Cool Nerd - Live

When I was in the 7th grade a cheerleader wanted to drop some shade
On me and my less than popular group of friends
She pointed to me and said, "You're a nerd, and you and you and you are nerds!"
And then she pointed right at me
And said these words definitively
"You are a cool nerd! You're a cool nerd!"

Cool Nerd since the 7th grade, hanging out at the arcade
The best dungeon master in all the school
No goals of popularity, that kind of thing never appealed to me
But the interdisciplinarity
Of being cool and being a nerd
There's no better equivalent word... than cool nerd

I am a nerd and there is no doubt that being a nerd is what I'm all about
But there is no reason I can't be a cool nerd
I'm cool in my own eyes and I've got no reason to apologize
If you don't think I"m cool enough
Or you don't think I'm nerdy enough
Then I think that is pretty much absurd
I'm a cool nerd

Cool nerd has become my name, a term of derision I sought to reclaim
Like mudbook, P'Tak, Nerfherder or Laser brain
You may think my lyrics are weird, and I should really rethink this beard
But self-expression takes myriad forms
And I see no compelling reason to conform
To arbitrary, socially-constructed norms
(You sound like a nerd)

Keep in mind this song describes a subset of who I am derived
from diverse interests Some nerdy and some not
If I watch a football game, why should I face gatekeeping nerdy shame
When the point is I should do what I wanna do

So if you ever felt left out or different because of what you care about
Today stand up and be counted with me
If you have a cool nerd inside you
It's okay sometimes to let your passions guide you
To explore strange worlds in your spare time
Or write a song with six syllable rhymes
To celebrate idiosyncrasy
Or individuality
Be a cool nerd

Cool Nerds, Cool nerds, the coolest of the cool, we are cool nerds
We are cool nerds, we use sesquipedalian words
If you don't know what that means, its means really, really, really long words

We are cool nerds, we are cool nerds
We have very secure passwords...
Because we are cool nerds

We're cool nerds, cool nerds, cool
Nerds! Nerds! Nerds! Nerds!
Nerds! Nerds! Nerds! Nerds!
Nerds! Nerds! Nerds! Nerds!
Nerds! Nerds! Nerds!
We're cool nerds!