TR Exclusive: Donald Glover’s 10 Favorite Nerd Things
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?Donald Glover. Comedian. Actor. Rapper. Attempted Spider-Man. Donald Glover is all of these things, but he is also kind of a nerd. Indeed, he is widely considered the third most popular black nerd in America
behind the president and Kanye West, and we’re pretty sure those rankings are fixed.
Still, he’s probably best known for his role as Troy Barnes on the amazing NBC comedy Community, or his rap career under the name Childish Gambino, or the internet campaign to let him audition for the role of Peter Parker in the Spider-Man movie reboot (something even Stan Lee was cool with, although Sony music execs weren’t). Prior to launching his “I Am Donald Tour” this week in Ames, Iowa, Glover (who you can follow on Twitter at @donaldglover) sat down with Village Voice‘s Bill Jensen to discuss his career so far and why he’s so awesome for VV — but also his 10 favorite nerd things for Topless Robot. He agreed… but with one caveat.
DONALD GLOVER: Let me first say, I think people are done with the label “nerd.” Lately, I’ve been feeling like “Wait… I’m not a nerd.” Cause everyone’s nerdy about something. Football players are nerdy about football. And I know I sound like that dude junior year who’s gay and says “I’m not gay, I just don’t believe in labels, I fall in love with the person, whatever the form” and you’re like “Dude, you’re gay. It’s fine. I don’t care. Can we finish watching Brazil for this film class project?” but I just wanted to say that.
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?10) Sex (study of… and the act). Human sexuality is so weird. We’re all fucked.
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?9) Psychology. I minored in it and I love it.
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?8) Pixar. Pixar. Pixar. Has there been anything better?
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?7) Hi-top fades. So fly. Oh! With steps on the side…
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?6) Anything Jim Henson.
5) Mel Blanc. I loved that dude. Him and Billy West were my heroes for some time.
4) The Smiths.
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?3) Zoo-born baby animals with silly names. Can’t get enough.
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?2) Coke Blak. I miss them shits so bad. Delicious.
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?1) Back to the Future. Nuff said.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.