Poll: The worst offender of "geek" themed entertainment.

[Quaxar]

The character I was talking about was the woman that worked on the university with the guys, don't remember her name.

Alex? Sheldon's assistant? Yeah, she shouldn't have left. I liked her interactions with the other characters.

No, he means Leslie Winkle. They literally just stopped with the character because the writers found it too hard to write dialog for her. Apparently writing lines for a female scientist is so hugely different from a male one that it was practically impossible.

Oh, I completely forgot about her. I don't see how it would have been hard to write her; all she did was antagonize everyone.

I thought they got rid of her 'cause she didn't really have much to do, or 'cause she wasn't well-received or something. She was only in eight episodes over the course of the first three seasons anyway.

You'd think so, wouldn't you? But no, according to, I think, Chuck Lorre himself they just couldn't write her. Which isn't all that surprising when you consider how well Lorre writes women on his other shows *cough*Twoandahalfmen*cough* or how well-nuanced Penny is.
Leslie was a bit different, but she certainly did more science than any other women on the show. Bernadette went from being a waitress to a PhD with super-salary and all we ever got about microbiology was cheap jokes about lab practises that would make their safety inspector's head rotate near the speed of light, like drinking from used lab equipment. And Amy's only merit in neurology appears to be providing crazy situations completely devoid of industry standards or ethic commissions, like getting monkeys to smoke and then housing them at your own place.

 

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

Big Bang Theory? Honestly have none of you seen King of the Nerds. I cringe when I hear people talk about nerd culture and being a proud nerd, but this show offended me. It's a bunch of twenty something socially awkward people competing in cringey events saying cringey thing while acting cringey. What's worse is that some of these people have really good jobs. WHAT ARE THEY DOING? The worst of them is Danielle, or Tradechat (TGS Youtuber). She's a horrible Youtuber and a horrible comedian, everything she does is enough to make me drop a cinder block on my face.
For your consideration:
A really good spoof of the show
Why the Big Bang Theory hate boys? Those NCIS videos were priceless. Anyone which includes furious typing just does my head in.

 

[ThreeName]

TBBT isn't offensive, it's just fucking stupid and unfunny. It really plays to that "Ooh, I'm sucha nerd lol" hipster thing that's going around these days.

Here is how Big Bang Theory goes:

Gang: Man, we are really nerdy
Sheldon: We're so nerdy we know *insert specific scientific fact*
*Laugh track*
Penny: I don't understand that because I'm a woman
Sheldon: Bazinga!
*Laugh Track*

Also this.

OT: I really like the Big Bang Theory and seriously don't get why people find it offensive. Yes, the characters are stereotypes. Welcome to television. But for all their (stereotypical) flaws, how are they depicted? Pretty great guys, right? They are smart, kind and passionate about the things they like. Despite being misunderstood by "the world", they actually have pretty nice social lives and do lots of fun activities. That is just so much better than the traditional nerd depiction of a completely anti-social, boring, perverted loner.

It seems pretty clear to me that the audience is supposed to sympathize with the protagonists. If the show is saying anything to the world, it's not "hey, come laugh at these nerds", but it's "hey look, these nerds are actually pretty great people".

Are... are you kidding? Two of them are outright perverted, bordering on misogynistic in later seasons (Raj goes for a job interview, has a drink, all of a sudden is making totally inappropriate advances towards his future partner. Why? BECAUSE SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE IS FUNNY), Leonard is an emotional cripple with the maturity of a grumpy 8 year old most of the time, and all of the humour surrounding Sheldon is just "hur hur he's being a selfish asshole but he's quirky so it's funny".

The characters are complete tossers. They are not, by any stretch of the word, great people. Or even good people. Fuck, even tolerable people.

 

[KelDG]

You cannot fucking have sex in World of Warcraft goddammit!

I have seen people try............. [scarred for life now]

I though that episode was really funny, also the South Park "Make love not Warcraft" episode was fantastic, they both hit the nail on the head when it comes to gamer mannerism. The hook, the building addiction, the slipping away from reality, yup they are all extreme symptoms, but symptoms of MMOs none the less.

Oh yeah, did I mention they were really funny?

 

[VoidWanderer]

King of the Nerds.

Seriously...

When I saw that show I wanted to slam a screwdriver into my ear, as it seemed more enjoyable than a bunch of Americans and I think a Canadian being the 'biggest nerds in the world'.

 

[KelDG]

Bernadette went from being a waitress to a PhD with super-salary

Small point, she was a waitress to help suppliment her education, she was later head-hunted by a pharmaceutical company. Boom waitress to high paid PhD graduate.

I know people exactly in her situation. Full time job, studying for PhD and having to work a crap job a few days a week to pay bills. You usually don't live at your parents house when studying for a Doctorate and education ain't cheap.

