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2� Nerd Disses: A Significant Quantity of Disrespect
Dear Reader,
If you’re like us, you’ve faced trouble from bullies. For example, I was once pinned down by a young lad who repeatedly asked me why I was hitting myself, when he knew full well that I had temporarily ceded hegemony over my hands and forearms. I tried to explain it to him, but he didn’t seem to comprehend. In retrospect, I can only conclude that my explanation was not articulate enough.
To that end, I and Phil Plait have teamed up to create precisely 128 insults designed to weaken the resolve of aggressors, while educating them in their primary field of interest. Whether the person pummeling you is a student of mathematics or belles-lettres, we have the right words for the occasion.
Zach Weinersmith
PS: In the highly likely situation that the person pummeling you refuses to cease his aggression until he understands the meaning of the insult, we have also provided an appendix in which the insults are explained.
If you’re like us, you’ve faced trouble from bullies. For example, I was once pinned down by a young lad who repeatedly asked me why I was hitting myself, when he knew full well that I had temporarily ceded hegemony over my hands and forearms. I tried to explain it to him, but he didn’t seem to comprehend. In retrospect, I can only conclude that my explanation was not articulate enough.
To that end, I and Phil Plait have teamed up to create precisely 128 insults designed to weaken the resolve of aggressors, while educating them in their primary field of interest. Whether the person pummeling you is a student of mathematics or belles-lettres, we have the right words for the occasion.
Zach Weinersmith
PS: In the highly likely situation that the person pummeling you refuses to cease his aggression until he understands the meaning of the insult, we have also provided an appendix in which the insults are explained.
31 pages, ebook
First published July 20, 2013
11 people are currently reading
128 people want to read
About the author
Zach Weinersmith
30books320followersZachary Weinersmith (born Zachary Alexander Weiner) is an American cartoonist, who is best known for his webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC). He is the author of two other webcomics, the completed Captain Stupendous with artist Chris Jones, and Snowflakes, co-written by James Ashby and also illustrated by Chris Jones. He also founded the sketch comedy group SMBC Theater with James Ashby and Marty Weiner in 2009.
Weinersmith has been involved in writing and drawing comics since his high school years, but he first published on the internet in the late 1990s. His early comics usually had three or more panels, but after 2002, he switched to drawing predominantly one panel comics. He stated in a 2009 interview that he was glad to have decided to draw one panel comics because he felt three panel webcomics had become a webcomic cliche by that time, and that there were almost no decent one panel comics on the internet. More recently, he has drawn a mixture of single and multi panel comics for SMBC.
Weinersmith's webcomic was recognized in 2006, and 2007 with the Web Cartoonists' Choice Award for Outstanding Single Panel Comic,[3] and received nominations in 2003,[4] and 2008.[5]
SMBC is at heart a geek comic, which nevertheless addresses a broad range of topics, such as love, relationships, economics, politics, religion, science, and philosophy. As shown by the diverse range of blogs listed above, it appeals to many different groups.
SMBC has around 250,000 daily readers, served over 300,000,000 comics in 2010, and is one of the fastest growing comics online (has sextupled in readership since 2008). The comics have been featured on many important blogs, including The Economist, Glamour, BoingBoing, Bad Astronomy, Blastr, Blues News, Joystiq, Washington Post, Freakonomics, and more.
Zach has a degree in Literature and 3/8ths of a degree in physics. He enjoys reading about math, logic, science, history, fiction, and philosophy. His hobbies are space travel, dinosaur riding, and wishful thinking. He currently lives in southern California with his beautiful and brilliant wife.
Note: Zach publishes SMBC and SMBC material under both "Zach Weiner" and "Zach Weinersmith".
Weinersmith has been involved in writing and drawing comics since his high school years, but he first published on the internet in the late 1990s. His early comics usually had three or more panels, but after 2002, he switched to drawing predominantly one panel comics. He stated in a 2009 interview that he was glad to have decided to draw one panel comics because he felt three panel webcomics had become a webcomic cliche by that time, and that there were almost no decent one panel comics on the internet. More recently, he has drawn a mixture of single and multi panel comics for SMBC.
Weinersmith's webcomic was recognized in 2006, and 2007 with the Web Cartoonists' Choice Award for Outstanding Single Panel Comic,[3] and received nominations in 2003,[4] and 2008.[5]
SMBC is at heart a geek comic, which nevertheless addresses a broad range of topics, such as love, relationships, economics, politics, religion, science, and philosophy. As shown by the diverse range of blogs listed above, it appeals to many different groups.
SMBC has around 250,000 daily readers, served over 300,000,000 comics in 2010, and is one of the fastest growing comics online (has sextupled in readership since 2008). The comics have been featured on many important blogs, including The Economist, Glamour, BoingBoing, Bad Astronomy, Blastr, Blues News, Joystiq, Washington Post, Freakonomics, and more.
