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What Non-Geeks Hate About the Big Bang Theory
v3rgEz writes: It has been said that there is a lot to dislike about the Big Bang Theory, from the typical geek's point of view: It plays in stereotypes of geekdom for cheap laughs, makes non-sensical gags, and has a laugh track in 2015. But what does the rest of America (well, the part of America not making it the number one show on television) think? FCC complaints recently released accuse the show of everything from animal cruelty to subliminal messaging, demanding that the sitcom be ripped from the airwaves lest it ruin America. The full complaints for your reading pleasure.
The most painful thing about this show are the "jokes" which are telegraphed to the audience by the world's most obnoxious laugh track.
There is a lot of sex in soaps, most of it handled in a fair less discreet way than BBT. Pretending that people haven't watched TV for the sex on it for the last 50 years is a bit naive. (some Soaps have been running that long!).
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I didn't realize the show was supposed to be about geeks. I thought it was ironically portraying the disconnect between the academic pursuit of science and things that happen in the real world. Real scientists are busy doing real work for real money. Meanwhile Big Bang Theorists are trying to figure out why the gay actor's character is so clumsy with women.
,,,are Geeks.
They would like to be, but lack the essential 'hacker' mentality required to Be a Geek.
Most of them are unimaginative morons, although highly educated.
A highly educated moron is easy to achieve with modern education; they can calculate something without any understanding whatsoever.
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
Does the series depict geeks or total losers?
I'm a geek, and I think that show is retarded.
Actually there's no hacker mentality required to be a geek. Stop gatekeeping what a geek is.
Like, the hacker mentality kinda sucks, actually. It's convinced a lot of people that broken software like Windows is worth keeping around because there are work arounds for the warts in the system.
Whatever happened to just having a deep appreciation and enthusiasm for something?
Or biting heads off chickens? If you're not biting heads off chickens, you're not a real geek.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
This show reminds me of "Friends" in so many ways it's frightening. It's a cookie-cutter production, seemingly. You just have different personality experts working this show.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
There was some genuine geekiness in the beginning but it is all gone now. Now its a show about stupid obnoxious people trying to seem smart... not at all as fun as it was in the beginning when it was about nice people with personality problems.
Probably one of the worst sitcoms I've ever tried to watch. Go to youtube and search "big bang theory without laugh track" and see what I mean.
This post is a prime candidate for /r/iamverysmart :P.
I found the humour got very repetative, and the situations were so contrieved (entire episodes centering on people walking in at just the right time and hearing just the right snippet of some conversation) it was painful to watch.
Also something that stuck me early on. For a show about a bunch of hopeless socially inept geeks, they all end up with love interests and gags aside, they seem like reasonably healthy relashionships.
Ah, the true Scotsman and all that. I do enjoy The Big Bang Theory and I dislike Mr. Robot. Also, I only liked Star Trek when I was a little kid. Ditto for Dr. Who.
Perl Programmer for hire
:shrug:
,,,are Geeks.
They would like to be, but lack the essential 'hacker' mentality required to Be a Geek.
Most of them are unimaginative morons, although highly educated.
A highly educated moron is easy to achieve with modern education; they can calculate something without any understanding whatsoever.
I've always considered the show to be "blackface" for nerds.
Wife and I used to enjoy BB Theory, so much we bought all of it on DVD/BluRay. Now its some TV show about relationships, its been going that way over the last season or two, wife watched the first episode of the new season and didnt like it, based on that I probably wont bother. I think its done its dash, and the writers have run out original for this show and/or they are trying to appear to a more general market.
:confused face:
I like it, too; it's got it's problems, but it makes me laugh, which is the point. If anything, though, I see it more as the wet dream of nerds - they all get women (some of them quite attractive, some of them nerdy themselves - which is very attractive to a lot of nerds). I work in a very creative environment, with a lot of animators and artists - and a lot of them like the show. They all have toy collections and nerdy sides to them. The show doesn't have intellectual humor - it just makes you think it does; at the end of the day, it's like a lot of other sitcoms where we watch the lives of a bunch of social misfits - like the Simpsons, Married with Children, Seinfeld...
Stupid sexy Flanders.
So here I present you a geek who enjoys watching the show: Me.
,,,are Geeks.
None of the geeks I know watch TV.
They are too busy getting stuff done.
Ok, not to break up a (somewhat) popular hate fest, but you HAVE to realize, for any given sitcom on commercial TV, there's inevitably going to be FCC complaints, many of which are going to be ... strange. Consider, in any group of people 300M large, a significant fraction of which watch TV, a significant fraction of *that* having no other damn thing going in their lives, what the heck do you THINK is going to happen? We used to call these people Fred and Ethyl, after Lucy's hapless elderly neighbors. Fred and Ethyl eat dinner off tin fold-up TV trays and watch TV in real time, including commercials. Fred and Ethyl can't tell the difference between rubber brains and the head meat of small animals. They think objects thrown from offstage must be from monkeys in a cage because that's what the dialog alludes to. They think the sounds of a cat squalling are being made by someone torturing a cat just behind that fake window there. Combine this with the current fashion of being offended at the tiniest opportunity, and what do you THINK is going to happen?
