Big Bang Theory, yes or no?

[Methos]

Sheldon - "If we poison the critical thinking faculties of children by telling them that rabbits come out of hats, then we create adults who believe in astrology, and homeopathy, and that Ryan Reynolds was a better choice for Green Lantern than lovable rogue Nathan Fillion..."

Leonard - "He's just going to do some magic tricks for some kids, I really don't think they're going to end up liking the Green Lantern movie..."

From last nights episode... hilarious and completely true lol

M

 

[1001001]

Yes, but Mrs. Wolowitz is done by Carol Ann Susi.

I know that. I'm just saying there's a video of Melissa doing the impression, and it's funny.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aifqrqyJ1E[/yt]

 

[Mach5]

I occasionally watch it to kill time. Sometimes an entire episode passes without even making me chuckle, let alone laugh. Actually, two out of every three episodes are like that...

Uhm, honestly, I wouldn't recommend this show to anyone.

 

[davejames]

Sheldon - "If we poison the critical thinking faculties of children by telling them that rabbits come out of hats, then we create adults who believe in astrology, and homeopathy, and that Ryan Reynolds was a better choice for Green Lantern than lovable rogue Nathan Fillion..."

Leonard - "He's just going to do some magic tricks for some kids, I really don't think they're going to end up liking the Green Lantern movie..."

From last nights episode... hilarious and completely true lol

M

Ha ha, agreed. That was awesome.

 

[milo bloom]

So what do you guys think of the TV series "The Big Bang Theory"? Are they painting us in a favorable light or mocking us? Personally, I think it's really funny...in a good way.

Mocking us. Period. This show is nothing but making fun of nerds and any nerd that thinks its audience is laughing with him is delusional.

Sometimes the fun house mirror is the most revealing.

The picture post thread in Misc. is the most revealing mirror to me: hey look! We have wives, children, pets, other "normal" hobbies besides spaceships and elves!


It's pandering and mocking and generally unpleasant.

 

[Neroon]

Rauch does a very good impression of Mrs. Wolowitz, but she's not actually the voice actor.

Somewhere on the interweb there's a great video of her at Comic Con doing Mrs. Wolowitz...

Really? Huh.... I had heard she was the voice. Guess that's a testament to how good of an impression she does!

 

[stj]

I like the show. Some episodes are funnier than others. Some I laugh out loud, and a few haven't even tickled me. This is why TV works.

The humor is not entirely genial, but humor is about conflict, if not outright aggression, so how does that change anything?

As for the nerdiness, surely if anyone's a nerd I am, yet unlike this crew I have no interest in games, roleplaying, comics, souvenirs and happen to disagree with most all of official fanboy views they all somehow share. Nathan Fillion wouldn't have made Green Lantern any better, nor was the movie a cause for booing and hissing. But the exchange about it was still quite funny.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Mocking us. Period. This show is nothing but making fun of nerds and any nerd that thinks its audience is laughing with him is delusional.

Sometimes the fun house mirror is the most revealing.

The picture post thread in Misc. is the most revealing mirror to me: hey look! We have wives, children, pets, other "normal" hobbies besides spaceships and elves!


It's pandering and mocking and generally unpleasant.

Its a comedy. It's going to go for the laugh. The "odd things" are where the humor is going to come from. Even sit coms built around wives, children, pets and hobbies will go for the laugh derived from those elements. And those elements will exaggerated to generate those laughs. Be it a Tim Taylor on "Home Improvement" or an Abed on "Community". BBT is no different. The characters are also shown to be highly intelligent and successful in their careers. They have relationships and one has gone from a sleazy guy who hits on women to a guy who's engaged to be married and thinking about having a family.

I think the fun house mirror analogy went over your head. Which I find odd for someone who's suppose to be a fan of Science Fiction & Fantasy.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The writers must be actual nerds or lurk on this board, based on the Nathan Fillion joke,

 

[Holdfast]

I'm surprised at some of the strong negative responses in this thread.

I find it an inoffensive typical gag-focused sitcom to me; I don't think it's trying to make any underlying point (positive or negative) about science, sci-fi, nerds, or whatever. All sitcoms (and comedies in general) tend to feature exaggerated and abnormal personalities in order to create situations ripe with potential for humour.

The gag writers of Big Bang Theory are very solid, the cast is uniformly good (with a nice line in secondary guest characters esp. Sheldon's & Leonard's mothers), and they've expanded the core cast well to keep things fresh (e.g. Bernadette and Amy)

I find it pretty funny. Is it my favourite ever sitcom? No. But it's a good way to pass a half hour from time to time.

