I saw a quote in the Big Bang Theory that stuck with me: "I don't understand what he's saying, but he is funny!" "Oh, I understand and he is not..." That's the best summary of the show!
That's why I only enjoy the science jokes. I don't know enough about physics, engineering, astro-physics and neurophysics to figure out if what they are saying it blatantly wrong-
@@GameBreaker1055 It often (from what I remember) is correct but somewhat banal. It fits what someone in high-school or primary school might care about, but wouldn't make much sense as a conversation topic for people many years into their university degrees. The underlying joke is to remember the overly eager kid in class who tried to explain something and the target audience of the joke is the person who didn't want to learn back then. An actual maths-student activity might be to have a permutation drinking game where you have to swap clothes, but the focus there isn't showing that you know what a permutation is (because that is banal) the focus is having fun and socialising/partying, but that would go against the shows portrayal of nerds as a- and anti-social.
The distinction between "I understand nerd culture, I'm writing a show that nerds will find funny" and "I know just enough jargon to convince non-nerds that this is an apt portrayal" should not get lost this easily or often.
What makes you think it got lost? It's a show for normies. 'What idiots think of smart people the TV Show' Why would they make a show for nerds? Dumb people with money is a much better demographic. TV shows on broadcast networks are made for advertising.
so, i'm autistic, and the only time i have been truly offended by anything (that i can remember, at least) is when i went to a councillor to get a checkup and we were talking about my autism, and he said i should watch the big bang theory because "it's funny and shows people like me"
I had a bus driver to a band convention compare me to "special people like Sheldon Cooper" or something along those lines out of nowhere during a brief conversation. It was after a lot of the event had happened, so I'm sure I was tired and perhaps acting less neurotypical then my usual performance, but I hadn't even talked to the guy for most of the ride. I was just reading in the back. There weren't any other students around at the time so I guess he thought he was being insightful and even charitable by pointing out my differences.
while i jokingly dislike the show because its a very basic sitcom that wears nerd culture as a skinsuit, this is the one thing that honestly quite bothers me about it. are the writers actually aware that they're writing what seems like an autistic character and then making him the butt of a lot of the show's jokes?
The best joke on the show is something the writers didn't do but the costuming department did. Sheldon has the whole range of colored green lantern shirts (red, green, blue, yellow, etc.) and he will wear one appropriate to the mood he's in during the scene. (fear, anger, greed, etc,) This is never pointed out, it is not drawn attention to, it's probably not a choice the character is making in-universe as he doesn't know what his mood is going to be... but its an actual nerd joke deep cut, and its a subtle one. ONE person on the show, I don't know who, actually understood the assignment. Same with most of his shirts.
The true heroes and heroines are often unsung, toiling thanklessly in the shadows of noisier, more abrasive individuals. Still, that person was acknowledged here, by a few of us, and that is something.
Yeah the costumes for the show were consistent and amazing. Like, I used to watch the show a lot because not many better things were on cable at the time and honestly it was fun to watch purely because everyone's outfits always looked so good. And every now and then one of the jokes would end up being funny. You know if you swing the bat 3.000 times you're bound to get at least one hit.
that surprisingly interesting for that show, not enough to make me watch it but im glad to hear 1 out of the hundreds of people that worked on that show was an actual nerd
The problem with the big bang theory is that so many nerds think we were the target audience. We weren't. The real audience of that show was all the non nerds who don't understand us. So the references don't have to make sense, they just have to sounds "nerdy" enough.
Yeah, and that's the problem in on itself. US media always portraited educated or nerdy people as something to make fun of. BBT is just one of the latest in a long line of nerd-blackface.
They tend to write jokes using the 'look, we understand nerd culture and thats funny!' but if you have the slightest idea what they're talking about, you have to actively try not to think about how inaccurate the jokes are. That's the entire show.
"Big Bang Theory played Catan on it!" No, no they mocked "I have wood for sheep". That was it. That was the joke. The show didn't bother with the game, it was just for ONE JOKE. I honestly had no problems with the show existing until I saw that and then paid closer attention to references they'd throw out. I always thought it was just another dumb sitcom trying to find an audience and milk it... but from numerous episodes I watch I think I got the difference between it and other sitcoms: The character of Sheldon Cooper warps the whole thing by refusing to change to suit others. Instead, others *must* change to suit him. In another sitcom, this would likely be a "solved" issue early on. In BBT it's consistent through the show how his friends just roll with it, or are willing to concede things for his comfort. The fundamental core of the character hasn't changed, only the stage dressing to make it LOOK like there's been character growth. ... and once you start looking into that, you can start to notice that's pretty similar about the other three "nerds" of the cast. Now, I should watch the whole thing before fully ripping into it. That'd be fair. But considering THE SHOW WRITERS aren't fair to whatever they're lampooning in a week, and they get paid for it... I don't feel compelled to do more than they do for free.
@Denizen of The Depths Believe me, I'm well aware of the "target", and the general sense of things continued into "Young Sheldon". Which is a shame, because there's some decent moments of acting... buried under the rest of the junk. I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Home Improvement, because at LEAST they let the characters we're intended to laugh at have a WIN now and then. Not just be punching bags. Maybe MaRo needs to go back to writing for sitcoms, if it'll improve them again.
I always thought it was supposed to be a complete misunderstanding of nerd-culture - that was the joke: "This is what non-nerds think nerd-culture looks like." Maybe I just completely misunderstood the premise of the show, though. But I thought it was funny, looking at it from that angle.
My first girlfriend told me she liked nerds like the ones in Big Bang Theory. Like people who know a bunch of savvy facts that make for interesting conversation. No. I'm a real nerd, and you're going to get the deep-dive into Sith philosophy.
Yeah but I but you don't know the first thing about standard model particle physics buddy. Being a "nerd" is more about science than anything, its not about whether or not you enjoy comic books or superheroes, its about science and mathematics.
The scene that always sticks in my head from Big Bang Theory is when the main 4 characters are playing Halo 3. It's (allegedly) a 2v2 match, and no one actually even dies in the entire 30 second scene, despite constant shooting sounds from the TV. One of them even yells "I need a medkit," and the game doesn't even have medkits!
You mean the same scene where there are three hot girls and everyone ignore them? Did they ever go to a convention? Or have any friends? They would probably act stupid, but wouldn't ignore them. Pretty much the same with most people, really.
It's utterly baffling to me how many shows seemingly have nobody in even casual contact with the writing or directing staff, nor any of the actors, who knows a single basic thing about video games. Beyond, essentially, "Is this a video game?" - "Uh, I think so." - "Okay, well, put it in the box thing and hook it up, and then we'll shoot this gaming scene." - "Okay." Nobody ever actually spends ten minutes playing the game to get even a surface sample of how it _works_ or plays.
@@hazukichanx408 Ironically, House of Cards US did this well iirc with Kevin Spacey playing Advanced Warfare. Also a joke only people who know about the game understand, i.e. Nerds, because he is in the game. The best scenes are where they play an unnamed game and don't show the TV, but most of them also have them just using the controller and pressing buttons randomly. Sometimes I wonder if they couldn't just called Twin Galaxies and asked them how you play a game.
"You can tell when the writers of a joke understand the source material." This is why, whenever someone asks me the best parody I've ever seen, I point to the Looney Tunes's spoof of opera. When I was a kid, I thought it was funny and goofy. Now that I know about opera, it's five times as funny because I know how much the writers must have loved the Ring Cycle to capture how ridiculous it is in such a loving fashion.
The "IT Crowd" was already better at portraying geeks than the BBT. Sure, still based on some stereotypes; but then those also sometimes come dangerously close to life ^^' BigBang was the standard Hollywood-like, filtered down vision of a topic, made by a people as disconnected from the life of a geek, as they are from the life of working poor / agricultural or physical workers / immigrants. Well, basically any other social strata than pampered Californian boho ^^'
It's weird, considering how the IT crowd is one of the worst shows ever created in the sitcom genre. It is completely unwatchable garbage, yet it indeed captures the nerdculture rather well.
I felt the same way when I saw the clip of them playing Dungeons & Dragons. But Big Bang Theory's main audience isn't actual nerds, it's non-nerds and the people who call themselves "nerds" because they have a passing knowledge of the MCU and read the first two Harry Potter books in middle school.
A nerd is someone who is intelligent and introverted or socially awkward, just because you like superheroes and comics books does not make you intelligent, shut the fuck up
Even then, that’s dumb anyways because what they’re describing is a geek. Nerd and geek are two completely different things, but a lot of people tend to forget about that.
I am quite nerdy. My field is in science. I like computer games, I like flags, I am awkward around women. And I love this show, at least the first few series.
I once said to my mother that Big Bang Theory laughed _at_ us, not _with_ us. She replied that this is how me and my father sound to people like her. Told me a lot about my mother right there.
This is basically why this show is successful. It has enough references to attract people that have a deeper knowledge than the writers, but it also attracts the big crowds of people that laugh "because they act so funny". People laugh about the same thing for different reasons.
my mom will never shut the hell up about my best friend acting like Sheldon Yet if I'd ever compare her to a sitcom character written to be obnoxious, I don't think she'd think it was a compliment
As someone who has both a PhD in Physics and an avid love of gaming I cannot possibly express how much I despise the Big Bang Theory, so thanks for this video.
@@happybear3706 Nah man, It's tropey af. The setting may be nice, but wtf the change the gender of a child because the mother eats different things when pregnant?? That's not how anything works.
With a basically identical background i sometimes feel the same. But then i have to remember myself that The Big Bang Theory is entertainment and not a documentary. It's like complaining that magic in games won't work because of thermodynamics or how bad Kerbal Space Program is because the Oberth-Kuiper maneuver doesn't work correctly. It is okay for some stuff to be wrong as long as it is entertaining. My problem with The Big Bang Theory is more like: For me it simply isn't entertaining. Take away the laugh track and it becomes obvious that it isn't just wrong in most points - it is boring as hell.
It drives me insane. The non-nerds in my life find it hilarious and remark "you should love this, it's about you!". No, it's fucking not, and they couldn't even be bothered to make it accurate OR funny.
@@samwise210 Yeah, I'm not gonna go as far as compare it to a minstrel show. It's just a buncha bone-headed Hollywood writers making fun of nerds. They can't really hold a candle to Jim Crow, slavery, and all that
Hahaha but they play World of Warcraft and hunt for sword of Azeroth so it totally must be enjoyed by me, an avid gamer. No it's fucking not and STFU Karen
@@woobackwednesday2299 it's exactly the same thing though. It's not meant to laugh with, and Josh misses the point. The point isn't to be accurate. The point is to criticize and mock their culture. Exactly like minstrel shows
I remember when BBT first came out. I was just finishing my final year of highschool and I was a huge nerd. I remember very specifically having it pitched as "a show about nerds, by nerds, for nerds!" and I got all of half way through the first episode before I was convinced that no-one on the writing team understood nerd culture at all, and that all the jokes were either nonsense or playing in to stereotypes about nerds in the same way that US shows and movies have been making fun of nerds for decades.
Exactly this. You can try to pitch it however you want, but at the end of the day, you're writing a show about "nerds as seen by non-nerds" with all the worst stereotypes non-nerds have gotten to promote about nerd culture for decades.........and you're telling people they should laugh at it.
I am quite nerdy. My field is in science. I like computer games, I like flags, I am awkward around women. And I love this show, at least the first few series.
My worst joke there was when they said X-men came from Xavier's name so they would be C-men due to Sheldon having the name Cooper. The x did not came from Xaviers name. It was in the comics when Magneto accused the same with him and then he said the X came from them being more than men they are eXtra. A comic book nerd who cannot joke would never say so blatant stupidity.
Those who make a nerd-themed show and are not prepared to research their source material, deserve every well-aimed shot they get for it. Like this one!
I'm not really all that familiar with the X-Men lore but I always tought that the X in X-Men was because of the fact that the gene that activated their mutant powers was named the X gene or something ..at least from vague memories from my childhood and the cartoon. Oh well
I remember someone saying "they're not laughing *with* us, they're laughing *at* us". I think it's fitting. Also me and my wife, huge nerds (enough to have two entire rooms covered with all kind of paraphenalia, in our thirties) found the episodes very repetitive... after the fourth episode.
When people ask me why I don't like the show I usually say something along the lines of "it's like blackface but against nerds" and all of a sudden they know exactly what I mean.
You don't know how much I feel being understood after this clip and the whole chat agreeing. Most of my Life I haven't seen a single episode of big bang theory. Maybe some scenes shown by friends or by skipping channels on the TV. I've known it exists, I've known it's about a group of nerds and I've known catchphrases like "Bazinga". Now at my last job I was chatting with a coworker, who - on a regular basis - would say something like "that's exactly something sheldon would say, I swear." And she would be extremely shocked, every single time I tell her that I haven't seen the show. So then one evening I was extremely bored and was like "you know what? Imma watch some episodes." I finished a whole season in a few days, because everytime I told my coworker "I really don't think it's funny at all" she would insist, that it gets better. Spoiler. It didn't get better. Now my problem with the show isn't necessarily that it's picking jokes at nerdy-clichés, but that the writers really don't seem to understand humans at all. Women only exist for being sexy and they don't know anything about ... anything. Except they aren't extremely good looking. In that case they are extremely smart and somewhat nerdy. And Nerds literally all work science-jobs and use "difficult language, 'normal' people can't possibly understand" And it's not like I'm against cliché humor or anything. It's just like Josh said: Please get the Jokes at least right ffs. It's not funny, when most of the jokes are build upon "haha. look! nerd be derp!" and "Hot Women! Am I right?" That's not how you write comedy. And while I'm aware that humor is very subjective, I'm still amazed at how this show could become this popular.
my humble opinion : pre-registered laughs = bad show by default. There can exist 1 or 2 exceptions purely to confirm the rule. A good comedy show don't need this for its audience to know when to laugh.
Not a fan of laugh tracks, but they have shown more than once, that the show was filmed with live audience. I'm ok with that source of laughter, but also I'm pretty sure, they "helped" some scenes with additional canned laughs.
