This show has recently tied Numb3rs as the #1 show everyone thinks I would like just because I have a degree in physics. (I just recently finished my Ph.D.) I’ve also seen more than one poster on here mentioning it as one of their favorites.
So recently I tried to watch an episode, and I only made it one scene in before giving up and changing the channel. Now, I realize that may not be a fair sampling. So tell me, why is it worth giving another chance (or is it)?
In the scene I saw, one character didn’t know what he was going to do tomorrow (or something like that), and made some joke like “I’m like one of Heisenberg’s particles. I can tell where I am, or where I’m going, but not both at once.”
There are several reasons why this bothered me:
Apparently I’m supposed to be amused that the show is referencing Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. Why, exactly? They didn’t even bother to make the joke funny – in fact, there doesn’t even seem to be any joke there beyond “Ha ha, this guy is such a geek he references Heisenberg in his casual conversation.”
The thing is, it is possible to make a funny joke out of the Uncertainty Principle. When I was in college, someone had graffitied the wall of the men’s room in the Physics Building with “Heisenberg might have been here.” Now that made me laugh. But notice how it’s actually kind of subtle. It doesn’t explain the joke (which is essential when the humor is derived from the audience picking up on an obscure reference). It also references pop culture (“Kilroy was here”), rather than merely saying “Guess what, we physics students can namedrop concepts from quantum mechanics.” Looking at why that joke was funny shines a spotlight on why Big Bang Theory’s joke wasn’t.
Not only does explaining the joke ruin whatever humor there might have been, but it also isn’t remotely true to the characters. They’re supposed to be some sort of physics prodigies, right? When the one character started elaborating with “I can’t know my position and …” the other one should have jumped in with “Yeah, I get it, I’ve known about Heisenberg since I was 12!” It’s actually not an obscure reference at all to anyone who has even read a few popular books about physics.
Moreover, he wasn’t even getting the physics right with his reference. Saying “Heisenberg’s particles” makes it sound like Heisenberg discovered some new particles that obey the uncertainty principle. In fact, Heisenberg was talking about ordinary particles. You know, atoms and electrons and what not. I’ve never once heard someone actually use the phrase “Heisenberg’s particles”.
If they wanted to make the joke funnier, maybe they could have had an exchange like this:
Character 1: Hey, where do you think you’ll be tomorrow at 2:00?
Character 2: Even if I knew, I still wouldn’t know where I was going.
Character 1: Dammit, Heisenberg!
Just leave it at that, no explanation given. Of course, most T.V. viewers wouldn’t get it. But the thing is, they won’t really get it anyway. I mean, if you’ve never heard of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, then the whole joke just boils down to “Wow, he just referenced some law of physics I’ve never heard of. What a geek!” Is this really that funny to anyone?
But beyond that, what turned me off to the show was that the humor is apparently derived from a bunch of physics geeks not knowing how to act like human beings. The thing is, physicists aren’t actually like that. Other than the fact that they actually like learning about physics, most of them are pretty normal. My first year of grad school we all had a required quantum mechanics class in the late morning, and then a required seminar in the afternoon. In between, a bunch of us would go have a beer at one of the campus bars, gripe about how much work our professors were assigning, and talk about our plans for the weekend. I know, what freakish nerds we all were, right?
I get that T.V. sitcoms aren’t concerned with realism, and characters are bound to be exaggerated and stereotyped for humorous effects. But the whole “scientists have no social skills” thing isn’t even remotely original. It’s trite and obvious. If the show was all about how fat people are a bunch of food obsessed gluttons whose furniture is constantly collapsing underneath them, I would be able to say “Yes, I am familiar with those absurd sitcom conventions”, but I sure wouldn’t want to watch the show.
I realize that spending the whole post complaining about the show isn’t the best way to solicit positive feedback from its fans. But really, I do know that I only watched one scene, and I may have the complete wrong impression. So tell me, have I come to the wrong conclusion here? Or are my complaints about the show accurate, but it nevertheless has positive qualities that more than make up for the flaws?