This article speaks more about the reporters than the reportees. It's non-news, but it bashes a show that some geeks don't like. So let's go with it. (In Kevin Kline's voice) DisapPOINTed.
And finally, it's not a laugh track -- it's a multicamera studio production in front of a live audience. Geeze.
I thought this was news for nerds. Not news for clueless nerds.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
i also enjoy it, i didnt expect to see so much hate for it here
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
nuq vIqaSmoHrup sheldon?
https://www.bing.com/translato... (Klingon)
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I know there was a big deal about this in S3(?) and the producers came out and said, "No." They did say that they may do things like take the laughter from one take and use it with another take, but something doesn't sound right this season.
If you don't like the show then don't watch it anymore, but don't go trying to enforce your standards on everyone else.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
I'm such a geek that I honestly thought this discussion would be about the real big bang theory.
I haven't watched sitcoms or network television in over twenty years.
I don't think I have ever watched an episode of BBT, because what little I have seen of the characters makes my skin crawl.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
:whogas face:
Chill. It's not worth getting worked up about. It's just a TV show.
I personally enjoy it and the characters, it's no worse or better than The Simpsons, Family Guy or South Park.
The acting has as many dimensions.
I do enjoy reading Chuck Lorre's vanity cards and I often wonder where he gets his inspiration from.
An entertaining writer, not a serious one, just a good comedy satirist.
If it makes you laugh, great. If it doesn't, don't watch it.
I didn't realize the show was supposed to be about geeks. I thought it was ironically portraying the disconnect between the academic pursuit of science and things that happen in the real world.
I've never seen it.
I take it they intended to do "Dilbert in hard-science academia" but were about as effective as liberal artists usually are when they try to portray anything on the physics or engineering side of the fence?
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Actually there's no hacker mentality required to be a geek. Stop gatekeeping what a geek is.
Like, the hacker mentality kinda sucks, actually. It's convinced a lot of people that broken software like Windows is worth keeping around because there are work arounds for the warts in the system.
Whatever happened to just having a deep appreciation and enthusiasm for something?
Or biting heads off chickens? If you're not biting heads off chickens, you're not a real geek.
I always saw being a geek as more of a obsessive type behavior of a particular hobby or past time, usually non-athletic in nature, such as fantasy, sci-fi, cinema, A/V, etc.
An element of comedy is pain. The stereotypes shown are trying to amplify such pain, thus makes people laugh at it. But as with most comedy, the people who feel the pain, from having elements of the stereotype have more sympathy in their plight.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I've always considered the show to be "blackface" for nerds.
Or "White Chicks" for Monty Python writers.
I'm not a fan of BBT at all, for the various reasons described on the "geek" side above. But I gotta say, after reading these complaints...wow. Yeah, the show's not getting taken down anytime soon on account of these chuckleheads.
Here's a subset of a particular gem:
Okay, that's about all I can take of that. There's only so much I can stand of prose written by a lifetime aficionado of the flavor of paint chips.
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
The show is OK, but isn't really for geeks and none of the characters are much like any geek I've ever known. I always wonder, does the Sheldon character like Windows and Microsoft because they get a kickback? I find it implausible that his character would be not just a user, but a true MSFT fan.
When you closed the mental hospitals and allowed them to breed.
We may have a solution for this. Just dart anything that moves in a trailer part from helicopters.
Have gnu, will travel.
I think it's pretty funny. Not perfect, but nothing is.
As for the haters, I dunno, but we seem to have a cadre of regulars here who don't have much in the way of a sense of humour and who seem to get pissed off at anything they can't take literally.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
FCC complaints are not really the place to go for anything. The only people who ever complain to the FCC about anything other than radio interference are..... crackpots and wingnut commanders. Yes, there are enough crackpots out there with enough free time to generate some complaints, but that doesn't mean its anything other than the ravings of the insane.
You may as well read the writings of Francis E Dec Esquire.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
... but since year one, the program has morphed from a fairly geeky show into "Friends with Nerds". Meh. If I want sexual innuendo, there are other shows that do it better. Time to bring it to an end.
linquendum tondere
I actually feel bad for some lowly analyst job at the FCC that has to read each and every one of these complaints and issue some type of a response to the complaint. In between fits of laughter from what was submitted, and uncontrollable crying when you realize you're job is to read them.
It's still a live studio audience.
There is no laugh track other than what the live studio audience supplies. Any editing to that track is for overall volume and timing, just as is done with every other show. This has been standard practice since Married with Children, where episodes frequently had botched run lengths due to the actors having to wait (and sometimes even restart a line) due to the audience reaction.
I enjoy it as well, and part of it is because of how much "geeks" bitch and moan about it.
The show does a great job of mocking shitty geek stereotypes, and losers online do a great job of living up to those stereotypes.
Go to a con sometime.... you will encounter every geek stereotype you can imagine. While one might legitimately argue that the characters on BBT are exaggerations of what the the average geek is probably like, if what I encounter whenever I go to a con is any indication at all, I would say they are probably not more than a standard deviation or so away from the norm, and I find that it is not remotely an unbelievable cross-section of nerd-dom. Truth be told, it's unlikely many people would consider a sitcom about more typical nerds to be very funny anyways (and while a lot of people don't think BBT is very funny, one only has to look at the ratings to realize that there exists no small number of people that think otherwise).
