I get nerds, I really do. I might be one myself, for all I know. But in the American sitcom “The Big Bang Theory”, things are so farcically overblown, and the characters are so painfully cliche and stereotypical, that it is painful to watch.
The nerds are generally ace in Physics and know their way around the internet, and they are also all male. Male, and socially awkward. “Stare wide-eyed at America’s Next Top Model on TV” awkward. They have a token Indian nerd there too, I guess someone must have told the producers that Indians are ace with IT and computers.
They have women in that show, too. They aren’t the nerds. No Klingon scrabble for the girls on “Big Bang”. Nope, the girls are girlish, they wear halter tops and short pants, they are emotional and temperamental, and they are the stuff the nerds (and presumably the viewers of the show) look at longingly, or dream of at night. The few nerd girls in the show that I’ve seen so far were either overweight, not very good looking and/or made to wear thick glasses, with their characters painted in the most unpleasant light.
I think there was a chance here to write a funny sitcom that reflects on, and gets its inspirations from, the quaintness and weirdness of the nerd scene. But they have squandered that opportunity in spectacular fashion, and have instead created an unfunny, unoriginal and outright painful panacea of cliche gender stereotypes.
Case in point here.
“Big Bang Theory” is number two on my list of TV shows the world doesn’t deserve. With number one being “16 and pregnant”.
BBT comes right after 16 & Pregnant on your List? Maybe you’ve not seen Please Marry My Boy or even Jersey Shore, two shows I fucking loathe just from having seen the commercials. I’d take some typical Hollywood nerds over that utter shit any day. Fuck me backwards, from what I know of that Snooki thing from Jersey, she’s set feminism and positive female role models so far back in history our word for “woman” was probably a grunting noise. And she’s not even fictional!
I agree with Mandrellian here. I think all “reality” TV, all soap operas, most cooking shows, most game shows (especially those hosted by Eddie McGuire), and a large number of other American sitcoms should rank higher on the list than BBT.
You’re right, Jersey Shore or any “Housewifes of” show are much worse. I was just being facetious…
Yes there are female nerds on the show! 2 of them! Sheldon’s girlfriend (Amy Farrah Fowler) is definitely a nerd, and Howard’s fiancee (Bernadette Rostenkowski) has a Ph.D in Microbiology.
Hmm, OK, so on first read I missed your sentence ” The few nerd girls in the show that I’ve seen so far were …”
But Bernadette seems reasonably well adjusted, not too nerdy….. Certainly a bit nerdy though.
This show totally sucks. Its the kind of humor that actually makes the viewer embarrassed FOR the actors and their totally telegraphed jokes. I just wanna punch that Jim Parsons homo in the face. WTF is “Bazingah!” ???? I gave it a chance because I noticed in some promos that they were into comic books. Ive collected comics since I was a little kid. But….when I tuned in,….I found myself actually getting MAD at how bad it was. Oh…and could the laugh track be anyMORE fake??? I mean….they deliver a punch line that doesnt even put HALF a SMILE on my face….but you hear an audience going side-splittingly nuts with laughter. I mean they could tell the ‘chicken crossing the road’ joke and the audience would fall out of their seats with laughter. FAKE!!! I live in the Detroit, MI area and this totally stupid show is on like 4 different networks and every network advertises the living crap out of this show. I am guarenteed to see atleast one TV spot for this garbage at every commercial break. I have stared turning the channel when even the commercial comes on. HATE THIS SHOW!!!
There’s a clip on youtube that has a scene, but without the laugh track. It’s painful to watch. The actors are standing there waiting for the non-existant laughter to stop before delivering their next line.
I fucken hate this show so much I’d love to go on the set with an AK 47 and do everyone including the “ACTORS” a favor.
this is the worst tv show on tv!
fucking hate leonard and his boring personality..how he always has to
complain whenever penny dates someone else and how he always has
to kiss ass to keep a fucking girlfriend..god hes pathetic.
I just want to reach my small gorgeous hands through the tv and choke
the living daylights out of him..or drown him for that matter.
but hes the only one I have a problem with oh yeah him and that stupid
baby voiced bernadette god shes annoying like just talk normally okay
you stupid bitch before I take a knife and rip out your fucking voice box?
man how satisfiing would that be huh to rip her fucking voice box out
so she cant talk with her stupid baby voice anymore?
mmm!
and yes I agree with all of you that the stupid laugh track is ridicoulus man
I have always hated laugh tracks like does hollywood really think we’re
that freaking stupid that we cant find the right time to laugh?
yeah we’re not idiots unlike you hollywood idiots!
so yeah screw this stupid show and screw leonard and bernadette man if
there was a time for police brutality this would be it!
and to help control the human population kill as women as you can!
I dislike it because it looks like something geeks should hate and instead they like it because it’s on mainstream TV. There are more dignifying ways to portray yourself instead of having an overly exaggerated sitcom berate your social anxieties and incompetence into a stereotypical role for others to laugh at. It’s self gratuitous and fulfills a sad geek’s need for a hot girl next door female to take interest in him and his geekery. I get it. It’s a type of geek porn, but to say it’s a good show? For the love of all things valid, why? And the cheese! The cheese. All the cheese. Enough of it to constipate you for the rest of your life. This is an outsider’s concocted view on geeks and nerds, and the amount of undeserved support this show gets only helps to confirm this falsehood for them.
Yes indeed, i hate this show, like i hate “2.5 men”. With a passion! I actually enjoy how much i hate this pandering, massively appealing, corporate-cocksucking garbage.
The premise of this show is “geeks are losers”. It implies that intelligence is something to laugh at.
And I fucking hate the characters. All of them. Even in the most outrageous fantasy-world, if you treat people the way the oh so (un)funny Sheldon treats his “friends”, you will get kicked in the balls.
It’s just disgusting
Yes that is a problem I have with the show as well. But they do have some bright moments, eg when Sheldon ridicules his creationist mother…
you are all a bunch of weirdo’s because the big bang theory is awsome so you are all a bunch of idiots
” The few nerd girls in the show that I’ve seen so far were either overweight, not very good looking and/or made to wear thick glasses”
Well that, at least, is accurate.
There are very few smart and nerdy women because these are male traits (just as there are very few brutish thug women – these are also male traits). Your rant is marred by laughable egalitarian premises.
That said, this show is lame, predictable, cliched, the characters are uninteresting and seeing half of one episode is enough for me to never watch it again.
Of course, I think pretty much anyone who watches television is a fucking idiot, so whatever.