The Problem With the Big Bang Theory?

This is great... I always wondered what it was that annoyed me SO MUCH about BBT. This guy just articulated it.

 

I have mixed feelings.

I get where the article is coming from. I'm even inclined to agree to some extent, however, there is one thing about the show which is a positive.

Us nerds aren't some invisible character in the show. We're not the sideline characters, we're the protagonists. We're the ones in the spotlight. It sucks that they play it off like a joke, but what did you expect? They were gonna portray a social group that no one is familiar with as something to take seriously and the show would be #1? Not gonna happen...just like every other social group we're the punchline now, but we're also recognized, and by the time the next nerd show sensation comes around people might just be familiar enough with our quirks to accept us as a serious role...baby steps.

 

That's my issue with it too. It just irks me that they've got all this potential to be a lot funnier than they are, especially with the cast and budget, but the writing just isn't that funny. Its a bit annoying some sitcoms are overlooked in the face of a lesser show, but oh well. In my opinion, TBBT's just Streets Behind.

 

My fav rapper would be T.I and the other non rappers Rick Ross, Collie Buddz and Akon

 

that's kind of a wild narrative but makes sense to a point

I just plain don't like BBT because frankly it isn't funny at all. I watched a few episodes on recommendation and it was awful to me. Boring, not witty, blah blah

 

I have to say that I was rather upset about the transphobic joke that Raj told on last weeks episode.

 

I wasn't planning on reading all of that at once, but I did as I found it somewhat interesting.

I'd like to hear more thoughts on this.

As for me... I like the show. What I like are the characters, that and the setting is what makes it for me. I'm going to feel like shit now for laughing but I don't want to leave the show as I've grown fond of it and it's one of the few things that makes me happy right now.

I started feeling something was off from something the official page posted on Facebook once that offended the nerd fans like myself. (I don't know how to use the word "nerd," but like the writer of that article we'll just say I am. At least at heart.)
I don't remember what it was now, but it ruffled feathers for a fair reason I think.
As well, I noticed a few jokes on the show after that which weren't take so well by me.

At first I thought it was just the writers being uneduated about some things, such as when they said you can have sex in World of Warcraft. Try as Moonguard might, it doesn't work out very well. Easy to look up, but the truth was ignored. That set me on guard.

Now my mind is floating around the idea that the show is indeed intentioned, or originally was, to let us laugh at the nerds. Yet it gained a nerd following because we took it another way and related to the characters, fell in love with them if you will. Let's us laugh at the unpopular quirks we have as such. I myself am also a proud freak, so maybe that's why it didn't bother me as much. It's okay that I'm different, I see those differences and there is good humor somewhere in there. But now I'm worried because the whole show is against me? I never related to Penny, but I laugh at Sheldon... Does that make me a bully? This has distubed me.

I'm a weirdo. I stayed up 24 hours playing WoW with an awfully messy desk filled with pizza and soda. Good times. I can laugh at the absurdity of that compared to "normal" people, maybe it's because I took it past a so-called "healthy" limit. Where is the line? I'm having a hard time seeing it right now. But I do love Buffy. How is this different than when we were laughing at the awesomely nerdy Trio? Maybe if I think about this more I have the answers, I'm just disturbed now as I really liked that show.

Did any of that make any sense? Oh well, I'd still like to hear more from other fans of the show.

---------- Post added 8th Mar 2014 at 03:56 PM ----------

Another one? What was the joke this time?

One last thing. This joke keeps ringing in my head from the show. When they were watching Sheldon and Kripke compete in basketball and afterwards other challenges that they couldn't do, Leonard said "You know all those terrible things bullies used to do to us? ... I get it." That one bothered me, but I'm always getting offended. Looks like I'm not alone here though.

 

I always stood behind the fact that I didn't like the Big Bang Theory. From the first episode, I knew that I didn't like it. And I tried and tried again and again to like it, but I just couldn't. Bare in mind that I have no problems with current sitcoms. I adore How I Met Your Mother and Scrubs is one of my favorite shows. So when I heard about Big Bang Theory, I wanted to give it a chance, but time and time again it just kept rubbing me the wrong way.

At first, I thought it was the characters. For years I always said that my problem with the characters is that they are just stereotypes of nerds without any depth. I tend to dislike the "breakout" characters on most shows the most because they tend to rely more on being quirky rather than any kind of discernible learning curve. And with a show with all breakout characters, it makes sense that I would mistake that as the problem. To an extent, I guess that is the problem.

