Why Geeks Rule

Believe it or not, there was a time when being a geek was frowned upon.

From the Fonz dubbing socially awkward kids “nerds” on “Happy Days” to the hit ’80s comedy “Revenge of the Nerds,” the put-upon geek was a well-honed meme for decades.

The turning point may have started with John Hughes, the “Breakfast Club” director who put the likes of Anthony Michael Hall and other gifted teens into awkward situations. Hughes humanized these outcasts, giving them emotional arcs, hope, and sometimes (gasp) girlfriends. But man, it took a long time for square to be hip.

Being a geek today is one of the most lucrative and powerful ways for creators to spread their hard work. The biggest film event of 2015 isn’t any Oscar-bait drama, but a sequel to one of geekdom’s most beloved properties, the “Star Wars” saga.

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Now, even the most casual moviegoers salivate over the latest creations from directors J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon, the auteurs behind “The Force Awakens” and “The Avengers,” respectively. People flock to Comic Cons with an excitement that rivals major sporting events. Geeks, it seems, have inherited popular culture. But why?

Beyond a doubt, it’s their passion for whatever it is that they do. There’s an argument to be made that they are today’s bohemians, those artistic types who craft words, pictures and videos that reflect the way they see the world, and it’s a fair claim. And they do so across any platform they wish, all the better to reach the masses.

Being a geek has become one of the most lucrative and powerful ways for creators to spread their hard work.

The flip side of their creativity is their passion for their “thing.” It’s a willingness to be excited about something, to broadcast that geeky thrill to the world, and to be unashamed of one’s inherent nature. It is, in essence, a willingness to let one’s freak flag fly, even if one’s flag is adorned with X-Wings or zombies or titans in spandex. It helps that geeks now have the technology to bring their visions to life. And there’s serious coin to be made in the process.

Consider two of the more prominent geek heroes in pop culture today, stars who work across media to get their messages across.

It’s pretty hard to garner more geek credibility than novelist Ernest Cline. His first book, “Ready Player One,” was a futuristic thriller about a kid on an Easter egg hunt through cyberspace. It eventually became a runaway bestseller and is being adapted for the big screen by no less than Oscar-winner Steven Spielberg.

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But it’s not like Cline, who lives in Austin, Texas, didn’t do his time in the trenches. He spent years toiling away in the tech industry while indulging his creative outlets on the side.

Fans can look forward to more from the ever-busy Cline. In addition to the movie deal and the second book, Cline signed a seven-figure deal with Crown to deliver his third novel. For Cline, the future is about creation, not just geeking out over his favorite things.

Felicia Day is so geeky she’s almost transcended popular culture to create her own ecosystem.

“It’s not about just being passive and content to be a fan,” he said. “Our simulations are just not that good. When they get that good, you’re talking about ‘The Matrix.’ When I watch that movie, I never think that machines would rise up and enslave us because we would happily enslave ourselves because we would hate the real world. We would retreat en masse to our holodeck. If you had a holodeck and a replicator, why would you leave the house?”

Felicia Day is so geeky she’s almost transcended popular culture to create her own ecosystem. The author of the new memoir, “You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost),” was a National Merit Scholar who studied violin at the Julliard School but moved to Hollywood for TV fame. Her turn on the cult favorite “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was only the beginning.

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In 2007, Day began shooting “The Guild,” a Web series broadcast on the then-burgeoning YouTube. The show is about a guild of MMORPG players (that’s “massively multiplayer online role-playing game” to non-nerds. Think “World of Warcraft”) led by the shy and socially anxious Codex, played by Day.

In recent years, Day has taken her empire even further, starting a media production firm dubbed Geek & Sundry, which creates premium YouTube content like “TableTop,” a show devoted to table gaming that often co-stars Wil Wheaton, he who narrated both of Cline’s audiobooks.

But the great thing to learn from people like Cline, Day and even Chris Hardwick (whose Nerdist Industries is now the umbrella for Geek & Sundry at Legendary Entertainment) is that they’re all about making stuff that can be shared with the click of a mouse. We’ll leave you with some advice from Day courtesy of her new memoir.

“I hope all my copious oversharing encourages someone to stop, drop, and do something that’s always scared them. Create something they’ve always dreamt of. Connect with people they never thought they’d know. Because there’s no better time in history to do it.”