Why do some nerds hate Big Bang Theory?

[Rylingo]

I used to really like it but the show should have ran its course by season 3. They should have set a plot and ended season 3 with Leonard and Penny getting married or something else climactic forcing the breakup of the four friends in their current state. Frankly the love storyline seems like its taking the piss. Character progression has slowed almost to a halt.

I like it when comedies set a total run time and stick to. I don't like when they stick around making the same joke over and over again ruining the fun of rewatching old series and being noisy as all hell until audiences lovingly stick a double barrel in its mouth and put it out of its misery.
I didn't want that to happen to BBT but it looks more likely by the second.

Also Amy is not Sheldon. The actress is trying her best and all but the Amy-Penny scenes are no where near as funny as the Sheldon-Penny scenes which are now scarce.

 

[Loop Stricken]

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?

My sister watches it, so I've seen a few of the episodes.
There's the occasional funny line, but most of it is crap. Maybe it's because it's American 'humor', whether it's trying to be smart or not.

And then there was that one episode where one character had his WoW account hacked? I don't see how they can call the game by name (so there's obviously no lawsuit issues there), and then get so much wrong about it.
Battle ostriches? It's a bloody hawkstrider.

Tell me how the fuck this is funny?

"My new computer came with Windows 7" *Laughter*

... what. What?

 

[Savagezion]

The stereotypes are the primary joke. Also the technobabble works in two ways. One, it's genuinely funny to those who get it and two, the fact that it's babble is funny to those who don't

No. They do not incorporate jargon and jokes fitted to profession at all.

You missed the point. The joke is that these guys happen to BE the "unrealistic" stereotype. The joke is that they ARE they stereotype. It isn't perpetuating one, it isn't trying to immitate reality, it is simply having fun with an idea. The premise is simply stereotype A meets stereotype B. Leonard is clearly the point of fusion between the two. You can even break it down further that each of the 4 male leads represents different faucets of the stereotype.

It isn't intended to be a show dedicated to humoring physicists/engineers. They just needed a job that would play into the stereotype.

The technobabble is just that. Scrubs on the other hand is a show that did have 2 layers of comedy, whereas TBBT is marketed to the lowest common denominator, which is a shame, because the first season was quite good and at least they made an effort.

Show has been garbage ever since they made Howard a ladies man, and Sheldon went from socially awkward to obnoxious aspergers dickhole.

Howard isn't a ladies man, he's desperate. He is a pervert who is getting married to the first girl that has interest in him. He would have married Penny's slutty friend or Darlene's character had things been allowed to progress. As for Sheldon, I will agree they altered him slightly, but if you pay attention to his character developement in season one, they accidentally painted themselves into a corner with that character. What Sheldon's character needs (even though it breaks the metaphor for the social defense mechanism he represents) is to find himself extremely attracted to someone and not know how to deal with it.

All shows, including Scrubs, use stereotypes. (Hell, most writing does.) Situation comedies are actually modeled after the idea of taking two or more stereotypes and putting them in a confined space ala Odd Couple. There are a lot of stereotypes about nerds. The characters on Big Bang Theory aren't suppose to be realistic, they are the embodiment of of different stereotypes. Look at Penny, she has a ton of friends but is always hanging out with the 4 main guys. They are simply because they need to fuel the stereotype. She is a midwestern girl who moved to CA to become an actress who is a waitress. Stereotype again.

The spirit of the show is a light-hearted view of stereotypes. I am not saying everyone has to watch it but to discredit its writing for something it isn't even trying to do is ridiculous.

 

[gazumped]

The jokes aren't funny and it's simply made of nerdy references so idiots can go "OMG I KNOW ABOUT THAT LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL, ISN'T THIS FUUNNY?!?!?!?"


Tell me how the fuck this is funny?

It's a joke about Sheldon's desire to use more complex and hard to use systems born out of his obnoxiousness and need to be better than everyone else, plus his anti-social nature makes it make sense that he would be anti-user-friendly. The other guys aren't like that so they wouldn't have said the same thing, it's not necessarily just a nerdy joke, it's a Sheldon joke, and I guess that means it's only funny if you're fond of the character(s).

