In the last five years or so, we’ve entered into a full-blown renaissance of one of the most hallowed and time-honored genres in filmmaking: the Geek Gets the Girl. Over the past few years Judd Apatow and Michael Cera have reminded America once again that we really love those adorable little geeks. Some guys are fumbly but sweet, thoughtful, and caring — and they make us suddenly aware that no one really wants to be in a relationship with the hot but emotionally distant Edward Cullens of this world. Some of the aspects of the geek seem to have changed since the John Hughes years, but the basics remain the same, and out of the blue it has become possible again for weakling nerds to dream of dating the cheerleader. Though most people won’t recognize Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Jay Baruchel right off, they’ll say, “Oh yeah, it’s that guy!” if they see the name coupled with a picture. Here are two guys that fall somewhere within this genre, but with so many geeks and so little time, which one is better?

Round 1 — Acting Careers

In Superbad we met a little guy named McLovin’ in 2007, played by the incredibly awkward but supremely confident Christopher Mintz-Plasse. (Now if that’s not an unwieldy movie star name, I don’t know what is.) But he’s only really been in three or four movies, including Role Models and Year One. That’s not much of a base to work from, as Mintz-Plasse is fairly new to the scene, but he seems to play reedy, geeky introverted characters that border on almost dumb. He has a certain lispy charm about him, although there’s something I find oddly creepy about his general demeanor. It’s like being on a bad date where the guy doesn’t do any one thing wrong, but everything he does adds up to a vaguely unsettling evening.

On the other hand, Baruchel tends to play comically neurotic but well-meaning characters. Jay Baruchel has been acting since 1995, in both television and movies. Baruchel starred in the mostly unheard of series Undeclared but really came to light in Knocked Up as a pothead friend of Seth Rogen. After that was a turn as an actor in Tropic Thunder, and amusingly as the bad boy in Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. The fact that his bad-assery wasn’t played for laughs is just silly considering he was vying with Michael Cera for the girl’s affections, but what were they going to do? Flail their small wrists at each other until the other one cried himself to sleep?

Round 2 — Looks

The strange situation we find ourselves in is this: neither of them is unattractive, they just aren’t Hollywood attractive. When Hollywood wants an “unconventionally attractive” guy they send out for Adrien Brody and call it a day. Neither guy is going to become a heartthrob, but there’s a certain dignity to accepting that fact, recognizing you have a funny face and gangly mannerisms, and making movies in spite of it all.

Mintz-Plasse still looks like he’s in high school, mostly because he is only 20 years old. I don’t know if it’s the glasses or the simpering half-smile, but he looks like the sort of kid you tutor when you’re home from your first year of college. You know he has a crush on you but you just want to impart your Algebraic wisdom, collect your 20 bucks from his mom, and go home. No crush potential here, folks.

At 27 it isn’t likely that he’s going to be changing very much, and as is, Jay Baruchel is fine by me. He’s just a little disappointing as the epitome of the great guy that you wish was just a little bit taller, just a little bit heavier, and had just a little bit better haircut. But all of that stuff doesn’t really matter as much if he can make you laugh, and Baruchel seems like the kind of guy who always has something sincere to say, whether it’s silly or serious.

Round 3 — Future Prospects
Both guys’ voices will appear in How to Train Your Dragon and while Mintz-Plasse is in the totally cool Kick-Ass, Baruchel is again the winner for having several new movies coming out and in development. Most immediately we have Baruchel headlining the film She’s Out of My League, which basically looks like the standard geek fantasy fare: beautiful girl sees some hidden spark inside unattractive and socially awkward guy, rewards his inner goodness with some sweet lovin’, falling in love with him in spite of all their differences. If Hollywood made more movies for geeky girls where this sort of thing happened, they’d make a billion dollars.

And so we come to throwdown time, and I’m calling it for Baruchel. Christopher Mintz-Plasse? Use this rejection to hone your craft, use it to fuel the internal rage that will catapult you to wild success. From a purely logistical standpoint, Baruchel has Mintz-Plasse beat for volume of work both past and future, as well as possessing a certain indescribable non-creepiness, and so to the victors go the spoils! From here on out the geek of choice is Jay Baruchel, and I look forward to seeing more of him in the future.

Now You Decide …

Tags: christopher mintz-plasse, how to train your dragon, jay baruchel, she's out of my league