so first and foremost thank you all for
this opportunity
and an esteemed thank you to my fellow
panelists today for your company and
insights
I truly am humbled by your smarts my
name is Jason Bischoff and I know I may
read as a bit of an odd duck on the
docket but it’s my hope to entertain and
with any luck educate nonetheless before
we dive in today let’s talk about this
Impressionism pop culture or geek
culture is in general at best
Impressionism up close it is a raw
amorphous elusive and arguably an
indefinable thing under the microscope
it can seem untamed and unstructured
aside from the odd rough patch of color
that said when we when we withdraw to a
safe distance
suddenly our perspective changes it can
be emotional irrational and sensational
suddenly what was once chaos becomes a
tapestry of understanding a collective
of ideas a moment captured in time there
are many wondrous reasons for why this
is the case why our minds work this way
this presentation however has nothing to
do with any of that
instead it dares to suggest that the
geeks have inherited the earth or a
hastily thrown together expose on the
migration of geek culture into the
mainstream by the way that that piece
you just saw a moment ago if I can click
back to it I don’t know this is working
from across the room here there we go
this is actually a DC Comics twist on a
favor surah’ it was illustrated by a
good buddy of mine rate oh thank you
swap Tracy’s there we go
it was illustrated by a good buddy of
mine a guy named rate IRA you can catch
him on deviantART under the handle
radiation actor okay let’s see and just
so you’re aware it is called Saturday
morning in front of la sala de justice
my right air rate I rap alright so first
depends upon ttle advisory here we go
yeah first I am a writer we’ll get into
the specifics in a second but just in
case you were wondering why this Yahoo
was standing here reading it is because
I make no claim to be a performer but I
do make a claim to be a writer and what
is a writer if not a reader makes sense
moving on second anything I may say do
or show in the course of today’s
presentation is expressly of my own
opinion unless otherwise noted I make no
claim to be here on behalf of my past
present or future employers third what I
will be presenting here today is by no
means science it is an undisciplined
pseudoscience observational at best
meaning it’s not c-span’s cold
meticulous reality nor is it Fox News’s
panache for improvisational comedy but
rather a happy healthy medium at say
Discovery Channel during Shark Week
fourth and finally I am a
self-prescribed geek have been my entire
life but being a geek on stage does not
necessarily make me any sort of
representative of the broader community
I am simply an ambassador of my kind
like some of you in the audience may
represent Buddhists or basketball
players or simply Californians my point
is in a lorax reversal I speak not for
the trees all right as I mentioned
earlier my name is Jason Bischoff and in
the interest of time I’m going to
finagle the process of getting to know
one another and simply put my cards on
the table
my six picks six because your short-term
memory may actually retain them judgment
hats on ready that’s two all right so I
went to college Concordia excuse me
Concordia University Irvine to be exact
it’s a tiny little liberal arts school
where I earned a degree in surprise
surprise
writing but with a minor in anthropology
how the two overlap stay tuned I’m also
a writer creator by trade meaning I’ve
written professionally and I’ve been
published as my prime interest is
writing for children and teens you’ll
find most of my work in that genre
specifically I’ve worked on four
iterations of Ninja Turtles which was
mentioned prior including the most
recent version on Nickelodeon Ben 10
Disney Princess strawberry shortcake and
Wonder Woman to name a few cartoons and
comics are and have always been my jam
and I’m very grateful for all I’ve been
afforded in the field of entertainment
we’re like four of them watch okay so I
also happen to be the director of global
consumer products for Saban brands you
may know Saban as the owner producer of
amongst other things Power Rangers oh
yeah love that okay good cool I’m a huge
Rangers fan entering its 23rd season
there’s also a super sophisticated
Lionsgate feature film coming out next
spring that reinvents the original
Mighty Morphin franchise in a
never-before-seen legit to take its
super sighting is super exciting and a
shameless plug I also happen to be a
happily married 30-something I’ve been
with my wife for 10 years this year and
what will be three married she’s awesome
she’s an actor she’s an awesome actor
and she’s sitting in the audience I love
you beeps politically speaking I’m an
independent that unashamedly leans left
and lastly I’m a practicing Lutheran
which is just like being a Catholic but
without the guilt and indulgences all
right we square got me pegged begs the
question why do we as a culture tend to
hold occupation relationship status
political views and or religion as a
means to an end a cheat sheet for rash
judgments the answer sadly is tradition
for nearly as long as humans have
meaningfully run around a run around the
earth it has been this way we are after
all a tribal people finding those of
common ideas and common interests to
push forward our tribal vision and it’s
no surprise Society is nothing if not
utilitarian this behavior has afforded
countless generations the chance to set
strategy and survive but what if I were
to suggest that today things are
different
what if tribalism has evolved beyond the
basic pick-6 in a phenomena changing the
very fabric of our culture what if I
said the new currency was you are what
you geek clear your minds forget
everything you’ve ever learned about me
for just a moment instead afford me a
okay here we go these six brands taught
me everything I have ever wanted to
learn about myself and in many cases the
