In Revenge of the Nerds. “Why they call you…Booger?” “I’unnno. [sticks finger up nose]”
First of all, he doesn’t fit the nerd stereotype. He’s not an academic – not dumb, either, but definitely not a techie. He’s more apathetic about socializing than inept. Of course, the nose-picking is anti-social, but that alone doesn’t make him nerdy. He’s more caught between thug and stoner.
So that would make him a Tri-Lamb by default. But again, he doesn’t seem to be like them. He doesn’t appear to be too chummy with any of them, either, except Takashi, who he can push around. His one skill (guitar playing) is creative, not technical (Poindexter plays violin, but that’s a nerdy instrument, and he’s an academic as well). He’s not mainstream, certainly, but you’d think he’d have other options besides Tri-Lamb.
So why wouldn’t he have been pledged by a party frat? He won the belching contest, after all: there are groups in which that would count for something! Or was Adams College so overwhelmingly Aryan and conservative that there were no such groups?
(And as far as that goes, perhaps Lewis and Gilbert are not the best and the brightest, either. Did they ever say that Adams had awesome tech programs? Perhaps it didn’t, and this was the best they could do.)
I think it was because Booger was a huge loser. It was more than just the fact he picked his nose–he was really disgusting. He made everybody around him distinctly uncomfortable, with good reason. Why would anybody spend time with Booger if they didn’t have to?
Are you sure you’re not talking about a sequel? I was pretty sure that Booger started out on the side of the Hip people and then, since he was just too stupid and too disgusting, the cool people eventually ended up abandoning him. Then the nerds took him in just out of the kindness of their hearts.
So it wasn’t that he was a nerd. It was just a matter that only the nerds were willing to overlook his disgustingness and take him in.
And I quote… “Tech’s nothing… you know Adams has got one of the best computer departments in the country”.
You’re think of Frederick W. Polowotski, aka “Ogre”. He was one of the heavies in the first film, then in the sequel (in one of the stupider plot twists of a fully stupid movie) he ended up a nerd.
(Yes, I loved that movie when I was younger… it’s still very funny although it’s much harder for me to overlook the sexism and rampant stereotyping these days.)
I woke up one day, and I realized that of all the cliques at high school and yes, even college, that I was closest to being a nerd. I figured that I should join some clique, rather than just tread water.
I was excited when I found out that Ogre “converted”. Then again, I like the entire “Stand up for ourselves” scene, in I or II. Where the Nerds basically crash the pep rally.
As far as Booger being a nerd, He was the main plot of IV, so, I think he had a good enough reason, regardless.
Then again, how many dopers would probably be a Tri-Lamb? I mean, think of the topics that are big around here… :-X
Hasn’t the meaning of the word “nerd” gradually shifted over the last few decades? I thought there used to be a distinction with “nerd” originally meaning someone who is a bit of a social pariah, and a “geek” being the smart version of a nerd. Things are a little different now with those two words, but that’s what I seem to remember.
Sigh, I know way too much about this movie than I should.
The Alpha Betas (jocks) burned down their frat house, so they took over the freshmen dorm. All the freshmen were moved into the gym and the fraternities picked their pledges from the freshmen. Those who were left (nerds) created their own fraternity, and picked up the national sponsor of Tri-Lambda.
Now, because Booger could probably care less about pledging, he was just one of those left in the gym when they decided to form their own fraternity. Thus, nerd by apathy.
I agree with Harvey Pekar’s summation of the film in American Splendor.
Something to the effect that they’re not real nerds and after college will become rich stockbrokers.