On Wednesday night's episode of Jeopardy!, contestant Susan Cole, a legislative librarian from Bowie, Maryland, introduced herself as someone who enjoys listening to "Nerdcore Hip Hop." According to Susan Cole, Nerdcore is about "people who identify as nerdy, rapping about the things they love: video games, science fiction, having a hard time meeting romantic partners. It's really catchy and fun," which prompted longtime show host of "Jeopardy!", Alex Trebek, joking remark of "Losers, in other words?"
Alex Trebek's loser remark has drawn the ire of prominent Nerdcore hip-hop artist Mega Ran who crafted a short song in response to Trebek's comments. In a video posted to Twitter, Mega Ran raps:
Alex Trebek, you lost a lot of respect
I gotta check you off the rip for coming outta your neck
Talking sideways on geeks, man you're a trip
Guess you hadn't heard, nerds make up half of your viewership
Wrote some words for #AlexTrebek on the way from the venue tonight... your move, hahapic.twitter.com/NFzJjRlG9U
— Mega Ran on TOUR (@MegaRan) October 13, 2016
Mega Ran was not the only person to take offense. A number of fans took Trebek to task on Twitter for his comments. But for the rest of us, non-nerds, secret nerds and whatnot's, there is still a nagging need to answer the question, "What really is Nerdcore?"
Nerdcore is a genre of hip-hop characterized by the themes and subject matter considered to be of general interest to nerds. This type of music originated sometime in the late 1990s nerd culture and started gaining popularity with the release of self-described nerdcore artist MC Frontalot's record. Currently, Nerdcore as a genre has slowly gained mainstream press attention and was subject to two feature-length documentaries, Nerdcore Rising and Nerdcore for Life in early 2008.
Most importantly, two great things have come out of this debacle, Susan Cole exacted her revenge and handily won the game with $20,600 and Nerdcore got more mainstream attention.