But honestly, many of the people I encounter at cons make the characters on BBT seem tame in comparison, I have more than encountered my share of Sheldons, Leonards, Howards, and Raj's.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
My sentiments also. Yes, the geekery is dumbed down for general audiences, but would it be the #1 sitcom if the endless comic book references were Neal Stephenson references instead? It does manage to nail a significant number of nerd-culture specialties, such as the pecking order among different types of scientists and engineers, and the angry little academic wrangles that perfectly illustrate Kingsley Amis' comment, "The reason that academic disputes are so bitter is that the stakes are so small." It gets away with a lot of ethnic humor and innuendos hitherto reserved for cable.
The FCC complaints from religious cranks among the general audiences are exactly the same as complaints about other top shows. Civilization means that such people write letters to government bureaus, rather than chopping peoples' heads off.
This show stands alone in the history of entertainment as the one piece of media that I decided willfully not to give any chance whatsoever, regardless of input from friends and relatives. I read the premise of the pilot, was insulted, and said to myself "the masses of above average intelligence normies are going to LOVE this crap". Now, in 2015, I feel privileged that I couldn't pick a single Big Bang theory actor out of a lineup. Also, get off my lawn.
Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
But alas, Big Bang Theory has jumped its shark and become plain stupid and tedious.
I am trying to imagine Kevin Kline as Otto saying "I am endowed like a stallion".
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I've never seen the show either. When I first read the headline I was thinking it was going to be a story about how non-geeks don't like the big bang theory because it implies the Universe is far older than their religious teachings say it is.
I have definitely always assumed that the characters on BBT would never watch the show.
As a long term geek, I cannot stand this show. None of the geeks I know watch it (although that is like a the liberal from Manhattan wondering how Nixon was elected even though none of their friends voted for him). It's just a generic multi camera sit com that plays to the lowest common denominator like shows such as Friends before it.
Personally, I always thought Community was the show that geeks watched.
As a geek, I can definitely relate to it. I'm married to a much less geeky wife, and our relationship dynamic is definitely similar to Penny and Leonards, with him being book smart but life challenged, and her being life smart but academically challenged. Sure it's an exaggeration of a stereotype, but so much of comedy is.
Of course, the exception where my wife goes against type is in her relatively new hobby of collecting Pop Vinyls figurines, which even makes her go into comic book stores and the like of her own accord!
The most irritating thing about Big Bang Theory is my relatives telling me I would love it because I'm smart and into computers.
Oh god, Hipster Geeks.
You'd think for being educated, they'd have a higher level of wit. I find in life the smarter someone is, the more entertaining their jokes can be. But enough of the show, if you want some cheap laughs, go back and read all the comments in this thread in Sheldon's voice. It is comedy gold since everyone is over analyzing.
God spoke to me
Go to a con sometime.... you will encounter every geek stereotype you can imagine. While one might legitimately argue that the characters on BBT are exaggerations of what the the average geek is probably like, if what I encounter whenever I go to a con is any indication at all, I would say they are probably not more than a standard deviation or so away from the norm,
People who attend cons are self-selected groups, and trying to determine a "norm" from such a group would be a mistake. It is also a positive feedback loop, where edge-of-the-curve geeks flock because they create an environment where they're comfortable.
It's like going to a smoking lounge in an airport, counting heads, and saying that "smoking is the norm".
The show is OK, but isn't really for geeks and none of the characters are much like any geek I've ever known.
I'm a physicist in Pasadena. I know more than a few people like each of the characters, and may or may not be similar to some of them.
The first three seasons were pretty good, and there are (or at least were) quite a few physics in-jokes, but it's hard to maintain something like that and they've turned most of the characters into caricatures of their earlier season versions.
People hate this show because they cannot cope with the idea that the problems that geeks have are basically a lot like the problems non-geeks have, e.g. communication problems in relationships, wage disparity between spouses, job change leading to existential crises.
Watch it or don't watch it.
Yes, the IT Crowd has even cheaper stereotypes: women can't cope with computers; management does nothing; IT workers are either slovenly men with poor social skills or OCD men with poor social skills.
However, I think implication was that cheap stereotype are bad.
This is /., not People magazine. The big bang theory is firstly about the beginning of our universe. This predates the TV sitcom that adopted the name. Submitter should punctuated the title to indicate he/she was referring to the name of the sitcom.
Nowadays, misleading titles translates into rudely wasting people's time. The sloppy title counts as a fault as serious as you can get in terms of punctuation errors.
(||) Nehmo (||)
I live near Burbank where the Big Bang Theory is recorded. The show's not that funny, fine, but it's fun to watch them tape it. I've been in the audience. While I can't speak for everyone there, I'm not a robot and I was given the authority of when to laugh. There's no "Laugh Now Or We'll Find You" signs. People literally laugh out at the slightest thing. I assume it's because only the most ardent fans go through the trouble of attending (the whole process can take 7-10 hours). As for the weird faux laugh-track; audiences are recorded separately from the actor's mics. I wouldn't put it past studio to "rev up" the audience track on the jokes that fall short. The interesting thing is that when a joke fails (not that uncommon; surprised?), you see the writers huddling next to the director, and after a few minutes reshoot the scene with a different joke/line. It's interesting to watch the process, if not exhausting. TL;DR: I've been in the Big Bang Theory audience; real humans, actually laughing with their mouth holes
Anything popular is going to attract all manner of crazy from the general public.
