BBT's Portrayal of Nerds: Offensive or Accurate?

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers around opinions on the sitcom "The Big Bang Theory," with participants sharing their thoughts on its humor, characters, and overall appeal. Many express enjoyment of the show, highlighting its clever writing and relatable geek culture references. Sheldon is frequently mentioned as a favorite character due to his unique personality and comedic genius. Some viewers appreciate the physics jokes and the show's ability to blend scientific concepts with humor, while others criticize the laugh track and feel the show has strayed from its original focus on science to more general sitcom tropes. There are mixed feelings about character development, particularly regarding the relationships portrayed, with some viewers feeling that the focus on romance detracts from the show's scientific roots. Despite some criticisms, the show has garnered a loyal fanbase, with many considering it one of the best sitcoms currently airing.
  • #101
The prop department goofed in tonight's show... Sheldon was reading the American Journal of Physics instead of something like the Physical Review. Maybe they thought the yellow cover went better with the red armchair he was sitting in. :rolleyes:

(for those not in the know, AJP covers teaching-related topics, whereas PR is a "real research" journal.)
 
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  • #102
jtbell said:
The prop department goofed in tonight's show... Sheldon was reading the American Journal of Physics instead of something like the Physical Review. Maybe they thought the yellow cover went better with the red armchair he was sitting in. :rolleyes:

Maybe he was getting ideas for Leonard to teach physics, as referenced in the previous episode.
 
  • #103
Jack21222 said:
Maybe he was getting ideas for Leonard to teach physics, as referenced in the previous episode.

That was the first thing I thought of too.

Seemed like an out-of-place comment for Sheldon to make. Almost as if it served more as a portent for plot points yet to come...
 
  • #104
DaveC426913 said:
That was the first thing I thought of too.

Seemed like an out-of-place comment for Sheldon to make. Almost as if it served more as a portent for plot points yet to come...

Sheldon, in any type of pedagogical role, make for some of my favorite moments. I'd love to see him attempt to teach a course. It would be especially funny if they gave him an introductory physics course. :devil:
 
  • #105
Dembadon said:
Sheldon, in any type of pedagogical role, make for some of my favorite moments. I'd love to see him attempt to teach a course. It would be especially funny if they gave him an introductory physics course. :devil:

How about as a PF moderator?
 
  • #106
Ivan Seeking said:
How about as a PF moderator?

Ban... Ban... Ban... Ban...
 
  • #107
jtbell said:
Ban... Ban... Ban... Ban...

Except when it comes to Jesus discussions. :biggrin:
 
  • #108
Season 5 begins! They claim they are going to focus more on the science stuff this season. Let's hope they keep true!
 
  • #109
Dembadon said:
Sheldon, in any type of pedagogical role, make for some of my favorite moments. I'd love to see him attempt to teach a course. It would be especially funny if they gave him an introductory physics course. :devil:

I thought I saw him give a lecture in one episode. Maybe the one where he tries to learn acting skills from Penny?
 
  • #110
jtbell said:
Ban... Ban... Ban... Ban...

All we'd have to do to get him to stop is call his mother. :biggrin:

ArcanaNoir said:
I thought I saw him give a lecture in one episode. Maybe the one where he tries to learn acting skills from Penny?

I'll have to look it up--that sounds hilarious.
 
  • #111
DaveC426913 said:
That was the first thing I thought of too.

Seemed like an out-of-place comment for Sheldon to make. Almost as if it served more as a portent for plot points yet to come...

Penny is bad at acting, so she said she was going back to Nebraska to teach acting. Sheldon then turns to Leonard asking if he had ever considered teaching physics. The implication is that Leonard is bad at physics.
 
  • #112




Here's a couple clips of Sheldon lecturing.
 
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  • #113
I'm going to be on Big Bang overload for a while. In addition to the new season 5, one of my local stations has started showing syndicated re-runs of the previous seasons, five nights a week, starting from the beginning. I didn't start watching the show until about the middle of the second season, so the first thirty or so episodes are new to me.
 