world I have met countless friends over
the course of loving these ideas in fact
some of the earliest chemistry chemistry
between me and my brilliant wife was
built on the foundation of our mutual
admiration for the very geeky stuff that
we had grown up with it has set a tone
for the last decade of our lives
informing countless decisions from a
consumers perspective and how we spend
our free time I ask you to stop for a
second and recognize the incredible
power at play here
some of you are smiling maybe that’s
because you and I share a common
interest in one or more of these ideas
and it tickles your heart the rest of
you are obviously lifeless monsters void
and void of any real joy in your
meanings meaningless lives I kid of
course because truth be told even if one
more or all of these ideas hold no value
for you or your tribe mentality you are
at least familiar enough to know that
they are not part of what makes you you
so what let’s dive into the meat and
potatoes of why this is the case and to
do so I’m going to use an Edith
easy-to-digest format taught to me by
one of the greatest mentors of my life a
pastor named Jim Hale Jim a practical
kind man knew that people wouldn’t and
couldn’t swallow a sermon unless you
gave them three very important things
the what the so what and the now what so
without further ado ladies and gentlemen
the what the geeks are here the geeks
are us 1977 Star Wars hits the big
screen right place right time right idea
it captured the imaginations of young
and old setting the stage for a new
modern era now yes Star Wars was the
product of many many epics and big ideas
before its time but what made Star Wars
unique was the medium in which it was
told it had mass appeal it had aspirate
it had an aspirational nature it had an
ability to flawlessly translate into
product and the way it inspired people
to simply dress up and talk about it
it changed our behavior it pivoted our
commercial love for entertainment into
something greater something hungrier
Star Wars is what puts its foothold into
our emotional and cultural hearts and it
is through that cracked door that
precedent that all other dot all other
ideas have since flowed another way to
say it is thanks in no small part to the
history and successes of Star Wars geek
culture has transitioned into just
culture in the Western world it is
emerged from the shadows of our parents
basements and become an acceptable and
integral piece of our consumer lives
extending influence over all the core
stuff that makes us us from cradle to
grave from t-shirt to tattoo it is an
easy and less politicized means of self
identity and tribal identity in a world
exhausted by the traditional buckets of
politics and religion to be clear
politics and religion are not going
anywhere anytime soon but each culture
is arguably providing more efficient
meaning to the masses with its flashy
scandal-free fun timeless morality and
ala carte appeal don’t believe me let’s
look at some of the numbers SEOs you’ll
see on the top these are the numbers
that substantiate the things falling out
of my mouth okay so the first one is
Star Wars The Force awakens two billion
dollars worldwide box office since
December all right third highest
grossing film of all time and climbing
currently tracking via NPD at 700
million dollars at retail right that’s
three months of performance digital
gaming sales last year alone closed in
at 61 billion dollars eight of the top
ten films of all time are tethered to or
furnished by geek culture excluding
religious texts geeky books account for
about three of the top-selling books of
all time and ten of the top twenty
totaling hundreds of millions of copies
translated into thousands and thousands
of languages that’s not to mention the
countless television shows on air today
like the flash and Game of Thrones or
the tens if not hundreds of new
high-profile projects come down coming
down the pike perfectly tailored to our
longing consumer consumer dollars
seasoning
that with the fact that there is a
legacy of catalog there excuse me
there is legacy catalogs of content like
the x-files finding new life and new
audiences via streaming services like
Netflix and it is a golden age of
geekdom but so what what does it mean
how did we get here where are we going
this is the part of the story that
really turns me on is an amateur
anthropologist because if you’ve read
any of Peter L Berger’s works
the answer is apparent and it’s as clear
as day okay so for those of you
unfamiliar burger was born in 1929 and
is still kicking around today god bless
him and is arguably one of the largest
sociologists to ever touch the trade and
if you’re unfamiliar sociology is
basically the kissing cousin cousin of
anthropology dr. Berger and his social
sociological theory of religion comes
under a book called the sacred canopy
elements of a sociological theory of
religion and it’s a real trip if you’ve
not heard or read anything about it
I dare you fair warning it’s terribly
dry it’s a chore to have to get through
but halfway you’re gonna call into
question everything you’ve ever known
about yourself your family and the world
around you somewhere near the end he’ll
piece you back together but I take no
responsibility for what happens in the
in between it’s riveting stuff so Berger
has four major ideas that I want to
share with you to share with you today
to prove a point the first is the
incomplete nature of man which when
distilled read something like this
mankind is born incomplete unlike many
animals equipped with the benefit of
instinct specialized physiology and
environmental acclamation at Birth
humans are born completely vulnerable
this means that we are dependent on
social relationships and interactions in
order to survive the earliest stages of
life simple right I’ve never seen a baby
scavenging for food in the dirt at least
not effectively and I’ve certainly never
seen a baby fight another baby to the
death for a bottle and honestly I hope