@@rubikmonat6589 You and everyone else should also check out the one with Tidus' forced laughter from FFX grafted over the normal canned ones. I think it's the singular time I've ever come close to even being able to quietly chuckle at that shambling abomination that passes itself off as a TV show.
Brings back memories of being told that I had no personality because I didn't watch the show as I was a physics major. From the engineering student that was struggling with basic intro physics courses and coming to me for tutoring.
I remember when my normie friends recommended me this show when it came out and told me it was the most hilarious thing ever - i should like it since i'm a NERD. I felt exactly like josh and i don't see these people anymore today, helped me ultimately realize that's how they actually saw me for real.
this. The fact they don't understand they are not nerd jokes, they are jokes laughing at nerds. They are the equivalent of imitating someone with a dumb voice "Huu huu, loOk At mE, aM a NeRd lMaO" It would be like a show "about women" written by men and the character only talks about their periods and then you go to your women friend and say "look, it's like you, da women, cause periods"
This is why I have such a huge respect for Robot Chicken. Even if the jokes completely miss, I'm both fascinated and impressed with the depths that they often go to with the subject matter they're paroding. They'll talk about facts no one even thinks about, and I appreciate that.
The Big Bang Theory is like a Basketball sitcom and having the players themselves talk about baskets being homeruns or point guards being umpires and thinking it's the correct terminology as the punchline of a joke. That's how blatantly wrong they are with science, comics, movies, pop culture, or really anything on the show. Also, you remove the canned laughter and nobody laughs at the jokes, even those who say they find the show hilarious. That's how poorly written the jokes are, no one knows they're a joke without the canned laughter.
I remember there was a time when it was really popular and suddenly everyone was like "Oh I'm so clever, I understand what nerds are all about" And it was so annoying because no, you really don't because the show is more about playing to stereotypes people already expect to see, than doing anything natural. And no one seemed to realize that was a problem. It's practically slander.
Like most people, I was recommended to watch BBT because of the "nerd jokes" BBT is not a bad show, but it's not a "nerd show", it's a generic sitcom with geek flavour, it's basically "nerd F.R.I.E.N.D.S" The only thing the nerd flavour does is amp up the cringe for people who do not like sitcoms
If you go into the show with the mindset: "This is what non-nerds think nerd-culture looks like," it's actually pretty funny. Maybe I just really misunderstood the premise, but I always thought BBT was supposed to be a misrepresentation of nerd-culture, deliberately over-the-top and ridiculous to make it obvious how wrong and silly nerd stereotypes are... Either that was not the intention at all, or the writers underestimated just how over-the-top they'd need to be to get the point across.
@@LadyDoomsinger I'm with you, I liked the first seasons (stopped watching since) and always saw it as parody of nerd stereotypes (after all thats what they are). I remember the joke Josh talks about and I knew it was imposible to work like that, but I think is more the writers taking liberties to make the situation funny and quick, and not necessarily because they don't understand
What's wrong with realizing that the majority of people don't respect thirty year old man babies and wanting to make yourself more appealing and approachable in society? I'm a "nerd" but I don't wear marvel/DC shirts hats and whatever else when I go outside, my house isn't decorated with cartoon posters and action figures, who would respect a full grown man who lived like that, why would a full grown man even choose to live like that in the first place?
I’ve never understood why people get so bent out of shape about men wearing cartoon T shirts or (gasp!) buying a poster. As long as you’re not playing the Power Rangers theme on full blast or shoving Funko Pops where the sun don’t shine it really isn’t that big of a deal. You guys should be punching up on people who actually suck like child predators, racists or corporate lobbyists if you wanna feel superior. Also, a lot of “nerds” are disabled or autistic so their weird interests can’t really be controlled. It’s just how their brain works, not even the biggest societal push could really change that.
@@CatzlovichCatnipAndCabbages Because a full grown man doesn't give a damn about what other people think of him. Allowing peer pressure to sway you from enjoying something you like is little kid shit.
@@michaelm6179 "Allowing peer pressure to sway you from enjoying something you like-" You can like whatever you want but what you like doesn't have to be your entire personality, you can still be a respected member of society and also enjoy watching marvel movies or whatever but dressing and decorating your house with figurines and action figures like a child is not an adult thing to do, these things tell people that you are still childish and have yet to fully mature into adulthood which is alarming when the person running around dressed like a kid is very obviously in their early to mid thirties.
@@CatzlovichCatnipAndCabbages I agree there's a certain degree of moderation here but there is a relevant quote: “Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” -- C. S. Lewis. I really don't see an issue with someone having a few figures and comic t-shirts as long as they still contribute to society. Who are any of us to judge?
BBT has the same problem I have with alot of other sitcoms: Unlikable characters and every other thing they say is a passive aggressive snipe at someone else, writers confuse 'wit' with 'sarcasm'.
@@nobodyshome6792 I personally don't think it's cynicism most of the time, although you're right there is a bit of that. I think it's mostly just being insulting and nasty to each other, and as long as you put a laughter track behind it, then it suddenly becomes funny, apparently.
@@adamr6621 sarcasm is typically funny and usually intended to be so. Cynicism isn't supposed to be funny, nor is it inherently so. The definitions of those 2 terms also indicate such concepts. As ridicule is inherently intended to be funny (sarcasm) whereas cynicism itself is just a negative view of the world or concepts.
I think sitcom characters are generally supposed to be unlikable, so the audience doesn't feel bad about laughing over their various awkward situations and embarrassing blunders.
It's funny because as Josh described it I didn't even get that the sword was supposed to have been sold in a single scene, and instead I assumed he had gotten the same drop in game.
Another example would be when someone stole Sheldon's mounts, and for those that don't know, its impossible to do because most of them are bound when they drop and even if a mount is tradeable, once you use it, it becomes bound.
I have played at least one game where they weren't bound and could be freely traded at-will. Granted, this was an Asian again from like... shit, maybe at least ten years ago.
I have another scene that I keep getting reminded of. There is a Physics game show/bowl, and Sheldon makes a team of his own without the rest of the cast. It eventually gets to the wire on the last question and Sheldon freezes when it comes up. What's the problem you ask? Sheldon is a high-energy physicist (such as myself) and not only should he know this question, as it is something taught at the bachelor's degree level, but he should also know that there is not enough information to actually calculate the real result.
I have the same exact problem with that show. It tries really hard to tell a story about a group of nerds while not understanding the actual nerd culture. It's basically a cartoon - and not a good one.
@@slovnicurling9808 Now everyone's fucking expert in what constitutes "story" are they? Give me a working definition, and how it doesn't manage a story into a 21 minute timeframe. Then we can discuss the various arcs that do actually occur across various episodes. One things that's always vividly observable. BIG BANG THEORY is eminently better than the ignorant bullshit that people with a cursory insight into it say. The quirky part is, most of the people that make the argument that it's not well verse in its topics, aren't well verse in BIG BANG THEORY. At all.
The US has always struggled to make comedy shows with longevity, big bang is just a collection of stereotypes being thrown at a wall of mediocre jokes. They even have the token coloured guy, who of course is indian because if he was black that'd make a lot of the jokes that use that character unacceptably racist to a murican audience.
@Denizen of The Depths Stereotypes exist for a reason, and that reason is because humans are lazy and find it easier to judge entire communities than meet them individually.
Hit the nail on the coffin with this. Its surface level joke after surface level joke to please a wider audience, most of which are decidedly NOT nerds, with references of what pop culture thinks of "smart" people hasn't even been entertaining let alone compelling. Also I'm in physics and the number of times I hear "OH so you're Sheldon!" from distant family members just makes me cringe.
No you're right. They should try and syndicate a nationwide show, with intricately obscure fucking jokes, that 7 people from Comicon can test each other with. Yeah that totally would have been about 10% as successful as COMMUNITY.
Could have made it so they sold a farm run spot with loot rights and then it turns out the 3rd guy was the one that bought the carry, that would be more accurate but already a too complex context to set up for the target audience to understand what's going on
100% agree. I always hated that show since its beginning. It was kind of a way for people to make fun of nerds but say "Hey, we are talking about you, relax!"
I always thought it was a show for nerds about how "normies" (aka. the writers) don't understand nerd-culture at all. If you go into the show with the mindset: "this is what non-nerds think nerd-culture looks like," it's actually pretty darn funny. Maybe I just completely misunderstood the premise though.
The show is written to appeal to a larger audience, not specifically just to nerds, just because some of the jokes/references are technically not correct does not take away from the humorous situation.
Every TTRPG player I've ever known has loathed the Big Bang Theory. Every single one, I have yet to meet anyone in that hobby that even likes that show a little bit. And that is a crowd that argues and debates about EVERYTHING, so that's a pretty damning indictment right there....
I'm a TTRPG player, although I've always been way more into video and board games, and I've enjoyed TBBT. It's actually one of the things that's always puzzled me: everyone on the internet seems to hate it, claiming that it's for non nerds and no nerd can possibly enjoy it, yet I'm one of the nerdiest people I know and I used to really like it. The few people I've shared it with have also really liked it, and they're also nerds. I watched it for about the first 6-7 seasons until the quality seemed to be falling low enough that it didn't feel worth watching anymore. And I've never understood the universal hatred of it online. Maybe I should do a bit of polling among the current nerds I play with. I've actually started to think that maybe all the people complaining about it online are actually the not so nerdy general public, and everyone who does enjoy it is just scared to admit it. I will admit, I wasn't impressed by the first episodes, but it started to grow on me pretty fast. All the characters are definitely very much caricatures, and many of the props and scenes have accuracy errors that I largely attribute to trying to make things more understandable to those who aren't intimately familiar with the subject, but I do relate to much of the things the characters do.
Oh yeah, it could also be a culture thing. I live in Finland, where self-deprecating humor is pretty popular. I assume most of the people commenting here are American.
Big Bang Theory is the epitome of "Laughing at someone" instead of "laughing with someone". The """nerds""" are displayed as *pathetic, childish, laughable, boring* for the things they like. And it's not like the writers have something to say about a *particular property*. Like, say, there is a new moneygouging mobile game, leeching off the success of the franchise that is very dear to the hearts of the """nerds""". That could actually be an episode filled with jokes that people in the know can *laugh at*. Instead, episodes boil down to "look how laughable their interests are!". Basically fuel for all the people who didn't get out of the "ostracise, point finger and laugh" phase from highschool.
Sadly a lot of us fancy monkeys seem to stay in that phase for most or all of life. Pushing others down to make ourselves feel taller, since we never learned to build ourselves up. Best those of us who realize it can hope to do, is be careful not to slip into the same pattern... nor bother trying to interact with those who refuse to consider the folly of clinging to it.
There's a reason why shows that require being in the know are rarely, if ever, successful lol. This is especially true for sitcoms, which are intended for people to not have to think. That isn't a bad thing either mind you, as we've gotten a lot of great hits from those sorts (e.g. Married with Children). It's all about the target audience. That much has never changed. BBT is no exception, where the target audience is not the subject of the show, especially with people who actually take nerd culture seriously. I personally think that's funny in its own way if people are offended by the shows poor representation of nerds/geeks lol. Get to laugh at a bad show AND people that may be butthurt over it.
What really pisses me off about this show until this very day is that I had friends who were fans of the show because they didn't see all these flaws since they weren't aware of how bad every reference were.
It is indeed bad. And it is also insulting. The little I watched was basically "nerds are dumb inferior people but luckily they're neither black nor gay so it's okay". I left it within five minutes and I have no will to give it any second chance. And it's exactly like that, jokes that are done without a real understanding of nerds, simply the most surface level stereotypes. And the joke's punchline wasn't just something related to nerds that would be funny within the nerd culture or something to laugh with a nerd, so to speak, but it was "it's funny because we're pointing how nerds are beneath us", to laugh against the nerds. It felt full of contempt if not outright hate. Some times I've thought about re-watching that in case I was in a foul mood at the time, making me lean to the worse possible readings of the jokes, as I don't remember the concrete gag that I took that way; but I really doubt I'd change opinion since I'm for humor about anything and everything and when I take something that way I always keep thinking on it for a while to beat down that interpretation and I couldn't reject it at that time.
Another case of this is when they're playing D&D and Penny wants to roll her dice for her character's actions. Howard, who is the DM in this session, says that 'the Dungeon Master is supposed to roll'. Like...errm....no? The DM rolls for the enemies and stuff, but players roll for their own characters. That is literally D&D 101. Or how Raj once opens a door to trigger a trap and Sheldon just lets him open the door and he dies immediately. No asking him if he's sure that's a good idea, no letting him roll dodge to try and evade the trap, he's just dead. Correct if I'm wrong, but a good DM doesn't WANT the players to die. Right>
Nerd minstrelsy might not be as problematic as the original version, but that is basically the complaint here. A good comparison with Big Bang Theory is IT Crowd. IT Crowd feels like they actually cared about using both their reference-jokes and their stereotypes to add depth to the humour.
Like, the Internet joke for example. It's a funny prank that's *actually from geeks' perspective*, and we are laughing *with them* at the little black box with the blinking light. We understand why the joke works, what's so funny about the concept of the Internet being a tiny black box. BBT is about anything *but* geeks' perspective. It's nerds under glass, that simple-minded people come tap at while at the zoo.
@@angryKleiner Still can't get over that joke, it was so good. Best thing for me was that a friend of mine who isn't a nerd, laughed at this a lot. It was pretty funny listening to her laughing at the idiots in the show.
Yes, IT Crowd, with the archetypal Goth locked in the server room. Yes, that's totally not extreme mockery. And BBT is the fucking "minstrel" show. RIIIIGHT.
@pathogeneration5138 The actor Noel Fielding always wears unconventional clothes, so it wouldn't surprise me if he had been goth in his youth and had a significant influence on his character. It also doesn't actually mock him in my opinion. He is less absurd than for example the boss. IT Crowd is clearly written by people who are in touch with the IT-world both in terms of nerd stereotypes, interests and pain-points.
It's not even the fact that it is nerd culture, it paints people in their professions in a negative light. If you are in one of those professions, you actually probably know some nerds and they are never like that. Makes it look like Physicists and Engineers do nothing but goof around all day.
