Airheads. Brendon Fraser admits to being a geek and playing DnD in the climax of the movie. decidedly not a positive presentation.
Well Airheads has certainly aired on TV... and I wouldn't have minded keeping this inclusive of both TV and film, because there are many good filmic examples as well (Though Mazes and Monsters was a TV movie - For which I did the original IMDB summary <G>). But to stick with TV shows:
8) Maron. In this new show with Marc Maron, Marc had a twitterer named Dragon Master insulting his act viciously as being not funny. He tracked the guy down to a game shop running a game of D&D. The gamers there were the offbeat type typical of stereotypical jabs, but they also controlled the coming conflict handily and sent Marc off a beaten man. So... offbeat, but intellectually superior and more emotionally grounded. A comedic, mixed portrayal that went in negative but wound up positive by the end.
9) Reno 911. Patton Oswalt potrayed both a gamer and a LARPer on the show. Everything and everyone is portrayed negatively on Reno 911. Gaming wasn't going to be the thing that changed that. Final result: It was a true life gamer/comedian poking loving fun at his own clan type negative portrayal.
10) The Simpsons. The episode where Homer goes to college to get accreditation to operate the nuclear power plant, and confuses "Snobs vs. Slobs" movies with real college life. In describing the fun he's having with the "cool kids," he says something like "...and we played D&D for five hours, until I was slain by an elf."
11) The Colbert Report: Stephen Colbert has made many references to D&D over the years-- indicating a highly in-depth, first-hand knowledge of the game. He's gone on record that he had been an avid player.
12. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the final episode, "Chosen," Giles, Andrew and a couple others play D&D. There's also a Homestar Runner reference, as the dragon Andrew is attacking everyone with is named Trogdor the Burninator. It's a brief scene, and while there's a nerd joke running in there somewhere, it's a nice scene and everyone's having fun (except Giles, whose dwarf was debuffed). I'd say positive portrayal.
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Man, I disagree about Big Bang Theory's portrayal. While it's not incredible negative, I still feel like it's mocking D&D and Nerds (like everything else in that show).
And of course, everyone knows Colbert himsef is a paladin (albeit a Warcraft version).10) The Simpsons. The episode where Homer goes to college to get accreditation to operate the nuclear power plant, and confuses "Snobs vs. Slobs" movies with real college life. In describing the fun he's having with the "cool kids," he says something like "...and we played D&D for five hours, until I was slain by an elf."
11) The Colbert Report: Stephen Colbert has made many references to D&D over the years-- indicating a highly in-depth, first-hand knowledge of the game. He's gone on record that he had been an avid player.
Protection Paladin at that =)
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Ironic how we've advanced to the point that we (gamers/nerds/whatever) are upset at negative portrayals of us, but anyone who doesn't fit the stereotype is OK to make fun of. For instance a poster on these forums referring to Vin Diesel as a mindless action star. Someone who plays D&D and has successfully written/directed/starred in two films showcased at Cannes is not what I'd describe as mindless.
We want the media and our peers to stop viewing us negatively, but anyone attractive, fit, with social skills is worthy of our derision.
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16. Dexter's Lab, wherein Dexter and friends sit down for some RPG fun. DeeDee ends up as GM; hilarity ensues.
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15a) The X-Files "Jose Chung's From Outer Space".
Jose Chung: Aren't you nervous telling me all this? Receiving all those death threats?
Blaine: Well, hey, I didn't spend all those years playing Dungeons and Dragons and not learn a little something about courage.
13. E.T. The extra terrestrial. There's a scene where a bunch of kids play D&D.
The only reason I didn't mention E.T. was that I thought that this thread was about TV, not movies. If movies count, then I would add the one "slasher" flick I've seen in my life:
17. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Will Stanton is seen playing D&D. The obvious implication is that D&D exercised his imagination enough to enable him to envision himself as a wizard in his dreams, thus providing a possible means of combating Freddy. However, he lost the battle against Freddy, and died. So the portrayal there of D&D players wasn't PARTICULARLY positive, but it certainly wasn't negative.