I have to admit, though, before reading some of the comments in this thread I hadn't realise how often they play the canned laughter, that's pretty annoying.

 

[Savagezion]

The jokes aren't funny and it's simply made of nerdy references so idiots can go "OMG I KNOW ABOUT THAT LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL, ISN'T THIS FUUNNY?!?!?!?"


Tell me how the fuck this is funny?

It's mocking elitist douchebags. People are laughing at how pompous Sheldon is because people can relate to how stupid that ideology is. Even here at the escapist how many times do you see console gamers as viewed as the people we have to "dumb stuff down" for and PC users are the "master race". Sheldon is saying Windows has been "dumbed down" for the lowest common denominator. Its actually making fun of the attitude many people have towards this show like it fails to meet some elitist standard. Leonard's follow up line was probably something akin to either "do not feed the troll" or how Sheldon needs to "lighten up".

 

[Shock and Awe]

Probably because it plays off sterotypes a lot and I suppose it makes a lot of people uncomfortable with themselves, the whole "Hey I don't do that! Do I?" sort of thing. Though thats just my take on it, I personally love the show.

 

[Savagezion]

I have to admit, though, before reading some of the comments in this thread I hadn't realise how often they play the canned laughter, that's pretty annoying.

Most sitcoms with laugh tracks do that to keep the tone set. It is easy to tune out if you watch a lot of sitcoms though. I will admit that BBT does seem to overdo it though.

 

[Savagezion]

No PC gamers say they are part of the "master race" unless it is a joke. It has been said 1000 times that the phrase came from yahtzee as a joke, no one ever made it seriously.

Oh I have seen plenty of people refer to "dumbing down for consoles" in a serious manner. And the spirit of the message is that PC users are better.

 

[Loop Stricken]

It's a joke about Sheldon's desire to use more complex and hard to use systems born out of his obnoxiousness and need to be better than everyone else, plus his anti-social nature makes it make sense that he would be anti-user-friendly. The other guys aren't like that so they wouldn't have said the same thing, it's not necessarily just a nerdy joke, it's a Sheldon joke, and I guess that means it's only funny if you're fond of the character(s).

It's mocking elitist douchebags. People are laughing at how pompous Sheldon is because people can relate to how stupid that ideology is. Even here at the escapist how many times do you see console gamers as viewed as the people we have to "dumb stuff down" for and PC users are the "master race". Sheldon is saying Windows has been "dumbed down" for the lowest common denominator. Its actually making fun of the attitude many people have towards this show like it fails to meet some elitist standard. Leonard's follow up line was probably something akin to either "do not feed the troll" or how Sheldon needs to "lighten up".

Now, I understood this when I watched the video. I got it.
It's still not funny. A computer coming with Windows 7 is not funny.

If they didn't have the laughter track for the first two fucking sentences, the joke would've been greatly improved.

 

[Flamezdudes]

To be honest, I don't understand the hate either. I like the show and quite a few of my friends who are of the geeky sort like I am like it aswell.

But I can understand if people don't, everyone has personal taste.

 

[Savagezion]

honestly, when i watch Big Bang Theory (while it is funny) i just dont get why they are suposed to be extra smart nerds. I mean come on, i learned 70% of what they say in school.

That's the thing, they aren't nerds, just a stereotype of them. If they were most people wouldn't get most of the references and the show would tank as a result.

No, the stuff is easy to understand so the viewer can relate (It is not too hard to follow) and if it ever gets hard to follow usually it is because they are complicating things the same way Penny usually does with "My friend's cousin's boyfriend told me that her nephew is..." As well sometimes they use the techno-babble to feed into the fact that Penny doesn't understand something and play up HER stupidity. It isn't funny that they know physics, it funny that they apply it to simple things like Superman's arms would have cut Lois Lane into 3 pieces trying to catch her from falling off the building.

The reason they need to be seen as "super smart" is because they need to appear successful so that way you believe they have $1,000 to blow on a replica of Jules Vern's Time Machine, tons of money on comics and gaming systems, computers, paying Penny's rent, etc.