  • #114
jtbell said:
I'm going to be on Big Bang overload for a while. In addition to the new season 5, one of my local stations has started showing syndicated re-runs of the previous seasons, five nights a week, starting from the beginning. I didn't start watching the show until about the middle of the second season, so the first thirty or so episodes are new to me.

We just got the 4th season on DVD. I only watched a few over the season so most are new to me.
 
  • #115
Sooooo, we are currently watching the 4th season on disc, and much to my surprise, in one episode, Sheldon breaks out an Oregon State Beavers shirt while claiming the Beavers are a Cal Tech sports team. Yeah, right! Like Cal Tech has a sports team. Why would they be plugging our own Oregon State? [OSU is my alma mater]

Turns out, Cal Tech really does have the Beavers basketball team and they have the same school colors as OSU. Funny, I lived by Cal Tech for over twenty years and I never once heard of their sports team. :biggrin: I thought maybe they just borrowed an OSU shirt for the show. So much for the secret BBT-OSU connection.

At least we still have Obama's brother-in-law. :smile:
 
  • #116
Tonight's episode must have been taped after September 22. Sheldon tried to start a conversation with the subject "Faster-than-light particles at CERN: paradigm-shifting discovery or a Swiss export as full of holes as their cheese?"
 
  • #117
I just recently started watching it and I'm hooked.
 
  • #118
On TBS starting at 2000 there's two hours of TBBT... switch channels at 2200 and get another half hour before the Simpson's ruin my geek buzz.

Who would have thought that giant ants rank 5th behind hover boards for coolest modes of transportation?
 
  • #119
Just discovered this thread. TBBT is the only show I set aside everything for. When we went away for a long weekend recently, I made sure we would be back in time for TBBT. :blushing:
Grep said:
So many great lines... My favorite is the Christmas episode when Sheldon gets the gift from penny. I don't know if I've ever laughed so hard.
That ep is my favorite! To see Sheldon all out of sorts over Leonard Nimoy's DNA on a napkin.. and then to be so affected that he volunteers a hug for Penny.

They've had 3 Star Trek stars on the show so far - I'm betting they've tried for Nimoy and been told no.

After a season of the show, I wondered if Sheldon's character is meant to have Aspbergers, but Parsons himself says no. And I loved the ep where Penny asks the other three "What's his deal?" and they come up with a theory as to how he would reproduce.

Edit: Bazinga!
 
  • #120
narrator said:
After a season of the show, I wondered if Sheldon's character is meant to have Aspbergers, but Parsons himself says no.

It's not Parsons that says no, it's the writers. Parsons says, after citing the writers "...but he couldn't show any more of the symptoms."
 
  • #121
Just googled Nimoy and TBBT. Some reports say he was asked in season 2 but said no. Then Nimoy himself says he wasn't asked, except to sign that famous napkin, which was later auctioned for charity. But producers are working on having him on for a cameo. The pundits are wondering how they'll get around the restraining order Nimoy has on Sheldon.

Some of my favorite scenes are between Penny and Sheldon.. they seem the perfect foil for each other's lines.

Sheldon: Woman, you're playing with forces beyond your ken
Penny: Yeah, well your Ken can kiss my Barbie.
...
Penny: What up, Shel-bot?
 
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  • #122
narrator said:
Some of my favorite scenes are between Penny and Sheldon.. they seem the perfect foil for each other's lines.
Also, Penny is waaay cute.

It's that eyebrow. Makes her look like a cuddly, loveable Golden Retriever - don't it just?
 
  • #123
One of my favorites is "The Friendship Algorithm."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0xgjUhEG3U
 
  • #124
jtbell said:
One of my favorites is "The Friendship Algorithm."
That, and the way Howard solves his never ending loop.

And yes, Dave, that cute eyebrow, and that grin. Penny is one of those celestial bodies that sparkles brightly.
 
