https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo0SWoqQ44w

No one bullies harder than the nerds around here. Such a hateful bunch of ignorant fools.

Of course, that doesn't apply to everyone here, for sure -- some people are absolutely lovely, like DonHopkins -- but perhaps 90%.

But that's always the problem with majorities, they follow the lead of their leader, and damn their conscience and other points of view, wielding their power like a cudgel. They tend to bully minorities of every kind, especially ideological minorities.

There is nothing more important than compassion, and only the truth is its equal.

Heavy lifting for a silly 80s comedy movie.

From the perspective of conspiratorial thinking, fringe “I’m special because I see the surprising, simple real key to everything” economic schools, and anti-enlightenment politics :-(

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serve_Man_(The_Twilight_Zon...

I recommended them to see "Top Secret" when I was in 9th Grade. My Catholic parents!

They came home and my mother said, "We are never listening to a movie recommendation from you ever again."

I will get Deja Vu.

My sophomore year, when getting a ride from my state champion teammate, I don't know what I said, but he just turned to me and said,

McCall, you're a neeeerrrrrd.

It wasn't bullying, because I've never been bullied, but I was -- and am -- a nerd.

And, yeah, "Real Genius" got a lot of play on HBO back then. I especially loved the Lazlo storyline, and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is such a GREAT song.

In my typology of bullies, there's the archetypal "unhappy at home" kind of bully who is troubled and traumatized and takes it out on other people. After-school specials will teach you that all bullies are like that, but in my experience, they were relatively rare in real life. The more common type, who accounted for almost all of the bullying, were the "protecting community standards" bullies, who were happy and popular and bullied people as a public service, sometimes even for the good of the victim. When people did something disruptive or destructive to the community, like being gay, thinking they were as good as people that they weren't as good as, or talking to a jock's girlfriend, the community needed to be repaired, and the violator needed to be put on a more healthy path in life. As budding community leaders, the jocks naturally stepped into that role, especially when physical work was required.

I managed to escape bullying in high school by being incredibly bland and repressing any inappropriate social ambitions (i.e., any at all) but I could see from cases around me that if there had been anything socially disturbing about me, a strong effort would have been made to correct the situation.

If anything I wish it had not been a comedy but rather a more serious film with the same cast. They only touched on but could have done more with the psychology of these young, awkward, hormone-fueled "geniuses" falling in among some of the most awkward and smartest other young people in the world. Those who have always been the smartest in school now finding themselves ranking maybe somewhere in the middle among their new cohorts. And of course all the heightened awkwardness of being away from your parents for the first time in co-ed living arrangements....

Real Genius is a great film in many ways, marred only by the assumption that a military laser is a bad thing to be working on

I wouldn't call it "marred" like it was a small detail in an otherwise good movie. It's pretty much the central lesson of the movie. The whole third act was about the ethics of working on weapons, particularly how engineers, if they're not careful, will focus on the "cool technology" aspect and fail to account for the real application(s) of their work. If you really think working on weapons would be neat, I'm not sure what there is left for you to get out of Real Genius.

I never sleep, I don't know why. I had a roommate and I drove her nuts, I mean really nuts, they had to take her away in an ambulance and everything. But she's okay now, but she had to transfer to an easier school, but I don't know if that had anything to do with being my fault. But listen, if you ever need to talk or you need help studying just let me know, 'cause I'm just a couple doors down from you guys and I never sleep, okay?

Heh when Mitch goes to her dorm in the middle of the night and she’s using one of those giant floor sanders to refinish her dorm room floor is pretty effing funny.

where one of the kids at the study table stands up, screams repeatedly, and leaves, and with no reaction one of the kids

Also the part where they are gassing Kent in his dorm room, and another student passes them by with just a "hey" and keeps walking while they are wearing gas masks and clearly Up To No Good.

A classic "show, don't tell" example as you have all the information you need to know about the sort of place this school is from that scene.

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k9gI58sHa0

I think I'm getting brain fry!

OK Mitch, I'm gonna make it up to you. Let's just pause...take a step back. No, I was wrong, I'm sorry: take a step forward. Now, take a step back...and now we're cha cha-ing!

I still use this when pair debugging.

Would you classify that as a launch problem, or a design problem?

"They're beauticians?!" "Not yet"

These military types are so untrusting

Also, not sure if you missed it, but Manhattan Project was part of the trifecta for me from that era that fed my desire to grow up to do intellectually difficult things.

I thought "Real Genius" and "Film Nerd" was referring to "Val Kilmer", like it was saying "RIP Val Kilmer, a real genius and film nerd that culture deserves" instead of "RIP Val Kilmer, who worked at Real Genius, the film that nerd culture deserves".

I must say that I never heard about this movie and I'm happy that this is a recommendation of a 80s movie