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17. Vrienden voor het Leven. A Dutch sitcom back in the 90's. That was awful, and it appeared to be some kind of boardgame. (No DM)
"I crawl into my Trollhole..."
TBBT plays stereotypes for laughs because that's what sitcoms do. That's pretty much the fundamental coinage of sitcomery.
By and large the geek jokes presented on that show are presented in a manner that does not "mock" the geek culture. The show's writers are remarkably good at "getting geek right" imho. One of my favorite moments of the show is when Leonard is presenting a paper and wants to lead in with a joke and comes up with a joke about a physicist helping a chicken farmer by redesigning the farm's systems. The punch line is "of course this assumes spherical chickens in a vacuum."
That is, in fact, a brilliant physics geek joke. One that any physics or serious engineering student would immediately get but which the vast majority of the population would say "huh?" If the show's writers didn't "get" geek, that joke would never have been written, much less delivered and kept in the script.
As far as last night's episode goes, I was pleased with the portrayal of D&D and in fact remarked to my wife that it was one of the most accurate portrayals of the games I've been in that I've ever seen on TV, with the sole exception of the geeks objecting when Penny wanted to roll the dice. That bugged me, but didn't ruin the setup. All in all I found the portrayal of D&D in the episode to be reasonably accurate, generally positive and frequently funny.
At the end of an episode of That 70s show Alice Cooper and a couple of others are playing during the end credits. It was a pretty funny little bit. Also, who could forget the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon :)
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Adventure Time has had a plethora of them.
The best of all was when Finn asked Flame King if Flame Princess could ever be made non-evil.
Flame King responded with "Maybe Chaotic Neutral, but she'd take a penalty to her experience points".
Phinneas and Ferb have a D&Dish episode.
Ironic how we've advanced to the point that we (gamers/nerds/whatever) are upset at negative portrayals of us, but anyone who doesn't fit the stereotype is OK to make fun of. For instance a poster on these forums referring to Vin Diesel as a mindless action star. Someone who plays D&D and has successfully written/directed/starred in two films showcased at Cannes is not what I'd describe as mindless.
We want the media and our peers to stop viewing us negatively, but anyone attractive, fit, with social skills is worthy of our derision.
Well, to be fair, that could just be a mix-up of words.
He may not be a mindless action star, but he's a star of mindless action movies.
Anyone else wish a show would do something like:
"lets play DnD"
"no, DnD is lame, lets play Pathfinder instead" ;)
A little, what i wish is to see it played right. Let's take the last big bang theory episode for example, while i do not know a lot about 4E, i seriously doubt that the DM rolls the player's attack rolls and i really don't think that damage rolls are ommited.
Adventure Time has had a plethora of them.
The best of all was when Finn asked Flame King if Flame Princess could ever be made non-evil.
Flame King responded with "Maybe Chaotic Neutral, but she'd take a penalty to her experience points".
Good deal of D&D-ish monsters in the show too. Like the knockoff Displacer Beast from the dungeon episode.
Though, that's less a portrayal of the game itself being played and more of an easter egg of its contents for those already in the know, I'd say.
In the UK police drama series TAGGART, one of the lead characters completely randomly turns out to be a big D&D fan. He's shown playing a game when he's called away to a case. The game wasn't the focus of the episode at all, it was just a brief bit of characterisation and wasn't treated negatively. It was a positive portrayal, treated about the same as if the guy was playing poker and not played for laughs.
I believe there was a D&D epsiode of Dexter's Labatory.
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I don't get people complaining about a stereotype that by and large is pretty accurate.
Traditionally, the people who played DnD in highschool were not the football star or popular kid. The majority of players are the "geeks" in theatre club or science club. Many players are not very athletic, in shape, and may be socially awkward people with above average intelligence. And I'm sorry but the average, avid DnD player from the 70s to even today probably wasn't "slaying poon" when they were 16. It was probably more like 18-22 to become sexually active.