 

[Savagezion]

No PC gamers say they are part of the "master race" unless it is a joke. It has been said 1000 times that the phrase came from yahtzee as a joke, no one ever made it seriously.

Oh I have seen plenty of people refer to "dumbing down for consoles" in a serious manner. And the spirit of the message is that PC users are better.

Many do have a point, due to the use of controllers, some games have to have some complexity removed to suit the consoles.

Just look at Deus Ex 1 which was made for PC and Deus Ex 2 which was made primarily for xbox, the difference is staggering. Thankfully this happens a lot less these days.

LMAO. The fact you entirely missed the point shows validity in the premise of the show. You just said, "elitism" is only EVER meant as a joke. I replied with "some people are serious". You reply with well "they have a point".

My point was that it is making fun of people who can't stand dumbing things down for other people. That's a Sheldon view only Sheldon sees everything in hyperbole. His character would look down on you. He doesn't need actual dialogue proving the character is smarter than you he just has to represent that.

 

[DANEgerous]

Mainly because people do not understand why they are laughing at it or find it funny then they talk to nerds about why it is funny and sound like a total an complete moron. This in turn can make all the jokes funny or not sound far worse.

 

[Mister Eff]

Loads of my friends like it but I'm not a fan of the shown at all. Here is why:

Three interchangeable main characters.
I don't find the references funny. I get almost all of them. Still not funny to me. That's all the humour in the show and I don't find it funny.
Sheldon's head is so far up his ass that it's coming out his mouth.
It steals viewers from Community.
Long live Community.
I really fucking hate Sheldon.

 

[Rylingo]

Now, I understood this when I watched the video. I got it.
It's still not funny. A computer coming with Windows 7 is not funny.

If they didn't have the laughter track for the first two fucking sentences, the joke would've been greatly improved.

I believe the laugh following his first sentence was ment to be for how he presented the line. He tells us he got a new computer whilst sounding pretty depressed. A poor joke but I can see why they stuck a laugh track there.

 

[Vault101]

oh and another thing that bugged me

in regards to Halo 3 "high definition graphics and the most advanced weopons systms!"

..............most advanced weopons systms?..WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN??!!

 

[isometry]

If your job was about making pizzas, does that mean you would enjoy a sitcom about making pizzas?

It would just come down to whether the jokes are funny. The fact that the topic of the show matches your job doesn't add anything.

For people who are not exposed to much or any physics, entertainment that uses physics as a subject might give them that physics-y feeling they've been missing. I think this is also part of the reason I did not enjoy Half-Life, Gordon Freeman being a physicist hits me like a sack of "meh, this game sucks", but my understanding is that other people find his character cool.

 

[Don Savik]

That I understand, but I'm just talking about simply not liking it. I'm talking about specifically nerds who have a loathing hatred for it, as though it is one of the worst things to blight television.

I think everyone hates stereotypes of themselves, the characters of BBT feel like they go beyond that at points, to the point of caricature. It's not 'hey, this is life like really smart aloof people live it' it's more along the line of 'this is how an amplification of most people stereotype scientists and geniuses and it's all condensed down into a few people'. It's more insulting than funny, there's a very small number of people who could sit down and say 'hey, that's just like my life' and laugh for that reason. But with BBT it's 'here are smart people, laugh at how different they live their life from us!'

I'm a pretty avid nerd. I play tons of games, and have knowledge of useless fictional universes that doesn't apply to everday society. I'm even really really really really shy and am not good at making friends......

but I have NEVER met a nerd as socially wacky as the cast of BBT. And I knew all the nerds in my town.

 

[Skin]

/snip

Don't know why your bashing me over the head with the "exaggerated stereotype" shtick, because I agree. What I don't agree with is the fact that there is a dual layer or any further complexity to the humor they use unlike Scrubs. The scientific technobabble rarely, RARELY has any inside jokes. I am not too sure about the comic books though, but from my experience, I doubt it.

They perpetuate a stereotype. Yes, I know. And that's it. I wouldn't expect that much more from Chuck Lorre though.

 

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

I can't vouch for other people, but it's a pretty stupid show in my opinion. It just runs its course using played out stereotypes for just about every episode using really overplayed character molds.