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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.
I don't watch it because it's a bit like going to work. I work in an engineering R&D firm, and there are quite a few characters here. Certainly Big Bang Theory is a sitcom and exaggerates things to dramatic effect, but there have been real life situations over here that aren't shown on TV because people wouldn't find them credible.
Imagine a place of employment where nobody is bad as Sheldon, maybe only a half Sheldon. But there are 10 of them, and they each have their own peculiar quirks and tastes in their Sheldon-ness.
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.
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.
Go to youtube and search "big bang theory without laugh track" and see what I mean.
What does that tell you? All it tells you is that we're used to a certain presentation of certain forms of entertainment, and when our expectations are not met it's jarring and disconcerting. Take a non-laugh-tracked "sitcom" (if they still fit that definition) like Peep Show or The Office or [insert non-laugh tracked sitcom you do find funny here] and add a laugh track and it will probably be just as un-funny because it throws the whole thing out of whack.
Take a production of MacBeth and have everyone perform it in flippers. Probably not going to last long.
If something makes someone laugh (for example, BBT with audience laughter), it's funny. If something doesn't make someone laugh (for example, BBT without laugh track) that doesn't mean that the first version wasn't "funny", and that the viewer must be therefore have been suffering some kind of delusion when they laughed the first time round.
You don't find BBT funny either way; fine. That doesn't mean anyone who does is wrong, whether they laugh at the un-laugh-tracked version or not.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
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 think that's the main reason I can't watch that show, and to this date haven't watched a full episode yet. Every time I hear the laugh track I want to gag. What is this, 1965? If they're going to do it that way, at least have a live studio audience like Married with Children had that actually responds appropriately to what's happening when it's genuinely funny.
Um, they do have a live studio audience
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
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 an old fogie and used to laugh tracks. Most "light" comedies seem awkward without them. It guess it's hard to make every generation happy.
But as far as the show, I sometimes get a "geek" kick out of it. You get dialog similar to:
A: "Rats, according to my carefully considered forecasts, I'll probably die before they can upload human conscientiousness into androids so one can live forever."
B: "Oh great, you'll really want to mill around as an awkward, annoying robot?"
A: "You claim I'm awkward and annoying now. How is that a change?"
B: "You sleep a third of the day now."
Table-ized A.I.
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'
They traveled back in time to the day of your birth and trained you to be a misanthrope who detests the sound of live human laughter?
Just a guess. You already seem intent upon disregarding any aspect of reality that conflicts with your preconceived notions, so I may as well go big.
I think that's the main reason I can't watch that show, and to this date haven't watched a full episode yet. Every time I hear the laugh track I want to gag. What is this, 1965? If they're going to do it that way, at least have a live studio audience like Married with Children had that actually responds appropriately to what's happening when it's genuinely funny.
Um, they do have a live studio audience
Wait a moment. There's at least EIGHT people who appear twice in that photo, and it's not a simple stitch together either. Check it out. Definitely the "live studio audience" isn't all that it's made out to be.
Um, they do have a live studio audience
Doesn't stop the producers from using "Laugh now" signs. I don't know if they actually do this, but my guess is that they probably do....
I don't know if this is so for Big Bang, but I have been to many television recordings. As a part of the shows I have been to, before the presentation they have the Audience applaud and laugh with various levels of enthusiasm so that when the show is edited back together for broadcast:
Jokes that didn't hit can be made to sound like they did
Jokes actions that may have elicited a certain response may not have after numerous re-takes
Applause that was organic would be choppy after scenes were chopped up and edited
None of the shows I have seen have been sitcoms but rather presented "as live" panel shows
. .
The most irritating thing about Big Bang Theory is my relatives telling me I would love it because I'm smart and into computers.
Um, they do have a live studio audience [imgur.com]
Yes, they make a big deal about their "live studio audience", but that doesn't mean it isn't annoying as hell. In fact, I'd prefer it if they used a laugh track, because at least then they'd adjust it so it doesn't sound like a bunch of inebriated hyenas. Of course, just because they have an audience doesn't mean it isn't rigged:
A friend of mine has been to a taping of the show. They spend 20-30 minutes getting the audience ready with a stand-up comedian and other fluffers. Their whole purpose is to get the audience excited and in a laughing mood. They really pile on the hype about their laughter making the show successful and how important the reaction is. They talk about the microphones needing big loud laughs. Etc.
When the show finally starts filming, it's a rare scene that's filmed in one take. Therefore when the show is edited, they will independently choose the "best" laugh and use that for final take. In that sense they do use an edited laugh track, it's just one that's created by the current audience.
Then there's the dialog pacing, which is constructed to suit the exaggerated laughing instead of the comedy. This awkwardly false nature can be easily seen if you take away the laugh track or (less subtley) replace it with a caricature laugh. This is a problem with a lot of sitcoms, but Big Bang Theory seems to be especially bad.
Now take a look at John Cleese's approach on handling audience laughter while filming Fawlty Towers. Here's an example from A Room with a View. Compared to that, Big Bang Theory feels stilted and forced, while Fawlty Towers has a more natural rhythm that's so much easier to laugh at.
Of course, it also helps that Fawlty Towers had good writing and actually is funny. Two things Big Bang Theory can rarely claim.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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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".
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
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...]
I think that's the main reason I can't watch that show, and to this date haven't watched a full episode yet. Every time I hear the laugh track I want to gag. What is this, 1965? If they're going to do it that way, at least have a live studio audience like Married with Children had that actually responds appropriately to what's happening when it's genuinely funny.
In Big Bang Theory just feels like somebody is methodically trying to tell you "ok, you laugh here, even if it's not funny" throughout the whole show.
So what? It works.
We're social creatures, if a bunch of other people laughing tells us that a bad joke is funny we're probably going to laugh and we're going to enjoy it. Who cares if the audience is over-eager, if you let yourself enjoy it you'll have a better time.
The only reason to drop the laugh track is it ties you to doing punch line comedies where everything is punctuated with a lot of small jokes and thoughts tend to end after the punchline. You couldn't do something like Arrested Development with a laugh track because there's a lot of jokes without specific punchlines, or jokes that overlap.
Of course Arrested Development also got cancelled because they had poor ratings, a laugh track comedy that wasn't so challenging for the viewer might have done better.
I stole this Sig
Then there's the dialog pacing, which is constructed to suit the exaggerated laughing instead of the comedy.
Or it's acknowledging the studio audience reaction. You see the same thing in live plays... where the pacing of the action on stage adjusts naturally the audience reactions. And if you took a stage play and edited out that audience reaction you get the same unnatural cadence.
After posting this condescending comment, I realised that there is a non-zero probability that the submitter may have not properly researched his assertion (rare as that would be). I apologise to you both.
Ho! Haha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!
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 find Seinfeld and That 70s Show, both filmed in front of a live studio audience to be funny and the audience laughter doesn't bother me in the slightest. There's something different about TBB. Maybe it's the writing, maybe the audience is prompted to laugh at every joke no matter how mediocre - either way, it's missing something or this thread wouldn't exist.
I've watched Seinfeld - it wasn't funny. People just really, REALLY wants it to be.
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 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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