One thing to point out about the "Ebay" thing. It's the same thing as how no-one coughs on shows unless they are sick. If they showed us the time taken to post the item, to it being bought the episode would have run for 73 minutes and the show would have moved on from the joke. This way they set it up, and finish it in about a minute, and move onto the next thing.
When I hear "my truth" I immediately understand "my arrogant opinion but I'm too untitled to label it as that". There is *the* truth, and there is opinion and interpretation of it, but that's it.
Eh, truth is a lot more subjective than people like to accept. That doesn't mean you get to just reject every piece of criticism, but everything we perceive is filtered through our senses and experiences. Best to keep open minded about that. Objective, inarguable truth only exists on very limited scale (if you really wanna go down that hole, you'll end at Cogito Ergo Sum) That said, most people use '"my truth" as an excuse and that's stupid.
When you apply the term correctly it means something that has no definite truth. For example that Big Bang Theory is not funny. It had several seasons so someone must have watched it. It's a very firmly held opinion.
@@dojelnotmyrealname4018 It's true that vaccines don't cause autism. Any other claim, opinion or whatever is simply not true. There is no subjective thing about that. And so is with basically all of those "my truth/opinion" claims.
I didn't like it either because it felt like you were to laugh AT them rather then WITH them. Josh summed up my feelings with the writers not understanding what they were referencing. It just felt more insulting than anything. There is ONE episode I like, and it's 100% because it has George Takei in it and he's amazing through the whole episode.
Mudak The Multiplier: "When people ask me why I don't like the show I usually say something along the lines of "it's like blackface but against nerds" and all of a sudden they know exactly what I mean."
In BBT's defence; The Sword of Azeroth was fairly early in the show. Even though i too was annoyed by it for reasons Josh said but also the name Azeroth which was clearly just a reference to WoW just to sound familiar and cool. Some things got a bit better later on though. An example was a few episodes later Sheldon playing Mario64 on an "poorly coded emulator" on the stairs in the hall and every time Penny interrupted he pushed a pause button and a faint Mario64 pause sound could be faintly heard every time. You didn't hear any actual gameplay sounds but i thought that was actually edited in pretty clever and made it feel "real".
I dont know, a similiarly bad episode about SWTOR (Star wars the old republic) came pretty late in the show and it was just basically more of the same "im saying stuff that might sound like im playing a game" joke. "I have worked hard for this armor" ... He said while being level 18
@@naokaderapider4210 Well you kinda proved the point i tried to make. You already said you've seen that late in the show so i guess at least up to then it was entertaining enough for you to watch. Yes it had it's ups and downs and i in no way will claim that it's perfect or extraordinary but judging a show on a few lame or inaccurate jokes in the first episodes is a bit harsh. Also those where mostly filler jokes. I think it was mostly about the weird and awkward interactions of all the characters. Sheldon never won a Nobel prize in real life too but should i judge that show on that inaccuracy?
@@naokaderapider4210 Somehow i don't find it really believable that someone didn't watch the show yet still goes on about ready all the plots of the episodes.....
I think one of the most reveling thing I saw about that show was when the actor that plays Sheldon was on saturday night live and in his little intro speech made it clear that he wasn't like his character, with pretty much disgust in his voice, it is pretty clear that those characters are supposed to be "funny" because you are suppose to not like them and dissociate with them "look at those stupid nerds lol". It's a show about nerds, for non-nerds, but since non-nerds don't get it, they think nerds would like it.
COMMUNITY is both brilliant and erratic. Season 3, is one of the best single seasons of Television I've ever seen. COMMUNITY is also a wildly inconsistent tone. From 1 to 5, you can feel them feeling out and finding their way through. I mean, would anyone think, that the natural grounded tone of the first few episodes was going to erupt into the Paintball calamities, or the Bedsheet sit ins? COMMUNITY is sort of twisted genius in a way that appeals to the edgy frontier more than BBT. But what BBT has way over it, is clarity of vision and consistency. BBT knew, from the very outset, what it was trying to be. And it carried clearly and cleanly all the way through. Constantly finding steady and palpable developments and never jumping the shark. COMMUNITY became like an exercize in jumping the shark, and rolling with it. Sort of like Two & a Half Men, after Kutcher came in, and they basically gave up trying to be serious.
You're spot on. I've never seen an actual "nerd" praise this show. Admittedly, there are some hilarious clips and one-liners but they're few and far between. If you actually listen to the "crazy" monologues from Sheldon, it's pretty quickly apparently that he doesn't even sound intelligent. He typically just strings together a bunch of fancy buzz words. And the main actors seem to be completely clueless when it comes to actual nerd culture. I saw a clip where the whole cast was on one of the late night shows and, Sheldon especially, was basically like "I have no idea what any of this means, I just read the lines". And it didn't seem like he was saying that to be funny. The way he said it almost made him seem unlikeable. A counter example to this would be someone like Conan O'Brien. He portrays himself as an idiot, but is obviously quite intelligent. Another good example is Dave Letterman (who I don't even like that much). But he nailed this schtick probably better than anyone. I don't think 95% of his viewers realize how smart he actually is. They see him as relatable and kind of a low brow simpleton (even though he's clearly not). He does have some moments of extreme ignorance though, like when he had Marilyn Manson on the show.
I have. Just the ones smart enough to know its not a show making fun about nerds. Its just a generic comedy. Having nerds as characters doesn't make it a show about making fun of being a nerd.
Fancy "Buzz Words" huh. You sure you know what a Buzz word is? It's the dribble speak that migrates from social media culture, or media culture, and downloads into the brains of parrots. It's "I'm here for it". "Really"? It's "Circle back" and muh "Synergy". It's life coaches suggesting to "leverage" your strengths. It's marketing that won't stfu about everything being an "experience". It's oversensitive dweebs calling everything outside their narrow approval "Problematic". Sheldon often speaks in quite obscure and sophisticated speak. And his sentences basically ALWAYS make complete sense. When Jim Parson's refers to [not knowing what it means] he's referring to the academic information. Like the equations and the science jargon. He doesn't need to understand what it means to portray the character.
@@pathogeneration5138 lol what??? I'm talking about things like "the Cloud". Every company under the sun was throwing that word around and simpletons thought it was some crazy new abstract concept when, in reality, it's basically just remote storage. Nothing new. "Blockchain", "Metaverse", "Big data", "Agile Methodology", "Actionable Analytics'" are all buzz words that sound fancy but have a relatively simple meaning. These are more tech-based examples than what's typically found in The Big Bang but it's the same concept. They just string fancy words together to sound smart.
Bit that hurt most was the Iron Giant. The whole story revolves around the Iron Giant learning he's not a weapon. Then Ready Player One gave him a bunch of guns and put him in a fight. So anthetical to the Iron Giant.
As someone who consider it his favorite book the movie made furious, they took every aspect of nerd colture and water it down so much just so they could force it down the non-nerd throats, completly destroing the point of the story, no amount of tracers walking with chun-li will make me forget that you are actively pissing on my colture
The beginning van The Big Bang theory was on target, celebrating nerd culture, but somewhere the popular view of nerd culture slipped in. I got really mad when they were literally bullying somebody because of dating problems. And that was still season 1, so they lost me very fast!
An interesting exercise would be to apply this sort of writing to portray other groups and then see if its still okay. Pick any racial or ethnic minority and then write a show that's as in tune with it as BBT is to nerd and gaming culture and see how it goes. I contrast it to a show like King of the Hill or a movie like Talladega Nights where the people they were teasing were also the people laughing at it (from experience) because they understood what they were making fun of, I tell you hwat.
I’d love for a KoTH show but starring nerds and geeks with Mike Judge’s level of observation humour. A bunch of guys with hobbies going through their day to day lives and experiencing the absurdities of their beloved culture from dealing with DC’s ever annoying tendency to leave a collection of omnibus incomplete, having to put up with Game Workshop’s bullshit, making sense of the U.N.I.T Dating Controversy and dealing with creative hacks home wreaking their favourite series like NuTrek being examples while going through their normal lives. Actually do a sitcom about nerds that isn’t laughing at them but with them while having a good understanding of what they’re satirising and having a relatable element to it. After all, we’ve all cursed companies for leaving collections unfinished (Transformers Classics UK Vol 1-5 out of 8), making us suffer because of legal bullshit we have no part in (The whole An Unearthly Child fiasco) or just a writer badly misinterpret a character and missing the point the original author made (Too many examples to name here). A sitcom about nerd culture written by actual nerds who knows the ins and outs of it while able to come up with good comedic material that isn’t aiming for low hanging stock tropes. Stuff like U.N.I.T Dating Controversy lends itself well to real clever jokes on how that’s a metaphor for people’s understanding of historical periods with conflicting accounts and people forgetting they already had a subscription to a book club.
My parents watch this show and when i go around to visit they go "Ohh i assumed you liked this show". I dont know if i should be offended that they must assume nerds are like this IRL. Whats more insulting, the statement or the assumption? The nerds its trying to represent and make cool, is being done in the most offensive way. "Nerdy social awkward guy said something really long and overally descriptive" haha what a joke! Or the You know just enough about something science related that this could be funny? edit: haha i commented before viewing and you hit my exact thing on the head
It's not trying to make nerds cool. Everything they do is laughable in that show, apart from any attempt to stop being nerdy, in which case their abject failure is the joke.
TBBT was a show about mocking nerds and nerd culture, as well as disabilities, all while normalizing and even glorifying toxic behaviors. The message of TBBT is "if you learn to act more normal, your life will get better", which is a horrible thing to say to an asexual, PTSD, OCD person like Sheldon.
It's not wrong though. If an actual Sheldon were to come about IRL, and never sought help for it, yeah, he'd probably have a lot of bad shit happening to him. Normalizing yourself when dealing with others (e.g. not being a douche) isn't exactly bad advice lol.
@@foomp learning to be responsible for your actions and words is one thing (and a good thing at that), mocking someone's disability until they conform to societal expectations is another. (I'll give you a hint, that one's not a good thing)
THANK YOU! This is exactly how I've felt for the longest time. Whenever it's seen by others that I'm a bit of a nerd, or I even so much as hint I have autism (once I'm comfortable with someone) I am so many times hearing "Oh like Big Bang theory" or I hear that brought up. The show's been a bane on me for the longest time.
@@MudakTheMultiplier And sexism, homophobia, workplace discrimination, racism and sooo many more. The show regularly broke the acceptability limits but hahaha they're socially awkward nerds so it's okay
It's extremely messed up that someone would learn about your autism and one of the first things they would do with this knowledge is equate you to a TV show.
I think the major issue with TBBT can be summed up in one episode: "The Raiders Minimization." In the episode, Amy points out a plot hole in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The plot hole? If Indy hadn't been in the movie, the plot would've been the same: The Nazis would've gotten the Ark, opened it on the island, and all died. There are two massive issues with this 'plot hole,' however. Firstly, that's fundamentally not a plot hole. A plot hole is something like a character making it to a location before other characters that set off first for no real reason, or someone acting stupidly out of character and missing an obvious piece of information. It is not something like "X character doesn't contribute to the plot." That's a flaw in most movies, but not a plot hole. And it's also not a flaw in Raiders, because the second, far more important part, is: That's the whole fucking point. The ENTIRE GODDAMN POINT OF THE MOVIE is that the Nazis greed and hatred was ultimately what killed them. Indy didn't do anything because he didn't need to. He was ultimately just a perspective character for us, to tell that story. It's a consistent theme in all Indiana Jones movies but Temple of Doom; the bad guys get the Mcguffin, use it, and die. Anyone who was as truly fanatic about Indiana Jones as the show claims Sheldon is would've simply recognised that Amy is describing the entire point of the movie. The episode singlehandedly makes it clear that the writers of TBBT don't actually understand what makes these movies so great, and why people love them.
it's not exactly a plot hole. But it can be argued as a plot oddity. Some stories derive comedy from reconciling the futility of their Quest. And the journey is the fun in RotLA. But it IS a way of structuring a story, you wouldn't want to make a habit of. But that's entirely missing the purpose of the citation. It's an inciting incident between Sheldon and Amy. And it's amusing to have them desperately grapple their way around the story not being pointless, and Indie not being passive. It's funny that you're unpacking the way that the reasoning of the show is meant to entirely make sense. As if characters have to entire make sense, to provoke a story. And now you're deep delving into the film critique prowess of the writers? As if it's implausible that they understand the fringes they're playing with, to use it to provoke a story? Sheldon also says in one episode, to not feed the "GREMLINS" after midnight. OH KNOW! A character failed to reason or cite flawlessly. SHOW IS RUINED! Pack it up! Everybody go home. Do you watch Mr Bean, and rage at the screen, because there's no way someone would try to do their Morning Routine in a moving vehicle?
Exactly same opinion. Jokes are really good. They land perfectly... For someone who isn't a nerd and see nerds as the stereotypical nerds that the show depicts. The references are really wrong, the whole "nerd" culture is represented horrible. Like, all nerds are awkward, if they are female they are unattractive, the "nerd jokes" all follow the same principle; "Haha, nerds weird, nerds do nerd thing, so the non nerd make fun of them, haha." I understand that it's an appealing show, again, the jokes can be really good, and the writing is phenomenal. But the depiction of nerd people and culture is fucking awful.
What also bothers me is the representation of all scientists as asocial dorks that are also somehow geniuses... there are a lot of people in the field of science that, not only are they the exact oposite of what they're represented as, they also want nothing to do with anything related to nerd culture, while also knowing plenty of people that are "true nerds" and can barely remember half the ruleset for MTG or 40K
@@GodwynDi It's just you mate. It's a hit for a reason, you guys are just the minority. You guys need to laugh for smaller reasons, do not over complicate things just to be happy.
I have a similar memory of a BBT joke about Magic: the Gathering where I think the joke is supposed to be that the game is ridiculously convoluted and incomprehensible to outsiders, but it falls flat because I DO play MTG, and it's still absolute nonsense. You can make anything seem overly complicated if you just make shit up about it.
I do too, the way i see is that i dont think actual people who are into all the nerdy stuff was their demographic. When i saw the episode that mentions the sword of azeroth, i knew that is not how it works. I just watch the show from time to time for what it is.
