In the early 2000s, the Rochester Institute of Technology had one of the largest and most successful anime clubs in the United States. Every week, students would meet to watch a video from the massive library of old VHS tapes and the new DVDs that were coming out at the time. It wasn't long before a distinct seating pattern was noticed.
From this so-called Front Row Crew, a duo of geeks set out to make a show that spoke to "their people". Rym and Scott began Geek Nights in 2005 and have been podcasting ever since.
Geek Nights is notable both for the frequency at which new shows go up and the high production quality of each episode. Geek Nights has four shows from Monday to Thursday, respectively covering science and technology, gaming, anime/manga/comics, and general subjects. Additionally, Geek Nights is extremely well recorded and edited, and Rym and Scott are notably good public speakers; the two of them are also known for doing large numbers of panels in conventions across the United States.
The podcast features or discusses into the following tropes:
- Artistic License – History: When questioned, Scott was fairly sure that the medieval period came before the Roman Empire.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Scott is a little strange. He frequently makes incomprehensible leaps of logic or comes up with mad schemes which he hasn't thought all the way through, which can occasionally make the podcast take on a rather surreal tone as Rym tries to understand what he's going on about.
- Combat Pragmatist: Rym has repeatedly stated he is one. People still vote for him in political games, anyway.
- "YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!"
- The Comically Serious: Scott frequently falls into this.
- Dare to Be Badass: They frequently challenge Geeks to not be afraid to do awesome things.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Did I mention they were dorm mates turned room mates for years.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Scott will sometimes be a huge jerk about something, but in the end, he only means to help.
- Proud to Be a Geek
- Running Gag: "Woman!" (For when it's cold), "Warm Today", "Six Geodudes, can't lose!" and "You can't [verb] ten [nouns]!" amongst others.
- "Stop Having Fun" Guys: It's a well known scientific fact that Scott will end you if you even think about playing Team Fortress 2 instead of "hardcore" shooters like Natural Selection or Counter-Strike.
- Straight Man and Wise Guy: Rym throws out a constant stream of jokes, puns, and wordplay, to Scott's complete lack of amusement. They switch roles whenever Scott has a crazy idea and Rym attempts to explain to him why it is insane.
- Those Two Guys: At conventions where you see them, they are always together. ALWAYS!
- True Companions: These two are this as well as the entire Front Row Crew their site is named from.
- Wham Episode: What do we do? (March 27, 2008). Long and short of it, a Monty Python episode is postponed to have a 40 minute talk about how religious zealotism killed a young girl.