Posted in: Movies, san diego comic con, TV | Tagged: comic con, Comics, entertainment, san diego, san diego comic con, sdcc, sdcc '16, sdcc16

Chris Hardwick And Nerdist Talk Pokemon And How Terrible Donald Trump Is At San Diego Comic-Con

By Jeremy Konrad

Chris Hardwick brought his Nerdist team to the Indigo Ballroom Thursday at SDCC, and for all the vitriol thrown his way, Hardwick himself remains as steadfastly hopeful someone in his position could be. And besides all of the online hate the man gets, why wouldn't he be happy? Nerdist continues to be one of the better content providers for geek culture around.

Also on panel were a bunch of familiar faces to anyone who follows what they do, including Jessica Chobot, Rachael Heine, Dan Casey, Alicia Lutes, Kyle Hill, and Matt Grosinger. Dan was wearing a shirt that had all kinds of facial expressions from Kyle, which was quite amusing. They all went over bunch of things they have been doing for Nerdist, including The Dan Show hosted by Dan Casey (duh), Kyle's awesome Science show, Jessica and Nerdist News. Jessica was dressed like Melisandre from Game of Thrones since she is told she looks like her. Hardwick and Grosinger fought over who gets to have Rick Astly as a podcast guest (he's going to be on the Nerdist podcast).

After that, for me, the best part of the panel occurred. Hardwick, after making several jokes at the expense of Donald Trump, now the Republican nominee for President, including comparing him to Immortan Joe from Mad Max Fury Road and saying America and SDCC would turn into the wasteland from that film with him in charge, talked about hope in fandom. And while some find his relentless positivity annoying, I personally love the guy for it, and agree with him. There is way too much negativity being passed around in fandom these days, especially on social media and the like. Nerdist provides a much needed break from all that by focusing on the positives and on conversation.

Immediately after that they talked a bunch about all the things they are doing with Pokemon Go. Kyle explained how to use the three step radar system in a geometrical way, which was mind blowing. They talked about their Nerdist Pokewalk in Santa Monica, which had 200 plus people show up. Nerdist even created a playlist to hunt Pokemon by. Between that and Hardwick showing us his phone live on stage as he caught a Psyduck, the games presence is truly being felt everywhere at SDCC this year.

After that thy switched to a Q&A format:

-What movies based on Indie comics would you like to see?
Dan said Saga, but animated, Chris said Locke and Key, and Jessica said her own comic Firebrand about witches, because she has always wanted to be one.

-What will the future of podcasting be?
Hardwick says he doesn't feel podcasting has reached its peak yet, since a shocking amount of people still aren't sure what they are, but once it's as simple as changing the station on your radio it will start to crest.

-Will you be writing another book?
No plans now, because deadlines like that scare him. He also wondered out loud why nobody has tried to cosplay as a SDCC usher, then told us to forget he said that.
They also announced that later this year they are partnering with Geek and Sundry yet again for a service called Alpha, which will be a new online platform for people to engage with each other and lots of live programming, even hosting fan meet ups and hangouts anytime you want. Sounds a little like Comic Con HQ… Geek and Sundry is also doing a lot with comic shops right now for appearances and installations around the country.

Hardwick then went back into railing against negativity in fandom, how it's more about finger-pointing online and face to face we are losing the ability to communicate with each other and have healthy debates.

The panel then answered a question about where to buy good burritos in LA by singing in Blink-182 voices and didn't really answer the question per se, but it was pretty funny.

Panel ended with someone asking for advice on how to deal with online bullying and the like, and the panel came to one set conclusion, kill them with kindness, and if that fails block them.

Overall, it was a hilarious time and is the early leader for most entertaining panel of the day.

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