Working, as I do, as a programmer at a game company, I get to spend all day every day with geeks. (I guess that I, too am a geek, though about different things than your average geek. (
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_C…)) I was sitting at my desk when one of the programmers sitting next to me found a stupid mistake and started singing "I am so smart. S-M-R-T"
Being a smartass, I piped up with: "You spelled that wrong!"
The entire row of cubes went silent. The guy on my right was looking at me like I was from Mars.
The first guy finally says: "That was from the Simpsons."
"Well, EXCUSE ME. I've only seen about 800 of the million Simpsons episodes."
And it has occured to me that even though nerds come in all shapes, colours and backgrounds, they are united by a base of common knowledge which is expressed via In-Jokes. If you make a joke on one of these topics, you can be part of the club.
So, In the spirit of Sei Shonagon (
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sei_Shon…) who liked to write lists of trivial but entertaining things (her list of "things that are cute" is pretty universal, even today), I present to you: List of In-Joke topics among geeks. Specifically, the species found in the game industry.
-Simpsons
-Star Wars
-Ninjas vs Pirates.
-Corrolary to pirates: Monkey Island
(Am I the ONLY person out there who thought this game was stupid? ANYBODY? ANYBODY ELSE?)
-The Big Lebowski
-Linux
-Programming Jokes (obviously)
-Cthulhu (Cthulhu is pretty sweet. I'll admit)
-Monty Python. Monty Python & the Holy Grail seems to be the fave.
-Tongue in Cheek Fantasy Movies:
-----Princess Bride
-----Labyrinth
-Internet Phenomena Jokes
-----"I'm the Juggernaut, Bitch!"
-----Snakes on a Plane
-----Strongbad. (See Monkey Island Comment)
-Fight Club
-Lord of the Rings (See programming jokes comment.)
-Wrath of Khan ("Khaaaannnnn")
-Superheroes, but only some:
-----Spiderman
-----X Men
-Family Guy*
-Star Trek, more specifically the quote "Make it So"*
-The occasional l33tspeak. (My all time fave is "WTFPWN")
-Southpark ("They took eer jahbs!")
Expect this list to get longer as I think about it.
*Yay, hot community lovin'!