Fixed: Guy 1: "Ah ah! I got A shield of azeroth!... To the trade chat!" blink Guy 1: "Annnd sold! For a million gold. Potions are on me today guys!" Guy 2: "And tanking is on me.... I've got a shield of azeroth"
I enjoyed the first season cause it was a new kind of sitcom to me, not about a family and their kids. After that season I got the feeling they recycled it over and over and even the characters blended together in some mish mash.
So as somebody who played wow. I can tell you this whole joked would have worked fine if they just replaced "sword of Azeroth" with teebu's blazing longsword and then replace the word " ebay" with " theauction house".
I think the overall feeling Josh is conveying is that sense of, if you make fun of me for something I said- word for word- chances are I can laugh about it. If I said something that was silly or illogical and you frame it in a satirical or humorous way, it's entirely possible for me to laugh along with the joke even if it's at my expense. It is however entirely different if you make fun of me for something I *didn't* say. If you misquote me, pull my meaning out of context, or otherwise misrepresent my words. That's called putting words in my mouth and chances are high I'm going to dislike it and you no matter how you frame it. This is the 'sin' that Big Bang Theory commits- making fun of nerds in such a way that they reach for the easy stereotypical joke without putting any thought or effort into what would be the *true* and accurate joke. Both sides can laugh at an accurate joke. Only one side laughs at (and is misinformed by) an inaccurate one.
idk, as a nerd, I never felt attacked by the show. It certainly has many weak aspects, but doesn't deserve the hate it's been getting in the past years, imho. It is, after all, US network television from the 2000s. It gave me some good memories.
BBT annoyed me for the sole reason that it felt like it was a mix between making fun of nerd culture, and a very tropey live action anime... That's what it was to me, it was a nerdy anime plot, but without understanding the nerdy bits! It was like Food Wars, if the writers didn't understand how to make food look and feel right, and the experience of cooking it look believeable...
"After I've finished doing this incredibly difficult thing, maybe I'll do something just as difficult. Maybe I'll shoot fish in a barrel." Best quote on this channel.
The problem is that in such a show you have to make it quick, simple and looking smart, so any idiot can understand it and think he's as smart as them!! This show is done to make people think they can understand nerd stuff. If it had really been the real thing, nobody would have understood it because people who watch these shows have a very short attention time, you can't lmake a joke longer than 30 seconds or their brain will fry.
A lot of the jokes in Big Bang Theory that have scientific themes tend to be very similar. One of the nerds says a thing and the joke is "haha, he said funny long science word". You could literally change the word with wdplfijweilrwoer and the structure would stay the same.
I also felt like it was making jokes at the expense of nerds most of the time. It's not laughing WITH them, it's laughing AT them. Because the main character or perspective is not the nerds, it's Penny, the one "normal" person who rolls her eyes at this group of socially awkward nerds and doesn't understand most of what they say to her because haha nerds are so weird and constantly talk about stuff that normal people doesn't care about. And so the main audience for that show is not actually nerds, it's people who only have a surface level knowledge of nerd culture and like it laugh at it.
Laughing AT others is typical comedy though. I daresay most jokes require someone or something to be the butt of the joke. Jokes that don't take on the role of ridiculing a subject is usually boring... really boring.
@@foomp yeah, but the jokes have to be FUNNY for that to work. It's like using the Dio vs Jojo meme of them walking towards each other; it's a clash of titans, the ultimate duel, so nerds use that and actually present a heated debate in that form of clashing concepts. The normies just use it as a "hahaha this is funny because its a cartoon or something". BBT is the latter. The characters aren't even consistently nerdy; they are just generically liking videogames and comic books; but casually, it's ONLY the most mainstream videogames and comicbooks. And by the age bracket they are supposed to have; not even the RIGHT videogames and comicbooks.
It feels like the few times i ran across big bang theory i watch until the first gag, let out a dry "heh" because i understood the reference, then clicked off. The fact that a reference to something nerdy was even on tv at the time was more funny to me then the show itself.
while I do for the most part agree on that, there are notable exceptions like Blackadder and Yes, Minister that are from a time that basically mandated to have laughing tracks, and by removing them you'd in my opinion make them even better, instead of modern sitcoms that use it to hide the fact nothing worth notice took place in a scene.
The E Bay part would have went over my head since I 've never bought or sold anything from them. Not using a mouse to play an mmo on a PC, I would have questioned that.
"It is using the names and iconography of nerd culture as complete surface level references and not actual deep connections to the way it mechanically works or is." Somehow that describes perfectly a lot of the lame "representation" out there which provide token or one-note characters. Honestly it's pretty interesting to think about since it seems like, more than anything, the problem comes from the writers not respecting groups of "outsiders".
As a guy who has Autism i feel nothing in common with Sheldon and most people with ASD that i know don't act like him at all. He's honestly the reason i don't watch it.
Maybe I just misunderstood the whole premise, but I always thought the Big Bang Theory was poking fun at ignorant nerd stereotypes, by exaggerating and misrepresenting them to a ridiculous degree. When you look at the show with the mindset "This is what non-nerds think Nerd-Culture looks like," it's pretty darn hilarious to watch.
@@LittleHobbit13 I imagine the show started out as one thing, but eventually lost/forgot it's roots, and eventually just became a cavalcade of cliché nerd-jokes? I remember the first season being pretty funny and my impression was definitely that they were poking fun at misunderstandings about nerd-culture... But as the show went on, I became bored with the lazy jokes and shallow writing, so I stopped watching. Of course, maybe I was wrong, and the show was always that bad, and it just took a few seasons for me to notice?
First two seasons were earnestly enjoyable but the more the show went on the more the show writers abused the stereotypes and crammed the female characters into the show
Of course. They should have been frozen in time for 12 years. And never experienced any emotional or relational growth. That would've really helped with the detrators.
When I watch IT and Nerd Stuff of main stream media, I try by any means not to search for logic or real life examples. Even shows like silicon valley, which have great consulting, are totally off. Because let's face it. Hacking and programming and such, is utterly boring to watch. I still love you Josh.
I agree with almost all of this. I still laughed my ass off watching the show. I don't expect a 24 minute show to wait 7 days for an auction to end.
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True that, people are taking things too seriously. A little bit of fiction here and there is okay. Doesn't need to follow all the tropes of a MMO seriously.
The worst thing is they could have avoided some of these issues by using fake names for stuff. Instead they would just name drop WoW or something and make a scenario that isn't remotely possible. Guess they just wanted the "I know that thing" points
Years ago my friends and sibling recommended that show, said it was super funny. I tried to get into it, but it never clicked, I didn't find it funny. At the time, I couldn't have even told you why. But a year or two ago, I heard someone say something very similar to what you're saying. They described the show as, 'a comedy made by jocks about what they *think* nerds are like.'
There is a venn diagram that exists online that overlaps the following traits related to tv shows: For smart people, for dumb people, about smart people, about dumb people. So about dumb people for dumb people, you have the Kardashians. About smart people for smart people, you have Nova. About smart people, for dumb people, you have the BBT. I think that honestly sums it up. The entire purpose of the show is not to enjoy nerd culture, but to laugh at it. It's a ten year stretch of bullying those that are different.
I use that show as a barometer when I meet people. If somebody tells me they like that show I immediately know they're one of those people who just likes anything Hollywood throws in their face with zero thought
Its the same whenever someone is playing a video game in a movie and they are just spamming literally every button as fast as possible, thats just not how games are played. Or when you can see the screen and the controller, but the buttons being pressed do not line up with the gameplay. Sometimes when its a ps4 controller which lights up very noticeably on the front, you see someone looking at something and pressing buttons but the controller is literally not even turned on. Anyone remember the movie for the remake of Ratchet and Clank 1? In that movie the one nerd tech chick is playing the multiplayer for Ratchet and Clank 3 (up your arsenal) and she is playing in FIRST PERSON!!! YOU DONT PLAY RATCHET AND CLANK IN FIRST PERSON, AND ESPECIALLY NOT THE MULTIPLAYER!!!
This was also why I got annoyed with Stranger things, Having both played in and ran actual DnD campaigns. The only explanation that sort of makes that one better is that the people playing it are kids, and might just be making up their own rules, but still. Everytime they said "The Demogorgon" I got very annoyed :P It's the name of a Demon Prince, not a species of demon dogs....
@@NevisYsbryd 1st edition lists him as Demogorgon, Prince of Demons with a picture somewhat similar to the modern depictions. As far as I am aware the dog demogorgon thing from the show is not part of the actual dnd lore in any edition.
@@NevisYsbryd I am not familiar enough with the earlier editions to really know about the mechanics, but from what I have heard not very. An example I have heard others bring up is them rolling to hit with a fireball, which is not how that spell is supposed to work.
Josh is the type of guy to say SAO is trash, not because of how Reki fumbled his characters, but because of how the NerveGear would have never passed market surveillance.
BBT was never for nerds. It was a primetime TV show aimed at general audiences, like most primetime TV shows are. Most of their viewers fell into the same exact category as how you described the writers: they knew enough to know that nerd culture was being referenced, but not enough to really understand those references.
I saw a quote in the Big Bang Theory that stuck with me:
"I don't understand what he's saying, but he is funny!"
"Oh, I understand and he is not..."
That's the best summary of the show!
That's why I only enjoy the science jokes. I don't know enough about physics, engineering, astro-physics and neurophysics to figure out if what they are saying it blatantly wrong-
wow, I'm stealing that, perfect explanation.
This is the perfect description of BBT
@@GameBreaker1055 It often (from what I remember) is correct but somewhat banal. It fits what someone in high-school or primary school might care about, but wouldn't make much sense as a conversation topic for people many years into their university degrees. The underlying joke is to remember the overly eager kid in class who tried to explain something and the target audience of the joke is the person who didn't want to learn back then.
An actual maths-student activity might be to have a permutation drinking game where you have to swap clothes, but the focus there isn't showing that you know what a permutation is (because that is banal) the focus is having fun and socialising/partying, but that would go against the shows portrayal of nerds as a- and anti-social.
That was in the show?! The writers are definitely self aware then
Someone once described TBBT as "nerd blackface" and I'll be damned if it ain't at least a little bit true
lmao
Oh that's perfect
“A minstrel show, but for autistic people”
Absolutely 100%.
Exactly.
The distinction between "I understand nerd culture, I'm writing a show that nerds will find funny" and "I know just enough jargon to convince non-nerds that this is an apt portrayal" should not get lost this easily or often.
What makes you think it got lost? It's a show for normies. 'What idiots think of smart people the TV Show'
Why would they make a show for nerds? Dumb people with money is a much better demographic. TV shows on broadcast networks are made for advertising.
They aren't targeting nerds though. They're targeting people to laugh at nerds.
First few episodes were okay - but it very quickly got very lazy and samey. Then it was just referencing itself.
It's like a Mexican restaurant made entirely by white people who didn't try very hard. It's inauthentic. It's Panda Express.
@@FleshToDust that is literally exactly what I'm saying
so, i'm autistic, and the only time i have been truly offended by anything (that i can remember, at least) is when i went to a councillor to get a checkup and we were talking about my autism, and he said i should watch the big bang theory because "it's funny and shows people like me"
I had a bus driver to a band convention compare me to "special people like Sheldon Cooper" or something along those lines out of nowhere during a brief conversation.
It was after a lot of the event had happened, so I'm sure I was tired and perhaps acting less neurotypical then my usual performance, but I hadn't even talked to the guy for most of the ride. I was just reading in the back.
There weren't any other students around at the time so I guess he thought he was being insightful and even charitable by pointing out my differences.
while i jokingly dislike the show because its a very basic sitcom that wears nerd culture as a skinsuit, this is the one thing that honestly quite bothers me about it.
are the writers actually aware that they're writing what seems like an autistic character and then making him the butt of a lot of the show's jokes?
I wonder if that councilor also says the same thing about the show "COPS" to the black students.
Lmao get dragged
hahaha damn holy fuck im sorry but thats fucking hilarious damn
The best joke on the show is something the writers didn't do but the costuming department did. Sheldon has the whole range of colored green lantern shirts (red, green, blue, yellow, etc.) and he will wear one appropriate to the mood he's in during the scene. (fear, anger, greed, etc,)
This is never pointed out, it is not drawn attention to, it's probably not a choice the character is making in-universe as he doesn't know what his mood is going to be... but its an actual nerd joke deep cut, and its a subtle one.
ONE person on the show, I don't know who, actually understood the assignment. Same with most of his shirts.
The true heroes and heroines are often unsung, toiling thanklessly in the shadows of noisier, more abrasive individuals. Still, that person was acknowledged here, by a few of us, and that is something.
That's awesome, I'm gonna look out for that when I watch the show again (or clips of it)
Yeah the costumes for the show were consistent and amazing. Like, I used to watch the show a lot because not many better things were on cable at the time and honestly it was fun to watch purely because everyone's outfits always looked so good. And every now and then one of the jokes would end up being funny. You know if you swing the bat 3.000 times you're bound to get at least one hit.
that surprisingly interesting for that show, not enough to make me watch it but im glad to hear 1 out of the hundreds of people that worked on that show was an actual nerd
That actually sounds fantastic.
The problem with the big bang theory is that so many nerds think we were the target audience. We weren't. The real audience of that show was all the non nerds who don't understand us. So the references don't have to make sense, they just have to sounds "nerdy" enough.
Yeah, and that's the problem in on itself. US media always portraited educated or nerdy people as something to make fun of. BBT is just one of the latest in a long line of nerd-blackface.
The target audience was the public in general. TBBT was always designed to be a comfort-food show that appealed to the masses.
@@54raynor Yep, while making fun of nerds
@@pixledriven by portraying them as incredibly successful in pretty much every aspect of their lives?
@@54raynor Negative
They tend to write jokes using the 'look, we understand nerd culture and thats funny!' but if you have the slightest idea what they're talking about, you have to actively try not to think about how inaccurate the jokes are. That's the entire show.
Executives: "I know! We'll put in a louder, more raucous laugh track. Then everyone will just assume funny things are happening."
"Big Bang Theory played Catan on it!"
No, no they mocked "I have wood for sheep". That was it. That was the joke. The show didn't bother with the game, it was just for ONE JOKE.
