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It is a truth universally acknowledged, that nerds wear glasses. Usually ugly, unflattering glasses. There are several types of glasses that are signifiers of deeply-entrenched nerd-dom:
- Chunky black plastic (tape on the bridge optional), sometimes chunky tortoiseshell plastic instead — as worn by the classic Hollywood Nerd
- Coke-bottle glasses so thick they're opaque — have their own page at Opaque Nerd Glasses
- Unflatteringly large glasses poorly proportioned to the wearer's face — often with thin frames; in live-action these have the advantage that they don't block the wearer's face
- Old-fashioned round hornrims — sign of an Absentminded Professor or academic-nerd
- Half-moon glasses — around the 50's, these were the eyewear of choice for the original nerds, although nowadays they're more of an old lady librarian style
- "Cat-eye" glasses — once ultra-fashionable for women in the 50's, now usually restricted to lady nerds (and the occasional hipster) — unless they have rhinestones or are purple, in which case they are Impossibly Tacky Eyewear.
You may also be interested in the Glasses Tropes.
Examples of thick-framed Nerd Glasses:
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Card Games
Comic Books
- The core principle of the Clark Kent persona is, of course, the implausibility of Superman wearing dorky black nerd glasses.
Films — Live-Action
- From Russia With Love has Rosa Klebb wearing particularly hideous thick-framed and thick-lensed glasses in many scenes.
- Rick Vaughn, in Major League, was fitted with these, curing the vision problem that got him branded with the nickname "Wild Thing". Although the glasses didn't hurt his persona and still had fangirls (and, oddly, fanboys).
- Revenge of the Nerds: Nerd-in-denial Lewis Skolnick has thick black half-frame glasses.
- Arnie Cunningham from Christine wears thick black glasses; later on, they're broken by school bullies and fixed with the stereotypical white tape. Even later, however, after Christine has made him cool, he discards them altogether.
- Judy from '9 to 5'
- Janine from 'Ghostbusters'
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who, with the Tenth Doctor's Purely Aesthetic Glasses.
- The Big Bang Theory: In a cast chockablock with Hollywood Nerds, Leonard is the only character to wear Nerd Glasses, in the "thick black plastic" variety.
- Interestingly, the Finnish name for it happens to be Rillit huurussa which literally means 'Frosted glasses'.
- Robbie from Victorious.
- Young Reid in Criminal Minds and adult Reid, too, in the earlier seasons.
- Stargate SG-1: Whenever Samantha Carter appears in an Alternate Universe scenario, she tends to have this.
- Early in the run of the show, Adam Savage of Mythbusters wore large, chunky plastic glasses that even other members of the team called 'coke-bottle lenses'. He wears smaller frames in more recent seasons, but they're still thick, black plastic.
- The X-Files: The Doll Episode "Chinga" had a Sadist Teacher named Jane who slapped an autistic girl because she had a tantrum (true, she was a Creepy Child with a Perverse Puppet, but still) and would like to burn her mother. Jane's glasses exhibited nearly every feature of the Nerd Glasses: very unflattering, with thick coke-bottled lenses and strangely-shaped large chunky frames. Could she be more unlikeable?
Music
- Elvis Costello
- Buddy Holly
- Rivers Cuomo of Weezer.
- John Frusciante, formerly of Red Hot Chili Peppers, never wore the glasses onstage with the said band, but off stage and in most of other performances, they're almost always present.
- Jarvis Cocker alternated between these and contact lenses during Pulp's heyday. Nowdays, the specs are an integral part of his image.
- Morrissey, occasionally.
- Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo. You may notice that the band tends to dress identically, save Mark with his glasses/goggles; this is because he has been legally blind since a child, and can't see hardly at all without them.
Puppet Shows
Video Games
Web Comics
- Eridan from Homestuck, contributing to his Hipster appearance. You could make a case for John and Jake having this type of Nerd Glasses too, though to a lesser degree.
Western Animation
Real Life
- New US military recruits who report to their respective boot camps are not allowed to wear any prescription eyewear they bring with them. Within the first week, they are prescribed a pair of durable yet unflattering thick brown specs called BC (birth control) glasses (or, alternately, BCDs, for BC Devices or BCG for Birth Control Goggles). So named because wearing them in public is the surest form of birth control known to man.
- Comedian Drew Carey, who did a hitch in the Marines, has made this type of glasses part of his public persona. Lampshaded in the (full) second opening of The Drew Carey Show, where Drew's glasses are broken and by his friend's advice he replaces them by going to the nearby Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and stealing Buddy Holly's.
- Adam Savage of MythBusters wears this style of glasses while filming, though he tends to wear more subdued glasses when off the set. Fridge Brilliance or Fan Wank: That particular style of glasses would also grant him some additional protection in the occasional event where something might explode.
- Mac Lesggy, host
 of the French science show E=m6, still wears thick-framed glasses, though they are now tamer than his once-iconic zebra-framed glasses.◊
- Hipsters
Examples of large-framed glasses:
Live-Action TV
Western Animation
Examples of round hornrims:
Music
- Andy Fletcher from Depeche Mode wore a pair during the band's early days: [1]◊
Real Life
- Actor Harold Lloyd first helped popularize horn-rimmed glasses in America in the 1920s.
Examples of cat-eye glasses:
Toys
Western Animation
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