Who are your favorite fictional nerds?

[Leemaster777]

So, I think it's a fairly safe assumption that most of us here on this site are nerds, right? So, as nerds, lets take a look at some of the best nerd characters in fiction.

First off, lets start with No More Heroes. Namely, Travis Touchdown:

Yeah, he's kinda an amoral idiot with a lucha fetish, but he's undeniably a badass.

Then there's Control Freak:

Honestly, Control Freak is probably my favorite recurring villain from Teen Titans. All three of his episodes are awesome. He's a delightful parody of everything nerdy... and also probably a good case for why giving a hardcore nerd superpowers probably wouldn't end very well.

Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to mention Kohta Hirano:

Spoiler

Admittedly, I never finished High School of the Dead (I really, really started to get sick of it around episode 9 or so), but Kohta was one of the main things keeping me around that long. I just thought he was a really endearing character.

What about the rest of you? Who are some of your favorite fictional nerds?

 

[Angelblaze]

No words, no person, no creature...will EVER...make anyone the better nerd girl in anime. Edward is almost like a freaking role model for me - shes so awesome and epic and well written, wacky and fun loving and such a turn to the normal 'nerd' stereotype.

 

[SSJBlastoise]

Maurice Moss from the IT crowd is easily my favourite. The IT Crowd is one of my favourite shows and pretty much everything Moss does or says is hilarious.

Spoiler: Just a few Moss clips

 

[Shinsei-J]

Kagami Junichirou,
he's pretty much Great Teacher Onizuka meets Keima Katsuragi.
An all mighty super nerd genius teacher, he's amazing.

 

[madwarper]

A thread about nerds and no one has mentioned the Adams college Tri-Lambs? For shame, Escapist. For shame.

They won the greek games with science!

Spoiler

 

[Henrik Knudsen]

Egon Spengler, why hasn't anyone mentioned him yet?

Spoiler

 

[King of Asgaard]

No words, no person, no creature...will EVER...make anyone the better nerd girl in anime. Edward is almost like a freaking role model for me - shes so awesome and epic and well written, wacky and fun loving and such a turn to the normal 'nerd' stereotype.

Seconded, Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV/Françoise Appledehli/Radical Edward/Ed is awesome, and one of a kind.

 

[Norithics]

Bentley and Penelope of Sly Cooper fame, both of them being short, socially awkward, but incredibly endearing characters that regularly show how useful they are- and how sunk the more athletic and charismatic Sly would be without them.

Spoiler

Which is also why the twist of Sly 4 was really impactful to me. I don't begrudge it, though: Penelope always had big ambitions, so it made sense that she might eventually grow frustrated with him. Plus, I kind of have to hand it to them for having a breakup occur in a video game- they are a thing that happens, but you never really see it outside of tropey death scenes and stuff.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Filburt the turtle from Rocko's Modern Life.

"I'm nauseus, I'm nauseus, I'm nauseus..."

Despite being a hypochondriac with crippling anxiety, Filburt actually ends up better off than his friends Rocko and Heffer. He's the only one that marries the girl of his dreams (Dr. Hutchison), and he never has to worry about money despite jumping between various jobs due to an enormous underground cache of empty cans.

Also, he created the character The Cheese, which is clearly the best character. It is better than both the Salami and Baloney combined.

 

[Battleaxx90]

My favourite nerd in fiction? That's easy; it can only be the incredible Shulk, from Xenoblade Chronicles.

He's a lot smarter than your average JRPG protagonist, and he's an expert mechanic to boot. He can also see the future thanks to his magical God-sword, but that's neither here or there.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Danm ninja I was going to say Travis too!!!

Other than that, the only one I can think of at the moment is Donatello from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. He make any scrap into a useful gadget or vehicle!!

 

[The Fringe]

I'm going to go with Jimmy Neutron, both out of respect for his love of science and that hair!

 

[SaberXIII]

So, I think it's a fairly safe assumption that most of us here on this site are nerds, right? So, as nerds, lets take a look at some of the best nerd characters in fiction.

First off, lets start with No More Heroes. Namely, Travis Touchdown:

Yeah, he's kinda an amoral idiot with a lucha fetish, but he's undeniably a badass.

