''Planet Nerd'' is a television comedy variety programme broadcast on

Channel 31 Melbourne C31 Melbourne is a free-to-air community television channel in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its name is derived from UHF 31, the frequency and channel number reserved for analogue television, analogue broadcasts by metropolitan community tele ...

produced by

RMITV RMITV is a not-for-profit, community access television production facility based at RMIT University City Campus in Melbourne, Australia. It is a full member of the Melbourne Community Television Consortium, a not-for-profit consortium that ...

. It stars local

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...

Dan Walmsley Dan Walmsley is a Melbourne-based comedian, writer, musician and improvisor. He is also the creator of Planet Nerd, an RMITV show on Community station C31 Melbourne C31 Melbourne is a free-to-air community television channel in Melbourne, ...

Paul Verhoeven Paul Verhoeven (; born 18 July 1938) is a Dutch director, producer and screenwriter, active in the Netherlands, France and the United States. His blending of graphic violence and sexual content with social satire is a trademark of both his dram ...

Ben McKenzie Benjamin McKenzie Schenkkan (born September 12, 1978) is an American actor and commentator. He is best known for his starring television roles as Ryan Atwood on the teen drama ''The O.C.'' (2003–2007), Ben Sherman on the crime drama ''Southlan ...

, Simon Barber, Jason English-Rees, Andrew Doodson, Lou Pardi, and Rob Lloyd, and features other local Melbourne talent as well. Segments from the program are uploaded to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

, and there is also an official

video podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing. ...

. Planet Nerd was nominated for Best Comedy Program in the 2008

Antenna Awards The Antenna Awards is an Australian awards ceremony which recognises outstanding achievements in community television production. First held in 2004, the ceremony is produced by C31 Melbourne, and is broadcast by terrestrial community telev ...

, which celebrate the best of Australian community television, though they did not win the award. On 17 September 2008, a new interview with Rocket Boom creator,

Andrew Baron Andrew Michael Baron (born 1970) is the creator of Rocketboom, Know Your Meme, the video aggregator site, Magma and Humanwire. Baron has taught undergraduate and graduate classes at Parsons and was teaching IDTech at M.I.T. when he came up with ...

, was posted on the ''Planet Nerd'' web site. While no other new content has appeared, the original twelve episodes were repeated multiple times by Channel 31, as late as June 2009. It was also broadcast on

Triangle TV Face TV (previously Triangle Television) is a public service television station based in Auckland, New Zealand. Since August 1998. It broadcasts on the Sky Network as of December 2013 ASO. Previously, Triangle has broadcast across Auckland o ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 2007.

Content

Aimed at the

geek The word ''geek'' is a slang term originally used to describe Eccentricity (behavior), eccentric or non-mainstream people; in current use, the word typically connotes an expert or enthusiast obsessed with a hobby or intellectual pursuit. In th ...

demographic Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as edu ...

, ''Planet Nerd'' offers a variation on the variety show format, with host Dan Walmsley acting as an anchor, sometimes accompanied by one of the other presenters, throwing to various segments which include documentaries, reviews and sketches. Each week the hosting segments are filmed in a different context, often forming a series of linked sketches themselves.

Documentaries

Aside from the overt comedic content, ''Planet Nerd'' also features original, semi-serious documentary segments which explore and celebrate various facets of geek culture. Subjects have included the

roleplaying Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing as ...

and

wargaming A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

convention

Arcanacon Arcanacon is a role-playing convention held in Melbourne annually. It is one of several Role-playing conventions of Victoria, Australia run through the year. Arcanacon is the longest running role-playing convention in Victoria. In 1983 the conv ...

RoboGames RoboGames (previously ROBOlympics) is an annual robot contest held in San Mateo, California. The last RoboGames was held April 27–29, 2018. On July 22, 2022, Robogames 2023 was announced for April 6-9, once again in San Mateo, California. Co ...

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

's Wonder Technology Lab and National ICT Australia. A similar semi-regular segment is "Geek of the Week", in which a subject is interviewed by Ben McKenzie about their nerdy hobbies or profession. Footage of John Carnack's presentation at

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

's 2007 World Wide Developer's Conference was posted by Planet Nerd on YouTube, resulting in over 43,000 views, making the programme the number one watched comedian on YouTube for 12 June 2007.

Reviews

Paul Verhoeven reviews recent films in an anarchic sketch-based format, concentrating on genre films like

Michael Bay Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is best known for making big-budget, high-concept action films characterized by fast cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use of ...

's ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, suc ...

''. Rob Lloyd's "One Minute DVD Review" awards scores out of "

Seven Samurai is a 1954 Japanese epic samurai drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The story takes place in 1586 during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. It follows the story of a village of desperate farmers who hire seven ...

", and instead of new releases focusses on classics, including box sets of early ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'' (''The Beginning''), ''

The Muppet Show ''The Muppet Show'' is a sketch comedy television series created by Jim Henson and featuring the Muppets. The series originated as two pilot episodes produced by Henson for ABC in 1974 and 1975. While neither episode was moved forward as a ser ...

'' and the films of

Harold Lloyd Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971) was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films.Obituary ''Variety'', March 10, 1971, page 55. One of the most influential film co ...

Response

''Planet Nerd'' has gathered some positive press, most notably in an article in ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' newspaper's Green Guide about Channel 31 programming, in which

Marieke Hardy Marieke Josephine Hardy (born 26 May 1976) is an Australian writer, radio and television presenter, television producer and screenwriter and former television actress. Early life and family Hardy is the granddaughter of Frank Hardy, author of ...

referred to the show as "magically dorky" and "adorably earnest". Australian technology web site

Gizmodo ''Gizmodo'' ( ) is a design, technology, science and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton, and runs on the Kinja platform. ''Gizmodo'' also includes the subsite ''io9'', whic ...

reported on a Planet Nerd publicity stunt in which they celebrated the release of the iPhone by selling an obviously fake oversized cardboard iPhone (a prop from the first episode) on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

John Howard YouTube response

Dan Walmsley posted a Planet Nerd response, the first video response (as opposed to a text comment), to

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...

's YouTube video about

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

policy,Re: Prime Minister John Howard, climate change announcement
on

a video later featured in a news.com.au article about the difficulty of finding the genuine article in amongst the remixes and parodies. The ''Planet Nerd'' video response has become an unofficial focus for debate on the site about Howard's announcement after commenting on the original video was disabled, with around 200 text comments and nearly 8,000 views.

References

External links

Official Planet Nerd website
{{Use dmy dates, date=April 2020 2007 Australian television series debuts Australian community access television shows Television shows set in Victoria (Australia) RMITV productions English-language television shows