Chris Hardwick is aware you may hate him. His fanboy-in-chief stature, which spawned the hit Nerdist podcast and “Talking Dead” — the AMC show where he geeks out with guests after each episode of “The Walking Dead” — can be a bit…fanatical.
“Part of the reason I might be so annoyingly enthusiastic now is I’m doing something I really enjoy doing,” he says.
He looks at his haters through a comic book lens: “It’s that Batman-Joker thing: You made me first!”
Now 43, Hardwick was made this way after getting swept up with what he calls the “protonerds” in school, long before things like comic book movies were big business and “Doctor Who” was a worldwide phenomenon.
These days, he’s become the Dick Clark of what used to be called geek culture (we just call it “pop culture” now).
His Nerdist podcast, where he interviews royalty like fantasy author Neil Gaiman, actor Patrick Stewart and Bill Nye (“the Science Guy”) has grown into an empire, producing podcast series by chef Alton Brown and comedian Pete Holmes among others.
In 2013, Hardwick launched a late-night show, “@midnight,” on Comedy Central, following the powerhouse block of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report” (now “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore”).
Despite his busy schedule, packing in stand-up dates — which he’s been doing since the late ’90s — remains a crucial part of Hardwick’s career. You can catch him Saturday on his “Funcomfortable” tour at the Best Buy Theater.
Not bad for the guy once known as the doofy male counterpart to Jenny McCarthy and Carmen Electra on MTV’s dating show “Singled Out.” To Hardwick, his career is a triumph over the people who made him feel like an outcast in college.
“I detest the bro mentality with such vigor,” he says. “I don’t bond with people about sports, I don’t bond with people about hitting a lot of tail.”
He was surrounded by those sort of guys in the “Singled Out” contestant pool. When he realized the studio was so loud that the bros could hardly hear him, he started making snarky comments about them. They couldn’t pick-up what he was saying, but the mic — and TV viewers — could.
“There was a sort of weird, empowering revenge,” he says. “ ‘I’ll just mutter stuff under my breath. They’ll never know until they watch the show.’ ”
Now Hardwick’s humor is actually steering social media, thanks to “@Midnight.”
The program is a mix of talk show and game show, but its biggest hit is “Hashtag Wars,” where panelists riff on a category (recent ones included #LiesEveryoneTells and #NaughtyComicBooks) while users at home play along on Twitter, making it the first interactive late-night show.
The hashtag results are often top trenders on Twitter.
“It was essential,” he says. “It feels like a game show, but it’s more like ‘The Daily Show’ in the sense that Jon’s source material is politics and [ours] is online communities.”
With Colbert out and Stewart leaving in August, Hardwick will stand alone as the channel’s late-night veteran. He’s not worried.
“Change is hard, change is good,” he says. “As any ‘Doctor Who’ fan knows.”
For all his geeky bona fides, you might think Hardwick is unlucky in love: actually, he’s been a self-described serial monogamist since “Singled Out.” He’s currently dating leggy model Lydia Hearst, 30, the great-granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst.
“I like being with a really cool, nice, fun person, and not out in the countdown to global HPV,” he jokes.