Kit Harrington’s turn on Saturday Night Live certainly had its moments, unless you wanted spoilers for the upcoming season of Game of Thrones. He made fun of VR video games, sang a few tunes and even did a bit of stripping. But one sketch has caused plenty of derision from Harrington’s core audience: nerds.
One sketch that didn’t get a lot of attention at the time involved Harrington as an office worker who wins an employee of the month award that his co-workers are clearly upset about. The three then start fighting, though it’s clear that the fighting is not all that real.
Employee of the Month is an honor worth fighting for. ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/lIHMXh2Xil
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) April 7, 2019
The sketch was clearly making fun of people who love things like Dungeons and Dragons. And, worse than that it showed a complete disregard for how turn-based combat actually works, it painted them all as nerdy weirdos with no regard for how the real world functions.
SNL sketches making people angry isn’t all that new, but D and D fans who were upset by this fought back in a unique way: they started posting selfies on Twitter.
Big mood #DnDSelfie #ActualNerd #DnD #dnd5e pic.twitter.com/wJgEkj1gE0
— André Guindi ✨👹✨ (@AndreGuindi) April 8, 2019
Queer, Asian, and a D&D and TTRPG nerd 💙💜💖#DnDSelfie pic.twitter.com/YjGTOZDCWs
— Kienna (Game Writer Edition) (@KiennaS) April 8, 2019
#dndselfie
Sometime the average DnD player is a Dane, a lesbian, a history student, a cosplayer and a woman. 🤷♀️ pic.twitter.com/fiMcqR03LV— Lesbian Vibes 💕🌸 (@vanelluscosplay) April 9, 2019
https://twitter.com/JesseNeon/status/1115679295005974532
https://twitter.com/LaserMWebber/status/1115492106007482368
The move is to disprove the stereotype that people who play pencil and paper RPGs look a certain way. And that, namely, all of them are dudes.
https://twitter.com/veeiinlyus/status/1115689568945278976
https://twitter.com/nicterhorst/status/1115258257780695041
#dndselfie
Sometime the average DnD player is a Dane, a lesbian, a history student, a cosplayer and a woman. 🤷♀️ pic.twitter.com/fiMcqR03LV— Lesbian Vibes 💕🌸 (@vanelluscosplay) April 9, 2019
Apparently my glamorous dyed hair and aesthetically pleasing dice in my #DNDSelfie mean I don’t /really/ play, so here’s the HARD EVIDENCE of how un-glam I am at the actual table, sorry 2 disappoint ¯_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/DVnGD9Fq5i
— Ginny Di (@itsginnydi) April 9, 2019
hey hi I’m ur local lesbian who loves the dungeons and the dragons— currently storytelling for Vampire the Masquerade and stomping on toxic masculinity wherever I see it ✌🏻✌🏻 #DndSelfie pic.twitter.com/neAYIpE9tt
— the court-ured poets department (they/them) 🍉 (@sapphicsorcerer) April 9, 2019
Yo, been playing DnD weekly for years now. Dungeons and Dragons is for everyone. So sit down SNL and maybe talk to some actual real life people. #DnDSelfie pic.twitter.com/hlO0Fmtscd
— this crazy form🫦 (@Mollshka) April 8, 2019
Your resident bisexual #ActualNerd, we're here, this is what we look like. #DnDSelfie 🖤 pic.twitter.com/jaM8deehgP
— Susanah Grace (@SusanahGrace) April 8, 2019
I doubt anyone is upset enough not to watch the final season of Game of Thrones if they were already gonna do that, but it’s nice to see that those that play D and D are as diverse as the fanbase that appreciates Harrington’s work on GOT.