Los Angeles (dpa) - Turn on American television these days and you might be hard pressed to find the swaggering macho heroes of old.
Hollywood has fallen in love with its inner geek with a slew of new shows and films that celebrate the cerebral and elevate the nerdy outsider. From the geek star of Chuck to the bumbling nerds of the hit movie Superbad to a newly updated Bionic Woman geeks are attaining the status of cultural heroes.
Some may dismiss this trend as just another fad in Tinseltown. Others believe it is a reflection of cultural, political and economic forces.
It is just a coincidence, they ask, that such brainy characters are coming to the fore as what they call the anti-intellectual, cowboy presidency of George W Bush plunges to low approval ratings and as the US military bumps up against the limits of power in the Middle East?
Or does it have more to do with the ever-greater role technology plays in modern society and the increased acceptance of diversity?
Bob Thompson, a professor of modern culture at Syracuse University, says all those factors play into the rebirth of geek cool. But he urges some perspective.
"We are seeing a really burgeoning culture," Thomspson told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "But nerds have always been wonderful protagonists because they are underdogs."
Nevertheless there has been a subtle and important shift from the previous wave of geek fervour best remembered in the 1984 comedy classic The Revenge of the Nerds. In that movie the geeks, though ultimately victorious, are constantly lampooned by their adversaries and the audience. The current generation of geniuses are admired more than they are mocked - and their value and values are rarely open to question, Thompson says.