“Revenge of the Nerds” (1984) came out 15 years before “American Pie,” but if you watch the scene of a roomful of nerds ogling a closed-circuit hidden-camera feed of a sorority house, it plays like a parody of the accidental computer-camera scene in “American Pie.”
A different time
Lewis (Robert Carradine) and his sex-obsessed buddies – including a kid genius who gets into the college – watch coeds in their bathrooms and bedrooms all night long. (In a slight nod to reality, some of the guys complain that watching girls brush their teeth is boring, and they eventually fall asleep.)
Whether you find this stuff shocking or goofy or just basic Eighties humor, “Nerds” serves as a checklist of moments of college guys behaving crassly, from the innocent grossness of a (school-sponsored) belching contest to the infamous scene where a masked Lewis tricks Betty (Julie Montgomery) into a sexual encounter.
“Revenge of the Nerds” (1984)
Director: Jeff Kanew
Writers: Steve Zacharias, Jeff Buhai (screenplay/story); Tim Metcalfe, Miguel Tejada-Flores (story)
Stars: Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Timothy Busfield
Writers Steve Zacharias and Jeff Buhai also behave crassly, finding humor in the Japanese nerd (Brian Tochi as Toshiro Takashi) speaking in a stereotypical accent and the gay nerd (Larry B. Scott as Lamar Latrelle) throwing a javelin in a “limp-wristed” style.
“It was a different era” is less of an accepted excuse these days, but it is historically fascinating to see what was embraced as humor in 1984. As a “Nerds” lover put it to me: “All those guys would be in jail now.”
And furthermore, a movie that draws so heavily upon stereotypes for its humor simply would not be made today. We not only can’t celebrate characters doing these things, we can’t even watch them doing these things in modern comedies.
Hard to take seriously
What’s bizarre is that “Nerds” has so much innocence, heart and “don’t take this seriously” goofiness that it’s hard to get worked up about the inappropriate stuff. Heck, the film is even groundbreaking with its message that nerds deserve to be treated as human beings.
Director Jeff Kanew’s film leans into the stereotype of nerds – glasses, pocket protectors, an interest in robots – as it builds toward Gilbert’s (Anthony Edwards) closing speech backed by Queen’s “We Are the Champions.”
Interestingly, nerds are still a group that’s allowed to be made fun of because nerd-dom is not as easily defined as race, creed and sexual orientation, and because there’s a sense that people choose to be nerds. One could make a case that nerds tend to be socially challenged, and that trait is not a choice.
The film doesn’t go that deep, but it doesn’t need to. It achieves its aim of normalizing nerds with its very existence. Arguably, it doesn’t even need to show the nerds getting “revenge” against the jocks, but simply carving out their slice of freedom.
They do pretty well for themselves: Gilbert lands a cute nerd girlfriend (Michelle Meyrink as Judy) and the whole Lambda Lambda Lambda nerd frat hits it off with the Omega Mu sorority of outcasts who nonetheless know how to party.
Misfires add charm
Often sloppily edited (a party scene continues past the end of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” but still shows characters dancing to it) and too slowly paced, “Nerds” nonetheless achieves a smile-on-your-face momentum because it connects with enough of its slapstick, set-ups and snort-worthy one-liners. (A favorite of mine is coach John Goodman’s “Shit, we forgot to practice.”)
The misfires almost add charm. For example, Edwards plays it straight and Carradine plays it broad – regularly flashing a big-toothed grin and releasing a honking laugh – but the inconsistency between these best-friend performances doesn’t matter.
After all, this is a film where a belching contest (dominated by Curtis Armstrong’s Booger) goes toward determining power in Adams College’s Greek system.
Coming after “Animal House” and handing the baton to the likes of “Old School,” “The House Bunny” and “Neighbors,” “Revenge of the Nerds” will be taken by most viewers as just another goofball frat movie — unless you saw it at the right time to get that extra nostalgic glow. I’m not pulling out my calculator here, but I’d estimate “Nerds’ ” joke-connection percentage is higher than average.