Doesn't even have to be all that popular. Just be glad that we have professionals at the FCC listening to these nuts, and I figure the nuts probably write the FCC quite often, rather than us having to listen to them.
I don't read AC A human right
I'd imagine their complaints are similar to geeks: that the show just isn't funny. Making lame, obvious pop culture references is not comedy, it's plagiarism.
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
For god's sake, it's (or has been) the number one network show for a couple of years.... We hear half-decent jokes about The Doctor, and sometimes we even hear relevant tidbits on current physics research. Certainly not enough that anybody in their right mind would consider it "educational" but geez. There's enough people that would be reading this comments thread and if being fair, have reason to call it a silly mockumentary, or even biography of chunks of their lives.
Be fucking grateful it's not two and a half idiots, or Honey Boo-Boo, watch, don't, or STFU about the STUDIO AUDIENCE that laughs too easily!
as someone who lives and works around those types, it's partially accurate.
The problem with BBT is the lazy writing and shoddy two dimensional characters. They lean on so many tropes it's like watching a drunk man trying to escort a paraplegic through an obstacle course.
I welcome depictions of those kinds of nerds in media, however, I don't welcome shitty writing and hackneyed jokes.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Easy there, Jubal Harshaw. Humor needn't be as dark as you'd have us believe.
Required reading for internet skeptics
I've always considered the show to be "blackface" for nerds.
The show has evolved over the years. While it used to be a compare and contrast of geeks versus normal people, it's now a show about relationships.
Leonard and Penny's benchmark "normal, but nerdy" relationship compared to Howard and Bernadette's cuckolding relationship, compared to Amy's needs with Sheldon, and finally to Raj's struggle to find a keep a girlfriend.
It used to be geeks v. world. Now it's geeks v. geeks. It's why Raj talks to women now, and why we rarely see them interact with "normies" except to setup a problem that each couple treats differently -- or that the boys treat differently than the vastly-more-normal girls.
[For what it's worth, I never found it be nerd blackface. We both laughed at and with them...]
The fact that it's run for at least three more seasons that it should have.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I find it more likely that his computer uses windows because some of the jokes actually involve sounds that his computer is making. Since the vast majority of the TV viewing audience is not going to recognize any linux DE sounds, it makes more sense to use MS noises. Things like skype connecting, ringing, or disconnecting are things people will know.
"Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
My point is that the characters *ARE* fairly "normal" when compared with such a group, and since many of the characters are supposed to be geeks and/or nerds anyways, it's my observation that the characters are not that unrepresentative of the subculture that they are supposed to be portraying. In my opinion, people who say they don't know any nerds like the characters on that show probably haven't ever attended events where nerds of *ALL* types tend to gather. The characters may come across as being grossly exaggerated for comedic effect to some people, but in general, I'd say they are pretty spot on with regards to the kinds of people that are actually out there. Maybe they aren't *exactly* "normal", even for the demographic that they represent, but as I said above, if they did a show about more "typical" nerds, how the characters would handle whatever situations might ensue on the show would probably not be interesting enough to most people to form a successful comedy series, as BBT has done.
I watch BBT, and I laugh... not just at the characters, but also at myself, because I know as well as my wife does that many of the things that some of the characters do are not unlike how I respond to situations as well.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
The show is OK, but isn't really for geeks and none of the characters are much like any geek I've ever known. I always wonder, does the Sheldon character
You must be new here. Half the posters on this site are Sheldon Cooper clones with ridiculous self-serving 'logic,' superiority complexes and an active disregard for experiences outsides their own. Of all the characters on the show, Sheldon Cooper is the truest to life.
You know, that actually wasn't to hard to hear in Otto's voice.
Damn you.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Sheldon actually had a line where he declared that Ubuntu was his favorite Linux.
The fact that they engage in a lot of gaming (sadly) implies that they will be running Windows at least some of the time. Don't recall much evangelism either way besides that one throwaway line about Ubuntu.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
And, damn it - we must all be really fucking old to have gotten a reference from AFCW.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
"The show doesn't have intellectual humor - it just makes you think it does..."
I think you just hit the nail on the head in regards to why I've never liked the show. When Homer goes "Doh" the Simpsons are clearly appealling to my "inner dummy". When I've watched Big Bang Theory I feel like the show is trying to appeal to my "inner intellectual" but is really just dumb jokes. That change up doesnt work for me at all. It feels like the show is insulting me.
Also I find every character I've seen on the show to be whiney, pathetic, and completely unlikable but that's a side issue.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
We get creationists here, too. http://drdino.com/
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
Agreed. I know a lot of people who self identify as nerd/geek and they do like the show (myself included). Is suspect a lot of the backlash from people who feel the show is making fun of nerds/geeks rather than with them.