I honestly had no problems with the show existing until I saw that and then paid closer attention to references they'd throw out. I always thought it was just another dumb sitcom trying to find an audience and milk it... but from numerous episodes I watch I think I got the difference between it and other sitcoms:
The character of Sheldon Cooper warps the whole thing by refusing to change to suit others. Instead, others *must* change to suit him. In another sitcom, this would likely be a "solved" issue early on. In BBT it's consistent through the show how his friends just roll with it, or are willing to concede things for his comfort. The fundamental core of the character hasn't changed, only the stage dressing to make it LOOK like there's been character growth.
... and once you start looking into that, you can start to notice that's pretty similar about the other three "nerds" of the cast.
Now, I should watch the whole thing before fully ripping into it. That'd be fair. But considering THE SHOW WRITERS aren't fair to whatever they're lampooning in a week, and they get paid for it... I don't feel compelled to do more than they do for free.
@Denizen of The Depths Believe me, I'm well aware of the "target", and the general sense of things continued into "Young Sheldon".
Which is a shame, because there's some decent moments of acting... buried under the rest of the junk.
I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Home Improvement, because at LEAST they let the characters we're intended to laugh at have a WIN now and then. Not just be punching bags.
Maybe MaRo needs to go back to writing for sitcoms, if it'll improve them again.
@Denizen of The Depths exactly and thats why the guy is wrong
I always thought it was supposed to be a complete misunderstanding of nerd-culture - that was the joke: "This is what non-nerds think nerd-culture looks like."
Maybe I just completely misunderstood the premise of the show, though. But I thought it was funny, looking at it from that angle.
My first girlfriend told me she liked nerds like the ones in Big Bang Theory. Like people who know a bunch of savvy facts that make for interesting conversation.
No. I'm a real nerd, and you're going to get the deep-dive into Sith philosophy.
Yeah but I but you don't know the first thing about standard model particle physics buddy. Being a "nerd" is more about science than anything, its not about whether or not you enjoy comic books or superheroes, its about science and mathematics.
Okay maybe you can explain to me this than, I know technically it is Jedi but why is it “only Sith work in absolutes” when that itself is an absolute?
@@jacobc8036 George Lucas wrote the dialogue for the prequels. That's all it is.
@@SierNotsruht 💀💀💀
The scene that always sticks in my head from Big Bang Theory is when the main 4 characters are playing Halo 3. It's (allegedly) a 2v2 match, and no one actually even dies in the entire 30 second scene, despite constant shooting sounds from the TV. One of them even yells "I need a medkit," and the game doesn't even have medkits!
You mean the same scene where there are three hot girls and everyone ignore them? Did they ever go to a convention? Or have any friends? They would probably act stupid, but wouldn't ignore them. Pretty much the same with most people, really.
@@lokasocba I think the joke there was that they were so "In the zone" that they couldn't hear anything else. Still dumb, but not THAT dumb
It's utterly baffling to me how many shows seemingly have nobody in even casual contact with the writing or directing staff, nor any of the actors, who knows a single basic thing about video games. Beyond, essentially, "Is this a video game?" - "Uh, I think so." - "Okay, well, put it in the box thing and hook it up, and then we'll shoot this gaming scene." - "Okay."
Nobody ever actually spends ten minutes playing the game to get even a surface sample of how it _works_ or plays.
@@Pizzaboy_10 But not really, they were still talking among themselves, but yeah, maybe that was the joke.
@@hazukichanx408 Ironically, House of Cards US did this well iirc with Kevin Spacey playing Advanced Warfare. Also a joke only people who know about the game understand, i.e. Nerds, because he is in the game.
The best scenes are where they play an unnamed game and don't show the TV, but most of them also have them just using the controller and pressing buttons randomly. Sometimes I wonder if they couldn't just called Twin Galaxies and asked them how you play a game.
"You can tell when the writers of a joke understand the source material."
This is why, whenever someone asks me the best parody I've ever seen, I point to the Looney Tunes's spoof of opera. When I was a kid, I thought it was funny and goofy. Now that I know about opera, it's five times as funny because I know how much the writers must have loved the Ring Cycle to capture how ridiculous it is in such a loving fashion.
The "IT Crowd" was already better at portraying geeks than the BBT. Sure, still based on some stereotypes; but then those also sometimes come dangerously close to life ^^' BigBang was the standard Hollywood-like, filtered down vision of a topic, made by a people as disconnected from the life of a geek, as they are from the life of working poor / agricultural or physical workers / immigrants. Well, basically any other social strata than pampered Californian boho ^^'
It's weird, considering how the IT crowd is one of the worst shows ever created in the sitcom genre. It is completely unwatchable garbage, yet it indeed captures the nerdculture rather well.
@@Wickerless Sorry to hear about your terminal case of wrong opinion.
@@Wickerless i Bet you are great fun at parties. Well if anyone ever invited you to parties....
Holy shit y'all smoking them. Chill out they're already charred X)
Fire, exclamation mark
also, journey to the new smoking are was epic
I felt the same way when I saw the clip of them playing Dungeons & Dragons. But Big Bang Theory's main audience isn't actual nerds, it's non-nerds and the people who call themselves "nerds" because they have a passing knowledge of the MCU and read the first two Harry Potter books in middle school.
A nerd is someone who is intelligent and introverted or socially awkward, just because you like superheroes and comics books does not make you intelligent, shut the fuck up
Even then, that’s dumb anyways because what they’re describing is a geek. Nerd and geek are two completely different things, but a lot of people tend to forget about that.
I am quite nerdy. My field is in science. I like computer games, I like flags, I am awkward around women. And I love this show, at least the first few series.
I don't watch DnD episode, what was wrong there? Bad dice? Movements?
I once said to my mother that Big Bang Theory laughed _at_ us, not _with_ us.
She replied that this is how me and my father sound to people like her.
Told me a lot about my mother right there.
I guess also about the bbt and its fanbase 😅
At least she was honest.
You can't really expect someone who doesn't know anything about what you like, to know something about what you like.
Very true.
This is basically why this show is successful. It has enough references to attract people that have a deeper knowledge than the writers, but it also attracts the big crowds of people that laugh "because they act so funny". People laugh about the same thing for different reasons.
my mom will never shut the hell up about my best friend acting like Sheldon
Yet if I'd ever compare her to a sitcom character written to be obnoxious, I don't think she'd think it was a compliment
As someone who has both a PhD in Physics and an avid love of gaming I cannot possibly express how much I despise the Big Bang Theory, so thanks for this video.
exactly the entire show is Atrocious if you know anything about physics or video games
I am a college professor who teaches Physics (also a PhD in Physics), I absolutely hate the BBT. It's corny if you asked me.
Watch steins gate instead, it’s like an anime version of the Big Bang Theory except it’s actually good.
@@happybear3706 Nah man, It's tropey af. The setting may be nice, but wtf the change the gender of a child because the mother eats different things when pregnant?? That's not how anything works.
With a basically identical background i sometimes feel the same. But then i have to remember myself that The Big Bang Theory is entertainment and not a documentary. It's like complaining that magic in games won't work because of thermodynamics or how bad Kerbal Space Program is because the Oberth-Kuiper maneuver doesn't work correctly. It is okay for some stuff to be wrong as long as it is entertaining. My problem with The Big Bang Theory is more like: For me it simply isn't entertaining. Take away the laugh track and it becomes obvious that it isn't just wrong in most points - it is boring as hell.
It drives me insane. The non-nerds in my life find it hilarious and remark "you should love this, it's about you!". No, it's fucking not, and they couldn't even be bothered to make it accurate OR funny.
Pointing at a minstrel show, elbowing their black friends, "you should love this..."
@@samwise210 Yeah, I'm not gonna go as far as compare it to a minstrel show. It's just a buncha bone-headed Hollywood writers making fun of nerds. They can't really hold a candle to Jim Crow, slavery, and all that
Hahaha but they play World of Warcraft and hunt for sword of Azeroth so it totally must be enjoyed by me, an avid gamer. No it's fucking not and STFU Karen
@@woobackwednesday2299 it's exactly the same thing though. It's not meant to laugh with, and Josh misses the point. The point isn't to be accurate. The point is to criticize and mock their culture. Exactly like minstrel shows
To each their own?
I remember when BBT first came out. I was just finishing my final year of highschool and I was a huge nerd. I remember very specifically having it pitched as "a show about nerds, by nerds, for nerds!" and I got all of half way through the first episode before I was convinced that no-one on the writing team understood nerd culture at all, and that all the jokes were either nonsense or playing in to stereotypes about nerds in the same way that US shows and movies have been making fun of nerds for decades.
Exactly this. You can try to pitch it however you want, but at the end of the day, you're writing a show about "nerds as seen by non-nerds" with all the worst stereotypes non-nerds have gotten to promote about nerd culture for decades.........and you're telling people they should laugh at it.
I am quite nerdy. My field is in science. I like computer games, I like flags, I am awkward around women. And I love this show, at least the first few series.
My worst joke there was when they said X-men came from Xavier's name so they would be C-men due to Sheldon having the name Cooper. The x did not came from Xaviers name. It was in the comics when Magneto accused the same with him and then he said the X came from them being more than men they are eXtra. A comic book nerd who cannot joke would never say so blatant stupidity.
Those who make a nerd-themed show and are not prepared to research their source material, deserve every well-aimed shot they get for it. Like this one!
Yeah... no, I absolutely believe Magneto on this one Charles Xavier's absolutely the kind of guy to name a superhero team after himself.
OMG, you get joke! Too bad you have explained it in a way to drain any ironic humor from it. XD
I'm not really all that familiar with the X-Men lore but I always tought that the X in X-Men was because of the fact that the gene that activated their mutant powers was named the X gene or something ..at least from vague memories from my childhood and the cartoon. Oh well
@@Borsecann I'm sure X-Gene was a later addition to the lore, and 60s Stan just thought the name X-Men sounded X-Tra cool
I remember someone saying "they're not laughing *with* us, they're laughing *at* us". I think it's fitting.
Also me and my wife, huge nerds (enough to have two entire rooms covered with all kind of paraphenalia, in our thirties) found the episodes very repetitive... after the fourth episode.
When people ask me why I don't like the show I usually say something along the lines of "it's like blackface but against nerds" and all of a sudden they know exactly what I mean.
You don't know how much I feel being understood after this clip and the whole chat agreeing.
Most of my Life I haven't seen a single episode of big bang theory. Maybe some scenes shown by friends or by skipping channels on the TV.
I've known it exists, I've known it's about a group of nerds and I've known catchphrases like "Bazinga".
Now at my last job I was chatting with a coworker, who - on a regular basis - would say something like "that's exactly something sheldon would say, I swear." And she would be extremely shocked, every single time I tell her that I haven't seen the show.
So then one evening I was extremely bored and was like "you know what? Imma watch some episodes."
I finished a whole season in a few days, because everytime I told my coworker "I really don't think it's funny at all" she would insist, that it gets better.
Spoiler. It didn't get better.
Now my problem with the show isn't necessarily that it's picking jokes at nerdy-clichés, but that the writers really don't seem to understand humans at all.
Women only exist for being sexy and they don't know anything about ... anything. Except they aren't extremely good looking. In that case they are extremely smart and somewhat nerdy.
And Nerds literally all work science-jobs and use "difficult language, 'normal' people can't possibly understand"
And it's not like I'm against cliché humor or anything. It's just like Josh said: Please get the Jokes at least right ffs.
It's not funny, when most of the jokes are build upon "haha. look! nerd be derp!" and "Hot Women! Am I right?"
That's not how you write comedy. And while I'm aware that humor is very subjective, I'm still amazed at how this show could become this popular.
my humble opinion : pre-registered laughs = bad show by default. There can exist 1 or 2 exceptions purely to confirm the rule. A good comedy show don't need this for its audience to know when to laugh.
Look up "big bang theory without a laugh track", it's quite interesting.
I liked married with children, prince of Bel-Air, Frasier and a bunch of canned laughter shows.
The show should hold on its own without the laugh track, only then the laugh tracks are deserved
Not a fan of laugh tracks, but they have shown more than once, that the show was filmed with live audience.
I'm ok with that source of laughter, but also I'm pretty sure, they "helped" some scenes with additional canned laughs.
@@rubikmonat6589 You and everyone else should also check out the one with Tidus' forced laughter from FFX grafted over the normal canned ones. I think it's the singular time I've ever come close to even being able to quietly chuckle at that shambling abomination that passes itself off as a TV show.
Brings back memories of being told that I had no personality because I didn't watch the show as I was a physics major. From the engineering student that was struggling with basic intro physics courses and coming to me for tutoring.
I remember when my normie friends recommended me this show when it came out and told me it was the most hilarious thing ever - i should like it since i'm a NERD. I felt exactly like josh and i don't see these people anymore today, helped me ultimately realize that's how they actually saw me for real.
nerd
Nerd.
Omg sorry but I'm laughing at the replies now 😂😂
this. The fact they don't understand they are not nerd jokes, they are jokes laughing at nerds.
They are the equivalent of imitating someone with a dumb voice "Huu huu, loOk At mE, aM a NeRd lMaO"
It would be like a show "about women" written by men and the character only talks about their periods and then you go to your women friend and say "look, it's like you, da women, cause periods"
@@randomrandom450 your name fits lol
This is why I have such a huge respect for Robot Chicken. Even if the jokes completely miss, I'm both fascinated and impressed with the depths that they often go to with the subject matter they're paroding. They'll talk about facts no one even thinks about, and I appreciate that.
The Big Bang Theory is like a Basketball sitcom and having the players themselves talk about baskets being homeruns or point guards being umpires and thinking it's the correct terminology as the punchline of a joke. That's how blatantly wrong they are with science, comics, movies, pop culture, or really anything on the show. Also, you remove the canned laughter and nobody laughs at the jokes, even those who say they find the show hilarious. That's how poorly written the jokes are, no one knows they're a joke without the canned laughter.
I remember there was a time when it was really popular and suddenly everyone was like "Oh I'm so clever, I understand what nerds are all about"
And it was so annoying because no, you really don't because the show is more about playing to stereotypes people already expect to see, than doing anything natural. And no one seemed to realize that was a problem. It's practically slander.
