A while ago we blogged about this picture of Vishwanath Anand and model Carmen Kass playing chess.

While calling for caption nominations for this photo, Ennis suggested “Beauty and the Geek.” That desi men are portrayed as geeks/dorks/nerds isn’t a surprise. Afterall, there are many of us that possess a high degree of intellect, but lack an equal level of social grace. This often makes mingling with members of the opposite sex, or anyone for that matter, quite difficult and awkward. It seems that Ashton Kutcher and his Punk’d buddy and co-creator Adam Goldberg are playing on this stereotype in the second season of their apparently successful, and aptly titled reality show, “Beauty and the Geek,” which airs on the WB. The new season, which will begin airing at 9 pm, on Thursday January 12, apparently features a sepia geek, Ankur, an MIT graduate and his sex-kitten-partner Jennipher, who while learning the various ways one can spell Jennifer, spends her time as a camp counselor.

To shave or not to shave, that is the question.

The show features a group of eight women who are “academically impaired” and eight men who are “brilliant, but socially challenged.”

Couples are paired up for a chance to win a $250,000 grand prize. This time, however, each mismatched pair competes in brand new activities designed to test intellect, fashion savvy and social skills. The guys are assigned to make over a room, while the girls do their best to assemble a computer. There’s a karaoke session for the men, and a political debate for the ladies. The girls also do a makeover on the guys, then let them test out their new looks during a session of speed-dating. Finally, the whole group travels to Las Vegas for a highly unusual game of strip poker. During these competitions, the geek tries to pass his brains on to the beauty, while the beauty tries to turn the geek into a hottie. At the end, each contestant comes out a changed person, and everyone has their eyes on the prize of $250.000.
I haven’t seen the show so I can’t really speak to the quality of it, but Manish did mention Geek when talking about bad reality tv in this post. So set your tivo at your own risk.