9 Greatest Nerds on Film: "I'm a nerd, and uh, I'm pretty proud of it."

"Nerd", a stereotype of studious people with unique interests. First made famous by Jerry Lewis in The Nutty Professor - ultimately their official place in cultural history nailed down by Mr. Samuel "Screech" Powers in Saved by the Bell. Everywhere in between we find nerds that struggle, nerds that triumph, nerds with pride, nerds with hopes and dreams, boxes containing both watermelon and strawberry nerds... Here are the great nerds of entertainment's past and here's the link if you want to mashup your own vids.



1. Steve Urkel, Family Matters. The Urkel Dance episode - Urkel doing everything that makes him great and fabulously annoying...and the ladies, they love it. In other news, in what will go down as one of the best break-outs from nerd typecasting, Jaleel White ran a sports blog on NBA.com for a hot second in 2004. Sports, huh? Kudos to you, Stefan Urkelle.

2. Farmer Ted (Anthony Michael Hall), Sixteen Candles. Score another one for nerds near and far. Farmer Ted nailed the hot chick and doesn't even remember, won respect from ultimate studmuffin Jake Ryan, and got to touch Molly Ringwald's underwear all in one sitting. I'd like to thank John Hughes for making it all possible again and again.

3. Michael Bolton, Office Space. Because we've all been affected by "'PC Load Letter?" What the **** does that mean?' at one point or another...and we're huge fans of his music. We could no sooner pick a favorite MB song than a favorite star in the heavens.

4. Toby Radloff, Genuine Nerd. Pretty much the epitome of nerd pride and god bless him. He currently resides in Berea, Ohio and still likes cheese - who doesn't?

5. Weird Al Yankovic, White & Nerdy. Alfred Matthew Yankovic received his first accordion lesson a day before his seventh birthday and the rest, as they say, is history. This nerd has accomplished great hair, won three grammys, and endured criticism from Coolio. His street cred and nerd pride shot through the roof with White & Nerdy - after which "real" rapper Chamillionaire was quoted as saying "he's actually rapping pretty good on it, it's crazy. I didn't know he could rap like that" and neither did we.

6. Bill Nye (the Science Guy). Quite the scare back in 2000 where a prominent media outlet erroneously reported Bill Nye's death. Spank god it wasn't true. Bill Nye took on the great nerdly task of trying to educate America's tv-watching youth on important science topics, always respectable. Apparently he resurfaced recently in the public eye when he came out in favor of the reclassification of Pluto from a planet to a dwarf planet. A nerd would get worked up over that, huh.

7. Weinerdog's brother - Mark, Welcome to the Dollhouse. He plays clarinet in a garage band. He's pretty serious about college applications. He has a long distance relationship with a girl from summer camp.

8. Anthony Michael Hall...again, this time in Weird Science. Hacking into the US Gov't mainframe and using it to create a computer simulation of Kelly LeBrock? (1985 Kelly LeBrock, not 2005 Kelly LeBrock) Que impresivo, Farmer Ted.

9. The Lambda's, Revenge of the Nerds. The ultimate song - cementing Tri-Lams' place in nerd history and their impending reign in power over the Greek Council for the next year. "These nerds are threatening our way of life." You bet, champ. As the king of the nerds once said, "Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one."