Like most people, I was recommended to watch BBT because of the "nerd jokes"
BBT is not a bad show, but it's not a "nerd show", it's a generic sitcom with geek flavour, it's basically "nerd F.R.I.E.N.D.S"
The only thing the nerd flavour does is amp up the cringe for people who do not like sitcoms
"nerd F.R.I.E.N.D.S" so its a bad show.
@@adamistvanbertalan9579 I mean, some people like it
But yes, in my opinion it is utter garbage
oh please tell me you ain't never going to be that way 👏👏👏👏
If you go into the show with the mindset: "This is what non-nerds think nerd-culture looks like," it's actually pretty funny.
Maybe I just really misunderstood the premise, but I always thought BBT was supposed to be a misrepresentation of nerd-culture, deliberately over-the-top and ridiculous to make it obvious how wrong and silly nerd stereotypes are... Either that was not the intention at all, or the writers underestimated just how over-the-top they'd need to be to get the point across.
@@LadyDoomsinger I'm with you, I liked the first seasons (stopped watching since) and always saw it as parody of nerd stereotypes (after all thats what they are). I remember the joke Josh talks about and I knew it was imposible to work like that, but I think is more the writers taking liberties to make the situation funny and quick, and not necessarily because they don't understand
This is pretty spot on plus there was a constant theme of "They're sad because they're nerds and they need to become more 'normal to be happy".
What's wrong with realizing that the majority of people don't respect thirty year old man babies and wanting to make yourself more appealing and approachable in society? I'm a "nerd" but I don't wear marvel/DC shirts hats and whatever else when I go outside, my house isn't decorated with cartoon posters and action figures, who would respect a full grown man who lived like that, why would a full grown man even choose to live like that in the first place?
I’ve never understood why people get so bent out of shape about men wearing cartoon T shirts or (gasp!) buying a poster. As long as you’re not playing the Power Rangers theme on full blast or shoving Funko Pops where the sun don’t shine it really isn’t that big of a deal. You guys should be punching up on people who actually suck like child predators, racists or corporate lobbyists if you wanna feel superior.
Also, a lot of “nerds” are disabled or autistic so their weird interests can’t really be controlled. It’s just how their brain works, not even the biggest societal push could really change that.
@@CatzlovichCatnipAndCabbages Because a full grown man doesn't give a damn about what other people think of him. Allowing peer pressure to sway you from enjoying something you like is little kid shit.
@@michaelm6179 "Allowing peer pressure to sway you from enjoying something you like-" You can like whatever you want but what you like doesn't have to be your entire personality, you can still be a respected member of society and also enjoy watching marvel movies or whatever but dressing and decorating your house with figurines and action figures like a child is not an adult thing to do, these things tell people that you are still childish and have yet to fully mature into adulthood which is alarming when the person running around dressed like a kid is very obviously in their early to mid thirties.
@@CatzlovichCatnipAndCabbages I agree there's a certain degree of moderation here but there is a relevant quote: “Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”
--
C. S. Lewis.
I really don't see an issue with someone having a few figures and comic t-shirts as long as they still contribute to society. Who are any of us to judge?
BBT has the same problem I have with alot of other sitcoms:
Unlikable characters and every other thing they say is a passive aggressive snipe at someone else, writers confuse 'wit' with 'sarcasm'.
They confuse wit and or sarcasm with cynicism.
Small difference ;>
@@nobodyshome6792 or just plain unpleasantness.
@@nobodyshome6792 I personally don't think it's cynicism most of the time, although you're right there is a bit of that.
I think it's mostly just being insulting and nasty to each other, and as long as you put a laughter track behind it, then it suddenly becomes funny, apparently.
@@adamr6621 sarcasm is typically funny and usually intended to be so.
Cynicism isn't supposed to be funny, nor is it inherently so.
The definitions of those 2 terms also indicate such concepts. As ridicule is inherently intended to be funny (sarcasm) whereas cynicism itself is just a negative view of the world or concepts.
I think sitcom characters are generally supposed to be unlikable, so the audience doesn't feel bad about laughing over their various awkward situations and embarrassing blunders.
It's funny because as Josh described it I didn't even get that the sword was supposed to have been sold in a single scene, and instead I assumed he had gotten the same drop in game.
Another example would be when someone stole Sheldon's mounts, and for those that don't know, its impossible to do because most of them are bound when they drop and even if a mount is tradeable, once you use it, it becomes bound.
It was even worse that he didn't submit a ticket about his account getting hacked.
I have played at least one game where they weren't bound and could be freely traded at-will. Granted, this was an Asian again from like... shit, maybe at least ten years ago.
@@FireroseNekowolf It was mentioned that it's a world of wacraft account.
@@Anthony-eo3ro Ah, I see.
@@hgkghkhgkgh8378 you see that could have been funny, because dealing with support is a hell everyone can understand.
I have another scene that I keep getting reminded of. There is a Physics game show/bowl, and Sheldon makes a team of his own without the rest of the cast. It eventually gets to the wire on the last question and Sheldon freezes when it comes up.
What's the problem you ask? Sheldon is a high-energy physicist (such as myself) and not only should he know this question, as it is something taught at the bachelor's degree level, but he should also know that there is not enough information to actually calculate the real result.
I have the same exact problem with that show. It tries really hard to tell a story about a group of nerds while not understanding the actual nerd culture. It's basically a cartoon - and not a good one.
Dont insult cartoons. Most cartoons are made with more heart and intelligence than this shovel ware.
The show definetelly is NOT trying hard to tell some story. It's separate episodes with rarely any connections. There really isn't story.
@@Gaunerchen not nowadays
Just watch steins gate instead, it’s like an anime version of the Big Bang Theory except it’s actually good. :3
@@slovnicurling9808
Now everyone's fucking expert in what constitutes "story" are they?
Give me a working definition, and how it doesn't manage a story into a 21 minute timeframe.
Then we can discuss the various arcs that do actually occur across various episodes.
One things that's always vividly observable.
BIG BANG THEORY is eminently better than the ignorant bullshit that people with a cursory insight into it say.
The quirky part is, most of the people that make the argument that it's not well verse in its topics, aren't well verse in BIG BANG THEORY. At all.
Someone in your chat called it "geek blackface".
I think that's the best description I've seen of Big Bang Theory.
The US has always struggled to make comedy shows with longevity, big bang is just a collection of stereotypes being thrown at a wall of mediocre jokes. They even have the token coloured guy, who of course is indian because if he was black that'd make a lot of the jokes that use that character unacceptably racist to a murican audience.
@Denizen of The Depths Stereotypes exist for a reason, and that reason is because humans are lazy and find it easier to judge entire communities than meet them individually.
@Denizen of The Depths It's trash for mindless consumption, of course it's popular!
The problem is that popular doesn't equal good.
"coloured."
Ok...
You can say people of color, but colored is very racist. Some people would definitely shoot you for saying that shit.
literally not a single statement in this sentence is remotely accurate. You're just angry cause you're indian.
Hit the nail on the coffin with this. Its surface level joke after surface level joke to please a wider audience, most of which are decidedly NOT nerds, with references of what pop culture thinks of "smart" people hasn't even been entertaining let alone compelling.
Also I'm in physics and the number of times I hear "OH so you're Sheldon!" from distant family members just makes me cringe.
No you're right. They should try and syndicate a nationwide show, with intricately obscure fucking jokes, that 7 people from Comicon can test each other with.
Yeah that totally would have been about 10% as successful as COMMUNITY.
The reaction "nah, that item would be soulbond, that joke is crap" is THE line which a hypothetical GOOD Big Bang Theory show would use
Yeah. Or they should have addresses why this is a super rare weapon can be sold.
I mean, you don't have to make it 1-1 with the source material to make it funny. South park's WoW episode is a great example.
Could have made it so they sold a farm run spot with loot rights and then it turns out the 3rd guy was the one that bought the carry, that would be more accurate but already a too complex context to set up for the target audience to understand what's going on
@@bellacose3837 Yeah, but South Park is so disconected from anything that it doesn't need to be realistic in any of it's fronts
@@Szadek23 Well, teebus is(was) super rare and it can be sold for some thousands of dollars.
100% agree. I always hated that show since its beginning. It was kind of a way for people to make fun of nerds but say "Hey, we are talking about you, relax!"
The big bang theory isn't a show about nerds for nerds, it's a show making fun of nerds for normies
It's bottom tier trash
I always thought it was a show for nerds about how "normies" (aka. the writers) don't understand nerd-culture at all.
If you go into the show with the mindset: "this is what non-nerds think nerd-culture looks like," it's actually pretty darn funny. Maybe I just completely misunderstood the premise though.
If you want nerd for nerds check out Silicon Valley
A friend of mine had the best description of Big Bang Theory. "It's like black face for nerds, nerd face."
And the physics stuff dude, jeesus. I am a physicist and holy shit this show is bottom tier stuff man.
The show is written to appeal to a larger audience, not specifically just to nerds, just because some of the jokes/references are technically not correct does not take away from the humorous situation.
Every TTRPG player I've ever known has loathed the Big Bang Theory. Every single one, I have yet to meet anyone in that hobby that even likes that show a little bit. And that is a crowd that argues and debates about EVERYTHING, so that's a pretty damning indictment right there....
I'm a TTRPG player, although I've always been way more into video and board games, and I've enjoyed TBBT. It's actually one of the things that's always puzzled me: everyone on the internet seems to hate it, claiming that it's for non nerds and no nerd can possibly enjoy it, yet I'm one of the nerdiest people I know and I used to really like it. The few people I've shared it with have also really liked it, and they're also nerds. I watched it for about the first 6-7 seasons until the quality seemed to be falling low enough that it didn't feel worth watching anymore. And I've never understood the universal hatred of it online. Maybe I should do a bit of polling among the current nerds I play with. I've actually started to think that maybe all the people complaining about it online are actually the not so nerdy general public, and everyone who does enjoy it is just scared to admit it. I will admit, I wasn't impressed by the first episodes, but it started to grow on me pretty fast. All the characters are definitely very much caricatures, and many of the props and scenes have accuracy errors that I largely attribute to trying to make things more understandable to those who aren't intimately familiar with the subject, but I do relate to much of the things the characters do.
Oh yeah, it could also be a culture thing. I live in Finland, where self-deprecating humor is pretty popular. I assume most of the people commenting here are American.
Well I do. But I’m literally surrounded by people who don’t, and just because I find it slightly funny doesn’t mean it’s a hill worth dying on
Big Bang Theory is the epitome of "Laughing at someone" instead of "laughing with someone". The """nerds""" are displayed as *pathetic, childish, laughable, boring* for the things they like. And it's not like the writers have something to say about a *particular property*. Like, say, there is a new moneygouging mobile game, leeching off the success of the franchise that is very dear to the hearts of the """nerds""". That could actually be an episode filled with jokes that people in the know can *laugh at*. Instead, episodes boil down to "look how laughable their interests are!". Basically fuel for all the people who didn't get out of the "ostracise, point finger and laugh" phase from highschool.
It's Blackface 2.0
Sadly a lot of us fancy monkeys seem to stay in that phase for most or all of life. Pushing others down to make ourselves feel taller, since we never learned to build ourselves up. Best those of us who realize it can hope to do, is be careful not to slip into the same pattern... nor bother trying to interact with those who refuse to consider the folly of clinging to it.
The thing is that the way the Nerds act is pretty tyical sitcom fair, it just comes off offensive due to the faux nerd facade painted over everything.
There's a reason why shows that require being in the know are rarely, if ever, successful lol. This is especially true for sitcoms, which are intended for people to not have to think. That isn't a bad thing either mind you, as we've gotten a lot of great hits from those sorts (e.g. Married with Children). It's all about the target audience. That much has never changed. BBT is no exception, where the target audience is not the subject of the show, especially with people who actually take nerd culture seriously. I personally think that's funny in its own way if people are offended by the shows poor representation of nerds/geeks lol. Get to laugh at a bad show AND people that may be butthurt over it.
@@mitchhaelann9215 Don't trivalize Blackface and the harm enacted upon Black individuals in America with this "it's nerd minstrel" shit.
What really pisses me off about this show until this very day is that I had friends who were fans of the show because they didn't see all these flaws since they weren't aware of how bad every reference were.
It is indeed bad. And it is also insulting. The little I watched was basically "nerds are dumb inferior people but luckily they're neither black nor gay so it's okay". I left it within five minutes and I have no will to give it any second chance. And it's exactly like that, jokes that are done without a real understanding of nerds, simply the most surface level stereotypes. And the joke's punchline wasn't just something related to nerds that would be funny within the nerd culture or something to laugh with a nerd, so to speak, but it was "it's funny because we're pointing how nerds are beneath us", to laugh against the nerds. It felt full of contempt if not outright hate.
Some times I've thought about re-watching that in case I was in a foul mood at the time, making me lean to the worse possible readings of the jokes, as I don't remember the concrete gag that I took that way; but I really doubt I'd change opinion since I'm for humor about anything and everything and when I take something that way I always keep thinking on it for a while to beat down that interpretation and I couldn't reject it at that time.
Another case of this is when they're playing D&D and Penny wants to roll her dice for her character's actions. Howard, who is the DM in this session, says that 'the Dungeon Master is supposed to roll'. Like...errm....no? The DM rolls for the enemies and stuff, but players roll for their own characters. That is literally D&D 101.
Or how Raj once opens a door to trigger a trap and Sheldon just lets him open the door and he dies immediately. No asking him if he's sure that's a good idea, no letting him roll dodge to try and evade the trap, he's just dead. Correct if I'm wrong, but a good DM doesn't WANT the players to die. Right>
Nerd minstrelsy might not be as problematic as the original version, but that is basically the complaint here. A good comparison with Big Bang Theory is IT Crowd. IT Crowd feels like they actually cared about using both their reference-jokes and their stereotypes to add depth to the humour.
Like, the Internet joke for example. It's a funny prank that's *actually from geeks' perspective*, and we are laughing *with them* at the little black box with the blinking light. We understand why the joke works, what's so funny about the concept of the Internet being a tiny black box. BBT is about anything *but* geeks' perspective. It's nerds under glass, that simple-minded people come tap at while at the zoo.
