Consensus: Harvard Guy Way Too Cool for Geek
We'd like to say we stumbled upon Beauty and the Geek accidentally. Flipping channels before last week's Bush speech, maybe, or stepping on the remote when we got up from a marathon session with The Nichomachean Ethics. But the truth is, we consciously blocked out a chunk of our Wednesday to watch this program. And it has been the most rewarding decision of our lives.
If you haven't yet tasted the nectar, all you need to know is: seven knockouts, seven dweebs, zero flaws. The purported goal is to have everyone change by the end of the show, be it from hot ditz to sensitive hot ditz or from brainy shut-in to brainy shut-in with gelled hair. Whoever changes most -- and displays a few token skills along the way -- wins. But the real point, of course, is to exaggerate the guys' social decrepitude while getting the girls to say the dumbest shit imaginable.
The latter quest: victory. As for the former, we're not so sure, largely because of one Nate Dern, Havard '07. Dern, as far as we can tell, has no business being on the show. One geek's claim to fame is he "got a 1600 on his SAT." Another "owns 25,000 comic books." Dern started a Star Wars band. Oh, and he never wears deoderant. Which is gross, obvs, but the point is that he does original stuff assertively. And that's exactly the problem. Everything "uncool" about him -- and we can't believe we're saying this -- is actually cool.
So cool, in fact, that everything he does feels a little calculated, like he's out-smarting the producers. When the geeks had to paint a nude woman in last week's episode, the art he produced was frighteningly creative. When he suggests cutting his hair into a mullet, you know he'd pull it off. Not to mention he's a total extrovert. A friend of ours put it this way: "He's nerdy, but in that hipster way so all the girls would do him anyway." In other words, Nate Dern is a fraud.
Our prediction: Dern will make it far on charm, good looks and trucker hats. But he has way too many Facebook friends to win.
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January 18th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
I know two Smith alumnae who have had relations with the other Harvard guy, Scooter. (Does this make Harvard the geekiest Ivy?)
January 18th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
This has been discussed on a Harvard blog:
http://www.harvarddems.com/node/1720
Here on campus, Nate’s definitely no geek, just a Facebook legend (http://harvard.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2200496092) and resident freak. It’s something of a curiosity to find him on network TV…
January 18th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
he has more than 300 facebook groups dedicated to him. this has been confirmed by the crimson
January 19th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Anyone who’s “had relations” with two people ought to be disqualified from a show like this. I predict Nate will organize the geeks into a flashmob, take over the show, emerge victorious without a hair on his head makeover’d, and never say a word the bimbz will understand.
p.s. Ren. In their hard-hitting journalism, did the Crimson mention that he’s founded all the groups himself? And God love him for it, I’m just saying.
January 19th, 2007 at 11:19 am
He’s just following the banner of Hunter Maats, on Survival of the Richest. He was the original deceiver of producers.
January 19th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
sure he’s a fraud, it’s called acting. what do you want from TV, lux et veritas? it’s time to stop being polite and start getting real.
January 19th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
I’d already gotten hooked on the first Beauty and the Geek, so when I found out Nate would be on the show it was just icing on the cake. He’s not the kind of geek you’ll find at physics night, but you have to admit he dresses the part better than just about anybody–which could explain why he’s become the poster boy for this season. (See various magazine ads and the billboard in Times Square.) The dudes publicizing the Boston casting calls told him about auditioning because of what he was wearing to hand out IGP flyers in front of the science center.
January 19th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I actually ended up rooming with Nate in Buenos Aires where we were both studying Spanish for the second half of the summer after they filmed this. He wouldn’t say who ended up winning – but he did end up with a much better haircut, and wearing deodorant. I by the way had the exact same reaction when he told me about the show…
January 19th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
scooter is definitely no geek either
January 19th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
omg, kate, ren…I think I know who you are. This is getting weird; it’s like being in the leverett dining hall all over again.
January 20th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
The Leverett dining hall misses you all.
January 22nd, 2007 at 2:22 pm
nate is definitely not a geek in the sense that the others are but he’s not going to the owl every friday either — i think he makes for the juxtaposition the show was looking for. beauty and the geek is only funny having seen nate in classes, etc. otherwise, it’s painful to watch. … i for one am looking forward to the next harvard student to hit reality tv this spring (http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=512943)... keep an eye out on this one, ivygate… i hear there are banana thongs involved.
January 22nd, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Is going to the owl not meta-geeky in its own sadness?
Also, what is that little kid looking at so suspiciously in the picture?? :)
January 22nd, 2007 at 5:03 pm
also tom lowe. he’s on american idol now. who knew harvard was so exciting?
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:03 am
john — it is true: owl parties present their own sort of sadness, but i don’t suspect ashton kutcher would be lining up finals club boys as recruits for the geek show.
January 23rd, 2007 at 2:58 pm
http://www.huntermaats.com
January 23rd, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Makeover episode.
Nate: “I am nervous because I take pride in the way I look at dont conform to trends.”
(Dressed like a hipster, and a trucker hat to top it off.)
Oh, and agreed: Scooter’s adorable. Gotta give the girls something to look at, too.
January 25th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
I saw this same show several years ago in the U.K. with guys from Oxford and Cambridge. It was kind of sweet. One of the girls wasn’t that dumb, and one of the geeks wasn’t that awkward, and at the end they went off into the sunset together. They were from the same social class, though.
February 22nd, 2007 at 7:15 pm
I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW WHAT NATE’S HAT SAID… DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT IT SAID BEFORE HE STRATEGICALLY REMOVED LETTERS TO SPELL NATE…
February 22nd, 2007 at 8:44 pm
I found all of these….what is this suppose to mean.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
MTV is looking for a few good men… no “experience” required!
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…Do you get nervous around women?
…Are you stuck in the “friend” zone?
…Do you find it difficult to pull yourself away from your busy schedule to meet any girls?
Everyone has their own unique reasons why they are still a virgin…
If you or someone you know is a male virgin and wants to be the star of their own show, email MTV casting with your name, age, location, phone number & email, and include a current photo & a brief history of your love life: tomiko.jones@mtvnmix.com
** Guys must be within driving distance of Los Angeles. Friends may be featured in the show. There is pay. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by!
August 12th, 2007 at 2:18 am
his hat said nantucket
October 8th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Of course Nate and Scooter are in real life too cool to be “geeks” for the show — and of course the producers knew this. The producers couldn’t care less about finding two real geeks and changing their lives and making them cool. They wanted two people who could act the role well, and bring in the advertising bucks. And I say congratulations to Scooter and Nate for taking advantage of the system and using it — why the hell not? Reality TV is so ludicrous and unreal, why should it not also be a simple issue of social darwinism. Whoever can bring in the advertising dollars, wins.