‘King of the Nerds’ season 2 spotlight: Will Xander Jeanneret dance (dance) to the top?

If there is one thing that every season of “King of the Nerds” desperately needs, it is a guy who participates in live action role playing … or larping … or being awesome. Any of the terms work. Xander Jeanneret fits that role in the season 2 cast, in addition to a few others. He joins some of the other cast members in being a diehard Nintendo fan / Japan freak, and he also plays online RPGs, loves “Game of Thrones,” and lost a ton of weight playing “Dance Dance Revolution.” He just happens to be a positive, upbeat guy. If he is not one of the most-likable contestants this season, we may be concerned that TBS is sending the show down into darkest-timeline mode, and the only contestants left at the end of the season will be sporting evil beards made of felt.

Before we continue in what is our second-to-last spotlight of the season, a reminder about our ever-so-handy Nerd Scale: It is what we use to comprise our score at the end of this article, with a “criteria” you can read over here. These rankings should probably be taken as seriously as a viewing of the “Dungeon Siege” movie, mostly because they have no bearing on anything that could happen on the show. (Plus, comparing this scale to the “Dungeon Siege” movie, or anything by Uwe Boll for that matter, is a great way to suddenly feel supreme. Huzzah!)

Nerd pros – Gaming / wielding weapons in the form of bean bags! As a pretty imaginative geek ourselves, we’re always somewhat disposed to rooting for others with a creative mind. But more than that, you get a sense through watching Xander’s video below and reading his bio that he really knows his stuff. He lived in Japan for a year, named his cat Nyan-Nyan (awesome), and even at one point in his bio seemed to combine David Tennant and Catherine Tate into one person that he would then invite to a dinner party. (David Tate at first to us sounded like a PERFECT creation, but then we reminded ourselves that this was the name of the bad guy on “The Bridge.” So Catherine Tennant it is!)

Also, we come into writing this with a particular affinity for “Dance Dance Revolution,” which we, like Xander, used at one point to lose weight and get into shape. Our personal favorite tracks? “Days Go By,” the DJ Sammy – fast version of “Heaven,” and for the degree of difficulty alone, “In the Navy.” The reason that the last one was so difficult was just because it was hard to get through it without laughing like a crazed hyena.

Nerd cons – The nerd in us wants to say that preferring “Final Fantasy XIV” to “World of Warcraft” is terribly egregious, but that would just be us being one of those judgmental nerds (i.e. 50% of the internet) since we haven’t actually played “Final Fantasy XIV.” Square Enix to us lately is like that once-great diner that got new owners, and now their burgers taste like one grade above poo.

In going back to Xander (since he is what the focus is supposed to be on here), there’s really not too much to look at negatively. Maybe he is a little more positive and upbeat than the average introverted geek, but some of us have adopted this personality after getting beat up / ignored a few times at school. After a while, it’s a great way to keep your head above water (or at least not in a toilet).

Nerd Scale – 10 out of 10. Along with Kelsey, Xander is the most-spectacular nerd via our massive / ridiculous list of qualifications. He comes up with creative responses in his bio, loves enough nerdy things to fill Hyrule Castle, and seems tailor-made to go far in this gauntlet-of-a-show. We don’t know how competitive he’ll really be, but with his personality, he’s going to be one of those teammates that you want by your side. He’s therefore not going to be a target early for a Nerd-Off in theory, and to use a “Mario Kart” analogy (perfect even more so given that he loves Koopa Troopa), he can store up some shells in the early rounds and use them to take out the competition later.

Do you dig Xander on “King of the Nerds” so far? Let us know below, and also head over here to read some more of our contestant spotlights! You can also visit this link if you want to sign up for our CarterMatt Newsletter, and we have some very cool news about our coverage of the show that we’ll be announcing soon!

Photo: TBS