Zach has a degree in Literature and 3/8ths of a degree in physics. He enjoys reading about math, logic, science, history, fiction, and philosophy. His hobbies are space travel, dinosaur riding, and wishful thinking. He currently lives in southern California with his beautiful and brilliant wife.
Note: Zach publishes SMBC and SMBC material under both "Zach Weiner" and "Zach Weinersmith".
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 11, 2020
You will need to google some explanations for half of these jokes. Other half of these are a chuckle at best... BUT it's really an unique book idea and I like it for that!
December 13, 2013
This was a godsend. I've never been very good at witty ripostes and suffer from a congenital case of l'esprit de l'escalier. To exacerbate this I work at a University, so any retort I do come up with has to be awfully clever as well as witty. Why, just consider these snippets of my week thus far (my name has been changed to protect my innocence).
Monday
Matt: Your writing style is like your preferred sports team: hopeless!
Leopold: Oh yeah? Well your writing is like your face: badly spelled!
Tuesday
Matt: Hey nice haircut. Just kidding, it looks terrible!
Leon: Oh yeah? Well your hair is like your face: attached to your head!
Wednesday
Matt: So you have an h-index of one? That's impressive. Impressively low! (Burn!)
Leofric: Oh yeah? Well your h-index is like your face: higher than mine!
Thursday
Matt: Do I want to come to yours for dinner? No thanks, I don't have life insurance!
Leeroy: Oh yeah? Well your cooking is like your face: in that, you know, it's� kind of like your face!
Friday
Lee: Your writing is like a Marxist utopia: it lacks class!
Empty office: �
Lee: …Dammit.
But these indignities I will suffer no more!
Monday
Matt: Your writing style is like your preferred sports team: hopeless!
Leopold: Oh yeah? Well your writing is like your face: badly spelled!
Tuesday
Matt: Hey nice haircut. Just kidding, it looks terrible!
Leon: Oh yeah? Well your hair is like your face: attached to your head!
Wednesday
Matt: So you have an h-index of one? That's impressive. Impressively low! (Burn!)
Leofric: Oh yeah? Well your h-index is like your face: higher than mine!
Thursday
Matt: Do I want to come to yours for dinner? No thanks, I don't have life insurance!
Leeroy: Oh yeah? Well your cooking is like your face: in that, you know, it's� kind of like your face!
Friday
Lee: Your writing is like a Marxist utopia: it lacks class!
Empty office: �
Lee: …Dammit.
But these indignities I will suffer no more!
May 2, 2020
Have you ever been in an argument and had a stinging zinger of a remark that would have left the other party completely devastated? I’m sure plenty of socially-awkward nerds have been in this situation, which is probably why this book exists in the first place. 27 Nerd Disses is a small collection of witty comebacks that cover a variety of brainy topics. From economics to mathematics, all 128 of these insults require some amount of knowledge of their source material to get the joke they’re trying to make. Unfortunately, this book contains some knowledge at levels higher than a basic college education.
While I understood a good majority of the nerdy references in this book, the parts of these disses that I had trouble with were the references that the uncultured masses were likely comparing these heady subjects to. This ends up being the problematic crux of this book: to get the joke, you have to know the nerdy reference and the common confusion related to its naming. A lot of the times, I completely missed the low-brow part of the joke, and the appendix that explained all the geek speak of the jokes hardly ever broached these misunderstandings.
Furthermore, the fact that there needs to be an appendix on a book of jokes that explains them defeats the purpose of the jokes in the first place. It doesn’t help that the explanations don’t do their subject matter justice. Many of them felt like “Oh, you didn’t get this joke about some principle in physics? Well, the joke is that this is a principle in physics and not some homophone.� I’ll admit that at least a few of these disses were clever, and at least one made me laugh out loud, but overall this was probably a book that didn’t need to be written.
A book full of jokes most people wouldn’t get, I give 2� Nerd Disses 2.0 stars out of 5.
February 18, 2025
There were jokes I didn't understand, other jokes I understood what they were talking about, but I didn't get why they were supposed to be funny. It is as if this a lower level, just below dad jokes, but still smarter, and less funny 😅 It is nice it has short explanations at the end. I liked the illustrations.
December 29, 2021
Comes with explanatory footnotes, for which I am grateful.
July 21, 2023
Mildly entertaining
July 24, 2013
With disses that cover the subjects Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Economy, Geography, History, Literature, Math, and Physics, there's something for every nerd.
Not being a scientist (yet), most of the insults were lost on me (in fact, a couple were quite accurate). But don't fear, non-nerds, as the index explains all the jokes.
A very clever (e)book, I hope it reaches a wider audience soon.
Not being a scientist (yet), most of the insults were lost on me (in fact, a couple were quite accurate). But don't fear, non-nerds, as the index explains all the jokes.
A very clever (e)book, I hope it reaches a wider audience soon.
December 4, 2013
I like the premise. I just didn't think many of the disses were funny.
February 14, 2014
Funny, but too short.
July 29, 2015
The jokes are just so-so...
December 16, 2013
Moderately amusing, very short.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
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