David Campbell: ‘Why 2019 is the year of the geek’

When he was a boy, TV host David Campbell was shamed for his love of comics and Star Wars. But who knew this year would finally mark the revenge of the nerds?

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Let’s talk about nerds, baby, let’s talk about you and me.

I am particularly able to do this as I identify as one. I am old school. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (the northern suburbs of Adelaide) I was reading about Spider-Man and Batman in the ’70s as a child.

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One of my early cinematic memories is seeing the original Star Wars at the movies. In those days, the only Falcon anyone spoke of was not a Millennium, but a Ford.

I devoured this culture, when you had no idea if there was another movie like it coming out because there was no internet — no online fan forums. You just discovered it.

The Rebel team in the Millennium Falcon. (Picture: Star Wars)

I feel an affinity to people who love Marvel’s Avengers. So, while I was in Chicago at the Star Wars convention earlier this year, I had an epiphany as to why I still, at my age, love geek culture.

Walking through the packed convention centre, I confess I got misty-eyed. It wasn’t just the smell of Lynx deodorant. There was something else in the air, from the costumed kids to the big kids who never really grew up.

I am not sure George Lucas had dreamed of this when he sat down to write about the Skywalker saga 40-plus years ago.

It was the sense of community. A place to belong. It was inclusive of everyone no matter what your background or what planet you came from. We were mainstream and this mattered.

Campbell feels an affinity with those who love the Avengers. (Picture: Avengers Endgame)

It matters in the films. Sure, they are the old heroic tales, passed down from generation to generation, only this time starring Wookiees or Chris Hemsworth.

A rag-tag group of warriors, who no-one thinks can defeat the big baddie in the Hollywood script, but can actually change the world.

And here I was on planet Earth, surrounded by the evidence that these films not only helped us escape our lives, but in their own way helped save us.

We used to be the kids who never fit in. We struggled to make friends at school.

I recall being up the back of class with a fellow comic-book geek. We got out our well-thumbed Marvel paperbacks to swap and trade. This caught the gaze of one of the cool girls in front of us, who pointed and laughed.

It felt like a sitcom (not The Big Bang Theory). Somewhere a needle scratched over a record and all eyes in the classroom were upon us.

Our faces turned Iron Man red from the shame. We never talked about it again.

David Campbell is a proud member of the Geek Club. (Photography: Damian Bennett for Stellar)

David Campbell’s column is in this Sunday’s Stellar.

Those days are thankfully gone. You’d have to climb into a DeLorean or fire up a Tardis to go back to those dark times.

The meek have inherited the Earth. You are currently living in the hit ’80s movie Revenge Of The Nerds.

What I learnt in Chicago is: everyone is welcome. You can be an outsider. You can be LGBTQI. You can be a hedge fund manager. You can be any religion (though you are at risk of being converted to Jedi).

You will be accepted. You will find your tribe. You will not be judged. You will not be bullied.

So grab your favourite droid and join us at a convention. There is plenty of room — as long as you don’t get tempted by the dark side.

David co-hosts Today Extra, 9am Monday — Wednesday, and Weekend Today, 7am weekends.

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