The only stereotype for DnD that probably should go away is that they're always like the Comic Book store guy in the Simpsons..like uber fat with a pony tail and like a 40 year old virgin living in their mom's basement. This one is pretty far off as most of the players I've played with at that age are married with a steady job/career.
...
Perhaps that accurately portrays your DnD experience, but not mine.
Airheads. Brendon Fraser admits to being a geek and playing DnD in the climax of the movie. decidedly not a positive presentation.
I dunno. I always thought that it meant well. After all, practically the whole crowd eventually admits to playing, and it ends up uniting a lot of them.
Back to the OP, Big Bang Theory has had D&D fairly prominently featured in a handful of episodes. One of my favorites was the one where Sheldon decided to make ALL decisions in his life by rolling dice and consulting a table.
Jade, I'd like to see that Maron episode. Is it still running? What channel is it on?
Maron is only two episodes into its first season. The D&D flavored episode was the first. It's on Fridays at 10pm. I'm not sure how you'd catch the pilot, but it's got to be out there somewhere.
Jade, I'd like to see that Maron episode. Is it still running? What channel is it on?Maron is only two episodes into its first season. The D&D flavored episode was the first. It's on Fridays at 10pm. I'm not sure how you'd catch the pilot, but it's got to be out there somewhere.
Check hulu.com
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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...If the show's writers didn't "get" geek, that joke would never have been written, much less delivered and kept in the script.
As far as last night's episode goes, I was pleased with the portrayal of D&D and in fact remarked to my wife that it was one of the most accurate portrayals of the games I've been in that I've ever seen on TV, with the sole exception of the geeks objecting when Penny wanted to roll the dice. That bugged me, but didn't ruin the setup. All in all I found the portrayal of D&D in the episode to be reasonably accurate, generally positive and frequently funny.
I enjoyed the episode but it was clear that while the writers had an understanding of what D&D was they hadn't played nearly enough of it to give a genuine portrayal of it. Accurate? Sure, but there were several small things that made me shake my head while I was laughing at the jokes.
However, these were outnumbered by the reasons why I like the episode. I really, really wished that it felt like it was written by people who actually play the game, but I have another theory behind so much incorrect details.
Hasbro is sue happy. They were happy enough to have the product placement (of an out of print product I believe,) but the writers didn't wish to risk a lawsuit. So they instead used terms like, "magic users," and "warrior," and made sure that anything specifically D&D (Boots of Speed,) were not copyrighted and general enough that they could claim ignorance. This could also explain other little details involving inaccurate play, like the GM always rolling. The name Dungeons and Dragons is in the public domain due to its wide use, so it was fair game, and using any other name would cause confusion for people who are not involved in the hobby.
*sarcasm* Besides, I am pretty sure their version of the rules were better than 4th.
Airheads. Brendon Fraser admits to being a geek and playing DnD in the climax of the movie. decidedly not a positive presentation.I dunno. I always thought that it meant well. After all, practically the whole crowd eventually admits to playing, and it ends up uniting a lot of them.
Back to the OP, Big Bang Theory has had D&D fairly prominently featured in a handful of episodes. One of my favorites was the one where Sheldon decided to make ALL decisions in his life by rolling dice and consulting a table.
By rolling "D&D dice", not sure how often you tell your gaming friends 'pass over the "D&D dice"' when you mean D20, or d6, but for me that really shows that BBT is not for nerds, but about nerds.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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The name Dungeons and Dragons is in the public domain due to its wide use, so it was fair game...Just a friendly heads up: the name "Dungeons and Dragons" is not in the public domain; it is a registered trademark, which is about as far from public domain as you can get, with even more protections than a copyright. If you use the name "Dungeons and Dragons" in a way Hasbro doesn't like, they have the right to sue you, and they will win.
Oops, I guess your right. I just thought that it was used so much that the name itself couldn't be copyrighted anymore. People use the name so much to refer to the hobby as a whole, that I made a false assumption.
The LARP episode was LARP and the Real Girl, with Felicia Day.
That episode was either the first one she showed up, or the third. I think it was the first.
Neither had to do with TRPGS.