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Making nerdy references that no-one gets
So basically one of my friends was using "adoptability" in the same context as "adaptability".
Since I decided that being pedantic wasn't enough, I used a really confusing analogy.
Me: Okay, bud, here's the difference between adaptability and adoptability.
Friend: ...OK?
Me: Adoptability is Superman. Adaptability is Doomsday.
Friend: -blank look, followed by small smile and nod-
Anyone else get this?
Comments
at least half of the people on this forum get it
including me .-.
No, not the joke.
Has anyone experienced this?
Oh.
Uh... I don't get that specifically because I don't really reference stuff in real life, usually because there's no appropriate situation for it.
I do get the 'oh my god you are such a nerd' look though, if that counts for anything.
I do this far too often, usually without really meaning to.
I used to do it but now I don't.
I have a friend who does it pretty often, but for the most part I find references annoying, especially when I know that very few people even recognize the name of the thing that's being referenced (e.g. the aforementioned friend making a reference to Clannad in the presence of me, my shonenfag friends, and my cousin and friend who haven't watched anime in years).
I didn't get the joke.
But I get the issue you're talking about. I used to do this. I remember trying to talk Voltron to the people at my school, and found out that no one else know about it. When I found someone who did it was like striking gold.
At least these days I know whether the stuff I watch/play is obscure or not so I know what to expect. For example, I expect far more anime fans to recognize Renton Thurston than Ren Karas, and I don't expect people who aren't anime fans to recognize either.
My friends and I are all different shades and types of super-nerd, so all of us have either given or received the look at one time or another. When we give it, though, we generally mean it affectionately. A lot of other people... don't.
Come to think of it, this happened to me even with Pokémon.
I thought that Pokémon was more pervasive in pop culture than it actually was. This was approximately in 1999.
Funny thing was that I was 13 at the time. Most Pokémon fans were around 10 years old, and I didn't have much of a chance to hang out with them. On the other hand, it was quite unpopular among high school students, probably as a reaction against their younger siblings being obsessed with it.
Mention "pikachu" and they'd probably barely recognize the term. Mention "bulbasaur" and you're got an under 50% chance of someone recognizing it...though among those who do (remember the screwy "given that" probability calculations from stats?), there's a decently high chance they want to talk to you about it. Mention "gengar" and you get an even more extreme version of the latter effect.
It was around the same time that I started realizing that it was typically the "slightly-out-of-mainstream" people like it enough to talk about it. Others who liked it didn't care enough to make conversation around it; this included a lot of regular people.
This is honestly something I work hard to avoid.
On the flip side it annoys me when people give a whole thing into sports or pop culture things I don't know or care to.
Well, if you're already engaged in conversation with, or already listen to, someone, and they go on a rant about their favorite show or something, then it's different.
In that case, the key to making such a rant enjoyable--or at least basically comprehensible--to one's audience, is to make sure one's audience is engaged and explain things that are new to them.
If you told me that a character from, say, Battlestar Galactica (or any other show I don't watch), is a gigantic jackass and he/she deserves to be cut from the cast because it's making the show unenjoyable, I wouldn't understand you. However, if you explained to me why this character is a jackass and why this affects the enjoyability of the show, I might be able to make sense of it.
Malkavian,
This is honestly something I work hard to avoid.
On the flip side it annoys me when people give a whole thing into sports or pop culture things I don't know or care to.
Yeah, I think making really obscure references can end up alienating or confusing people. I guess I see them as kind of presumptuous since they seem to be made with the expectation that everyone is into the stuff you are into. I have to cut people some slack though, since it can sometimes be difficult to judge how obscure something really is. I definitely have had issues with that myself.
Also, this might just be me, but I feel like referencing certain stuff can lead to people mentioning annoying stereotypes or fandom behaviors associated with it even if your enjoyment of it may be far removed from those antics (e.g., what some people think of anime/manga fans).
>Making nerdy references that no-one gets
>did you mean my life
Umbasa.
T_T
somewun who understands my pain
And gmh is a pokemon fan?
^Only up to 1st gen.
Also, I used to do this when I was in high school because I thought it was funny. I stopped because I realized how much of a colossal tool I was.
Colossal...tool?
I never saw anything wrong with it.
^^ 2nd gen.
Well, 1st gen is the only gen that I'm intimately familiar with. 2nd gen I've played but if you ask me trivia about it I will probably not get it.
That said, I prefer GSC's music over RBY's.