  • #125
S_Happens said:
I just recently started watching it and I'm hooked.

Best comedy show there currently is!
 
  • #127
Haven't watched it, and wasn't planning on it either. But from the sounds of it, it sounds pretty funny.
__________________________________________________________________________

"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
 
  • #128
And Kaley Cuoco is a cutie.
 
  • #129
Finally - confirmed! :biggrin:

I can now sit back and watch the show without distraction.
 

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  • #130
DaveC426913 said:
Finally - confirmed! :biggrin:

I can now sit back and watch the show without distraction.

lol.. I've been on a couple of sets and taken the steps. One was a cop show, many years ago. At the dead end at the top, the wooden frame was littered with many pieces of chewing gum.

For some reason, this reminded me of once scene in an early season when Sheldon enters Penny's apartment and, seeing her mess, asks if she has been robbed. When she answers "no" he asks, "How can you tell?"
 
  • #131
Possibly my favorite tv show. Sheldon is the best. I find myself slowly becoming more and more like him daily. Not afraid of everything but very critical . Anytime he pulls a good Bazinga it's awesome
 
  • #132
The April 5 episode featured Stephen Hawking.
Did anyone watch it ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQASFYUJnDk
 
  • #133
glb_lub said:
The April 5 episode featured Stephen Hawking.
Did anyone watch it ?
I did, but my !&$#!#* Rogers PVR stopped recording 10 seconds before curtain.
 
  • #134
glb_lub said:
The April 5 episode featured Stephen Hawking.
Did anyone watch it ?

I'm speechless :frown:
(not in a good way)
 
  • #135
Thoroughly enjoy this show but it is pretty much the opposite of my long ago fellow physics majors, professors and researchers. For one thing every one of my fellow physics majors, all but one, male, was super smart but very very popular with the ladies (and the single female had an attractive and intelligent boyfriend). All had one or more quite attractive girlfriends and the professors were all married to attractive and intelligent women. So while the concept that the super intelligent academically gifted are socially inept provides great comedy, it's just not generally accurate. The physics majors and researchers back then had a very low opinion of the engineering majors however, and felt that they were socially inept and that the only reason they majored in engineering was because they couldn't make it as a physics major. Humility was obviously not a common trait in that group of physics majors and physicists.

I really loved the laundry feud between Penny and Sheldon. "WELL PLAYED" (And her reminder that she was in junior rodeo and had skills he couldn't possibly defend against. hahaha)
 
  • #136
netgypsy said:
So while the concept that the super intelligent academically gifted are socially inept provides great comedy, it's just not [strike]generally accurate[/strike] what I have personally experienced.
Corrected. :-p
 
  • #137
netgypsy said:
So while the concept that the super intelligent academically gifted are socially inept provides great comedy, it's just not generally accurate.

I do sometimes enjoy the parts where the social ineptness is showcased. But what I really like about the show is how it captures the 'geekyness' of engineers and scientists with all those references to geek culture - the star trek jokes , Sheldon reserving a night exclusively to play Zork , 3-D chess , firefly vs babylon ,etc.
 
  • #138
The episode from yesterday totally blew the physics... Helium makes your voice sound high pitched because the gas is lighter than air, so to make their voices deeper it must be that the gas is heavier than air. So why does the balloon float?
 
  • #139
Good catch! I missed that discrepancy. When I saw what Leonard was about to do, I expected the "squeaky voices" outcome, then when the voices came out deeper I figured the gas was really supposed to be something heavy like xenon or krypton. I was so focused on that, that I didn't notice the balloon floating away. A "lead balloon" would have been a nice touch.

Of course, they surely dubbed the altered voices.
 
  • #140
jtbell said:
Good catch! I missed that discrepancy. When I saw what Leonard was about to do, I expected the "squeaky voices" outcome, then when the voices came out deeper I figured the gas was really supposed to be something heavy like xenon or krypton. I was so focused on that, that I didn't notice the balloon floating away. A "lead balloon" would have been a nice touch.