Then there's Control Freak:

Honestly, Control Freak is probably my favorite recurring villain from Teen Titans. All three of his episodes are awesome. He's a delightful parody of everything nerdy... and also probably a good case for why giving a hardcore nerd superpowers probably wouldn't end very well.

Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to mention Kohta Hirano:

Spoiler

Admittedly, I never finished High School of the Dead (I really, really started to get sick of it around episode 9 or so), but Kohta was one of the main things keeping me around that long. I just thought he was a really endearing character.

What about the rest of you? Who are some of your favorite fictional nerds?

*Sigh*. You seem to be confusing 'nerd' with 'geek', two very, very different things. Whilst a nerd is one who is typically tedious and dedicated to study a geek is one who has an eccentric devotion to a particular interest, frequently video games, anime or computers. These guys you've mentioned are geeks (at least Travis and Kohta, not sure about that other guy), not nerds. I know it sounds petty, but as a geek myself this is something that REALLY gets on my tits.
If, however, it really was nerds you were searching for despite suggesting these characters then I humbly and sincerely apologise. People are responding with nerd characters anyway, so the intended effect was achieved.

 

[ScaredScorpion]

It's all kinds of fiction right? I'd have to go with Chuck Bartowski from Chuck.

 

[Leemaster777]

SNIP

*Sigh*. You seem to be confusing 'nerd' with 'geek', two very, very different things. Whilst a nerd is one who is typically tedious and dedicated to study a geek is one who has an eccentric devotion to a particular interest, frequently video games, anime or computers. These guys you've mentioned are geeks (at least Travis and Kohta, not sure about that other guy), not nerds. I know it sounds petty, but as a geek myself this is something that REALLY gets on my tits.
If, however, it really was nerds you were searching for despite suggesting these characters then I humbly and sincerely apologise. People are responding with nerd characters anyway, so the intended effect was achieved.

Nope, you got me. I got nerds and geeks confused.

However... I don't particularly care. No offense, but I personally just lump them together in my mind anyways. While your definition DOES make them sound like different things, to me, it's a distinction without a difference.

And Control Freak is, in fact, a geek.

 

[Gregg Lonsdale]

Working on the assumption that anyone with a degree in Physics from MIT is probably reasonably nerdy... Gordon Freeman

 

[Dr. Doomsduck]

snip

*Sigh*. You seem to be confusing 'nerd' with 'geek', two very, very different things. Whilst a nerd is one who is typically tedious and dedicated to study a geek is one who has an eccentric devotion to a particular interest, frequently video games, anime or computers. These guys you've mentioned are geeks (at least Travis and Kohta, not sure about that other guy), not nerds. I know it sounds petty, but as a geek myself this is something that REALLY gets on my tits.
If, however, it really was nerds you were searching for despite suggesting these characters then I humbly and sincerely apologise. People are responding with nerd characters anyway, so the intended effect was achieved.

That is a wholly subjective definition, as both sides have garnished the same bad (or good) name. And that's not even accounting for the hijinks of language since the meaning of 'Nerd' depends on where you're born. For example In my country, the word geek is never used whereas the word Nerd is used to describe people who are eccentrically devoted to a particular subject, be they a study or otherwise. I think that people who identify themselves as 'nerd' are frequently the same people who identify themselves as 'geek' and to exclude one group from the other only creates more discord in an already fragmented group of people.

tl;dr You don't get points for semantics, OP meant the overarching term.

Unless of course you thought we were talking about carnival performers who perform sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, which is also a definition of geek. In that case, I apologize.

Now, as for answering the question, Daniel Jackson from Stargate, Wash from Firefly and Ami Mizuno from Sailor Moon.

 

[SaberXIII]

Nope, you got me. I got nerds and geeks confused.

However... I don't particularly care. No offense, but I personally just lump them together in my mind anyways. While your definition DOES make them sound like different things, to me, it's a distinction without a difference.

And Control Freak is, in fact, a geek.

No worries. No offense taken, and the same to you as in a similar vein I am not oblige to respect your take on the topic.

 

[Vegosiux]

Dexter Douglas, naturally. After all, he took nerdiness to a superhero level. Had to have some help from the internet, of course.

 

[Kuala BangoDango]

My answer?

MacGyver

What more needs to be said? He is so iconic his very name has become a verb.