Don’t forget that all three guys (and Penny) genuinely like Sheldon’s mother. They look after him partly as a favor to her.
TruCelt has a GREAT point! The other guys can look at Sheldon and smugly think, “At least I’m not as annoying as HIM!” (Of course this goes round-robin, depending on the deficiency)
I would rather be friends with Sheldon than any of the other members of the cast (and many of the people I know in real life and have to associate with). He’s eccentric, but he doesn’t try to harm people. Many of his more annoying meddling habits are in the spirit of fixing a problem. And I can deal with oddness as long as it follows a logical pattern (and you know there’s an inner logic to EVERYTHING Sheldon does). He’s honest (brutally so), but I perfer that to having to interrogate to get a straight answer. In a world of twits and hypocrits, I find him refreshingly nice in his own way.
I think you are thinking of the mathematician Paul Erdos(Wiki Link). Famously eccentric, crashed on colleagues’ couches as a way of life, lived on caffeine…but so insightful and prolific that he rarely had problems finding a place to crash, apparently.
I think it’s gotten a little more severe as the series has progressed. In earlier seasons, I felt like it was just as likely for the show to get laughs out of Sheldon being socially clueless as opposed to being mean (even if unintentionally). The writers seem to be leaning more toward mean now for the comedy.
This is only my general impression, I haven’t sat down and done a text analysis on the scripts or anything. I recently realized that if I started watching the show now, without having seen earlier seasons, I probably would find the meanness more off-putting.
Seconded.
If I may take a slight detour off topic, as I’m new to the show. Question, why dose Penny hang around the guys? In the episodes I have seen she seems completely uninterested in science and even seems belittling of their work. I get the “she really is the smartest one for not being interested in geeky sciency stuff” vibe. Am I wrong? Is the series really making fun of science?
When I was in college, I would have found Sheldon to be a relaxing companion - no drama about girlfriends or fraternity politics like some other people I knew (it’s very tiring having a friend who is always under stress because his long distance girlfriend didn’t call him that night, or called him and said something that in retrospect, seemed to suggest something that he didn’t like - and would I be available to spend a few hours with him discussing his feelings). Sheldon, I could talk to as long as I liked, and would not be offended if I simply told him that I needed to leave to do something else. In exchange for the lack of angst, I’d be willing to put up with his limited range of topics of discussion (especially since they include some of my interests - math, physics, Star Trek, etc.) and a fair amount of condescension.
PMO!!!
I was in the middle of writing a rather lengthy post to this thread when something happened and my window just closed. I lost the entire post.
I’m not going to re-write it. But there is a good lesson. Whenever writing a post to any forum that will be more than one sentence, it’s best to write it in an editor or word processer and only when satisfied with it, should I transfer it to the forum or other place I’m planning to post it. (because most editors or word processor automatically save your work every few seconds).
To be clear, I’m not blaming this board or anyone or anything except myself. I should have known better by now and I hope that some of you may benefit from my experience.
I think that Penny has always had a bit of a crush on Leonard (and, of course, he’s been madly in love with Penny ever since he first laid eyes on her) – he’s smart, he is the least “classically nerdy” of his group, he is a “nice guy” most of the time – but he does not have the qualities that she usually went for in previous boyfriends (tall, muscular, self-confident), so Penny did not make any move towards him for a long time. Plus, she was a bit intimidated by his education and intelligence.
Of course, after they had stopped dating, Penny eventually realized that Leonard was the best guy that she ever had!
That’s my take on the situation, anyway, as for why she hangs out with Leonard and the guys…
I agree with you up to a point.
His demands to be driven everywhere coupled with his total lack of appreciation or willingness to reciprocate in kind would be just too much to bear.
Yeah, just talking with Sheldon for a while would be entertaining and informative.
Living with him, or putting up with him for extended amounts of time, would be another matter entirely!
The creator of this series (Chuck Lorrie) has worked writing TV sitcoms for many, many years.
This is a very tiny field. I doubt there are more than 100 people in the whole world who have created more than one sitcom and got it to air. He currently has two top hits running - TBBT and 2.5 Men.
My point is that he is a master of his craft and my evidence?
Just look at this thread! Look at how many people care so passionately about this sitcom that they take this issue so seriously.
Regardless of how you feel about Sheldon, I hope you realize the creation of that character by Lorrie and Jim Parsons is one of the most brilliant achievements ever in TV sitcoms.
By the way, I just love this show and I’m knocked out at what a brilliant talented actor is Jim Parsons.
I would love to have the time to post some of my most favorite moments that highlight his acting talent. But I just don’t have time right now. Maybe someone will start a thread one day where people are invited to list their favorite Sheldon moments. I have a few and I think they are just the funniest moments ever in all of TV sitcom history.
Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock …
In college I didn’t have a car… (but yeah - after college it would have gotten old real fast).
A lot of good points - great TV - bad situation - sometimes ‘The Office’ or ‘Alan Partridge’ bad…
She lives on the same floor as Leonard and Sheldon, apparently two apartments per floor, she gets free food from them and is on a tight budget, and they treat her well. They aren’t bad guys. Sheldon even avoids any treatment of her as a sex object and will lend her money. And they are much nicer people than she is used to being friends with. And she doesn’t have to compete with them for science knowledge, but is the undisputed brain on social relations, so she gets respect. Plus, she can jump Leonard’s bones any time she gets horny.
Not to mention that at least later on she is besties with the guy’s girls.
I don’t know if Sheldon is the one I’d most want to hang with, but I agree with your assessment otherwise. I simply don’t see him as obnoxious as everyone else here seems to. Yes, he’s incredibly quirky, but he seems to mean well, and you never have to worry about where he stands with you.
Plus, you never have to worry about him wanting to shake your ha–
oh, never mind.