Why do some nerds hate Big Bang Theory?

[Fleeker]

I personally love the show Big Bang Theory, but some nerds I have spoken to, when I mention the show, show utter contempt for it. Why is it? I think it's a very funny show that depicts nerds in a fairly positive light, despite all the jokes. Is it because it's a popular show that give sit a sour taste?

Different people like different things.

Why do some people like one sports team and not another....why do some people like coke and not pepsi.

I am a fan of the show but I understand that some people will disagree and that is fine...they are as allowed to dislike it as I am to like it. I understand that my opinion is no better or worse then anyone else's so I don't judge others for what they think.

 

[thePyro_13]

Maybe they hit to close to home? /jokes

I personally find the canned laughter annoying, and sometimes the jokes/setups are just inane. On the whole it's not bad. I don't see much of a reason to hate it. As far as sitcoms go, it's quite good.

 

[TheJesus89]

Because it's not funny. Sure the joke is mildly funny at first(and I use "funny" in the loosest sense of the term), but the shtick gets so old by the end of the show. We get it, they're adults who act like nerdy teenagers. ha ha. They are better at computers then talking to girls. ha ha. I mean, how many episodes can they stretch the joke?

It's the same with all their (the directors) shows. Two and a Half Men? Let's see how many times we can make a joke about two 40 year old men who are still sexually active. Mike and Molly? Let's see how many fat cop jokes we can make. They aim for the lowest common denominator, and never try anything new.

The fact that these shows are successful destroys what little faith I have in modern mainstream comedy.

 

[Risingblade]

Because this.

You could potentially do this with any sit com, but it's rather more noticeable with this show.

The missing laugh track made me want to laugh a hell of a lot more than the jokes did

 

[Harrowdown]

Probably because it's essentially just another unclever fratboy show from chuck lorre pretending to be smart with a few big words.

 

[loodmoney]

To me, the whole show is just Chuck Lorre and everyone on his payroll going "Hey! Look! These guys are losers! Look at how the losers like to spend their time! Am I right? Am I right?"

This is a lot of it. It is a Chuck Lorre sitcom first and foremost; if someone wanted to know if they would enjoy Big Bang Theory, you would not ask "are you a nerd?", rather, you would ask "do you like Two and a Half Men?"

And being a Chuck Lorre sitcom, it suffers from the typical problems:
- Shitty stereotypes. (At the time that I stopped watching (season 3 or so), half the characters were no more developed than 'an ethnicity + 1 character quirk.')
- Jokes that can be predicted several minutes before they are made.
- Use of the laugh track for lines WHICH ARE CLEARLY NOT JOKES. I MEAN COME ON!

Furthermore, it has a whole set of nerd-specific problems:
- The main joke is often 'character x uses nerdy word/concept, character y explains nerdy word/concept'. Cue laugh track.
- (This also means that each joke potentially takes twice as long to tell; no joke that relies on some piece of arcane knowledge is simply left to the nerds of the audience, but is explained until the most braindead of the audience can understand it.)
- It gets things wrong. E.g. Sheldon says that the reductio ad absurdum is a logical fallacy. This would be forgivable for other shows, but not those directed at an audience that might be expected to know these things.
- Being one of the few shows on mainstream television that is "for" nerds, people who identify as nerds often feel obliged to like it (and quote it, unfortunately), instead of accepting it for what it is--a mediocre and formulaic sitcom that might have a handful of funny moments, but is mostly 'Two and a Half Men with nerds'.

 

[Turigamot]

Because real nerds watch Community.

QFT man! I love annie's boobs...


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(psst that would be the name of the monkey for those who didn't know/remember)

Community had me sold in the first minute of the pilot (Dean Pelton's speech seen in this clip here...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfjYaivKGJ8 )

BBT relies too heavily on individual jokes. You can watch a clip and find it funny on it's own but unlike other comedies it's rarely funnier in the context of the actual scene it's in. It's just a bunch of "people will be laughing about this scene tomorrow" moments strung together with little structure tying it all together. However to be fair to BBT a lot of comedies seem to make this mistake and yet remain wildly popular... I just figure if I'm going to watch a bunch of jokes loosely strung together I'm going to watch a stand-up routine.

