An Assault on Geeks – from Geeks

I couldn’t help myself. I just could not keep my philanges off this one. I caught wind while perusing Mike’s musings earlier this week – apparently we have a heaping helping of biting the hand that feeds you on our… hands. The Sci-Fi network has announced it will become *drum roll*… the SyFy network.

*pregnant pause*

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Yep. Go ahead… ponder that some more.

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Some questions come to mind. Isn’t that the same name? I mean, if I were going about pronouncing those two nomers I’m willing to wager I would arrive at approximately the same phonetic locale. Another quandary… what was the problem you envision solving with this bold stroke, o newly christened SyFy? Well, according to the network’s president, Dave Howe, the problem is this…

The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular…

*chortling*

This is delightful! Now, I’m certain this Mr. Howe is a very well educated man. However, I would submit to him that it may not behoove him to lampoon the group of folks that probably compose the lion’s share of his viewership as “dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements….” Just saying!

Well, if he feels the need to shallywack his peeps in this manner, there must be a reason. Perhaps some really ground-breaking research has indicated this new SyFy thing would be a prudent course of action. Clearly this must be part 1 of a multi-pronged strategy to liberate the network from its ancestral bonds of geekery! Right, Mr. Howe? Or not:

It gives us a unique word and it gives us the opportunities to imbue it with the values and the perception that we want it to have

You’re going to what?! This is potentially the funniest thing I have heard all week. Here we have a corporate creature calling the heart of his fanbase the stuff of dark basements and no lives. Then he proceeds to explain how the network will be liberated from geeky mass perceptions by somehow ‘imbuing’ itself in a manner that will be apealing to females.

It will be interesting to see if the network name change will be accompanied by new programming appealing less to traditional geeks and more to women. Maybe… alien cooking shows? The bachelor… on the Battlestar?! Oprah and Spock – Deep Space Self Improvement?!