We don't usually watch sit-coms anymore. Our tv diet consists mainly of Hell's Kitchen, Scream Queens, Battlestar, Dexter, and a smattering of Supernatural and Fringe. We have a couple of really good friends that like the same things we like (well, except they are still into Lost, but whatever). They have been insistent that we watch this series, Big Bang Theory. "It's really funny, you guys!" They told us. "It's all about all the stuff we're into! They were playing TALISMAN the other night!"
Sounded promising, but we watched a couple episodes when they brought it over one night. How do you politely ask your good friends for a bottle of mind bleach after watching a show they are into? They watch Battlestar and Dexter with us, so there's a certain obligation to like what they want to show us, right? Not to sound snobbish, but what we introduced them to was GOOD.
Supernatural isn't my favorite show, but it doesn't have a laugh track. Know why? Doesn't need one (it relies on the Arena Rock music channel for one thing). Because it's funny. We repeated the attempt to find some grain of savvy in this show last weekend, to no avail. I swear that the writers for Big Bang Theory just have google alerts set up for "geek" "dork" and "nerdy" and write their stuff based on whatever shows up there. Or perhaps...spend half an hour on the WoW forums:
It's painfully obvious that they're not writing what they know. Maybe these writers were outcasts of some kind in high school (drama club?), but they DAMN SURE weren't geeks.
Maybe I should lighten up, but this show actually does a disservice to nerdcore. The stereotype of nerds not being able to talk to girls is so played out, and the way they mash the buttons while "playing" Halo is nauseating. Newsflash, Walter Cronkite...nerds get the girls nowadays. Nerds ARE the girls nowadays. There are plenty of ways Big Bang Theory could have been truly funny with this rich subject matter, instead of throwing it so blatantly in your face that they leave funny far behind. Overkill, guys. Overkill.
This show is not for nerds. It's for all those x-jocks and x-cheerleaders out there who are feeling bummed because after high school, the power balance shifts in favor of the nerd, and we're inheriting the earth (those of you x-jocks and x-cheerleaders who loathe Big Bang Theory are cool to join us). Real nerds are watching South Park. Which doesn't have a laugh track. Because it's funny.
I really hope those two friends don't read the blog today.
I have to agree with you completely--I was subjected to a marathon viewing of this show over the holidays, and found it painful and baffling. It's my uncle's favorite show, for no reason that I can discern. Oh, well.
ReplyDeleteI've also virtually abandoned the sitcom genre, with the notable exceptions of "My Name is Earl" and "How I Met Your Mother".
Sorry, but I'm a geek who happens to LOVE Big Bang Theory. Does it present an over-the-top, stereotyped view of geekdom? Yes--that's why it's so funny! It's a sitcom, guys, it's supposed to be over-the-top! There are grains of truth in most stereotypes, and when I laugh at the geeks in BBT, I'm also having a good-natured laugh at myself and my subculture.
ReplyDeleteYou know, Natalie, to each his own, and you have a valid point. I don't know WHY it gets under my skin like it does. I used to be in the video game industry, and "Grandma's Boy" is still funny to me (very stupid funny, but still funny). Big Bang Theory just somehow crosses that line for me.
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