We’ve had rat boys and golden retriever boyfriends, but there’s a new hot boy type set to win the remainder of 2024—the hot nerd. This year’s ‘hot nerd’ revival arguably began at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where the premium hottie was not a member of the Italian swim team, but ‘pommel horse guy’, whose black rimmed glasses had the internet drawing comparisons between the American gymnast and Clark Kent.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Bailey has turned out not one but two hot nerd roles this year. More cute specs were deployed to transform the Bridgerton heartthrob into a hunky political staffer for Fellow Travellers, and dinosaur expert Dr Henry Loomis in the upcoming Jurassic World Rebirth (to be released next year).
View this post on Instagram
If there was any doubt that the Hot Nerd was having a moment, one only need look to the Adam Brody Renaissance. Brody won a generation of hearts as Seth Cohen, the sharp-tongued, curly-haired, comic book-loving romantic hero in early noughties teen drama The O.C. Now, Brody is back in the latest rom-com sensation, Nobody Wants This, playing a version of his original Hot Nerd—but with a job and a beard.
Following in the grand tradition of Hot Priests (thank you, Andrew Scott and Fleabag), Brody plays a Hot Rabbi in Netflix’s new romantic sitcom. The series follows the relationship between Brody’s character, Noah Roklov, and sex podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell). Tapping into the same sardonic charm of Seth Cohen, Brody delivers another swoon-worthy performance that has every millennial woman reflecting on their formative Hot Nerd crush from Orange County.
Brody’s stronghold on this ‘man genre’ is strong but not exclusive. He is indeed the prototypical Hot Nerd, but his brand of sarcasm, sensitivity and (probably) long eyelashes is a type tapped into again and again in Hollywood.
Just think of your internet boyfriend Matthew Gray Gubler, aka Dr Spencer Reid in Criminal Minds. Or perhaps you were partial to Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott), the political / accounting nerd who proved himself the only man worthy of Leslie Knope in Parks & Recreation. Or Chidi Anagonye of The Good Place (another on-screen lover of Kristen Bell), whose sweater vests gave way to a rippling six-pack.
Perhaps our collective love of the hot nerd all goes back to the Superman effect: the idea that behind some thick glasses is an entirely new layer to be discovered. As psychotherapist Esther Perel explains in her work on ‘the erotic’, mystery can be a key erotic drive. And the idea that there are key ‘competing’ features in the object of our desires is undeniably sexy.
So, bless Netflix for bringing Adam Brody back to our screens. We know what we’ll be watching tonight.
Read the original article on ELLE AUSTRALIA.
