In case you haven’t heard President Obama’s speech today, check out the below link.
Earlier today, I saw a news article on President Obama and the Sequester. The headline mentioned “Jedi Mind Meld” and it caught my attention (Yes there is such a thing as a Jedi Meld- for a combination of power of Jedi… but not a Jedi Mind Meld to control people). I had to find out more details and the video (above) of this news conference. I was hoping the article misquoted him. He actually spoke those words.
Most people were responding in the article with their opinions of the President, Congress, and the possible sequester. But the only thing I could think about was his failure at geek culture. The rest of the article was lost on me.
Many other sites beat me to writing about this situation. I had hoped to be one of the first but life intervened and prevented me from writing about this earlier in the day. You can check out posts from other geek site: Geekosystem, NPR (one of my favorites), Huffington Post, The Mary Sue, and many more.
President Obama has professed to being a bit of a geek. He collected comics during his childhood. He was supposedly a Star Trek fan. If this is true, how could he mix the two franchise like this?
If you are going to use geek jargon, you have to get the quotes rights. Most of us, geeks, are known for our quoting of movies and intimate details of our favorite movies and shows. This was a huge mis-step for President Obama. As my friend Ji,ll stated, “Who does he think he is, J.J. Abrams?”
President Obama may not fully understand the rivalry of the two franchises and why this was such a bad mix. Some of us are fans of both franchises and think both are KOOL. But many of the fans draw lines in the sand and antagonize each other. Many Trekkers (Trekkies are a derogatory term to many) and Star Wars Fanatics despise each other. The fact that J.J. Abrams is directing movies in both franchises almost brought an end to the world. This is the equivalent to mixing the streams in Ghostbusters.
“There’s something very important I forgot to tell you! Don’t cross the streams… It would be bad… Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.” —Egon Spengler
This mis-statement got the attention of geeks all around. Some in the press are downplaying this and poking fun at geeks for our attention to this “minor” detail. Many non-geeks don’t know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek. What if President Obama had made a statement “Marty McFly going back in time to kill Sarah Connor”? It would be about the same equivalent.
The President’s staff did pick up the mistake. They chose to take a fun approach to it and make fun of the President’s statement. I think it is clever. Check out the below picture that they tweeted right after the Press Conference.
The Mary Sue is making light of the situation but stating the President is a Fake Geek Girl. That was a really funny comment that brought me to a full belly laugh. The Mary Sue has always been a torch bearer against the “Fake Geek Girl” stupidity and correctly makes fun of the situation.
I believe we need to cut the President a little slack. We all have our bad quote days. But, Mr President, don’t do it again. Never use a Geek Quote unless you can nail it perfectly. Maybe a teleprompter could help- you should consider it.
