furious after Josh, who has hosted nerd debates before, picks an “easier” topic to debate and leaves her with something more difficult. When Josh offers to help, Danielle sounds off and breaks down, transforming from her gentle, naked elf cosplay to a fire-breathing dragon – all while angrily stuffing pasta salad into her mouth. Yikes. Don’t wanna mess with that.
At the debate, guest judges Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes surprise the contestants. “Jay and Silent Bob?? What the f***k are they doing here!?” Celeste ponders. They probably have no idea how they got there either, so I’m guessing they’re in between filming Comic Book Men.
Unfortunately, due to the one-hour nature of the show, the debates got edited pretty heavily. You could barely hear what each contestant said other than their opening statements, so I really couldn’t tell why Ivan, Joshua, and Danielle won even though their opponents seem to have equally strong rebuttals. It probably had something to do with the level of confidence in their speech; Despite the fact that Josh incorrectly cites “Mark Miller” as the creator of The Dark Knight comics (seriously, even I knew it was Frank Miller. It was like hearing nails on a chalkboard), Genevieve’s mousy charm couldn’t win Kevin Smith over even though she’s an encyclopedia of comics. Upon losing, Genevieve goes home and cries into a pillow.
Genevieve and Alana, the only two comic book nerds, get sent to elimination where the two fight it out in a trivia. Alana, talking game all season long about her love for Batman, answered all of one question correctly (she guessed the one she got right). The questions were too hard, Alana whines. “I only started reading comics in the 90s.” Genevieve redeems her comic knowledge and sends a tearful Alana straight home. Thank heavens, because she was becoming increasingly awkward for everyone to watch.
