I saw a description of BBT that is just perfect… it’s “nerd blackface”.
If you want a funny sitcom that is still on, watch Broad City or Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt or Master of None or Veep. Or go back a few years and watch Parks and Rec or the first three seasons of Community. Or watch an animated show like Archer. Seriously, TV is better than it used to be.
I’ve watched some episodes. It’s amusing fluff, but it has this weird generic blandness that makes every joke immediately forgettable.
The “nerd blackface” thing misses a key point: it’s a mainstream sitcom where nerds are the protagonists. Penny is really just there so that people outside the subculture feel represented. If one of the “nerds” gets picked on by some jock type, the audience is meant to sympathise with the nerd, not cheer on the jock. It’s an accomplishment just having these characters be front and centre.
The whole “blackface” comparison glosses over the baggage associated with blackface. Sure, I hate the bias against nerds and geeks in mainstream society, but let’s get real. Nerds haven’t had a history of being literally traded as property and legally regarded as subhuman, those notions further perpetuated by portrayals by outsiders–that’s what makes blackface offensive, not because it’s simply a broad stereotype in isolation.
That’s certainly true. Professionals with advanced degrees and six-figure salaries have been historically marginalized and excluded in our society.
They have had to sit on the sidelines, toiling for pittance behind the doors of IBM or the RAND Corporation or Intel or Lockheed Martin. Some of them are so desperate that they burden themselves with tenured professorships at MIT or Chicago or Harvard or Cal Tech, while others, facing the prospect of food stamps and church donations, opt for medicine and law and government.
Please, moderately amusing sitcom, rescue these people from their obscurity!
I’d give an opinion, but I’d rather not get a lecture this morning.
Note I said the “blackface” comparison is absurd. It’s a bit annoying that football obsessives get treated as regular people but as soon as you’re into science fiction you’re some sort of weirdo. But I mean, come on, it really is a classic “first world problem”.
All I’m saying is, just as it’s not the best thing evah, it’s not some kind of hate crime, either.
I’m “meh” on the verge of “stupid show”, tbh. I find the whole geek-freak thing tiresome. Ditto Sheldon. OTOH my husband still gets a kick out of it.
At the risk of being lambasted by Spud – I’m one of those tiresome “don’t-own-a-televison” snobs: only see television when visiting relatives / friends. I must have seen something approaching a couple of dozen episodes of BBT over the years.
I could wish there to be an option in between “It’s alright…” and “I don’t care for it…”. I find the character of Sheldon, marvellous, as a towering genius to whom everything on earth except for his area of expertise, is a closed book – and who is, along with that, thoroughly obnoxious. He has become my archetype of the “brilliant scholar clueless about the real world”. Otherwise, I find BBT something of a “few-tricks pony”, and rather feeble. If I were a frequent telly-watcher, I suspect I’d indulge in it only rarely, if at all.
Way to miss the point. the main characters are the typical “Hollywood caricatures” of the kinds people who would never in a million years actually get parts on a mainstream TV show. Hollywood creates “nerds” and “geeks” by taking established actors, giving them bad haircuts, thick-rimmed glasses, mismatched outfits, and having them act borderline autistic. Just like they took America Ferrera, gave her a frumpy hairstyle, glasses, and braces and called her “Ugly.” It’s insulting.
Other, in the sense that I used to love it but find my interest waning after nine years.
A great sitcom I can watch and enjoy in reruns. A good sitcom I can’t. BBT is a good sitcom. Or maybe it was.
Regards,
Shodan
Consider the expertise of me in knowing what I like. Good grief. How many episodes have you watched with me? How many of the jokes have I laughed at? How many more hours of my life do you think I should dedicate to the show before I can have a reaction to it?
As for Dr. Who, that’s an especially bad example, because it’s a show that changes actors and showrunners periodically. Take something else like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you watch an episode and don’t like it, I might recommend a particular episode to you (“Hush,” natch), but if you don’t watch that, no skin off my nose. What I like isn’t the same as what everyone likes, and that doesn’t bother me.
I almost loathe The Big Bang Theory, but not quite. I just really don’t like it. I read somewhere, perhaps on these very boards:
TBBT is a stupid show about smart people. Arrested Development is a smart show about stupid people.
I also wish there was an option between “I love it” and “It’s alright,” though I voted for the latter. I watch it every week, generally enjoy it, and will often take the time to watch a rerun or two on TBS if there’s nothing else on at the time. But I wouldn’t call it my favorite show, and I do agree that it’s showing its age and isn’t as sharp as it used to be.
I used to love it. I own the first season on DVD and it’s my comfort viewing. The last few season have been meh and I don’t even bother recording this season.
I voted “loathe” but that’s too strong a term. Or it’s the wrong term.
The show is absolutely terrible, one of the least funny sitcoms I’ve ever tried to watch. There just aren’t very many jokes. But now I don’t watch it, so I can’t say I “loathe” it.
Since I’'m one of the people you quoted, allow me to counter with “I don’t need to keep eating dog shit to know it’s bad.”
Or more fairly, I’ve seen enough to know it doesn’t appeal to me, and that it seems very MOR as sitcoms go, which is all I said. I’ve got nearly 50 years experience watching sitcoms, I think I can tell what’s groundbreaking, innovative, etc, from the merely average. And funny is just an opinion.
There are tons of shows out there that have huge audiences that members of this board hold in low regard, so “the expertise of the reviewers” is purely subjective.
Excuse me, I’m going to go listen to A Horse A With No Name, and enjoy it!
It’s one of the better sitcoms out there, but its best years are behind it. Sure, geeky humor is fun but they’ve milked that cow pretty dry and it has become a relationship show. Leonard and Penny were getting to be Ross and Rachel redux, Bernadette’s character has regressed while Amy’s has grown. Raj has gone from being pathetic to being a dickweed. Howard went from being perverted to henpecked. It’s still a good show and I’ll watch the TBS reruns when I just want to veg out in front of the telly, but I don’t look forward to the new shows like I used to.
But what if I don’t think any of those shows are funny? 
I didn’t like it at first, but it grew on me. I like the way Amy evolved from being a female version of Sheldon to joyfully exploring things outside her comfort zone. I like the way Raj says the most mean-spirited shit in such a happy sounding voice. Penny is meant to be the eye candy, and that formula is fine with me. Bernadette tickles me with the cute things she says to disarm Amy’s weird borderline lesbian approach to female bonding. But I don’t want to hide anything in my ample bosom!
I really enjoy the show! All the characters are great, but Sheldon is the most entertaining.