to never do so the point is we are too
so we are social creatures in nature
born dependent on social relationships
from the start the second idea
it’s called the Dyle attic process of
world building and maintenance which
again at its simplest read something
like this society is a product of man’s
flawed nature our dependency on others
to survive it is a dialectic or dialogue
of knowledge a bank of ideas passed down
from generation to generation ever
evolving ever shape ever shaping and
ever being shaped by the people within
it there’s no part of the human
experience that is not influenced by the
big idea that is society now stay with
me here people he’s still good so if
babies are born venerable and a need of
society to raise it eventually this
process will shape all the pieces and
parts and personality of that baby this
is a very nurture heavy theory by the
way and everything that baby experiences
in life will be through the lens of well
this is society in which it was raised
okay now the third idea is a deeper dive
into something that looks at how society
was formed it is a model in three parts
external ization
man that makes reality objective ation
which is society is an objective reality
an internalization which is society
makes man allow me to demonstrate this
model with well we can talk about the
modern chair Once Upon a Time mankind
was exclusively sitting on its ass upon
the ground for reasons unclear someone
decided or observed that a more
comfortable means of rest was upright
ergo someone concepted the first chair
this is externalization innovation on no
knowledge in the interest of pushing the
big idea of society forward and with the
hard work of chair concepting out of the
way someone built that chair this is
objective ation the chair is no longer
right an idea it is a thing and because
it is a thing people interact with it
and suddenly what was once an
abstraction simply becomes a tacit part
of the big idea that is society we all
now sit in chairs at presentations
watching Yahoo’s read because of that
great innovation and we don’t question
what a chair is when we walk into the
room or what the etiquette is because
many general
many generations before us put it all
together and pass it on we inherited it
still good let’s go back to the baby so
if the baby is vulnerable and needs
society to grow it will approach life
colored by the society in which it grows
in this dialectic or dialogue the baby
will receive a rich Bank of knowledge
and assets built upon the backbone of
countless generations of others figuring
it out maybe if the baby has Drive or
society recognizes the baby as someone
valuable to the big idea the baby may
innovate on an old idea and that
innovation may become the new norm
eventually someone somewhere will
inherit that knowledge and innovate upon
it and on and on and on until the end of
time cool now and lastly the final idea
at the center of this model is the Nomos
which is basically your piece of this
process the Nomos represents your
individual identity as your as you
traverse this cycle of society it is
your operating system your worldview it
is a complete catalog of your core
information and experiences including
education language religion politics and
everything else alright so now that
we’ve got the basics let’s jump back
into the so what because we do have two
main questions to answer how did we get
here and what does it mean it took
countless generations of ideas to create
the major cultural milestone of Star
Wars in its wake
like ideas or models have populated the
landscape as others inherit the
precedents and attempt to recreate or
innovate upon its successes why there
are big dollars at stake the generation
that grew up on Star Wars and like ideas
desires for these experiences to
transcend childhood why must the party
stop the generation that believed
fantasy transcending adolescence as
taboo is dying out therefore with
one in their way adult geeks with
families are extremely likely to pass on
their brand affinities and preferences
as a sacred knowledge and this process
will likely net positively and shape the
next generation and the next and the
next like it or not
geek culture is here to stay and it has
and will permeate every part of our
society how we consume how we interact
with one another and ultimately how we
interact with the broader world because
collectively we really just like this
stuff it inspires and the shackles are
off so now what what are we gonna do
with ourselves I don’t know about you
but I’m gonna ride it out joyously and I
might add with my equally geeky wife
there’s there’s so much to see and
experience and learn from what’s
happening in each culture and and to be
clear it’s not just entertainment base I
mean this is happening across a
multitude of geeky avenues like science
and the arts though admittedly I’ve
focused almost exclusively on the latter
we truly are living in a golden age and
as it relates to my own personal work
I’m taking these observations into
practice developing new models of
entertainment that play intuitively to
the process content breeds consumer
products which breeds culture look
familiar the point is I’d like to
believe I’m now playing the part of the
inheritor and innovator taking the
lessons of the past and designing the
next generation of ideas to inspire the
next generation and the next here are
just a few ago alright that’s cool here
are just a few examples of what the
future may look like these are just a
small sampling of the shows and ideas
that I’m actively pitching now and while
I’d love nothing more than to give you a
sneak peek at this future I’d have to
let get you and the entirety of the
internet streaming audience to sign an
NDA first but as the wise psychologists
and parapsychologist Peter Venkman once
said back off man I’m a scientist you
guys this has been an absolute joy and
honor my name is Jason Bischoff and I’ll
see you guys in the funny books thank
you very much for your time you