But reading this article made me realize something, it isn't necessarily the characters. I'm not going to pretend that I took these characters as some misaligned gems, because they aren't. They aren't particularly that interesting to begin with with the exception of Sheldon and maybe Raj. But it isn't the characters themselves that make me dislike the show. The characters are decent and solid. It's the framing that is abysmal.

Framing a setting, universe, or character is more important than the actual character. When a character is set up, they have to react with the rules set by their universe and setting. For instance, Princess Peach and Princess Zelda. People complain about Peach constantly not because she gets kidnapped all the time, because so does Zelda. It's because the way she gets kidnapped isn't framed correctly. Zelda gets kidnapped for legitimate reasons whether they be political, or magical, or whatever the game. The Zelda universe set up a reasoning for her to be rescued time and time again. It doesn't feel like a plot device and just flows naturally. Whereas Peach gets kidnapped time and time again, but the reasons are vague at best. We don't really know why we are rescuing her other than the fact that she's a Princess, so it makes her look bad. Zelda and Peach generally get kidnapped for similar reasons, but the Mario universe doesn't set up the urgency or the seriousness, so it just makes Peach seem like a nuisance.

And that flaw in framing is really obvious in the Big Bang Theory. The universe is dictating that these people are the protagonists, the ones that you are supposed to follow. And yet, they aren't really framing a reason for you to care about them. And it gets really confused who you are supposed to be rooting for, especially with Sheldon. They frame Sheldon as a jackass (I'm not going to focus on the mental illness part, because I'm speaking purely from a story perspective and not a moral one). But Sheldon is framed as the asshole of the show. And his problem is one that appears in a ton of shows, but his is a unique problem.

If Sheldon is an asshole, why do the characters keep him around? And this is more problematic in this show than others because they aren't picking a side. He has shown time and time again that he's not fun to be around, nor is he kind. Why would you keep him around. More often than not, they just keep him around because they are too lazy to unfriend him, and to me, that's not logical character progression.

Scenario 1: He's socially awkward and they know that he needs them.

Fine. Why don't they treat him like that? They are shown time and time again to be extremely impatient with him. The other characters don't even try and relate to him on any kind of level. Every week they act like his quirks are new, you think that they would know how to tolerate him better. The tolerance thing would work if they were actually being tolerant.

Scenario 2: He offers them things even when he's unemotional.

No he doesn't. He rarely results in any kind of happiness or payoff. This friendship doesn't seem to be based off of anything. It really breaks immersion when you literally have no idea why he's there.

Scenario 3: He's nice occasionally.

That goes back to the framing thing. This world has framed him as such an annoying jerk and ingrained him so far into his archetype that any time he does do something resembling character development it never feels genuine. They wrote him to be such a cartoon character that when he acts like a genuine person, it doesn't make sense.

And I mostly focused on Sheldon, but pretty much every character on the show carries similar problems. It's like the producers said, "let's make a show about nerds" but then put any actual heart of the show to the wayside. I'm not going to talk about the humor because that is purely subjective. I'm talking about how it fails as a show in my eyes.

I know that there are a lot of people who love the show, and I respect that. But when I say that I dislike the show, these are my reasons. I don't know if I fully agree with everything in the article, but he and I both agree that the biggest flaw is the character's portrayal.

 

I'm not a huge fan of TBBT. First of all, I have a huge disdain for laugh tracks; secondly, Jim Parsons performance overshadows the rest of the cast, either because he's just that good or because the writers are focusing on Sheldon and Amy too much — probably both. Lastly, I think the series reuses much of its material.

I wouldn't classify myself as a nerd, but I relate to all of the main cast on some level, from Sheldon to Penny. I admit that there is truth to what is said in the article, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing; then again, I'm not the one offended by the show.

The way I see it, Big Bang Theory is to the nerd/geek/whatever community what Will&Grace was to the LGBT community. Even though the main cast of BBT is ridiculed every now and then, they are still mostly portrayed as likeable, and, as the series progresses, "normal".

I think a lot of the criticisms of the article have been addressed in the show. Amy and Sheldon have developed, as has their relationship.

Personally, I was always hoping for Raj to come out. I think he is so outrageously gay.

 

The one where he says "and from her lack of adam's apples, she appears to have been female her whole life"? I don't remember the exact quote. I didn't like it, especially since I myself am trans* along with my girlfriend. I'm actually curious as to how she reacted seeing as it probably effects her more.