We have a show with main characters who are all likable, sympathetic and are vulnerable. The characters are aware that they are atypical and have their struggles with the "typical" world and typical challenges within "their own" community
Much like the British IT Crowd. (yah, I worked in that office for a while)
If I thought the jokes were in mean spirited, I wouldn't be watching.
"it's like a lot of other sitcoms"
The central premise of a sitcom is the character thinks "Everyone is an idiot except me". Since we eventually get a POV form every character, that means that everyone is an idiot.
It is threads like this that make me realize how disconnected I am. I don't recognize or even know most of the references. I'm not actually sure why I'm reading the thread except I was curious.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
During my best moments, I try to avoid doing that, but at my worst, I lose all respect for you if you actually like BBT or Two and a Half Men.
I think the guy who said it was "blackface for nerds" nailed it.
A nerd, geek, whatever you want to call it, to me, has always meant someone who's unequivocally "not normal". They don't fit in without effort. They don't tow lines, or do things just because "it's tradition" or "that's just way you do it". A nerd is someone that swims against the social current not because it's popular, but solely for their own reasons.
Therefore, this mentality flies in the face of trends and fashion. However, it meshes perfectly with the hipsters quest for irony (a trend who's desire is not to follow trends). Thus, hipsters have embraced their interpretation of "nerd culture" as an ironic fashion trend. It's deeply disturbing and highly offensive if you ask me.
With specific regard to The Big Bang Theory: I think it started as something generally trying to be evocative niche programming, but devolved into a cliche for the current social trend (hipster). Such is the demise of all ratings-chasing television shows.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
You obviously have no idea about how comics are produced. They are drawn and scripted by artists and writers no computer geeks or nerds. Hence many artists and writers attend, so basically a cross section of intellect and creativity and never to forget the cheetos crowd how never left immaturity also attend but for non creative or intellectual reasons. A slice through the whole available spectrum rather than one single end. However they are actively promoted on the internet between internet types and they then as the result of viral marketing tend to dominate, so more creative and more intellectual types and fewer cheetos types. So in many ways it does actually represent the cross section an international airport represents because the cheetos types often can not afford to fly far.
What the non-geeks really hate about the Big Bang Theory, we know exactly what, they are stilled mired in the high school jealously of not being able to learn as easily as some, no matter how hard they tried before the gave up in humiliation and sought other methods to strike back at those who learn so much more with no visible effort.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Literally all of those complaints can be attributed to having a very poor sense of humor, or none at all. How sad.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
None of the geeks I know watch TV.
They are too busy getting stuff done.
You don't know any geeks who watch Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead or...
I like the Big Bang Theory. It's not smart, it doesn't try to be smart but I find it plenty funny. Sure they laugh at the geeks, but they also laugh at the non-geeks. Geeks are getting pissed off because geeks are being made fun of but it's like South Park, there is nobody who is off limits so it's fine. The geeks are dumb and the regular people are neanderthals. Bafoonery is a old reliable source of comedy.
I dislike it because it's not funny. Like, at all.
It wasn't her employers that asked Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting to cut her hair... that was *HER* choice. She wanted to do it, not her employers. The writers decided to give an in-story reason for it, but it wasn't their idea... not sure where you got the notion that it was.
As for her being the only hot woman on the show, both Mellissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik are pretty damn easy on the eyes when you see them out of character.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
That's actually obvious. The only thing he really uses his computer for is internet and gaming. Windows is just as capable in the former and currently superior in the latter. His science is all plotted out in his head.
I like it, and I know a lot of people more geeky than I am who like it. It does help if you know people in real life with similar personality quirks as are on the show.
I'd rather watch all the episodes all over again than to watch even one episode of the hipster faux Silicon Valley tv show.
I don't see that. Black face is intensely offensive. Big Bang Theory only insults people without a sense of humor who can't laugh at themselves. Geeks should never become a protected class, that's ridiculous. Speaking as a nerd myself, nerds are indeed funny. To try and equate these two things is offensive in itself.
I never watched the show in the beginning, thinking it was just another Beauty and the Geek concept. But then I watched one and it was funny. It's especially funny when you notice how awful all the other "comedy" programs are on broadcast TV.
I wish had mod points. I'm glad someone else spotted this.
:-)
The parent comment comparing BBT to blackface is so wildly offensive and off base that I'm inclined to not be part of a community that would excitedly express their agreement (+5 insightful) for such a comparison. I mean, I know we're pretty out-of-the-loop with pop culture as nerds and geeks, but making comparisons like that is a great way to alienate huge swaths of the population.
Glad to see that there are a least one or two other reasonable people on this site still...
I have to agree. I had a tough time sitting through the last season, and this season I finally gave up after two episodes. It just seems so forced and stilted now that the "freshness" has gone off the show.
"Familiarity breeds contempt"
-- Author unknown
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
It should read "what soccer moms without a real problem hate about the BBT".
