BBT's Portrayal of Nerds: Offensive or Accurate?

[Ivan Seeking]

This bit from Amy definitely didn't come from Dr. Tyson! I'm lucky that I wasn't eating or drinking anything when she delivered the punch line :rofl:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXJZv-yPOqU

 

[jtbell]

I wonder how many flights they had to make with the "Vomit Comet" while shooting those scenes of Wolowitz on the ISS. :tongue:

Or is it all SFX?

 

[Borg]

My favorite quote by Bernadette from the new season last night.

Spoiler

Howard pulls out an empty tube of said ointment and says, "Hey, can you get any samples of these from work? They prescribed it but didn't take into account the square footage of her back."

Bernadette takes the tube and looks at the ingredients on the back. She says, "Howard, this is really, really strong estrogen cream. I HOPE you've been wearing gloves."

He looks up with wide eyes. "These swollen sausages couldn't fit!" (in reference to his fingers being fat)

"Sooo that's why you've been bloated and moody and a pain in the ***!"

"But you have estrogen and don't act like that!"

"I'm a woman! I've had years of practice riding the dragon!"

 

[SteamKing]

I find BBT very offensive. Millions across the country laugh at Sheldon's behavior, which is essentially that of someone with autism. If someone tried to do the same thing with downs syndrome it would be shunned and pulled from the air immediately.

The show is also extremely close to nerd blackface and I personally feel like this show has gone way too far in establishing what a 'nerd' is and does. People are not archetypes.

When he was a child, Sheldon's mother had him tested. She still regrets not taking him to see that specialist in Houston afterwards, though.

IDK if Sheldon would be diagnosed by a professional as suffering from autism. Maybe Aspergers. He definitely is the poster child for OCD, which his girlfriend Amy, the PhD neurobiologist, tried to cure with some behavioral modification.

BTW, Sheldon's credentials are B.S., M.S., M.A., Ph.D., Sc.D. He started college at 11 and got his first doctorate at 16, although he was visiting professor at Heidelburg for the summer when he was 15, and received a surprise enema from his landlady when he got sick.