The answer to that question ("Have you tried turning it off and on?") can be found in The IT Crowd, a hilarious British sitcom that celebrates life in the most dismal section of a large corporation: the Information Technology department, home to the geeks and gearheads who fix your computer when you're too dumb to do it yourself (which is always). Its characters are socially awkward (one even e-mails the fire department when a 911 call goes desperately awry), but nonetheless likeable; you might even identify with one or two of them.
The IT Crowd has found a stateside audience via YouTube, and the word by the server room is that an Americanized version of the show is in the works. If that's true, it's heading into a crowded field: American TV is currently dominated by geeks and nerds, from animated boy adventurers to phony pundits. And judging from the number of viewers their shows are pulling, you may already have fallen for one or more of the following nerds:
HIRO NAKAMURA: The spiritual center of NBC's hit Heroes, a computer programmer-turned-time-traveler played by Masi Oka, is a shameless otaku who uses comic-book logic and morals to guide his actions. (The actor himself is a programmer for Industrial Light and Magic, and writes code from his laptop when not before the cameras.)
BETTY SUAREZ: America Ferrera dons unflattering hair extensions, fake braces and glasses to play the title role of ABC's hit Ugly Betty. She wears frumpy hand-me-down outfits that are entirely inappropriate to her executive-assistant job, remains upbeat and optimistic even as her snotty coworkers put her down and is the most intelligent and together person in her world.
THE VENTURE FAMILY: The animated scientists and "boy adventurers" of Cartoon Network's The Venture Bros. have made a near-religion out of failure—and yet they often find themselves crossing paths with the likes of David Bowie and occasionally get some action from hot women in spandex. They only fail upward.
STEPHEN COLBERT: Yes, he's a master satirist—but he's also a hardcore geek who grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons and seems to be using his show to live out a few modest geek fantasies. A recent episode found Colbert in a light-saber duel with George Lucas, while the animated space adventures of Colbert's alter ego, Tek Jansen, have become a Colbert Report highlight.
JOHN HODGMAN: The bespectacled Daily Show commentator decided to make a few bucks by playing a "PC" in a series of Apple Computer ads, opposite an "Apple" played by actor Justin Long. Reportedly, the ads have backfired: Viewers like Hodgman's gently bumbling PC character more than Long's smug Apple. (Seth Stevenson of Slate calls Long's character "a smug little twit," while Hodgman's "humor and likability are evident.")
There are more. David Letterman? Nerd. Zach Braff's character on Scrubs? Pure geek. Conan O'Brien? The Mythbusters guys? The entire G4 network? C'mon, poindexter. You're afloat in an ocean of dweebery.
How did it happen? I could venture a few theories, but as I did with that cancelled Nerds remake, I'll just jump to the one I want to believe: Our culture is finally beginning to make peace with its inner four-eyes. For too many years, the stars of sitcoms, talk shows and even cartoons have been idealized figures: plucky reporters with oodles of spare time, doctors with buckets of mad money, rock stars with heads full of straight white teeth. Every one of them dressed in tailored outfits, lived in palatial apartments and had hairdos that cost more than your car. And most tellingly, they never made mistakes—if something went wrong, it was the world conspiring against them simply because they were just so awesome.
I'm happy to say that those days are over. The TV star of the future has flyaway split ends and imperfect features. He or she dresses for comfort, because comfort is king. And when everything goes to hell—when the pretty, American Apparel-garbed morons of TV land cannot fix their computers, make the most basic of decisions or save the world—the rising nerd population will reset their clocks while they're busy admiring their attractive (but nonfunctional) clock faces. The Urkel age of TV nerd-dom is over, and good riddance. We have met the nerd of today, and he is us.