This is a prime example of complaints from people who have nothing to complain about but want to feel outraged about some shit. Seriously. What the fuck is this? This is a perfect display of PC bullying. Yes, the jokes are sometimes crude, graphic and silly. But that's what makes jokes funny. You know funny, right? Like "What's the opposite of Christopher Reeves? Christopher Walken." Yes, that's tasteless, yes that's VERY offensive, but most of all, it's insanely funny. Yes, I can laugh about that. And for fuck's sake, I WANT to laugh about that. Deal with it. If you don't like to hear me talking, if you don't want to hear me tell such jokes, it's well within your rights to not listen to me.
You think that show is not suitable for your kids? Then don't let them watch it. Simple as that. The TV is not your cheap babysitter, and I refuse to let you turn it into one. Because that would also mean that I only get to see Teletubbies and similar rubbish. You wanted kids. Now deal with it. It's YOUR kids. Not mine. And don't you dare shifting the burden of raising them onto me.
Raise them or shoot them. Either is fine with me, but don't dump them on society!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Leonard got Penny. It just stopped being believable after that.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I used to. Personally I think it's gone the way of the Simpsons. Used to be insanely good, a real gem of prime time TV, close enough to me actually honestly thinking about getting a TV again, but it jumped that shark somewhere. I dare say it was somewhere after Sheldon got a girlfriend and Leonard got together with Raj's sister.
I can't put my finger on it, maybe the jokes started to repeat or maybe it just got a bit too outlandish for my tastes.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Mr Sheen? Still not over it?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
As a matter of fact, my children are old enough to watch the show and get most of the references. Especially my daughter seems to become an übernerd, taking courses in robotics, writing fan fiction, wearing gaming apparel and reading all the classics like Tolkien, Adams, Gibson and Pratchett.
Yes, the IT Crowd has even cheaper stereotypes: women can't cope with computers; management does nothing; IT workers are either slovenly men with poor social skills or OCD men with poor social skills.
But it's exceedingly funny.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
What I hate about the Big Bang Theory is the temporal asymmetry of a low entropy point just choosing to pop into existence with no understood process for getting that low entropy situation out of an earlier higher entropy situation. Either it did, or it didn't. Either way, it's asymmetric.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
I want a FOIA-like law for us in Europe, so we can obtain this kind of hilarious (and frightening) stuff !!
I have so called "geek" friends who keep insisting this is the best show ever.
Please, check out The IT Crowd instead. Not only that show is hilarious in ways BBT simply cannot be, but it is also a much more accurate portrayal of the geek life.
It's an exaggeration, of course. The main difference betwen TITC and BBT is that The IT Crowd actually manages to be funny. Hilarious at times.
I don't see that. Black face is intensely offensive. Big Bang Theory only insults people without a sense of humor who can't laugh at themselves
Blackface is offensive because it insults black people be reinforcing stereotypes that are not really true outside of prejudiced perception. The big bang theory, in contrast, insults geeks by reinforcing stereotypes that are not really true outside of a prejudiced perception. It's therefore completely different and not offensive.
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A joke stand on its own without the laugh track. Watch other funny shows with gags, you do not need laugh tracks (think comedy films for example where there is NO laugh racks).
But BBT needs those laugh track and i will tell you why since you apparently did not watch one of the video. A listing of old 8 bits game without context is not funny. If I list "super mario , break out, pong" on a normal voice nothing is funny. But add a laugh track and people will start to smirk and laugh. Why ? Not because of a joke but because humour and laugh are contagious, far more than yawning. We as a social animal tend to react by laughing even when we do no get the joke.
And that is essentially why they add laugh tracks because it is a mostly unhumoristic show having a few people which are assholes to each other with the occasional light moment , and trying to paint them as geek. The humor is utterly flat so they NEED the trick of the laugh tracks.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
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visit randi.org
"Also I find every character I've seen on the show to be whiney, pathetic, and completely unlikable but that's a side issue."
So.. you telling me they represent the nerd/geek culture pretty well? Your whole comment is whiney and pathetic for gods sake! :-D
This. So much this. In the first few seasons there where characters with personalities. After around season 3, they stopped writing characters and went for caricatures. Especially with the females on the show, two dimensional is generous. Bernadette used to be an interested and well developed character. Then they decided it would be funnier if she turned into Howard's mom and was the same angry harpy wife that is so common a trope. Amy was a fantastic character when she debuted, but then they turned her into the butt of every joke and made her a creepy adult with an 8 year old mind.
I stopped watching. After several seasons where Sheldon never uttered "Bazinga" I figured out it was a lost cause.
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
Me as well. I don't think it is a show about geeks. It is a sitcom about people who happen to be geeks. Just like Brooklyn Nine-Nine is not a show about the Brooklyn Police.
It is not a documentary.
Hating the show is a bit of 'in' thing. If I do not like a shos (like e.g. Game of Thrones) I just do not watch it. Not because it might be bad, but because I do not like watching it.
I would nog go about and tell others how bad I think it is and even less watch it week after week telling others how bad it is.
And as long as they are making money, they will keep producing it. You are the product, you are not the market. And if you think you are, just one word: Firely.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
It's formulaic. That's why I don't like it. I watched an episode or two. I could pretty much predict what was "funny" thing going to happen next. What "funny" thing someone was going to say next.
I don't hate it. I don't live in a country with English as its primary language, so I don't listen to people talking about it much. I caught an episode visiting the US, and don't think I laughed once. I think a family member put it on because "You're a geek[or whatever]. You'll like this." So, I might hate it if I lived in the US.