I love Annie, period. The monkey who bears her boob's namesake is cool too, but come on, Annie. And really, Community nails nerd humor without having to try hard at all.

 

[Xanadu84]

I think it's because the show is trying to be a mix between jokes for self-aware nerds, and a tongue in cheek self-parody of outdated nerd stereotypes. But in practice, those outdated nerd stereotypes arn't so much quaint and old fashioned as...actively assumed by a lot of the population. Makes appreciating the parody a little harder.

But yes, Community is a MUCH better show, and nails "Nerd humor" with a lot more precision. In terms of mainstream television, only Community and Futuramas, "Benders Game" have managed a good representation of actual tabletop RPGs.

 

[Bran1470]

What the hell is the Big Bang Theory?

 

[RedDeadFred]

Most people who don't like it probably haven't even watched a full episode or have any clue what any the the character's personalities are like.
Most people who don't like it probably just go: "oh, another sitcom" or "this is too mainstream for me and I like to be cool by hating everything mainstream."
I don't think it's nerds who hate it.
The entire circle of friends with whom I hang out with are pretty nerdy and love the show.

Some people just really don't like sitcoms though and to be honest I hated them until one of my friends convinced me to watch a few episodes of this show.

 

[infohippie]

I gotta say, I rather enjoy it myself. I don't get the hate. It's just a sitcom, but at least it's better than crap like Friends.

And who didn't find hilarious Leonard's joke in season 1 about the spherical chickens in a vacuum?
I know it was meant to be funny that they found it funny, but I thought it was a good joke in it's own right if you know any physicists.

 

[loc978]

Wait, there are nerds who still watch TV?
...how very 90s of them.

I've heard of the show, but have no desire to learn more about it, much less watch it.

 

[Sud0_x]

I bought the first two seasons on a whim and loved it.
Lately, however, it's been a bit of a grind. The show just isn't as intelligent as it thinks it is and, as said by others, it can come off a little offensive and mean-spirited at times.

Also, say what you want about hating on the popular, it just shits me when people quote the most inane and unfunny things at me all day. "BAZINGA!".
Congratulations fucker.
^Directed at nobody here.

To otherwise contribute to ongoing discussion; I don't even notice laugh tracks any more.

So yeah.... take from that what you will. I still enjoy the show to an extent but I don't think it'll last for me.

Edit: Just adding, Kaley Cuoco's acting is painful to watch.

 

[PolloDiablo]

"My new computer came with Windows 7" *laugh track*

It's a show for thickies. A geek liking BBT is like a black guy liking this:
http://youtu.be/UfiNT6AKG0s?t=3m43s

 

[zelda2fanboy]

How dare someone make light of my lifestyle choices in a successful manner! It's a good show. Not as laugh out loud last season as others, but Sheldon's girlfriend is one of the greatest sitcom creations in recent television history. In fact, I'd go so far to say that it's the only well written and funny (traditional studio live) sitcom on TV right now. It's a dying art and it's nice to see someone still performing it as well as they do.

If you think this show was popular before, wait until it has been in syndication for awhile.

 

[ZeroMachine]

For example: Why is it called "The Big Bang Theory"? Because it sounds "science-y"? There's your problem right there.

Because it's about nerds and the hot neighbor they all want to fuck (or, as the title would have it, Bang).

It's stupid on so many levels that I get tired thinking about it.

 

[Bunnymarn]

It lacks the balance of characters that other shows have. There's either the nerds, who are all socially inept, or Penny, who's the complete opposite. The only one close to being in between that is Leonard, and he more often than not falls into the former camp. All the characters on the show are the same, apart from Penny.

Other shows however, have that balance. Seinfeld has Jerry and often Elaine to maintain the balance, allowing George and Kramer to do their thing without it being annoying. IT Crowd has Roy as a half-way point between Jen and Moss. Even The Wild Thornberrys had a successful balance with the characters.

It's all about striking a balance (in a show like this), and Big Bang Theory fails at that. It'd be like watching an hour and a half of Jack Sparrow running around without an opposite character or balanced character to level it all out; it's entertaining for a little while, but then it just gets boring and annoying.

 

[Move127]

I'm currently living in China, and I've found that most of the nerds I know over here love BBT. Some of them have watched the entire series 4 or 5 times. Possibly because of a stereotype difference.