# I dislike BBT solely because of Leonard **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199 "2011-10-19T22:56:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/21 "2011-10-20T02:49:43Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Leonard also gets a lot more tail than the nerds I know. I dunno, an awful lot of the tail I got as a young man was nerd-related. (BBS meet-ups, cons, renaissance faire, and wicca.) If I weren’t happily married, I’d regret being too old to cruise cosplaying sci-fi and comic-con girls in good conscience anymore. That beat the _hell_ out of going to clubs. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/22 "2011-10-20T03:54:58Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > I dunno, an awful lot of the tail I got as a young man was nerd-related. (BBS meet-ups, cons, renaissance faire, and wicca.) > > If I weren’t happily married, I’d regret being too old to cruise cosplaying sci-fi and comic-con girls in good conscience anymore. That beat the _hell_ out of going to clubs. 😃 Yeah but you weren’t a nerd, you were preying on the nerds. You can’t tell me you weren’t one of the cool kids. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/23 "2011-10-20T04:00:07Z")
Nerd to the bone, baby. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/24 "2011-10-20T08:26:34Z")
Leonard’s my favourite of the male cast, and it _is_ because he’s relate-able (yet still fucked-up in a way Philip Larkin explains best) I certainly prefer watching him over Raj (boring now) or Howard (well, creepy single Howard, haven’t seen latest season yet). Howard wouldn’t last 1 day in my NerdHerd - just because we’re geeks doesn’t mean we tolerate the kind of behaviour he gets away with in the pre-Bernadette days - which might be why the geek girls stick around. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/25 "2011-10-20T09:34:35Z")
Leonard is the straight man most of the time; the show needs one. (Edit - ooops, noticed that’s already been said). ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/26 "2011-10-20T13:57:42Z")
leonard may be sheldon’s straight man but that doesn’t mean he plays the part well. nerd crosses into wuss a little too many times and the mannerisms border on the feminine. you can really tell that galecki doesn’t really “get” the role as well as Parsons. Plus it’s weird and distracting that a fellow nerd would find sheldon’s ramblings intolerable and pedantic. i’m not nearly the geek that leonard is portrayed to be and i think sheldon’s musings on the mundane to be hilarious, engaging, interesting, and often times right. maybe i’m not actually mad at leonard. maybe it’s just the incredible talent disparity between parsons and galecki that’s getting to me. you can tell that parsons has a healthy dose of acting chops as opposed to galecki. all the long-winded diatribes, the geek explanations, the acting (when sheldon was sick, echolocating in the movie theater, etc.) that requires active comedic timing, etc. all falls on parsons while leonard just sits there, squinting with his nose in the air. i’m just saying if leonard is the straight man, he needs to be a full out straight man - pennyesque in his ignorance and disdain for sheldon’s antics. if he’s going to be a nerd, he needs to be a more convincing nerd. the middle ground is confusing, distracting, and a bit repulsive. it can definitely be reworked to be just nerds + penny. they interact as neighbors. does a romantic interest really bring more to the table? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/27 "2011-10-20T16:52:48Z")
> [@alice\_in\_wonderland](#): > > I dated a Raj Wow, the conversations on those dates must have been seriously one sided (or drunken). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/28 "2011-10-20T16:54:41Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Wow, the conversations on those dates must have been seriously one sided (or drunken). 🙂 “So you say you can’t pay the rent…” ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/29 "2011-10-20T17:04:32Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > Plus it’s weird and distracting that a fellow nerd would find sheldon’s ramblings intolerable and pedantic. i’m not nearly the geek that leonard is portrayed to be and i think sheldon’s musings on the mundane to be hilarious, engaging, interesting, and often times right. For 30 minutes a week maybe, but Leonard deals with him at home and work every day. I can certainly see Leonard finding Sheldon intolerable and pedantic sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/30 "2011-10-20T17:07:52Z")
Actually, Leonard is the only one I could stand being with, IRL. Sure, he’s neurotic, but he’s the model of sanity compared to the others. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/31 "2011-10-20T17:11:32Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > maybe i’m not actually mad at leonard. maybe it’s just the incredible talent disparity between parsons and galecki that’s getting to me. you can tell that parsons has a healthy dose of acting chops as opposed to galecki. all the long-winded diatribes, the geek explanations, the acting (when sheldon was sick, echolocating in the movie theater, etc.) that requires active comedic timing, etc. all falls on parsons while leonard just sits there, squinting with his nose in the air. Yes, Galecki is the straight man and Parsons is the comic or clown. It is widely recognized in showbiz that straight man is a much more difficult role to fill than comic, and that really good straight men are extremely rare. I think perhaps I agree with you that Galecki does not do quite as good a job here as straight man as Parsons does as (this rather unusual and specialized type of) clown, but the show would not work without a Leonard-type character. It is a difficult role because he has to walk a tight rope between extreme nerdiness (to fit plausibly into the group) and ‘normality’ (because he is the character with whom average-joe viewer, or even fairly nerdy viewer - who would want to think that they are Sheldon or Howard or Raj? - gets to identify). ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/32 "2011-10-20T17:22:04Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Actually, Leonard is the only one I could stand being with, IRL. Sure, he’s neurotic, but he’s the model of sanity compared to the others. Really? I think that Raj comes over as by far the nicest of them, and reasonably “sane” apart from his hysterical mutism around women. I think I would hang with Raj than with Leonard. (The one I really couldn’t stand to be around for too long is Wolowitz.) ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/33 "2011-10-20T18:12:33Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I’m not really a fan of the show, but I’d say it’s not really embarrassment comedy with Sheldon because he doesn’t care about being embarrassed. I’m not sure he’s even capable of being embarrassed. He has his way of doing things, and it doesn’t matter much to him how other people react. But he does embarrass other members of the cast - it isn’t just about his own lack of personal embarrassment. And whatever he does just makes me cringe and feel embarrassed _for_ him. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/34 "2011-10-20T22:09:08Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Really? I think that Raj comes over as by far the nicest of them, Gosh, no. He’s not the nicest - witness when he was in People magazine, all the assholishness came out there. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/35 "2011-10-20T22:14:01Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > leonard may be sheldon’s straight man but that doesn’t mean he plays the part well. nerd crosses into wuss a little too many times and the mannerisms border on the feminine. you can really tell that galecki doesn’t really “get” the role as well as Parsons. Actually, I must say, from interviews and the like, Parsons seems like the one cast member who least “gets” geekdom. He’s just (and I mean these as air-quotes: )“acting”, he doesn’t have a real love for the Sheldon character itself or what he represents. Whereas Galecki seems to be largely playing himself, only with a PhD. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/36 "2011-10-20T22:14:08Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Gosh, no. He’s not the nicest - witness when he was in People magazine, all the assholishness came out there. But he was drunk. Drunk Raj is like the Mr. Hyde to Raj’s Dr. Jekyll. Although Drunk Raj is occasionally a smooth stud who can convince women to sleep with him (such as the world’s second hottest math nerd, Danica McKellar). So perhaps he’s more Nutty Professor than Mr. Hyde. > [@MrDibble](#): > > Actually, I must say, from interviews and the like, Parsons seems like the one cast member who least “gets” geekdom. He’s just (and I mean these as air-quotes: )“acting”, he doesn’t have a real love for the Sheldon character itself or what he represents. Whereas Galecki seems to be largely playing himself, only with a PhD. Parsons actually seems downright insulted when interviewers ask him if he’s a geek. But I’m not buying it. I think you have to be at least a little geeky to take a job like BBT. The nerdisms alone would drive him mad if he didn’t care about it a little. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/37 "2011-10-20T22:24:29Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > But he was drunk. Drunk Raj is like the Mr. Hyde to Raj’s Dr. Jekyll. See, that’s the problem - in the show, in order to be able to speak to women, Raj doesn’t need to get _drunk_. Apparently, once a couple of molecules of alcohol make it past his lips, there goes his mutism. I mean yes, you gotta suspend disbelief, but at least make some effort at imitating reality. > [@](#): > > Parsons actually seems downright insulted when interviewers ask him if he’s a geek. But I’m not buying it. I think you have to be at least a little geeky to take a job like BBT. The nerdisms alone would drive him mad if he didn’t care about it a little. I think he doesn’t want to be typecast. But that train has sailed (to coin a phrase). ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/38 "2011-10-20T22:36:08Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > See, that’s the problem - in the show, in order to be able to speak to women, Raj doesn’t need to get _drunk_. Apparently, once a couple of molecules of alcohol make it past his lips, there goes his mutism. I mean yes, you gotta suspend disbelief, but at least make some effort at imitating reality. They actually played with this once. Raj’s mutism is actually all in his head. When the guys were on a train with Summer Glau, Raj bought a beer and it gave him the courage to speak to her. Naturally, he turned into Smooth Player Raj and was about to score a date with everyone’s favorite woman who can kill you with her mind. Then Howard tells him its non-alcoholic beer and Raj totally clams up. He knows he was just talking to a beautiful woman three seconds ago, but he can’t get any more words out. It was hilarious (and kinda heartbreaking). ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/39 "2011-10-20T23:01:41Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > They actually played with this once. Raj’s mutism is actually all in his head. When the guys were on a train with Summer Glau, Raj bought a beer and it gave him the courage to speak to her. Naturally, he turned into Smooth Player Raj and was about to score a date with everyone’s favorite woman who can kill you with her mind. Then Howard tells him its non-alcoholic beer and Raj totally clams up. He knows he was just talking to a beautiful woman three seconds ago, but he can’t get any more words out. But that doesn’t jibe with the first or second episode where they accidentally discover that Raj’s mutism goes away after imbibing alcohol. At that point, alcohol’s effect couldn’t be psychological. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199/40 "2011-10-20T23:02:03Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > I think you have to be at least a little geeky to take a job like BBT. The nerdisms alone would drive him mad if he didn’t care about it a little. I tend to disagree. He’s an actor. He’s doing a job. Does someone playing a psychotic serial killer need to be at least a little psychotic and stabby? Because otherwise the violence and irrational behaviour would drive him mad. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dislike-bbt-solely-because-of-leonard/600199.md?page=3)