@@angryKleiner Still can't get over that joke, it was so good.
Best thing for me was that a friend of mine who isn't a nerd, laughed at this a lot. It was pretty funny listening to her laughing at the idiots in the show.
The annoying thing is I now can't watch that show because the writer is a transphobic idiot who can't shut up.
Yes, IT Crowd, with the archetypal Goth locked in the server room.
Yes, that's totally not extreme mockery.
And BBT is the fucking "minstrel" show. RIIIIGHT.
@pathogeneration5138 The actor Noel Fielding always wears unconventional clothes, so it wouldn't surprise me if he had been goth in his youth and had a significant influence on his character. It also doesn't actually mock him in my opinion. He is less absurd than for example the boss. IT Crowd is clearly written by people who are in touch with the IT-world both in terms of nerd stereotypes, interests and pain-points.
It's not even the fact that it is nerd culture, it paints people in their professions in a negative light. If you are in one of those professions, you actually probably know some nerds and they are never like that. Makes it look like Physicists and Engineers do nothing but goof around all day.
This is the most apathetic neutral npc show I've ever seen to catch mainstream media.
One thing to point out about the "Ebay" thing.
It's the same thing as how no-one coughs on shows unless they are sick. If they showed us the time taken to post the item, to it being bought the episode would have run for 73 minutes and the show would have moved on from the joke. This way they set it up, and finish it in about a minute, and move onto the next thing.
fair point. nerd culture can be pretty esoteric in general
When I hear "my truth" I immediately understand "my arrogant opinion but I'm too untitled to label it as that".
There is *the* truth, and there is opinion and interpretation of it, but that's it.
Eh, truth is a lot more subjective than people like to accept. That doesn't mean you get to just reject every piece of criticism, but everything we perceive is filtered through our senses and experiences. Best to keep open minded about that. Objective, inarguable truth only exists on very limited scale (if you really wanna go down that hole, you'll end at Cogito Ergo Sum)
That said, most people use '"my truth" as an excuse and that's stupid.
When you apply the term correctly it means something that has no definite truth.
For example that Big Bang Theory is not funny.
It had several seasons so someone must have watched it.
It's a very firmly held opinion.
Okay, the objective truth here it is.
Big Bang Theory is a trash TV show.
@@dojelnotmyrealname4018 It's true that vaccines don't cause autism. Any other claim, opinion or whatever is simply not true. There is no subjective thing about that. And so is with basically all of those "my truth/opinion" claims.
@@jasperzanovich2504 Funny is subjective, well-written and stuff like that isn't.
I didn't like it either because it felt like you were to laugh AT them rather then WITH them. Josh summed up my feelings with the writers not understanding what they were referencing. It just felt more insulting than anything.
There is ONE episode I like, and it's 100% because it has George Takei in it and he's amazing through the whole episode.
Mudak The Multiplier: "When people ask me why I don't like the show I usually say something along the lines of "it's like blackface but against nerds" and all of a sudden they know exactly what I mean."
In BBT's defence; The Sword of Azeroth was fairly early in the show. Even though i too was annoyed by it for reasons Josh said but also the name Azeroth which was clearly just a reference to WoW just to sound familiar and cool. Some things got a bit better later on though. An example was a few episodes later Sheldon playing Mario64 on an "poorly coded emulator" on the stairs in the hall and every time Penny interrupted he pushed a pause button and a faint Mario64 pause sound could be faintly heard every time. You didn't hear any actual gameplay sounds but i thought that was actually edited in pretty clever and made it feel "real".
I dont know, a similiarly bad episode about SWTOR (Star wars the old republic) came pretty late in the show and it was just basically more of the same "im saying stuff that might sound like im playing a game" joke.
"I have worked hard for this armor" ... He said while being level 18
@@naokaderapider4210 Well you kinda proved the point i tried to make. You already said you've seen that late in the show so i guess at least up to then it was entertaining enough for you to watch. Yes it had it's ups and downs and i in no way will claim that it's perfect or extraordinary but judging a show on a few lame or inaccurate jokes in the first episodes is a bit harsh. Also those where mostly filler jokes. I think it was mostly about the weird and awkward interactions of all the characters. Sheldon never won a Nobel prize in real life too but should i judge that show on that inaccuracy?
@@MrJonline No, I just know how to read episode / seasons. Its one of the laters seasons
@@naokaderapider4210 Somehow i don't find it really believable that someone didn't watch the show yet still goes on about ready all the plots of the episodes.....
@@MrJonline I watched a few single episodes. But I am usually able to recall things I watched
Community actually understands and embraces nerd culture.
TBBT just name drops. At best. And insulting very often.
I think one of the most reveling thing I saw about that show was when the actor that plays Sheldon was on saturday night live and in his little intro speech made it clear that he wasn't like his character, with pretty much disgust in his voice, it is pretty clear that those characters are supposed to be "funny" because you are suppose to not like them and dissociate with them "look at those stupid nerds lol".
It's a show about nerds, for non-nerds, but since non-nerds don't get it, they think nerds would like it.
Abed might be one of the best autistic person on screen.
Community would be a pretty good show if it wasn't chained to the genre of american sitcom. As it stands, it's ok.
COMMUNITY is both brilliant and erratic.
Season 3, is one of the best single seasons of Television I've ever seen.
COMMUNITY is also a wildly inconsistent tone. From 1 to 5, you can feel them feeling out and finding their way through.
I mean, would anyone think, that the natural grounded tone of the first few episodes was going to erupt into the Paintball calamities, or the Bedsheet sit ins?
COMMUNITY is sort of twisted genius in a way that appeals to the edgy frontier more than BBT.
But what BBT has way over it, is clarity of vision and consistency.
BBT knew, from the very outset, what it was trying to be. And it carried clearly and cleanly all the way through. Constantly finding steady and palpable developments and never jumping the shark.
COMMUNITY became like an exercize in jumping the shark, and rolling with it.
Sort of like Two & a Half Men, after Kutcher came in, and they basically gave up trying to be serious.
You're spot on. I've never seen an actual "nerd" praise this show. Admittedly, there are some hilarious clips and one-liners but they're few and far between. If you actually listen to the "crazy" monologues from Sheldon, it's pretty quickly apparently that he doesn't even sound intelligent. He typically just strings together a bunch of fancy buzz words. And the main actors seem to be completely clueless when it comes to actual nerd culture. I saw a clip where the whole cast was on one of the late night shows and, Sheldon especially, was basically like "I have no idea what any of this means, I just read the lines". And it didn't seem like he was saying that to be funny. The way he said it almost made him seem unlikeable. A counter example to this would be someone like Conan O'Brien. He portrays himself as an idiot, but is obviously quite intelligent. Another good example is Dave Letterman (who I don't even like that much). But he nailed this schtick probably better than anyone. I don't think 95% of his viewers realize how smart he actually is. They see him as relatable and kind of a low brow simpleton (even though he's clearly not). He does have some moments of extreme ignorance though, like when he had Marilyn Manson on the show.
Bit of a tangent there.
@@Adroyo Don't do drugs.
I have. Just the ones smart enough to know its not a show making fun about nerds. Its just a generic comedy. Having nerds as characters doesn't make it a show about making fun of being a nerd.
Fancy "Buzz Words" huh.
You sure you know what a Buzz word is?
It's the dribble speak that migrates from social media culture, or media culture, and downloads into the brains of parrots.
It's "I'm here for it". "Really"?
It's "Circle back" and muh "Synergy".
It's life coaches suggesting to "leverage" your strengths.
It's marketing that won't stfu about everything being an "experience".
It's oversensitive dweebs calling everything outside their narrow approval "Problematic".
Sheldon often speaks in quite obscure and sophisticated speak. And his sentences basically ALWAYS make complete sense.
When Jim Parson's refers to [not knowing what it means] he's referring to the academic information. Like the equations and the science jargon. He doesn't need to understand what it means to portray the character.
@@pathogeneration5138 lol what??? I'm talking about things like "the Cloud". Every company under the sun was throwing that word around and simpletons thought it was some crazy new abstract concept when, in reality, it's basically just remote storage. Nothing new. "Blockchain", "Metaverse", "Big data", "Agile Methodology", "Actionable Analytics'" are all buzz words that sound fancy but have a relatively simple meaning. These are more tech-based examples than what's typically found in The Big Bang but it's the same concept. They just string fancy words together to sound smart.
I wonder if Josh ever saw Ready Player One, it's the exact same thing. The ending of that movie is especially atrocious.
Bit that hurt most was the Iron Giant.
The whole story revolves around the Iron Giant learning he's not a weapon.
Then Ready Player One gave him a bunch of guns and put him in a fight.
So anthetical to the Iron Giant.
As someone who consider it his favorite book the movie made furious, they took every aspect of nerd colture and water it down so much just so they could force it down the non-nerd throats, completly destroing the point of the story, no amount of tracers walking with chun-li will make me forget that you are actively pissing on my colture
Hardcore Henry is a lot cooler.
For the love of God, do NOT read the books. If you think the movie's bad, the book will fucking ruin you.
I enjoyed Ready Player One decently enough. I didn't love it, but it was fun. Then again, I turned my brain off for most of it.
Thanks to this comment section, I understand that 100% of BigBangTheory hate is coming from a single class of individuals.
The beginning van The Big Bang theory was on target, celebrating nerd culture, but somewhere the popular view of nerd culture slipped in. I got really mad when they were literally bullying somebody because of dating problems. And that was still season 1, so they lost me very fast!
Because the main stars hated need culture.
An interesting exercise would be to apply this sort of writing to portray other groups and then see if its still okay. Pick any racial or ethnic minority and then write a show that's as in tune with it as BBT is to nerd and gaming culture and see how it goes.
I contrast it to a show like King of the Hill or a movie like Talladega Nights where the people they were teasing were also the people laughing at it (from experience) because they understood what they were making fun of, I tell you hwat.
I’d love for a KoTH show but starring nerds and geeks with Mike Judge’s level of observation humour. A bunch of guys with hobbies going through their day to day lives and experiencing the absurdities of their beloved culture from dealing with DC’s ever annoying tendency to leave a collection of omnibus incomplete, having to put up with Game Workshop’s bullshit, making sense of the U.N.I.T Dating Controversy and dealing with creative hacks home wreaking their favourite series like NuTrek being examples while going through their normal lives.
Actually do a sitcom about nerds that isn’t laughing at them but with them while having a good understanding of what they’re satirising and having a relatable element to it. After all, we’ve all cursed companies for leaving collections unfinished (Transformers Classics UK Vol 1-5 out of 8), making us suffer because of legal bullshit we have no part in (The whole An Unearthly Child fiasco) or just a writer badly misinterpret a character and missing the point the original author made (Too many examples to name here).
A sitcom about nerd culture written by actual nerds who knows the ins and outs of it while able to come up with good comedic material that isn’t aiming for low hanging stock tropes. Stuff like U.N.I.T Dating Controversy lends itself well to real clever jokes on how that’s a metaphor for people’s understanding of historical periods with conflicting accounts and people forgetting they already had a subscription to a book club.
Lol, god the BBT bashing crowd is melodramatic.
Almost like the show is landing on a mark somewhere.
My parents watch this show and when i go around to visit they go "Ohh i assumed you liked this show".
I dont know if i should be offended that they must assume nerds are like this IRL. Whats more insulting, the statement or the assumption? The nerds its trying to represent and make cool, is being done in the most offensive way. "Nerdy social awkward guy said something really long and overally descriptive" haha what a joke!
Or the You know just enough about something science related that this could be funny?
edit: haha i commented before viewing and you hit my exact thing on the head
It's not trying to make nerds cool. Everything they do is laughable in that show, apart from any attempt to stop being nerdy, in which case their abject failure is the joke.
its very much that hipster wearing glasses without lenses "I watch big bang theory, im suchhhh a nerd" too.
Try steins gate instead
TBBT was a show about mocking nerds and nerd culture, as well as disabilities, all while normalizing and even glorifying toxic behaviors.
The message of TBBT is "if you learn to act more normal, your life will get better", which is a horrible thing to say to an asexual, PTSD, OCD person like Sheldon.
It's not wrong though. If an actual Sheldon were to come about IRL, and never sought help for it, yeah, he'd probably have a lot of bad shit happening to him. Normalizing yourself when dealing with others (e.g. not being a douche) isn't exactly bad advice lol.
@@foomp learning to be responsible for your actions and words is one thing (and a good thing at that), mocking someone's disability until they conform to societal expectations is another. (I'll give you a hint, that one's not a good thing)
THANK YOU! This is exactly how I've felt for the longest time. Whenever it's seen by others that I'm a bit of a nerd, or I even so much as hint I have autism (once I'm comfortable with someone) I am so many times hearing "Oh like Big Bang theory" or I hear that brought up. The show's been a bane on me for the longest time.
SAME!
The show has done awful things for mental health awareness.
@@MudakTheMultiplier And sexism, homophobia, workplace discrimination, racism and sooo many more. The show regularly broke the acceptability limits but hahaha they're socially awkward nerds so it's okay
It's extremely messed up that someone would learn about your autism and one of the first things they would do with this knowledge is equate you to a TV show.
Wtf that actually happens?
I think the major issue with TBBT can be summed up in one episode: "The Raiders Minimization."
In the episode, Amy points out a plot hole in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The plot hole? If Indy hadn't been in the movie, the plot would've been the same: The Nazis would've gotten the Ark, opened it on the island, and all died. There are two massive issues with this 'plot hole,' however.
Firstly, that's fundamentally not a plot hole. A plot hole is something like a character making it to a location before other characters that set off first for no real reason, or someone acting stupidly out of character and missing an obvious piece of information. It is not something like "X character doesn't contribute to the plot." That's a flaw in most movies, but not a plot hole. And it's also not a flaw in Raiders, because the second, far more important part, is:
That's the whole fucking point.
The ENTIRE GODDAMN POINT OF THE MOVIE is that the Nazis greed and hatred was ultimately what killed them. Indy didn't do anything because he didn't need to. He was ultimately just a perspective character for us, to tell that story. It's a consistent theme in all Indiana Jones movies but Temple of Doom; the bad guys get the Mcguffin, use it, and die.
