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After reading how a John McCain staff blogger insulted Dungeons & Dragons enthusiasts with a reference to living in their mothers' basements, I'd like to make a plea to mainstream America. This is on behalf of nerds everywhere: Will you <i>please</i> get some new jokes about us?
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After reading how a John McCain staff blogger insulted Dungeons & Dragons enthusiasts with a reference to living in their mothers' basements, I'd like to make a plea to mainstream America. This is on behalf of nerds everywhere: Will you please get some new jokes about us?It's been twenty-one years since William Shatner made that wisecrack on Saturday Night Live, and we've had to listen to it over and over, ever since. It's like spending 21 years listening to kindergartners telling the same knock-knock joke.
In the skit, Shatner tells fans to "get a life." He asks one Trekkie if he's "ever kissed a girl." Shatner demands, "Move out of your parents' basements!" This is pretty big talk from a man who appears to have a badger asleep on his head. It was pretty funny -- then. But we've had to listen to the same three jokes ever since.
The latest iteration was this week, from McCain campaign blogger Michael Goldfarb. Obama supporters questioned whether McCain was lying in one of his Vietnam stories, and Goldfarb shot back:
It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.
Some D&D players snickered at the comments:
Candleboy.com wrote: "Okay, what? There's a 'pro-Obama Dungeons and Dragons crowd?' I want to be a card-carrying member!"
RedBubble.com is selling a "Pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons Crowd" T-shirt.
Wired's Threat Level blog says:
Naturally, gamers are not amused by the McCain campaign's quick resort to '80s-era cultural stereotypes -- once McCain masters the Internet, we're confident he'll contemporize and start bashing video gamers instead. But it does raise the obvious question: If John McCain were a D&D character, what kind would he be?
This is not the first time Goldfarb took a shot at D&D players. When he did it last month, he apologized, according to Politico.com, which quoted Goldfarb:
If my comments caused any harm or hurt to the hard-working Americans who play Dungeons & Dragons, I apologize. This campaign is committed to increasing the strength, constitution, dexterity, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma scores of every American.
Blogger Adam Serwer, of the American Prospect, says the language of Goldfarb's apology suggests that Goldfarb is in the closet as a D&D player himself:
That's the kind of deep, personal animosity that you associate with experience, which clearly Goldfarb has. It's not hard to imagine that some basement somewhere holds the abandoned d20s, dusty rulebooks, and broken heart of a young Michael Goldfarb who never got to be Dungeon Master because he wouldn't stop yelling. In fact, it's hard not to wonder if, when Michael Goldfarb is berating the D&D players of the world, he's really just berating Michael Goldfarb. For all his criticisms of the "Dailykos" crowd, if "Dungeons and Dragons" becomes a part of our political lexicon, we'll know who to thank.
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