But back to what OP was saying, and their link, I can't agree. Maybe it's just me, but it's a TV show for a reason. Honestly, if someone were to make me the star of a show I'm sure I'd be laughed at, not with.

Nerds, it's a broad term. Saying that having a vast knowledge of math and science means you also are a whovian, potterhead, and superhero lover. I think BBT targets people who just need some fast laughs. That's why I enjoy it.

And the jokes that go a little to far, well that's life. That's what makes people laugh. If I tell a 9/11 joke and you say "I'm offended", it means nothing. You're whining about something mundane. Raj wasn't saying that trans folks are freaks or anything, the comedic part is he knows enough that he's probably met a few girls that weren't born that way.

You can't watch shows like that if the jokes are too raunchy for ya.

 

Oh my god, I remember that! Yeah, that bothered me, too. But the thing that really bothered me was the episode when Sheldon sneak into Penny's apartment when she's asleep and cleans it. They were talking about the "transvestite" that lived in Penny's apartment before she did. Sheldon makes a comment that that "man's" closet was perfectly organized, going "evening gowns, cocktail dresses, police uniforms" or something like that. It doesn't sound like she had any "man" clothes besides her police uniforms, so I'm guessing she's a trans woman. But of course, just referring to her as a woman wouldn't make for very good TV evidently. :dry:

 

Omg, this article is over analyzing TBBT. I'm a nerd myself, as well as getting a nerdy degree, and I love this show. Just yesterday I was reading a rant from one of my facebook friends about a certain meme and was going into the socio-political aspects of it and stuff. It's just a meme. Learn to laugh at it, learn to know it's okay to laugh at yourself. If everyone restricted what we could and couldn't laugh at, comedians wouldn't have any material left. To use a joke from the show, why don't they "go to IKEA and assemble themselves a personality?"

 

Yep. The Big Bang Theory is transphobic.

Another transphobic joke 20 seconds in on this video:
[YOUTUBE]8AWN_JvrWmE[/YOUTUBE]

 

That is horrible. And the laugh track reaction was ridiculously over the top and of course shouldn't even be there.

But on another note, they looked fabulous and totally rocked that pink dress. :love:

 

But isn't it important to analyse the art that we consume so that we can improve upon it?

I don't agree with censoring the show, or course. But we should never "just turn our brains off". We aren't going to like things. It's in our nature to dislike and like elements of our culture. It's important that we understand why we have our personal tastes so that we can search for and create the things that will wholly benefit us. Whether we like it or not, we live in a world run by media. We are affected by the things that we watch more than we care to admit.

Being part of a subgroup that is already kept out of public eye is something that is worth discussion. Why is the LGBT community constantly pushing for realistic characters? It's because if there isn't something in the media that relates to us, we become a deviation from the default and stock characters. While certainly not as serious as what's going on with race, gender, and sexuality in the media, we shouldn't exactly just expect this author to suck it up and deal with it.

The author doesn't like the show, and he actually went out of his way to find out why. That is something to be applauded in a world where we tend to go "I hate it because it's stupid and lame". He doesn't like the show, he explored his problems with it. You don't have to agree with him by any means, because people's opinions differ and they should be discussed. But his opinion shouldn't be dismissed because he figured out why he didn't like it.

 

Yeah, I remember that.

---------- Post added 9th Mar 2014 at 12:56 PM ----------

Oh, I did get her opinion vie text last night

"Ohhhhhhhhh I feel dumb. Anyhow, I watched the BBT episode, the one with the trans* joke the Raj made..."

"Yeah. He's a douche."

"I didn't really know how to take it. I just sorta frowned at the TV like "...oh""

"Yeah...I kinda laughed, kinda sat awkwardly."

She is the pink font, I am the blue.

 

Yeah that's the joke I am talking about.

I'm not making a federal case out of it, I just thought it was in bad taste.

 

It stopped being funny a long time ago for me. The reason? Sheldon is simply a horrible and often a mean person (even a bully sometimes) which is justified through his academic success. Moreover, I feel as it's sending a completely wrong message to young adults who are in a way identifying with him. Are we supposed to wait for him to become a better person because I don't see that coming any time soon considering this is Chuck Lorre we're talking about.

p.s. Don't get me started with Raj (not) being gay :icon_bigg

 

I really haven't watched enough of it to fairly criticize but from what I've seen it just isn't funny to me. Couple that with the laughtrack abuse and meh (It's probably a bad joke anyway if your audience has to be told when to laugh) to me it isn't interesting enough to sit through even for the sake of picking it apart and figuring out why it doesn't work.