Why do some nerds hate Big Bang Theory?

[JaysonM]

It's definetly not a show for nerds. I'm a nerd, I don't hate it, but I find some of there jokes to be trying a bit to hard.

It's a show for my sister not for me.

It's not as bad as a Law and Order show I watched once though. They were trying to depict a video game murder and omg the stereotype was just absolutely nonsense. If I remember correctly it had a guy getting mad at the investigator because he was turning off his playstation which he hadn't saved yet even though the guy had murder charges pressed against him . .. .

It's a pretty bad show but in terms of nerds I would say it's pretty accurate in terms of what they do. I know I do alot of the stuff in which they do in big bang theory, they do try hard with some of their one liners though such as - "SOMEBODY PASS ME SOME CRANBERRY JUICE ASAP!!"

 

[The Big Eye]

It's made by the same guy who makes Two and a Half Men, and it plays out like a version of Friends where every character is Alan Harper. If you have absolutely no sense of dignity or pride in your nerdiness, then I guess you could conceivably find it sort of funny; but I feel that nerds have been written by non-nerds for too long, and Theory is a hideously egregious example.
Yes, this is something I get a tad vindictive about. But I don't think my nerd rage is clouding my vision. It's just generally a middling sitcom (and, by extension, a horrible piece of entertainment).

 

[XxSummonerxX]

I was trying to get my friend into BBT, and he said he didn't like it because it "Misrepresented the subculture"

 

[Corpse XxX]

I love The Big Bang Theory, it pulls well on my giggle muscles!

Also, that Penny, goshdarnit she is beautiful, she is also a gamer irl..

 

[NoNameMcgee]

I wouldnt really be considered a nerd, but I think the show is okay in small doses. I can see why nerds might not like it after reading the thread; if all the technobabble actually makes sense to you and its actually wrong, thats not so funny. Anyway, to me its alright, but the characters get annoying after a while and if it wasn't for Sheldon I don't think the show would be remotely worth watching.

 

[PurePareidolia]

I tried to watch it but then I realized every joke, literally every one was "oh wow, look how nerdy these guys are". And so was everything else in the show.

I mean, that can be funny, I'll admit, but when it's every single joke in the show, and accompanied by a laugh track every time someone says anything, it gets both tired and insulting. It also means they're devoid of character and are just unlikable and unsympathetic.

And I know it's actual laughter, but that doesn't make it acceptable. The comedy should stand on it's own. If people need to be told when to laugh, your writers are bad and you should feel bad. I mean, why even include the audience? The only time laugh tracks are good is when you're making fun of sitcoms like this - It was genuinely funny in Scott Pilgrim.

 

[olicon]

I don't know whether I'm nerdy enough to make this call or not (I have a physics bachelor and master's of engineering) but I think nerds like the show just as much as anyone else. If anything, I have seen nearly every single one of the ideas in the series being implemented/occur in real life by my nerdy friends, or me.

Nerds are by far the easiest going groups you will ever see. Heck, if the whole world laughs at you, you pretty much know to laugh with them. If anything, a person with intellectual superiority really doesn't give a crap what you say to them (until you start hitting them) because if they so wishes, their words will always trump yours. They are rarely offended by stereotypes, especially bad ones.

Maybe OP's friend just feel the same way I do about most American shows--they're frikkishly annoying. I hated Family Guy and Southpark because they rely on "annoying actions" as humor--basically what Sheldon always does, minus the clever writing. If you don't get the references with Big Bang, then the clever writing part disappears there too.

On the other hand, I find Scott Pilgrim genuinely unfunny. It's interesting, sure. Novel? Yes. Funy? Not for me. I get all their references, but I just don't like the straight-face humor that they use.

 

[whynaut]

"The Big Bang Theory" is to nerds what "Amos and Andy" was to black people.

 

[docSpitfire]

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.

first I had to bold that because that phrase nearly made me rofl my cup noodles all over my keyboard.

second, Annie IS great! You're right about that. I think Annie makes the best stand-alone character, but I kinda like troy and abed a little more (but they wouldn't work as well without each other)


and third, I freaking loved "An American Tale" growing up... it's sequel too.

 

[Frybird]

I feel like coming late to the party, but yeah, count me in on the Hate Crowd.

As 2 1/2 Men, the main failing of the show, imo, is that the characters are just f*ing horrible.

Both Alan from Men and Sheldon from Bang are so stereotypical and downright retarded (not wanting to offend anyone, but especially Sheldon is shown as being an Aspie the same way Cartoons from 1930 or whatever portrayed black people and Nazis portrayed jews) that they are not only unlikable (wich isn't neccessarily a death sentence for a comedy character) but also nerve-wreckingly annoying.

And no character ever seems to really act beyond his limited set of stereotypes. Compare that to the Characters of Spaced, who are also stereotypes but don't act out there stereotypical traits in EVERY.SINGLE.SCENE. Or to The IT Crowd, with Moss being a socially awkward Ultra-Nerd to-the-extreme, but also also often acting in surprising ways depending on the situation.

And the Nerd-Reference-Stuff isn't so much "demeaning", "sterotypical" or even "wrong", but in my opinion mostly meaningless and not-really-funny.
Or even if it's sort of interesting or clever (like there was an episode where the Nerds are in the same train as Summer Glau and awkwardly hitting on her..i think), it feels like it gets pointed out annoyingly (...with one of the Nerds awkwardly having a long winded exposition speech so even the person sitting half-asleep in front of his TV getting why Summer Glau is such an Object of Affection to Nerds) and beaten to death (by having, as far as i remember, almost the entire episode just about that Gag).

