The IT Crowd

'The IT Crowd' is a British comedy written by Graham Linehan about three people, Moss, Roy and Jen, who work as staff members of an IT department for a fictional company named Reynholm Industries. Their department is based in the basement of the building, and consists of three rooms with very little natural light. The more attractive workers of the company work on the upper floors, feasting their eyes upon London's glorious skyline. Jen is a normal woman who finds herself working in a department where she doesn't belong, but serves as a good relationship manager to nerds Moss and Roy. Moss and Roy are both computer experts, and both portray certain characteristics of the typical British nerd. Roy is Irish and dresses normally, but his scruffy hair, knowledge of computers and lack of social skills sets him apart from the normal people upstairs. Moss is similar in the way that he has a great knowledge of computers, but he possesses more nerdy characteristics than his good friend Roy. He dresses smartly, wearing smart trousers and a button shirt with a bad chequered print. He also wears glasses and has unusual hair; a combover combined with an afro. Moss speaks in a tone which is similar to Will Mackenzie's from 'The Inbetweeners', which is a tone that is heavily associated with a British nerd. Throughout the different series of the programme, the viewer will also realise that Moss lives with his mother, which is the same situation Howard finds himself in in 'The Big bang Theory'. Moss is very different to a typical American nerd, but there are some similarities between the British and the American perception of a nerd.

The clip above includes Moss arriving at work having had another confrontation with his usual bullies on the bench. Moss portrays the image of a child in this scene, as he clearly allows the bullies to get to him and doesn't stand up to them. He even gets upset during a role play with Roy as he tries to practice his retaliation to the bullies' comments. While watching this scene, you tend to forget that Moss is a fully grown man. You can see that he is wearing his usual glasses, but is wearing a formal coat over his buttoned shirt. He also arrives wearing a childish back-pack. It is very easy to see why he may get picked on or have hurtful comments thrown his way, and it is because he is a typical nerd. His hair also makes him stand out and look unusual, giving people the perception that he is weird. There is also a lot of technical equipment in the background behind the characters, indicating a further connection with computers. Not only do Moss and Roy have a great knowledge of computers, but they seem to enjoy their profession and are proud of it. There is a lot of IT memorabilia displayed on the walls of the room, including computer motherboards, and this adds to the perception of them being nerds.

Graham Linehan has a similar theory as to what a nerd is to both Beesley and Morris who wrote 'The Inbetweeners', and Lorre and Prady who write 'The Big Bang Theory'. Moss speaks in a similar tone to Will Mackenzie and also dresses smartly like him, and both Moss and Roy have a great knowledge of computers like the characters in 'The Big bang Theory' do. Moss and Roy are both generally intelligent, but are not on the same level as Sheldon, Leonard, Raj and Howard from 'The Big Bang Theory'. There are some similarities which are evident between the American and British perceptions of a nerd in these three programmes, inparticularly the intelligence shown by all the characters from across all three programmes. They all have an excellent knowledge of modern technology and are proud of it, and all the characters have and still do suffer forms of bullying. The primary difference remains the way in which the characters dress, which is very casual in 'The Big bang Theory' and not so much in 'The IT Crowd' and 'The Inbetweeners'.