Civilization means that such people write letters to government bureaus, rather than chopping peoples' heads off.
Why not both?
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
I learned the difference between a fermion and a boson watching Big Bang Theory: http://www.particleadventure.o... The humor isn't always great. But, the show is entertaining to me and my wife. The physics on the boards is correct also.
I watch the show because my SO does, I think it's going downhill faster and faster. The laugh track (or whatever you want to call it) has always been annoying, many of the jokes I can say the punchline before the characters do (usually when they are going up or down the stairs), the characters are so one dimensional you know what is going to happen in any given situation.
We're almost at the point they are all going to be married with rich attractive women, doesn't make for a good comedy about geeks if you ask me.
"Of all the characters on the show, Sheldon Cooper is the truest to life."
Not the truest to life, the truest to Slashdot.
It basically is a veiled attempt to poke fun at geeks with nerd and social outcast personas.
I couldn't get through the first two shows before becoming sickened everytime it came on.
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Yeah, you keep believing that ok buddy?
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
Indeed. Having gone to CMU, I see aspects of people I knew there in the BBT characters. I see aspects of *myself* in many of the BBT characters. And I really enjoy watching the show. YMMV of course.
Which is pretty much how I define all forms of sitcom -- at their core, it's the same 50 year old jokes and gags, and just minor variations on the theme.
The characters and situations change, but if you watch most sitcoms you can pretty much see the setup for the same old jokes happen all the time. Over and over and over. I stopped watching sitcoms years ago because of this ... I tried to watch BBT a few times, but other than the context, you still see a lot of the same stuff you would have seen in the 70s and 80s.
I probably watched too many when I was a kid. Now I can't watch any of them. Sitcoms just automatically generate a very loud "next" in my brain.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
You obviously have no idea about how comics are produced.
Fan conventions ("cons") have nothing to do with how comics are produced. The producers of the product are vastly outnumbered by the fans. The fan cons are held not for the trade, but for the fans, so that is normal. Yes, there are trade-oriented conventions, but that's not the "con" in context here.
They are too busy rewatching old Star Trek episodes and arguing over how good/bad Babylon 5 was.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Heck, just look at the caricature they make of Penny's ex boyfriend. They call him cro-magnon, and he acts like he has a 30 IQ.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Why does every show think that it needs to "evolve" to be about romantic relationships?
Your ad here. Ask me how!
I may be being obsessive-compulsive here, but I keep comparing TV and movie science with the real thing. This leaves me with three things I can watch fairly comfortably: shows that have nothing to do with science (although I'll pick out historical inaccuracies), shows that are science fiction (so the science is explicitly not what we know), and BBT.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
,,,are Geeks.
They would like to be, but lack the essential 'hacker' mentality required to Be a Geek.
Most of them are unimaginative morons, although highly educated.
A highly educated moron is easy to achieve with modern education; they can calculate something without any understanding whatsoever.
In other news, there are No True Scotsmen.
They don't interact with "normies" anymore because the cast has grown to large for that.
The thread starting here is a fair example of what I'm talking about. Sloppy makes a post which pretty much drips with sarcasm, and UnknownSoldier gets his knickers in a twist because, in his world, it's impossible for something to be a joke unless there's a big <<--LOL THIS IS TEH FUNNY sign pointing to it to tell him so, and gets called out on it.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Pretty much the same here, although I also admit to a lasting fondness for many of the 60s/70s comedies I grew up with.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
People who attend cons are self-selected groups, and trying to determine a "norm" from such a group would be a mistake. It is also a positive feedback loop, where edge-of-the-curve geeks flock because they create an environment where they're comfortable.
This is different from higher academia how? Especially for Physics which, unlike say Engineering, is pretty much isolated from the professional world.
This show is offensive to me, in that they try to portrait the various personas which make up a sterotypical "geek." The whole crap with Penny just goes further to say that someone smart or interesting in science/technology cannot interact with members of the opposite sex. Hell, one of the characters cannot speak AT ALL when a woman is present, unless he is drunk. What the fuck! This whole show's premise is to make stupid people feel like they're smart because they laugh at "smart jokes." I've watched this show with a few people, and they laugh all the time when the laugh-track plays. I ask "Why did you think that was funny", always to the same answer: "I dunno." Get this crap off TV and put Star Trek back on!
Yeah, nobody wants to just say 'i don't get it ' anymore. It's ten pages about how smart they are and how they're too smart to laugh at it. If you watch comedy and you don't laugh, maybe comedy isn't for you.
Oh, because every joke has to be funny or you don't get comedy?
Yes, it is indecent. Not Safe For Work. Not suitable for people. No irony intended in my comments.
By far the majority of creative people and thinkers are amateurs, just because they do not get paid (often just one lucky break and more often someone they know) does not be they are not in the 'trade'. This nonsense of separating people, of claiming somehow professionals a separate exceptional people and everyone else in an ordinary nothing, a fan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_fan or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...). Besides how often is 'fandom' just a PR fabrication and how often is it real, how few fans are out there, whether hand held (actual fans) or mechanical (nothing more than main stream media marketing).
