“Beauty and the Geek” — Wine and Dine
My name is William and I make people uneasy in my presence.
There were two priceless moments in this the penultimate Beauty and the Geek. But before I get to them a brief word on William. What’s interesting about this show is the differences amongst the geeks are as vast as themselves and the beauties. You can be a geek and also a moron. You can be socially well-adjusted and yet have no sense of style or coordination. Because of the way the show is presented we’re led to believe that all of the “geeks” are sympathetic figures who just need a little nudge in the right direction. This is not the case for William, who always looks like he’s on the verge of violent rage. More after the jump…
Perhaps this is a byproduct of his pairing with Jenn, a girl he clearly hates, but I get the feeling it’s more a matter of his inability to ever admit he is wrong, like in tonight’s episode when he insisted the wine was pronounced caberNET. He also doesn’t know when something shouldn’t be said, a far more important social skill than knowing when something should. During the cute, “remember when” videos where the three remaining teams got a look at each other back on the first day William and Jenn were the only group that seemed to coat the room a film of nervous tension. That he and Jenn didn’t make it to next week’s final is good news for those who find glaring social deficiencies create unwatchable television (this is not a majority group).
Now, everything else isn’t rosy and coated in sugar either. This week we learned that Sam is something of a sore loser. What I find most hilarious about his post wine-stomping pout is that it suggests he feels not being able to pick grapes, mash them with one’s feet, drain their juices into a vat and then pour said juices into bottles WHILE tied to a girl half his size somehow says something about him as a man. Generally speaking, it is funny when people are surprised they can’t do something that no human has ever been asked to do in the history of modern competition. Dammit! I’m so ashamed I’m not the fastest person on the planet when it comes to stacking blocks of cheese while driving a motorcycle in Paraguay.
As for the aforementioned priceless moments, both came from Dave and Jasmine who are both adorable in their own way. The first came following their look-back video on which Dave had said she was initially his least favorite of the beauties prompting Jasmine to say in an interview, “Maybe that’s why he doesn’t have a girlfriend — because he doesn’t know how to lie, but whatever…” I don’t know if truer words have ever been spoken.
The second involved a Jasmine-motivated scene where Dave “asks out” Nicole, the geeky girl who he’s had a mad crush on since day one. To describe the exchange as awkward doesn’t do justice to the moment’s actual squirm factor. Not that I could have done any better (believe me), but its especially brutal from the audience point-of-view when we know Nicole’s general ambivalence toward Dave and he does not. It’s like watching a super-slo-mo video of someone putting their finger on a rat trap. Kudos to her for handling the situation with ease.
I guess for next week I’d have to say that my rooting interests are with Jasmine and Dave over Sam and Nicole despite the fact that I enjoy both teams equally, but if a network television show is going to award a prize to a geek, it seems only fair that said geek be a larper and not a musicologist (which we should all admit is kind of cool).
November 21st, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Also, when William refused to believe that muscle weighed more than fat. We learn that William is totally stupid - then you remember his claim to geekdom is “owns thousands of comics” and it suddenly becomes clear why he never wins - he’s not actually an intelligent geek like the rest of them. I agree, last night when watching we both said that William can’t keep his ugly mouth shut. It was so annoying and I’m glad he’s off the show. Go Dave and Jasmine!