 

[Photoman15]

I refused to watch the show the first two seasons. Don't know why, just thought it was not going to be funny. But then I did and this show is friggin' funny all the time.
Every one in my house loves the show and laughs thru out.
I appreciate it more because I get all the physics, sci-fi and OCD stuff they weave in.

Yes, the characters are sometimes exaggerated, it's a sitcom. It has to appeal to the masses. And surprisingly, it does. Sometimes the characters act "cartoonish", but that's the way the common person perceives a Sheldon, a Leonard, a Howard or a Raj.

What Trek fan/nerd was not laughing when Sheldon got a napkin as a Christmas present (don't want to give any more away for someone who hasn't seen that episode). Jim Parsons (Sheldon) was hysterically funny and in character.

If you don't like the show, I say don't watch it.

 

[Robert D. Robot]

...If you don't like the show, I say don't watch it.

You do realize that if everyone took this philosophy to heart, the number of posts on these boards may drop by 40-60%!

I find it pleasantly surprising that my girlfriend (who got her friend to knit me a Tom Baker scarf for Christmas last year!) enjoys the show. We watch it together- I enjoy it. Some episodes more than others.

I am not a gamer, or a "Silent Bob" type, or painfully socially inept, or a graphic novel collector, but I have known and been friends with them. I tend to be "the type" who has all the Trek technical manuals and several ship models.

I do not think the show is insulting to "nerds". "Roseanne", "All in the Family", "The Jeff Foxworthy Show", "Cheers", "Frazier"... take your pick. As others have said, all these shows create humor by ("lovingly"(?)) playing off stereotypes. Why should nerds be spared?

 

[milo bloom]

Sometimes the fun house mirror is the most revealing.

The picture post thread in Misc. is the most revealing mirror to me: hey look! We have wives, children, pets, other "normal" hobbies besides spaceships and elves!


It's pandering and mocking and generally unpleasant.

Its a comedy. It's going to go for the laugh. The "odd things" are where the humor is going to come from. Even sit coms built around wives, children, pets and hobbies will go for the laugh derived from those elements. And those elements will exaggerated to generate those laughs. Be it a Tim Taylor on "Home Improvement" or an Abed on "Community". BBT is no different. The characters are also shown to be highly intelligent and successful in their careers. They have relationships and one has gone from a sleazy guy who hits on women to a guy who's engaged to be married and thinking about having a family.

I think the fun house mirror analogy went over your head. Which I find odd for someone who's suppose to be a fan of Science Fiction & Fantasy.

And I think folks defending the show are missing the difference between someone laughing "with you" vs "at you".
When a show like Who or Trek makes a meta-joke, like Riker over-explaining how the ship works to that Ferengi in "Rascals", that's laughing "with you". The only times I've seen this show, they're laughing "at you".

 

[Nerys Myk]

I actually have the ability to laugh at myself. With this show I usually laugh because I am or know people who have done or said what the characters have to some extent. Laughing at ones self and engaging in self deprecating humor is fun. I think people get a little thin skinned and defensive when humor is derived from a group they're part of or something they're interested in. In some cases it might be justified, this isn't one of those cases.

 

[Holdfast]

The picture post thread in Misc. is the most revealing mirror to me: hey look! We have wives, children, pets, other "normal" hobbies besides spaceships and elves!

It's pandering and mocking and generally unpleasant.

Its a comedy. It's going to go for the laugh. The "odd things" are where the humor is going to come from. Even sit coms built around wives, children, pets and hobbies will go for the laugh derived from those elements. And those elements will exaggerated to generate those laughs. Be it a Tim Taylor on "Home Improvement" or an Abed on "Community". BBT is no different. The characters are also shown to be highly intelligent and successful in their careers. They have relationships and one has gone from a sleazy guy who hits on women to a guy who's engaged to be married and thinking about having a family.

I think the fun house mirror analogy went over your head. Which I find odd for someone who's suppose to be a fan of Science Fiction & Fantasy.

And I think folks defending the show are missing the difference between someone laughing "with you" vs "at you".
When a show like Who or Trek makes a meta-joke, like Riker over-explaining how the ship works to that Ferengi in "Rascals", that's laughing "with you". The only times I've seen this show, they're laughing "at you".

What I don't get is why you identify so much with the characters on the show as to define them as analogous to "you" when jokes are made at their expense. Sit-com characters are always exaggerated caricatures designed to elicit humour. They're not laughing "at you"; they're laughing "at Sheldon" (or whoever happens to the butt of the joke at the time).