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
as someone who lives and works around those types, it's partially accurate.
The problem with BBT is the lazy writing and shoddy two dimensional characters. They lean on so many tropes it's like watching a drunk man trying to escort a paraplegic through an obstacle course.
I welcome depictions of those kinds of nerds in media, however, I don't welcome shitty writing and hackneyed jokes.
any TV show which becomes popular will asymptotically approach lazy writing and shoddy two dimensional characters. It's necessary to acquire the large quantity of viewers which keep a show on the air. it's the 80/20 rule; 80% of the viewing public have 20% of the brains.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
Ah, the true Scotsman and all that. I do enjoy The Big Bang Theory and I dislike Mr. Robot. Also, I only liked Star Trek when I was a little kid. Ditto for Dr. Who.
Oh, that's simple, your polarity is wrong,, that's all.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
I've always considered the show to be "blackface" for nerds.
The show has evolved over the years. While it used to be a compare and contrast of geeks versus normal people, it's now a show about relationships.
Leonard and Penny's benchmark "normal, but nerdy" relationship compared to Howard and Bernadette's cuckolding relationship, compared to Amy's needs with Sheldon, and finally to Raj's struggle to find a keep a girlfriend.
It used to be geeks v. world. Now it's geeks v. geeks. It's why Raj talks to women now, and why we rarely see them interact with "normies" except to setup a problem that each couple treats differently -- or that the boys treat differently than the vastly-more-normal girls.
[For what it's worth, I never found it be nerd blackface. We both laughed at and with them...]
cuckolding? what did I miss?
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
The word should probably be "consciousness."
Table-ized A.I.
I think it's pretty funny. Not perfect, but nothing is.
As for the haters, I dunno, but we seem to have a cadre of regulars here who don't have much in the way of a sense of humour and who seem to get pissed off at anything they can't take literally.
who here thinks Stuart is the funniest one?
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
Nah, I have just different interests.
Perl Programmer for hire
Crackpots should be locked up. Then again, Chuck Lorre is a crackpot too (or something of similar persuasion, Charlie was right) so we wouldn't have such good humor on TV if they did.
Ok, crackpots should not have access to paper en pencil. Dang, that doesn't cover it either. Man, this is difficult.
Wow, you have no idea what blackface is, do you? It's not just putting on makeup to look like you have a black face, it's then doing 'comedy' that is all about stereotypes about black people.
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I've thought about this for some time. I find IT Crowd really funny, but I can't connect with TBBT. My thought is that in the IT Crowd we are laughing with the Geeks, in TBBT we are laughing at them. Certainly IT Crowd has stereotypes and exaggerations (comedy would almost be impossible without exaggerations, by the way), but it develops more empathy toward its characters and allows us a way into their experiences much more than TBBT. Take Jen, for instance. Even though she is a stereotype (woman who doesn't understand computers but somehow ends up in charge of IT), she's portrayed as a real person who wants to do a good job and recognizes her shortcomings but just wants to be successful (and really the joke is on the higher level management who hired her without knowing anything about IT or computers, either!).
A few things come to mind: 1) Seems to me that 'geeks' have come into favor (relatively) recently (the past bunch of years). And that seems okay to me, since it seems that it is geeks that take society forward - at least technologically. And 'geeks', are people, too! Just like homosexuals. 2) Seems pretty evident to me that society seems to be missing the point on raising the next generations. If we (try to) 'hide' reality from our kids (or over-white-wash it), then we are allowing potential false impressions to foster which could be the fodder for young minds (trying to get a grasp on reality) getting the 'wrong' ideas, and manifesting those ideas in drastic ways (like Columbine, Sandy Hook, etc...). There seems to be a deep rift in what (parents and guiding authorities) allow kids to 'understand'. We need to be sure that real truths are main focuses EVERYWHERE in the media, especially TV. I cannot believe the lies perpetrated on even newscasts! Parents: TALK A LOT with your children! IF you are a parent, make PARENTING a priority. Everybody else: How about a little help?!
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
If you don't have a piece of broken... something... that you've been tinkering with on and off for years, which you could easily replace with a raspberry pi and some custom software/hardware, you probably aren't a geek either.
Not all of us can read x86 assembly code in hex, but a lot of people can. Some of us can even read M68k asm in hex, but it's harder.
Those people, at least, are geeks.
The last time I heard of a "chicken eating geek" was in an Alice Cooper song... lol.
Hacking is a lifestyle, it has some things to do with code, but it's mostly problem solving.
Windows is a tool, just like most things; if you're using them right.
But a geek would know that.
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
Windows is a tool. Correct. But it is like a screwdriver that blows up if you turn it wrong.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Maybe he mistook cuckolding for henpecking?
Oh no! My son could see a fully covered nipple!! Are there really that many people who are so stuffed up? Their moral beliefs are one thing to shake one's head over, but they do not even get comedy. At least now I do not feel bad sending a complaint to the FCC each year for showing excessive violence and public sex when the Super Bowl airs.Ramming each other down head first and cheerleaders in skimpy dresses is OK, but TBBT is profane? Man, are really that many people in the US that ridiculously stupid?