Perhaps I've been a bit slow, but I think now that the "cute & cuddly" penguins in the animated feature "Madagascar" were intended to be geeks. The giraffe was a hypochondriac, the monkeys intellectuals, and the Brit accented penguins are geeks.

After all:

1. They are penguins.
2. They hack into the shipboard computer.
3. They make complex routines work.
4. They are obsessed.

And they stole the show.

"Just smile and wave, boys; smile and wave."