Syndicated episodes of BBT, not the latest episode.
This is exactly the best description that I have ever heard of why I don’t like BBT. Real nerds will know absolutely every reference, making them superior to everybody else. Semi-nerds will get some reference, still making them super smart. And people who remember pi from grade school will feel like they are totally science-y.
Anecdote: The other day I was wearing my “Join Us! Reunite Pangaea!” t-shirt (I’m a dirt engineer and easily amused). A young Venezuelan man with very limited English skills started reading it and laughed. I said, “Most people don’t understand the joke. You must be smart!” He looked at me quizzically and responded, “I went to school.”
That’s why I don’t feel special when I get the Big Bang Theory jokes. I went to school.
I find the show amusing and think Jim Parsons is a great physical comedian (now forever doomed to typecasting hell, I suspect), although I think the show had reached the “our original concept has gone stale and now we’re desperately hanging on until we get enough episodes for syndication” stage a while ago when it started becoming about everyone’s lovelife.
I wasn’t aware people were being forced to watch it at gunpoint, however. Ironically I’m now hearing the OP in Sheldon’s voice saying “The Big Bang Theory? But Thursday is Simpsons night!”
I think that’s an excellent way to put it. It looks exactly like a sitcom, except they forgot to make the jokes particularly funny.
This is why I hate the show. Every single time Sheldon says something, the audience laughs. Every. Single. Time. He’s simply not funny 95% of the time, but the audience has somehow been conditioned to laugh every single time he opens his mouth. The producer makes a big deal out of “not using canned laughter” and points out they film in front of a live audience. That’s all bullshit - none of that precludes them from manipulating and enhancing the audience’s audio to the point where there is no discernible difference between it and canned laughter. There’s a clip floating around where they stripped all the laughter out of the audio, and it’s the most fucking painful 2 minutes on YouTube you’ve ever seen.
Oh, you’re the one.
The damn show only has* one* “joke”: nerds don’t have sex, har har har har har.
I really don’t understand why people like it.
When it started the Simpsons was original, bit of a trailblazer in its way, and it was FUNNY.
Now its whiny, hackneyed, and recycles the same plot lines, and for that matter plot scenes over and over again.(How many times have they taken off the scene from the movie The Birds where ravens sit on a kids climbing frame silently looking at people ?)
And its not funny and hasn’t been for a long, long while.
As far as I’m concerned they can replace The Simpsons at short notice with footage of the world Tiddly Wniks championships live from Helsinki any time and it would be an improvement.
I’ll bet even Matt Groenig thinks that the Ss are crap now.
Now you’ve made me morbidly curious. Is this the clip you’re referring to? Cause ye gods–it’s even worse than I remember.
Sheldon wouldn’t find the show amusing either.
That’s a different clip, but it’s pretty bad. The one I saw they were in a restaurant or cafeteria or something. There were more cast members, which made the pauses even more painful.
I think **Mithril **nailed it with his post.
I’ve tried to watch it, because my friends tell me it’s funny, but I just can’t get past the damn laugh track. It’s so intrusive and obnoxious. Trust me, if I find something funny, I’ll laugh. I don’t need a laugh track to tell me it’s funny.
It’s true that I don’t watch a lot of network TV, and the network TV I do watch tends to be either documentaries/news or drama. The comedies I do watch tend not to have laugh tracks. Are they all like this? I’ve also heard that HIMYM is also good, and I love NPH, but if it has a laugh track like BBT’s, I’m out.
How *does *this shit beat Community in the ratings?
Ok, I’ll state up front that I’ve only seen this show in 2 minute segments when flipping through the channels or having it on in the background. But it is fucking awful based on those limited viewing opportunities.
It’s a show to make stupid people designed to feel smart because they occasionally understand the sciencey/nerdy sounding name dropping.
For example, a few weeks ago I caught an episode (not sure if it was new or a repeat) in which I guess the two limp dicked panzies that are the leads were feuding about something. Wait, I found it on youtube.
Halfway through the clip I started groaning because I saw where it was going and I wondered if it was really worth the setup time. When the obvious payoff came, I was expecting an audience chuckle at such a lame, obvious joke, but they fucking lost their shit, and I pounded my head on whatever surfaces were nearby.
