Move over geeks. The jocks want their pop culture spot back, and they’re seething for revenge.
That is quite literally the idea behind Revenge of the Jocks, Jeff Tremaine’s first narrative, non-Jackass related film.
Originally written by Etan and Rami Cohen, but currently being reworked by Jeff Baena, it takes Revenge of the Nerds and reverses it. (I know, it’s difficult to figure that out from the title.) Three men, once the stars of their high school athletic teams, now find themselves in a world that doesn’t value their prowess. Everyone values the nerd and the geek, and the victims have now become the tormentors.
So, they will presumably become bullies again, and we’re supposed to root for them. Oo-rah! For the record, I’ve got nothing against jocks (I briefly played ice hockey. I had a brief flirtation with wanting to do sports journalism. I’ve been in both worlds!), but the concept just sounds ugly. With bullying making headlines more and more, I’m just not sure it’s funny or cool to celebrate being an asshole to any particular clique, be they jocks or D&D players.
Yes, that’s a totally pandering thing to say. But if there’s one place I can say it, it’s among we geeks who are sort of enjoying the new world order. Besides, when have sports, athletes, and jocks ever not dominated the social order? Last I checked, men still spoke freely about football as an ice breaker, not binary code or Earth-2, so all seems ordinary with the world.