Taking the humour to heart as a personal slight seems like over-reading the intent of the gags, as well as giving too little credit to the ability of most people around you to separate reality from fiction. In any event, they not even that insulting; generally, they're pretty mild pokes with some nuance.

In terms of influencing any sort of national or global perception of what SF-fans are like, then again, this only matters if someone is as extreme, narrow and socially-inept as the characters in the show. Assuming you have a more balanced life, it isn't going to make the blindest bit of difference how someone views you or indeed affect you in any sort of way. So I can't say that I see the practical problem.

I don't write the above to in any way suggest that you don't have the right to have your opinion; of course you do. But I think it's a shame in terms of your missing out on a few good gags and funny situations.

 

[Pauln6]

The show is absolutely hilarious. It's interesting that they have deliberately gone out of their way not to label Sheldon as someone with Aspergers when he so clearly is. I assume they wanted to avoiding putting a label on the condition as a way of avoiding bullying in the playground.

Just saw an episode with Katee Sackhoff and George Takei sending themselves up. The show is funny because so much of it is true, just magnified and condensed.

 

[milo bloom]

Its a comedy. It's going to go for the laugh. The "odd things" are where the humor is going to come from. Even sit coms built around wives, children, pets and hobbies will go for the laugh derived from those elements. And those elements will exaggerated to generate those laughs. Be it a Tim Taylor on "Home Improvement" or an Abed on "Community". BBT is no different. The characters are also shown to be highly intelligent and successful in their careers. They have relationships and one has gone from a sleazy guy who hits on women to a guy who's engaged to be married and thinking about having a family.

I think the fun house mirror analogy went over your head. Which I find odd for someone who's suppose to be a fan of Science Fiction & Fantasy.

And I think folks defending the show are missing the difference between someone laughing "with you" vs "at you".
When a show like Who or Trek makes a meta-joke, like Riker over-explaining how the ship works to that Ferengi in "Rascals", that's laughing "with you". The only times I've seen this show, they're laughing "at you".

What I don't get is why you identify so much with the characters on the show as to define them as analogous to "you" when jokes are made at their expense. Sit-com characters are always exaggerated caricatures designed to elicit humour. They're not laughing "at you"; they're laughing "at Sheldon" (or whoever happens to the butt of the joke at the time).

Taking the humour to heart as a personal slight seems like over-reading the intent of the gags, as well as giving too little credit to the ability of most people around you to separate reality from fiction. In any event, they not even that insulting; generally, they're pretty mild pokes with some nuance.

In terms of influencing any sort of national or global perception of what SF-fans are like, then again, this only matters if someone is as extreme, narrow and socially-inept as the characters in the show. Assuming you have a more balanced life, it isn't going to make the blindest bit of difference how someone views you or indeed affect you in any sort of way. So I can't say that I see the practical problem.

I don't write the above to in any way suggest that you don't have the right to have your opinion; of course you do. But I think it's a shame in terms of your missing out on a few good gags and funny situations.

I meant to post this earlier cause I was already thinking about it, but yes, I get that it's a TV show. I get that they're caricatures. And folks can laugh at themselves, but like I said: this show is not laughing "with us at ourselves", it's laughing "at us while we laugh at ourselves". It's a crucial difference that I'm having trouble putting into words.

I guess my problem is the adoration it seems to get, as opposed to, say, a grudging respect for something like this pointing out our sillier aspects. It just seems far too mean to be taken as "friendly ribbing", more like the jock in the room giving you what he thinks is a lighthearted ribbing, but is in truth killing you on the inside, but you put on a brave face and laugh along because he's not shoving you into a locker.

 

[Sindatur]

So, what's the difference between this show and Tooltime Tim Taylors being laughed at, or Rednecks being laughed at with Jeff Foxworthy or King of the Hill, or Gays with Will and Grace...

 

[Nerys Myk]

I don't think the people involved with the writing of the show fall into the "jock" category. The humor is not mean spirited either. Its the type of humor I get with I'm with friends. Friends who are actual geeks/nerds. It's the type of humor I often see right here at TrekBBS. A certain amount of the humor on the show comes at the expense of non-nerd Penny. Who is often mocked because of her profession (waitress), he intended profession (actress) and lack of education/intelligence.

As I said before the characters aren't mom's basement dwelling losers with bad hygiene. They are highly intelligent professionals living in nice apartments. Even Howard, who does live with his mom could afford a nice place if he wanted to. (I think he stays with Ma out of obligation and guilt)

 

[Nerys Myk]

So, what's the difference between this show and Tooltime Tim Taylors being laughed at, or Rednecks being laughed at with Jeff Foxworthy or King of the Hill, or Gays with Will and Grace...

None.