 

[Quaxar]

Bernadette went from being a waitress to a PhD with super-salary

Small point, she was a waitress to help suppliment her education, she was later head-hunted by a pharmaceutical company. Boom waitress to high paid PhD graduate.

I know people exactly in her situation. Full time job, studying for PhD and having to work a crap job a few days a week to pay bills. You usually don't live at your parents house when studying for a Doctorate and education ain't cheap.

True, but still from a viewer's perspective she was essentially a waitress, you never saw or heard anything about her studies even though she obviously must have done some hard original work for her thesis. Then in one episode she goes from from being a waitress to getting her PhD thesis accepted and right after a great job with huge annual salary. It's... convenient. And still we don't really have much idea what she actually does besides the odd joke.

Plus personally I can't really see why with a MSc in Microbiology you'd do waiting instead of something in a related field but then again education is cheap here so who am I to talk.

 

[Daget Sparrow]

I haven't seen Revenge of the Nerds, but your description makes it sound the worst. And though I might hate being compared to Sheldon (even though I practically lived with a guy exactly like him for a while), I still genuinely enjoy the humor Big Bang.

 

[Kuilui]

I like Big Bang Theory as well but it does get a bit tiresome after awhile. *penny walks into comic store* *Fat ugly nerds in sweat pants stare at her like Jesus just appeared in front of them* *Store owner tells them to stop staring in a "trying to be funny" way* *fake laughter* or in the latest one when Pennys like "That's because no girl has ever played D&D before" *Fake laughter*. It's that kind of just not even trying Humor that gets to me. You can write better "comedy" than that come on now. I could just keep going but you get my point.

I will say the worst offender ever was the movie The Gamer with Gerard butler. I struggled through about 40 minutes of it before I just gave up because it sickened and offended me to the point I just couldn't keep watching. One of the worst pieces of garbage ever made that involved video games. I'm pretty sure it was written by people that never played video games a day in their lives. Listened to all the negative gamer stereotypes amplified those by 10 and stretched it into something that hopefully ruined those screenwriters careers.

 

[Sutter Cane]

What was offensive was Attack of the Show. Seriously, that show was all about the idea that you slap a pair of tits on something, nerds will watch it, especially if that pair of tits acts like they're into the same shit as the pathetic mouthbreathers producers think nerds are. Obviously there is a fair portion of said pathetic mouthbreathers considering the show was on for a while after it took that tack. That combined with the puerile humor combined for my pick for the worst offender.

So do you actually have proof that Olivia Munn isn't the type of person she ated like on the show, or are you just pulling out the incredibly sexist "well she's an attractive woman so therefore she CAN'T be a real geek," crap that people still spout off

 

[Strain42]

This blog post to me perfectly sums up just what exactly it is I don't like about The Big Bang Theory

http://butmyopinionisright.tumblr.com/post/31079561065/the-problem-with-the-big-bang-theory

It's long so you guys don't have to read it, but as someone who has seen the show, I certainly agree with a lot of its points.

You can't just add a laugh track to someone ending a sentence with Dungeons and Dragons or Firefly and call it a joke. That show isn't meant for geeks, it's meant for folks like Penny who don't understand them.

The show has been called Nerd Blackface, and while I think that's a bit hyperbolic, I get the gist as to why that comparison exists.

Anyway, I do agree that Revenge of the Nerds is pretty bad in that regard. That's really not what I was expecting when I saw it for the first time.

I haven't seen most of the other things on this list, I'm avoiding King of the Nerds like the plague because the very idea of it just sounds horrific to me.

But yeah, in regards to BBT, there's nothing I can say about it that isn't said better in that link I posted.

 

[GrimTuesday]

What was offensive was Attack of the Show. Seriously, that show was all about the idea that you slap a pair of tits on something, nerds will watch it, especially if that pair of tits acts like they're into the same shit as the pathetic mouthbreathers producers think nerds are. Obviously there is a fair portion of said pathetic mouthbreathers considering the show was on for a while after it took that tack. That combined with the puerile humor combined for my pick for the worst offender.

So do you actually have proof that Olivia Munn isn't the type of person she ated like on the show, or are you just pulling out the incredibly sexist "well she's an attractive woman so therefore she CAN'T be a real geek," crap that people still spout off

Its more that she seems like she is trying way too hard to be a geek. I'm not one of those people who is suspicious of women who claim to be geeks, but I am a person who knows that one of the major ways that shows try to attract audiences is with sex appeal, so that's what makes me suspicious.

 

[Silly Hats]

I dislike TBBT as well as Community.

I watched Chuck in it's entirety earlier in the year, simply because of Miss Strahovsky. The show had some good cliff hangers, but too many bad references. I don't think that I could watch it again though. IT Crowd I think is fine, I'm a sucker for British Humour and Graham Linehan is a genius. Say, Scott Pilgrim I liked. It was well written, and from someone that wastes too much time playing games and guitars. I related to that more than others

Honestly, a lot of Sci-Fi and fantasy films/shows just makes me roll my eyes.