Anyone who was as truly fanatic about Indiana Jones as the show claims Sheldon is would've simply recognised that Amy is describing the entire point of the movie. The episode singlehandedly makes it clear that the writers of TBBT don't actually understand what makes these movies so great, and why people love them.
Also. What nerd esp. A film nerd doesn't understand the heroes journey? Sometimes all a hero has to do is perservere and survive.
it's not exactly a plot hole.
But it can be argued as a plot oddity.
Some stories derive comedy from reconciling the futility of their Quest.
And the journey is the fun in RotLA. But it IS a way of structuring a story, you wouldn't want to make a habit of.
But that's entirely missing the purpose of the citation.
It's an inciting incident between Sheldon and Amy. And it's amusing to have them desperately grapple their way around the story not being pointless, and Indie not being passive.
It's funny that you're unpacking the way that the reasoning of the show is meant to entirely make sense. As if characters have to entire make sense, to provoke a story. And now you're deep delving into the film critique prowess of the writers? As if it's implausible that they understand the fringes they're playing with, to use it to provoke a story?
Sheldon also says in one episode, to not feed the "GREMLINS" after midnight.
OH KNOW! A character failed to reason or cite flawlessly.
SHOW IS RUINED! Pack it up! Everybody go home.
Do you watch Mr Bean, and rage at the screen, because there's no way someone would try to do their Morning Routine in a moving vehicle?
Even if you have no relation to "nerd culture", I still don't think that any of the jokes are funny on their own anyways.
there are a few rare ones. but it's not even worth the time or noise from the laugh tracks to get to them.
“My truth” is what people say when they don’t want to actually work to improve their lives. They can just wallow in lies.
Exactly same opinion. Jokes are really good. They land perfectly... For someone who isn't a nerd and see nerds as the stereotypical nerds that the show depicts.
The references are really wrong, the whole "nerd" culture is represented horrible.
Like, all nerds are awkward, if they are female they are unattractive, the "nerd jokes" all follow the same principle; "Haha, nerds weird, nerds do nerd thing, so the non nerd make fun of them, haha."
I understand that it's an appealing show, again, the jokes can be really good, and the writing is phenomenal. But the depiction of nerd people and culture is fucking awful.
What also bothers me is the representation of all scientists as asocial dorks that are also somehow geniuses... there are a lot of people in the field of science that, not only are they the exact oposite of what they're represented as, they also want nothing to do with anything related to nerd culture, while also knowing plenty of people that are "true nerds" and can barely remember half the ruleset for MTG or 40K
Its not an appealing show. Its just a show mocking people. I never found it appealing.
@@GodwynDi It's just you mate. It's a hit for a reason, you guys are just the minority. You guys need to laugh for smaller reasons, do not over complicate things just to be happy.
@@joevaldez4889 A minority? it's a fact far more people don't watch it than watch it , billions of people dont watch it , your comment makes no sense.
I have a similar memory of a BBT joke about Magic: the Gathering where I think the joke is supposed to be that the game is ridiculously convoluted and incomprehensible to outsiders, but it falls flat because I DO play MTG, and it's still absolute nonsense. You can make anything seem overly complicated if you just make shit up about it.
Josh isn't wrong. Every nerdy joke in the show does this without fail.
And yet, in spite of that, and knowing how dumb it is, I still enjoy the show.
I do too, the way i see is that i dont think actual people who are into all the nerdy stuff was their demographic. When i saw the episode that mentions the sword of azeroth, i knew that is not how it works. I just watch the show from time to time for what it is.
Fixed:
Guy 1: "Ah ah! I got A shield of azeroth!... To the trade chat!"
blink
Guy 1: "Annnd sold! For a million gold. Potions are on me today guys!"
Guy 2: "And tanking is on me.... I've got a shield of azeroth"
I enjoyed the first season cause it was a new kind of sitcom to me, not about a family and their kids. After that season I got the feeling they recycled it over and over and even the characters blended together in some mish mash.
So as somebody who played wow. I can tell you this whole joked would have worked fine if they just replaced "sword of Azeroth" with teebu's blazing longsword and then replace the word " ebay" with " theauction house".
I think the overall feeling Josh is conveying is that sense of, if you make fun of me for something I said- word for word- chances are I can laugh about it. If I said something that was silly or illogical and you frame it in a satirical or humorous way, it's entirely possible for me to laugh along with the joke even if it's at my expense.
It is however entirely different if you make fun of me for something I *didn't* say. If you misquote me, pull my meaning out of context, or otherwise misrepresent my words. That's called putting words in my mouth and chances are high I'm going to dislike it and you no matter how you frame it. This is the 'sin' that Big Bang Theory commits- making fun of nerds in such a way that they reach for the easy stereotypical joke without putting any thought or effort into what would be the *true* and accurate joke. Both sides can laugh at an accurate joke. Only one side laughs at (and is misinformed by) an inaccurate one.
idk, as a nerd, I never felt attacked by the show. It certainly has many weak aspects, but doesn't deserve the hate it's been getting in the past years, imho. It is, after all, US network television from the 2000s. It gave me some good memories.
BBT annoyed me for the sole reason that it felt like it was a mix between making fun of nerd culture, and a very tropey live action anime...
That's what it was to me, it was a nerdy anime plot, but without understanding the nerdy bits! It was like Food Wars, if the writers didn't understand how to make food look and feel right, and the experience of cooking it look believeable...
"After I've finished doing this incredibly difficult thing, maybe I'll do something just as difficult. Maybe I'll shoot fish in a barrel." Best quote on this channel.
The problem is that in such a show you have to make it quick, simple and looking smart, so any idiot can understand it and think he's as smart as them!! This show is done to make people think they can understand nerd stuff.
If it had really been the real thing, nobody would have understood it because people who watch these shows have a very short attention time, you can't lmake a joke longer than 30 seconds or their brain will fry.
++
Exactly
Penny is their audience and also the translator for the intended audience. They’re hoping for nerds but aiming for main stream.
@@Amberthyme The ironic thing is she's probably the smartest character by her actions. We're told how smart the others are, but they never ACT smart.
ye bro you are very smart unlikely those normies right loooool normal people idiots hahaha
A lot of the jokes in Big Bang Theory that have scientific themes tend to be very similar. One of the nerds says a thing and the joke is "haha, he said funny long science word". You could literally change the word with wdplfijweilrwoer and the structure would stay the same.
I also felt like it was making jokes at the expense of nerds most of the time. It's not laughing WITH them, it's laughing AT them. Because the main character or perspective is not the nerds, it's Penny, the one "normal" person who rolls her eyes at this group of socially awkward nerds and doesn't understand most of what they say to her because haha nerds are so weird and constantly talk about stuff that normal people doesn't care about. And so the main audience for that show is not actually nerds, it's people who only have a surface level knowledge of nerd culture and like it laugh at it.
It's also the constant "haha you're a virgin" jokes that bug me.
Laughing AT others is typical comedy though. I daresay most jokes require someone or something to be the butt of the joke. Jokes that don't take on the role of ridiculing a subject is usually boring... really boring.
@@foomp yeah, but the jokes have to be FUNNY for that to work. It's like using the Dio vs Jojo meme of them walking towards each other; it's a clash of titans, the ultimate duel, so nerds use that and actually present a heated debate in that form of clashing concepts. The normies just use it as a "hahaha this is funny because its a cartoon or something". BBT is the latter. The characters aren't even consistently nerdy; they are just generically liking videogames and comic books; but casually, it's ONLY the most mainstream videogames and comicbooks. And by the age bracket they are supposed to have; not even the RIGHT videogames and comicbooks.
It feels like the few times i ran across big bang theory i watch until the first gag, let out a dry "heh" because i understood the reference, then clicked off.
The fact that a reference to something nerdy was even on tv at the time was more funny to me then the show itself.
Laugh tracks prevented me from ever giving the show a chance
Big Bang Theory doesn't use a laugh track. Every episode was recorded with live audiences
while I do for the most part agree on that, there are notable exceptions like Blackadder and Yes, Minister that are from a time that basically mandated to have laughing tracks, and by removing them you'd in my opinion make them even better, instead of modern sitcoms that use it to hide the fact nothing worth notice took place in a scene.
@@LuriTV that's not the point
The E Bay part would have went over my head since I 've never bought or sold anything from them. Not using a mouse to play an mmo on a PC, I would have questioned that.
Thank you, Josh
Sheldon might as well went "lordy lordy where's my Star Trek and gaming desktop!"
"It is using the names and iconography of nerd culture as complete surface level references and not actual deep connections to the way it mechanically works or is."
Somehow that describes perfectly a lot of the lame "representation" out there which provide token or one-note characters. Honestly it's pretty interesting to think about since it seems like, more than anything, the problem comes from the writers not respecting groups of "outsiders".
As a guy who has Autism i feel nothing in common with Sheldon and most people with ASD that i know don't act like him at all. He's honestly the reason i don't watch it.
Maybe I just misunderstood the whole premise, but I always thought the Big Bang Theory was poking fun at ignorant nerd stereotypes, by exaggerating and misrepresenting them to a ridiculous degree.
When you look at the show with the mindset "This is what non-nerds think Nerd-Culture looks like," it's pretty darn hilarious to watch.
Thats what it is and always has been. Does no one remember the joke where penny brings in woman while they are playing halo?
That's how it was marketed, but the actual show itself is very much just poking fun at nerds.
@@LittleHobbit13 I imagine the show started out as one thing, but eventually lost/forgot it's roots, and eventually just became a cavalcade of cliché nerd-jokes?
I remember the first season being pretty funny and my impression was definitely that they were poking fun at misunderstandings about nerd-culture... But as the show went on, I became bored with the lazy jokes and shallow writing, so I stopped watching.
Of course, maybe I was wrong, and the show was always that bad, and it just took a few seasons for me to notice?
The best way I've heard it described is by RubberRoss when he described it as "nerd blackface"
i love you so much. As a nerd and science lover this show was so offensive, someone had to say it.
The Big Bang Theory = One sentence that is in no way a joke. "Laugh Track". Repeat this for an episode and you have The Big Bang Theory.
First two seasons were earnestly enjoyable but the more the show went on the more the show writers abused the stereotypes and crammed the female characters into the show
Of course. They should have been frozen in time for 12 years. And never experienced any emotional or relational growth.
That would've really helped with the detrators.
When I watch IT and Nerd Stuff of main stream media, I try by any means not to search for logic or real life examples. Even shows like silicon valley, which have great consulting, are totally off. Because let's face it. Hacking and programming and such, is utterly boring to watch.
I still love you Josh.
I agree with almost all of this. I still laughed my ass off watching the show. I don't expect a 24 minute show to wait 7 days for an auction to end.
True that, people are taking things too seriously. A little bit of fiction here and there is okay. Doesn't need to follow all the tropes of a MMO seriously.
The worst thing is they could have avoided some of these issues by using fake names for stuff. Instead they would just name drop WoW or something and make a scenario that isn't remotely possible. Guess they just wanted the "I know that thing" points
Years ago my friends and sibling recommended that show, said it was super funny. I tried to get into it, but it never clicked, I didn't find it funny. At the time, I couldn't have even told you why.
But a year or two ago, I heard someone say something very similar to what you're saying. They described the show as, 'a comedy made by jocks about what they *think* nerds are like.'
There is a venn diagram that exists online that overlaps the following traits related to tv shows: For smart people, for dumb people, about smart people, about dumb people. So about dumb people for dumb people, you have the Kardashians. About smart people for smart people, you have Nova. About smart people, for dumb people, you have the BBT. I think that honestly sums it up. The entire purpose of the show is not to enjoy nerd culture, but to laugh at it. It's a ten year stretch of bullying those that are different.
I use that show as a barometer when I meet people. If somebody tells me they like that show I immediately know they're one of those people who just likes anything Hollywood throws in their face with zero thought
This is a bit too harsh, I liked the show a lot before I found it to get old in season 6 I think, but I did not like anything Hollywood threw at me.
Its the same whenever someone is playing a video game in a movie and they are just spamming literally every button as fast as possible, thats just not how games are played. Or when you can see the screen and the controller, but the buttons being pressed do not line up with the gameplay. Sometimes when its a ps4 controller which lights up very noticeably on the front, you see someone looking at something and pressing buttons but the controller is literally not even turned on.
Anyone remember the movie for the remake of Ratchet and Clank 1? In that movie the one nerd tech chick is playing the multiplayer for Ratchet and Clank 3 (up your arsenal) and she is playing in FIRST PERSON!!! YOU DONT PLAY RATCHET AND CLANK IN FIRST PERSON, AND ESPECIALLY NOT THE MULTIPLAYER!!!
Using a gamepad from another system is a classic. 😂
This was also why I got annoyed with Stranger things, Having both played in and ran actual DnD campaigns. The only explanation that sort of makes that one better is that the people playing it are kids, and might just be making up their own rules, but still. Everytime they said "The Demogorgon" I got very annoyed :P It's the name of a Demon Prince, not a species of demon dogs....
Having played only later editions, I was wondering if Demogorgon was a lesser entity in 1e than in later editions. I am guessing not?
@@NevisYsbryd 1st edition lists him as Demogorgon, Prince of Demons with a picture somewhat similar to the modern depictions. As far as I am aware the dog demogorgon thing from the show is not part of the actual dnd lore in any edition.
@@lily_evildm2317 _RIP._ How accurate are the rest of the mechanics as presented in the show?
@@NevisYsbryd I am not familiar enough with the earlier editions to really know about the mechanics, but from what I have heard not very. An example I have heard others bring up is them rolling to hit with a fireball, which is not how that spell is supposed to work.
@@lily_evildm2317 It certainly does not take a roll in later editions...
It's low quality comedy thats why it got so famous. I don't really like that since the most jokes and scenes aren't even entertaining
Josh is the type of guy to say SAO is trash, not because of how Reki fumbled his characters, but because of how the NerveGear would have never passed market surveillance.
BBT was never for nerds. It was a primetime TV show aimed at general audiences, like most primetime TV shows are. Most of their viewers fell into the same exact category as how you described the writers: they knew enough to know that nerd culture was being referenced, but not enough to really understand those references.