And it really starts to annoy me how "real" Nerds tend to be so easily swayed by something that acknowledges stuff they like, even if the reference itself sucks.
I'm still baffled how so many people, for example, liked the World of Warcraft Episode of South Park, wich is in my opinion lazily written (Hurr Durr, WoW Players are Nerdy Fat Blobs that hold thier game to awkward importance).
(Once again, i prefer Spaced and The IT Crowd here for better acknowledging Geek- and Pop-Culture by rather subtly making a few nods or having a few "insider" gags that don't dominate an episode so much as to being in need for an explanation)

But in the end, most of all, it's just annoying and mostly unfunny.

 

[captaincabbage]

because their audience laughs at every sentence and half the jokes are just technobabble the average person wouldn't understand.

also stereotyyyypes

Half this and half that the jokes are just not that funny. I honestly can't understand why some people like it, the same way you can't understand why non-fans dislike it.

 

[Cat Cloud]

I don't get what people are saying about this being "realistic" in its portrayal of nerds. I know plenty of nerds who have better social skills and don't spout random "smart" stuff all the time.

 

[00slash00]

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?

its personally my favorite show on television (at least until friendship is magic, season 2, starts) but most of my friends hate it. from what i can tell, their issue with it is that it isnt comedy for nerds, its stereotypical jokes ABOUT nerds

 

[CaptVickHartnell]

A lot of nerds hate it for the same reason many African Americas probably hated the whole Blaxploitation thing. It deals almost exclusively with stereotypes. I do love the show though, and I'm a self-professed hardcore-nerd. I like it because some people I hang out with at my University Roleplaying Game club really do fit some of these stereotypes. Still, they could dial it back a bit and still be funny. The episode where Raj and Howard decide to "go goth" is a bit insulting to my goth/metalhead side because the goth girls they hook up with (or try to) are much more of a stereotype than the nerds. Just for reference, every person I know whom I'd describe as a proper goth (i.e. not an emo kid or scene-scum tryhard) is either a science student or an arts student who actually takes their art seriously, and most of them are also nerds as well.

 

[somonels]

Laugh track and the show's been absolute garbage after season 1.

 

[WalrusPowers]

The show just isn't made for geeks, its just about geeks.

For example, when Sheldon says something like: "Ahh Ubuntu, you are my favorite linux based operating system", everyone who doesn't know what Ubuntu is will laugh (apparently), but someone who does know what it is just sits there wondering how a tall strange person commenting on a very decent piece of software is supposed to be funny.

 

[tomenater42]

because the show sucks if you want to watch a comedy about nerds watch the it crowd

 

[Jimmybobjr]

Okay then lets start this simply.

The shows very base idea is so stupid, that im shocked anyone would like it.

Lets start with the basic overlying plot.

"There are a group of nerds, or Geniuses even, who live in a apartment across from a generic hot chick. But the best part is that the hot chick is taken ironicaly. Throughout the show, the nerds will get in a series of problems relating to non nerdy things- Girlfriends, for example. Then the nerds will react in a predictable way, and this will be the main source of the series comedy. To stay Modern, we will use certain situation topics to intrest the audience."

Imagine thats the sales pitch. Yeah. Doesnt look brilliant, but eh, good things have been done with less.

Okay, step two when choosing how a TV show will work is the Audience. There are dozens of types of people a show can be aimed at- Women, Men, Racial communities, the elderly, the British, Americans, Smart people, Dumb people, Tall people, Short people and so on. It is often that several of these catagories will be fufilled when creating a show.

Now, Using the "Sheldon's WoW account gets hacked" Episode, who exacticaly are they targeting? By stating the words "World of Warcraft" you guarantee that Every single World Of Warcraft player will sit up and take intrest. With an advertisement saying something like "This persons world of warcraft Account got hacked" almost every single World of Warcraft player will sit up and say "I can Relate to that" (Not litteraly, but you know what i mean).

This makes the World of Warcraft players an audience.

Then they realise the entire episode, and from there the show, is a entire show decicated to PICKING ON NERDS IN GENERAL.

I mean, within That world of warcraft episode alone, there are about twenty things that make fun of the nerd. The sheldon character attempts to murder someone with a BLADE OF AZZINOTH or something, The indian guy claims "I will have sex with a troll to get information" and that World of Warcraft is really a seedy blackmarket full of trolls.

And sure, this could be fine. COULD BE.

But then the last thing occurs- the creators of the episode alienate the World of Warcraft viewer by simply telling lies about the game. Draenei cant talk to Trolls, Trolls cant sit around in Alliance Taverns, You dont ahve to cross the ingame world to talk to someone, If your world of warcraft account is hacked, it is easily retreavable (Ussialy) and these brilliant minded nerds of the 21st century managed to get haced by some guy living in his moms basement.

What im trying to say here is that;

First, the show appears to be aimed at a certain nerd Demographic, only for the nerd demographic to be the but of the jokes.
Second, Said nerds are misrepresented as complete morons with no life whatsoever, who are willing to have Gay sex in order to gain information in a online world,
Third, The shows basic make up -Insecure guys living in close proximity to a hot girl- is something so damned common that its not cool.

So yeah, im not surprissed that "Some nerds hate Big Bang Theory"