 

[tyriless]

And then I found out that Adam now has his own program. I'm very happy that he's back, and it seems like he's trying to get the feel of X-Play back with these new people. I wish Morgan would make an appearance, but who knows.

I love Adam on Revision 3! It's the Sess at his very best, not only reviewing games, but going in depth in what they mean to the industry as a whole, and as an art form. The other day I watched for an hour him discuss with three other game journalist Bioshock Infinite. I couldn't match their enthusiasm for the game itself, but their insight and critique was superior to anything G4 did it's entire run.

http://revision3.com/host/adam-sessler

Agree with him or not, this man deserves your traffic.

 

[introverted_surd]

I had an issue with Attack of the show and Xplay because of the comedy they tried to force. I would watch both these shows before I found the Escapist so that I could learn what's new in gaming/ the internet but the comedy bits they tried to force were all awful. They were trying to be topical about something "geek themed" but all it can across as cringe worthy.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

And then I found out that Adam now has his own program. I'm very happy that he's back, and it seems like he's trying to get the feel of X-Play back with these new people. I wish Morgan would make an appearance, but who knows.

I love Adam on Revision 3! It's the Sess at his very best, not only reviewing games, but going in depth in what they mean to the industry as a whole, and as an art form. The other day I watched for an hour him discuss with three other game journalist Bioshock Infinite. I couldn't match their enthusiasm for the game itself, but their insight and critique was superior to anything G4 did it's entire run.

http://revision3.com/host/adam-sessler

Agree with him or not, this man deserves your traffic.

I watched that one, then I watched Colonial Marines, and I would have watched the Tomb Raider one, but I haven't beat it yet! I could have sworn that the next episode would be about Dead Space 3 though, and I was looking forward to hearing what they had to say about that.
Anyway, you're completely right. I just wish that the guests that he got for the show (not his coworkers, because they're fine) would be more...into it like he is. Adam gets really excited, uses facial expressions, is very animated, yet whenever he talks to other people, they really just sit there like lumps. It's kind of annoying.

 

[rbstewart7263]

Out of the poll options I have only seen The Big Bang Theory so I kind of had to pick it. No worries though, I actually do find it painful to watch, there is about one joke per episode that makes me laugh. And it has gotten worse since season one, I find with every new season they bother less to actually try and include something scientific and just go for the cheapest laughs.

I love how the people who picked TBBT are by and large the same people who will shout praise for "THE COMMUNITY."

Now thats a show that i cannot stand.

Well Community has some pretty genious parody episodes. I don't know how much you've seen of it but take for example season 2's Basic Lupine Urology, which is a brilliant spoof of the classic Law & Order TV series set in a community college with none of the characters actually having any jurisdiction, investigating the murder of a yam project.
<youtube=ocNcUNRmvFI>

Not all episodes are good naturally, season 1 especially started off rather meh but a few selected episodes are fantasticly good fun.

The escapist. where people who have enough for internet and 60 dollar games go to whine like there as stereotyped and underprivileged as people from mexico.

So what are you doing complaining about that here? You could use your valuable Escapist time for protesting against the latest US war or spend it working for a charity instead of wasting it!
A bit hypocritical, don't you think?

True actually it is hypocritical. Not ashamed to admit it.

 

[ajr209]

This blog post to me perfectly sums up just what exactly it is I don't like about The Big Bang Theory

http://butmyopinionisright.tumblr.com/post/31079561065/the-problem-with-the-big-bang-theory

It's long so you guys don't have to read it, but as someone who has seen the show, I certainly agree with a lot of its points.

You can't just add a laugh track to someone ending a sentence with Dungeons and Dragons or Firefly and call it a joke. That show isn't meant for geeks, it's meant for folks like Penny who don't understand them.

The show has been called Nerd Blackface, and while I think that's a bit hyperbolic, I get the gist as to why that comparison exists.

Anyway, I do agree that Revenge of the Nerds is pretty bad in that regard. That's really not what I was expecting when I saw it for the first time.

I haven't seen most of the other things on this list, I'm avoiding King of the Nerds like the plague because the very idea of it just sounds horrific to me.

But yeah, in regards to BBT, there's nothing I can say about it that isn't said better in that link I posted.

I've become increasingly uncomfortable with how jokes boil down to "lol, nerds are stupid because they know stupid things and like stupid things". Its exploitative, not representative. The link brings up the rather disturbing prospect that the show is also taking an laugh at not with approach to a potentially autistic character. Presenting special needs people in a very negative light just to squeeze a few more laughs out of a weak script isn't cool and it sure as hell isn't funny. After reading that blog I don't think I can look at TBBT the same way again, but I think that's definitely for the best.