John Hodgman quizzes Obama on his nerd cred

Here's John Hodgman doing a stellar job at the Radio and TV Correspondents' Dinner, addressing President Obama at the head table on the subject of being a true Nerd President. I was disappointed that Obama couldn't remember the name of the god that Conan worshipped. Of course, I was also disappointed that Obama decided to suppress videos and photos of illegal torture conducted by American troops.

John Hodgman at Radio & TV Correspondents' Dinner (via Kottke)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Anonymous

My take: Obama surely knows the mighty Crom, Grim Lord of the Mound, but was wise enough not utter his unholy name lest he suffer the immediate and unceasing wrath of far right reactionaries…
The Tensor

a) Shai-hulud
b) A thumper
c) Water of Life

Thanks, I’ll take my no-prize on the air.
Antinous / Moderator

Hodgman’s nerd cred revoked. Slip that in your crack of doom and see if it melts.
Bemopolis

How dare you criticize our President in this time of war. He is doing everything he can to protect this country from the threat of Cromofascists. They hate our freedoms, you know, and want to roll civilization back to the Hyborian Age.
Phikus

Mr. President: What is best in life?
MrJM

“Conan, what is best in life?”

“To crush your enemies, see them driven before you… and to hear the lamentation of illegally tortured detainees!”

– MrJM
dculberson

There are different types of nerds, and even similar types of nerds have differing interests at times. Conan did not fall within my purview as a kid, but I was most certainly a nerd.
thechicgeek

Best video I’ve seen all day.
Anonymous

CHOAM was just too big to let fail. The Landsraad, and indeed Emperor Bush II himself, could not maintain a viable interplanetary economy without intervening and manipulating the very stock of planetary wealth – the Spice Melange! But even they could not predict what choices would lead us toward the Kwisatz Obama. The sleeper must awaken!
Phrosty

Obama is most definitely NOT a nerd president. He’s just another mainstream pseudo-nerd president. He’s the Apple of nerd presidencies…And Bemopolis (#1) needs to chill the funk out.
Takuan

and Cheney as Harkonnen?
ablestmage

“Of course, I was also disappointed that…”

CHEAP SHOT ALERT
wispsmoke

@Brett Burton: How could you have missed one? I’m unsettled.
Anonymous

@4 Neither are you Phrosty. You entirely failed to pick-up on Bemopolis’ Conan reference.
Brett Burton

I’ve read the first 6 of the Dune books and I only got two out of three on that question. Still, Crom was an easy one. Obama was probably just a smart, slightly nerdy kid back in the day. You know, the popular guy in the AP classes who cute girls would even talk to. He was not 1337 by any stretch.
noahpoah

I’m disappointed that anyone had (or, somehow, still have) higher hopes for Obama than they do for any other successful politican.
Nerdcore4lyfe

7:58. Hodgman: “Is the president truly NERDCORE?”

John Hodgman and Barack Obama may not realize that “Nerdcore” is only a word thanks to Nerdcore Hip-Hop, but it’s great to see that the term has caught on to the point where someone would say it to the president. Nerdcore for life!
Tdawwg

He was the Editor of the Harvard Law Review and, thus, a nerd, nerding nerdier and more nerdily than we all have ever nerded. So chill: nerd envy FAIL.
Mitch Wagner

Wish I’d seen this yesterday, when a friend and I were kicking around that perennial question: Is science fiction, or at least sf fandom, dead?

I maintained, as I have for a few years, that it is dead — as a distinct genre. Science fiction is now mainstream. Everyone is a science fiction fan. Therefore it’s dead because it’s not a separate ghetto anymore, it’s part of American universal pop culture.

When you have a speaker at one of the highlight events of the Washington D.C. social calendar telling Kwisatz Haderach jokes, then science fiction as a separate genre is dead.
Anonymous

Bemopolis (#1) needs to chill the funk out.

Why? It was a perfectly cromulent post.