And funny enough, the top rated youtube comment summarizes the issue perfectly. “Anyone who (like me) laughed out loud immediately earns free geek points”
And that’s all the show is. The people watching it think “Hey, that’s a sciency term that I’ve heard before. If I think it’s funny people will know I got the reference, and that I know smart sciency stuff! HAHHAAHHAA THIS IS THE MOST INTELLIGENT SHOW ON TV!!!”
Based on the next top rated comment saying that this is the best joke of the 5th season, I suspect the rest of the show isn’t much better.
The worst part? It’s up against Community, I think - which is an actual smart show for smart people, who gets part of its potential viewership siphoned for this retarded show that tricks dumb people into thinking they’re smart. That’s the insidious part - the smarter you think you are for liking the show, the dumber you actually are.
Of course the pauses are painful, because it’s stilted and awkward when there’s complete silence. If you think this proves something about Big Bang Theory, check out the Seinfeld and Friends clips that have the laughter edited out. There’s probably other examples out there as well. It just means that actors who have to time their lines with the laughter of the audience sound strange when they’re just waiting out a silence.
The irony is that you seem to be pounding your chest about getting the reference, albeit faster than everyone else, of course.
I don’t think its worst crime is allowing dumb people to feel smart. Lots of shows do that, and god bless them for it. I think its *worst *crime is not being funny. Second worst crime is actually making some *smart * people think that this is a show that less educated people can’t appreciate because they aren’t smart enough.
No. There are funny, witty, sharp shows that less educated people can appreciate, (Community is a great example) but BBT aint it.
A post from someone in the middle on TBBT.
I watch the show. Started late in season 1 so the syndication has allowed me to catch up. But I don’t think I’ll be watching the re-runs over and over like with better show. E.g., the old Simpsons episodes.
I also post to some show threads, but usually with a different take from most.
For the most part, it is a standard sitcom. Chuck Lorre doesn’t do original all that much. The laugh track is horrible. Lots of predictability. And certain “jokes” are repeated so much that it is painful. (Knock, knock, knock, “Penny?” …)
But I am a hardcore nerd. I really identify with these people, I’ve known tons of guys just like them, and worse. In the computer field, these are considered functional, normal people.
In particular, about half the time they nail Sheldon’s Asperger’s/OCD on the head. But like all things Lorre, too often they go to extremes.
As to the acting:
I do not consider Jim Parsons a good actor. I’ve seen him on talk shows. He talks and moves just like Sheldon. He is basically just reading his lines as himself. Not much of an effort for him. OTOH, it is a good match in terms of casting. So it’s really the casting director who earned those Emmys.
Johnny Galecki is a good actor (cf. The Opposite of Sex). Just not in this.
So I hang around for the geeky jokes. Sometimes they make good ones. Sometimes they don’t.
If you’re not of fan of geeky personalities and/or humor, then this is indeed going to be a poor sitcom.
(I wonder how short an episode would be with the laugh track and filler like the atoms-zooming bumpers were gone.)
Not at all. I’m not smart for having heard about Schroedinger’s cat, everyone has heard that, and everyone know it sounds sciencey and has something to do with something in two different states (or rather an undefinied state - anyway, they get the gist of what it’s vaguely about). Big deal.
Pretty much anyone can see that joke coming, and that’s the point - it’s not a good joke on its own merits, but any potential funniness is removed by how obviously telegraphed it is. Not only is it a stupid joke, but the show also spends 20 seconds getting there, and it’s obvious to anyone where they’re going with it halfway through, all of which run counter to actual comedy happening.
That’s a good point that I was thinking and not specifically addressing. Essentially it’s extra obnoxious because, since people watch it because essentially they think they’re smart for understanding the science or nerd name-dropping, they get off on the idea of feeling smart and probably a sense of elitism that they’re in the know, and they get something that other people who aren’t as awesome as them just wouldn’t get.
So they’ll actually get the impression that other people who don’t like the show just don’t get it because they’re not smart and cool like the watcher.
Insidious.