TV Lounge Lizards: A Visual Look At The Social Geek

Some people see them as the loners, the oddlings that never grew out of video games and funny cartoons. Others see them as stereotypical ‘Comic Book Guys’, smug know-it-alls that don’t feel fulfilled till they've proven somebody else wrong. They’re called anime nuts, drama kids, geeks and dorks. And the ways they break the stereotype of solitary basement-dwellers are truly a sight to behold. There’s a sort of love that fills this little back corner of the student center. And a bonding that’s not just over common interest, but is as complicated and rich as any other clique you'd find in a college setting. They have a fondness for crazy costumes and loudly gaming on a TV screen big enough for the passion they put into the games they play. They talk about their private lives as much as they do anime; they share and bond and hook-up with a frequency bordering on that of your average pretty-white-kids-with-problems show that you’d find on The CW. They call their little slice of heaven the “TV Lounge”, and I’ve never felt more at home.

(Video Games: Because sometimes homework is just a suggestion)

Now I’ve grown up with most of those titles stuck on me by those that didn’t understand me. And I hold them up with pride as an act of nerd solidarity. But I also inherited a reputation as a truly hardcore misanthropist, a bit of a bitter old people-hater annoyed with humanity as a general concept let alone a species. Then I met this crazy bunch of kids, most of them a decade younger than me, but they know the same games and songs and movies I do. They share the same corny jokes just a little of the bitter cynicism I grew to aquire.

(Sometimes the lounge is so popular that we have to stack up)

This particular lounge is in the back of the student center, one of two areas with couches curving around big screen TVs. The area usually staked out as early as seven in the morning by someone half asleep if not outright napping. Or finds our resident lounge veteran Matt sitting, a UAFS student a few years ago that re-enrolled, always full of stories about a similar group of people that held court there. Working IT jobs often, he still finds plenty of time between that and classes to hang out and do the one thing you don’t normally expect a group like this to do, and that’s talk. In fact he’s one of several focused points of conversation among the lounge regulars. And talk they do, about their love lives and family problems, about all the little things that make being a college student frustrating and fun and miserable. A cluster of weird and funny comrades in arms against a sea of collegiate troubles.

Their bonding as a group takes many forms, from group hikes to anime conventions to just plain old silliness. When on Halloween just about every lounge regular is in a costume, even me. And this dork hasn’t dressed up like that in a good couple of decades. But there’s this energy, an enthusiasm that just pulls you along and drags you out of your shell. You can also feel it before a convention as various people work on skit routines and some amazingly complex costumes. And even those that can’t or don’t want to go to these gatherings tend to live vicariously through large numbers of photos and videos taken during these trips. A great way of keeping the uninvolved up on the actions of their friends.

(Picture taken last Halloween: Sadly, I’m the Popeye)

I’m not saying this merry little band is perfect. There’s plenty of heartache and hurt feelings, and some people try too hard only to wind up not really fitting in. But there’s a strong feeling of acceptance for those that wander in and just click with the general hive mindset of the group. And in any group of opinionated people you’ll always find clashing opinions and the geek equivalent of alpha contests. Hell, start talking about what anime character is better than another and you could toss a broken bottle in the middle of the room to make your own little Darwinian playset. Although we fight with snark rather than lock horns, there’s this almost tidal feel of dominance when it comes to what games we play and what movies we’ve seen. And yeah, some people seem to fit in only to get jokes behind their backs. So, we can be elitist and snobbish and rude and rail like petulant little children. In other words, and hold your surprise, we can be human.

But that’s not to say that we get so focused on our little electronic and animated worlds that we forget the all-too real one outside. There’s been more than a few couples formed from single regulars who find the other halves of their geeky little hearts sitting on those couches. We have at least one sorority sister and a couple of actors. We have brother and sisters and even mothers coming back to mingle their literal families with our own piecemeal kinship. And once in a while you get one of those rare things that bring about group anger and action, if in a somewhat bizarre way. Little galvanizing events that polarise us in one direction. Be it someone doing one of ours some form of emotional harm or even the actions of those outside our little scholastic microcosm.

(We are.. SO not Anonymous)

Take for example, the interesting case of a Westburough Baptist Church preacher that shows up once or twice a semester to shout hate in order to provoke a potential lawsuit. Last semester a number of paper signs in the Guy Fawkes style frequently used by the internet group Anonymous were printed out as well as signs referring to various internet memes. Several of us preceded out into the warm late summer weather to mock this spectacle in a fashion that men like this deserve. We shouted and joked and let other people see this ill-planned scheme under the guise of religion for the goofy little stunt it was. The entire afternoon was fun, pointless and done solely for our own amusement. And that sums up many of the things we do rather nicely.

Because we tend to ignore the stares we get from people that wander past wondering why Super Smash Brothers can lead to such boisterous excitement. Or why a group of grown men and women are making silly outfits or watching anime in the middle of a class day. And yeah, we get our fair share of loud mockery from the other TV lounge, just a thin wall away. But we wind up doing what we do because we love it. And while these energetic and frankly weird kids sometimes make me feel old in pop culture knowledge, they’ve also got this knack for making me feel young at heart.


Works Cited

Carter, Adrianna. “The ‘protesters’ at the ‘event’.” Photograph. 28 Sep. 2010. Web.
Gillam, Jamie. “Halloween.” Photograph. 29 Oct. 2010. Web.
Jackson, Tabbie. “Game Room.” Photograph. 10 Dec. 2010. Web.