Of course, they surely dubbed the altered voices.

The balloon didn't float away, the release of gas shot it upwards. The gas in keyboard dusters lowers your voice.
 
  • #141
Yea, I think the balloon blew away from the release of the gas rather than floated. Although, with a heavy gas, you have to be careful because it won't leave your lungs naturally since it sinks to the bottom. My professor made a demonstration with a heavy gas once, but he had to basically half-invert himself to get the gas out of his lungs.
 
  • #142
netgypsy said:
The physics majors and researchers back then had a very low opinion of the engineering majors however, and felt that they were socially inept and that the only reason they majored in engineering was because they couldn't make it as a physics major. Humility was obviously not a common trait in that group of physics majors and physicists.

Very pompous self centered as*es, from an enginner's POV
 
  • #143
i generally like the show

but I find the chance of four educated guys's common obsession with comics rather unbelievable
 
  • #144
DaveC426913 said:
I did, but my !&$#!#* Rogers PVR stopped recording 10 seconds before curtain.

Um, you guys know the CBS website hosts the recent episodes for free right?

http://www.cbs.com/shows/big_bang_theory/video/
 
  • #145
arabianights said:
i generally like the show

but I find the chance of four educated guys's common obsession with comics rather unbelievable

Yer not hanging around the right comic book stores ... bazzinga ...hehehe

Three of the four of us house-rommies were into comics.
Does this make your disbelieving a little less? :)

I find the premiss quite believable. ... except for Penny ... lol j/k


( we didn't have a penny...
... we were poor College students. )
 
  • #146
Alfi said:
I find the premiss quite believable. ... except for Penny ... lol j/k


( we didn't have a penny...
... we were poor College students. )

Which is why they made a TV show about them and not you. :smile: They don't tell stories about regular situations such as four guys in a dorm with no girl.

It's why the story of Star Trek is about the larger-than-life events of the U.S.S. Enterprise, the best ship in the fleet and its heroic crew, and not about her under-performing sister ship the U.S.S. Incontinent that, due to a mishap with a hooker and a galley replicator, lost thruster control and dove into a star.
 
  • #147
What Sheldon would say...

tumblr_l31ue6iPbh1qz9my9o1_500.gif


Did I hear about the Higgs boson? Yes, fifteen years before I was born. This is all very cute but isn't it rather meaningless given the grander proposition of M-Theory, which is obviously correct?
 
  • #148
I've seen a couple of episodes and they surely are funny! I love the concept (science + jokes) and how the characters crack jokes with their faces dead serious, although, for the not-so-geeky peeps out there, they wouldn't get the jokes straight if it's about quantum and stuff.

And I like this line of Sheldon: "One cries because one is sad. For example, I cry because others are stupid, and that makes me sad."
 
  • #149
I don't know if this has been brought up already in this thread.
But how many of you feel the latest season is not as great as the first 3 were.

This usually happens with most sitcoms, the punches are exhausted in the first 2-3 years. Later seasons run mostly on earlier popularity.

Its not as if the season 5 is not funny but it doesn't match to classic episodes such as 'Friendship Algorithm' 'Electric Can Fluctuation' etc.

I recently saw a clip on youtube in which Sheldon doesn't worry about his 'spot'.
Perhaps they want to evolve the characters. I personally wish that a show never reach a 'conclusion' in the form of a happy ending and that the gags never stop coming.
 
  • #150
I never really got this show. The whole appeal seems to be "LOOK HOW NERDY THESE GUYS ARE! LOLOLOLOL". It's just not funny to me. Especially with the overused laugh track. It makes it even less funny.

There's no jokes, no plot, nothing interesting in it whatsoever. If I wanted to learn physics, I'd read a physics book. Even then, it seems like they just like to use big words (even if the physics IS correct).
 

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