Saved by the Bell turns 30: With preppys and nerds, it had the most absurd teen stereotypes

The A.V. Club

The NBC Saturday morning high school show, a retooled version of Disney Channel's Good Morning, Miss Bliss, premiered on Aug. 20, 1989. "The thing about Saved by the Bell, says Randall Colburn, is this: "It is the laziest sh*t ever made. That’s, in a way, part of its charm—the cartoon, pastel-caked nature of its California high school is built almost exclusively on the stalest, most absurd stereotypes: preppy, jock, cheerleader, brainiac, and, of course, geek. If Fonzie pointed a finger at the nerd as it exists in pop culture, and Revenge Of The Nerds gave us an enduring visual accompaniment, it was John Hughes who gave it depth in movies like Weird Science and The Breakfast Club. What’s significant about Saved By The Bell is that it overlooks Hughes’ nuance entirely, essentially turning every nerd into a version of Grease’s Eugene Felsnic. With names like Herbert, Melvin, and, my personal favorite, Ronald Geekman, these oodles of effeminate dorks speak in high-pitched squeaks, waddle like penguins, wear tape over their glasses, and speak at length about pocket protectors. They’re rarely portrayed as smart, but strange. Kelly, Lisa, and Jessie recoil every time they’re near; not even Screech cosigns them (unless, of course, it suits the plot). If they were at all overweight, their lines would inevitably be about food and when they can eat that food. Plotwise, they were often presented as an adversarial force for our popular heroes, villains to be conquered. And, y’all, the pocket protectors: In one episode, when the class is tasked with inventing something, the nerds create a 'pocket protector protector,' and the nerds who run the school store are ecstatic when a new shipment of 'fluorescent pocket protectors' arrive. Jokes for days. Now, it’s precisely that utter lack of effort that the writers put into these bits that makes them so funny from a modern perspective. In a way, it also serves as a fun comment on the banality and absurdity of the archetypal bully."

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