Nerd Hurdles

(http://www.simplysyndicated.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/134-640.jpg) Like all good things that come in threes, Nerd Hurdles celebrates its 3rd birthday on December the 18th, 2011. Fittingly, or a reasonable facsimile of fittingly, they talk about the great trilogies of our time (somehow omitting the Beethoven movies).

(http://www.simplysyndicated.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/NH133-640.jpg) To celebrate the brilliant new The Muppets movie, we return to this subject to give it a more in depth analysis than in our puppetry episode (yeah right).

(http://www.simplysyndicated.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/132-640.jpg) This week Jakob and Mandi return to the world of reality TV—specifically the talent contest shows— and use it as a frame for tangents. They also talk about drunk Paula and confuse  X-Factor with various countries that Got Talent.

(http://www.simplysyndicated.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/NH131-640.jpg) After a brief, unplanned hiatus, we're back with an episode of proportions. Not epic proportions, but human proportions where we wax poetic about the weird anatomy of people far more beautiful than us. We also manage to talk about the oft-maligned, under-rated, misunderstood, yet somewhat problematic, Joss Whedon TV series Dollhouse.

(http://www.simplysyndicated.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/130-6401.jpg) Jakob and Mandi are joined by their soft-spoken librarian friend Stephen about the most hallowed of all nerd haunts, the public library. Together they comb the stacks in search of the fiction, non-fiction and history behind the stigmas and stereotypes of the institution, its employees and its patrons. Links: We would have written about famous librarians in pop culture but a blog called The Despectacled Librarian has already done more research on the subject than we care to. Librarians in song (http://despectacledlibrarian.wordpress.com/2010/07/04/librarians-in-song-and-you-thought-i-was-done/) Librarians on TV (http://despectacledlibrarian.wordpress.com/2010/07/03/ah-yes-we-mustnt-forget-about-librarians-on-t-v/) Librarians in movies (http://despectacledlibrarian.wordpress.com/2010/07/01/movies-my-favourite-subject-lets-include-librarians/) Libreas Podcast (as in Library Ideas... see what they done there?). Interestingly the name is a pun in English but the podcast is actually in German.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/ampcom/129-640.jpg) One of the few horribly over-crowded places you can say, "It's a zoo in here!" and mean it literally. Never mind the penned-up animals, the real exhibits are the people.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/ampcom/128-640.jpg) When we sat down to chat about nerdy girls with Ro Karen of Starbase 66, her infamous Beloved claimed she wasn't going to say a single word. So we didn't give her a microphone. That didn't stop her. At all. Welcome to The Beloved Show.  

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/ampcom/127-640.jpg) Police dramas and legal dramas have been a staple of television programming since television was called radio. This week Jakob and Mandi investigate and prosecute infamous television cops and lawyers. Murder One and Law & Order are named in the indictment but, as with any police dragnet, many key suspects elude capture. Let us know who we missed on the forums.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/ampcom/126-640.jpg) We all need to eat. Which means some of us need to cook. So, how do you cook? It can be an unexpectedly difficult set of skills to master considering how basic they are to our survival.  Luckily, since the dawn of time—well, since people discovered fire and consequently bar-be-que—there have been those willing to pass on these skills to others. With the advent of television, the sum total of our culture's culinary knowledge was places at out fingertips. So why aren't we all master chefs? Besides the fact that we all learn at some point that following along with a cooking show results in gastronomic disaster, human beings don't like to learn so much as pretend they're learning.  We prefer to better ourselves through osmosis as opposed to practical, hands on experience. Very few people who watched the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross have ever painted a single happy tree. The same can be said for anyone who ever attended classes in university. Observing this, the producers of cooking shows have steered away from straight instructional demonstration to focus on personality, between steps banter and chef competitions. Some shows aren't about cooking but food appreciation where the preparation of the meal is, at best, a footnote (such as BBC's The Supersizers). Now, with the democratizing effect of the internet, people who don't even know how to cook have cooking shows. Such as the delightfully messy My Drunk Kitchen with Hannah Hart. Proof that it's harder than it might seem to make a simple little (enjoyable to watch) YouTube cooking show: Our Pagan Kitchen. Real cooking shows: The Supersizers; My Drunk Kitchen; Cookus Inrreuptus; Vegan Black Metal Chef, Hail Seitan; Martha Stewart Bloopers; Wok With Yan; Urban Peasant.

Travel plans interupt our regularily scheduled program. It's gag reel time again. This time around we're not just serving up a smorgasbord of gaffs, but some choice cuts and never before heard classics like: * Memories of Kurt Cobain (15 minutes of tangent from either the 1st or 2nd Zombies episode) * Mediocracy (unreleased Idiocracy mini-episode recorded in March 2009) * Inthest ith betht (Igor & Banana warm-up for Sexy Hurdles 2) * Buffy / Twin Peaks re-cast (out-take from Buffy) * Trevor smoking in the boy's room at a Motley Crue concert * Igor 'Grew a Banana (Making a merkin with Ro Karen) * And much, much more!

Pixar films, specifically Toy Story 3. This is one of those times where Jakob and Mandi's lack of knowledge about the subject matter is going to piss people off. Battlestar GalacTALKa: Wrap-up of Season 4.0 plus speculation on what a pile of bollocks 4.5 is going to be and who does and does not wear pants.

Nerds gotta eat. That means they have to leave the basement and work beside the normies, risking their pride and their hides daily like true heroes. Or do they? They could just work in nerdy jobs all their lives like Jakob and Mandi. Shownotes: The Hurdled Nerd

Another jump into the mirror universe where we examine Nerds' Hurdles, things which are hurdles for nerds. Such as high school prom. If John Hughes taught us anything, that's were nerds get their nooky on. Or hide in the corner hating everyone. Jakob and Mandi reminisce about the perennial bastion of coolie-woolie normalcy that is graduation parties. Shownotes: The Hurdled Nerd

Mandi promised a sexy episode for #69 so she and Jakob tackle sex shops for part dee-ucks of the Sexy Hurdles series. They also try to hurdle Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Igor gets a second job. Shownotes: The Hurdled Nerd

Jakob and Mandi visit a Masonic Lodge then talk about how nerdy they and the people who think they're up to something sneaky are. That and dead celebs. Note: If you downloaded  this before 5:30 pm EST on June 4th, that version of the episode was mysteriously missing 3 minutes where the hosts discuss the real Masonic plot. It is uncertain how the Freemasons got to the file, but the missing 3 minutes have been restored and are located at 21:02. Shownotes: The Hurdled Nerd