What Non-Geeks Hate About the Big Bang Theory 406
v3rgEz writes: It has been said that there is a lot to dislike about the Big Bang Theory, from the typical geek's point of view: It plays in stereotypes of geekdom for cheap laughs, makes non-sensical gags, and has a laugh track in 2015. But what does the rest of America (well, the part of America not making it the number one show on television) think? FCC complaints recently released accuse the show of everything from animal cruelty to subliminal messaging, demanding that the sitcom be ripped from the airwaves lest it ruin America. The full complaints for your reading pleasure.
Its laugh track is a crime against humanity (Score:3, Insightful)
The most painful thing about this show are the "jokes" which are telegraphed to the audience by the world's most obnoxious laugh track.
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Laugh tracks are also a crime against comic timing, possibly second only to post-production editing, which should be done absolutely minimally in the case of a sitcom.
There was a blog post a while back from someone who went to see a sitcom being recorded, with audience, and loved every minute of it. When it came to the TV broadcast, though, they'd edited it to shreds, forcing in the best takes of just about every individual line instead of letting longer parts play out in one take. It was abysmal.
Same thing
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they'd edited it to shreds... It was abysmal.
Once you know how they make sausage, it doesn't taste so good anymore.
Re:Its laugh track is a crime against humanity (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm an old fogie and used to laugh tracks. Most "light" comedies seem awkward without them. It guess it's hard to make every generation happy.
But as far as the show, I sometimes get a "geek" kick out of it. You get dialog similar to:
A: "Rats, according to my carefully considered forecasts, I'll probably die before they can upload human conscientiousness into androids so one can live forever."
B: "Oh great, you'll really want to mill around as an awkward, annoying robot?"
A: "You claim I'm awkward and annoying now. How is that a change?"
B: "You sleep a third of the day now."
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> I'm an old fogie and used to laugh tracks. Most "light" comedies seem awkward without them. It guess it's hard to make every generation happy.
I grew up with them too. I think what really destroyed them for me was that, after I realized they existed, I noticed....they just keep using the same one over and over. Its like that Wilhelm Scream. Once your recognize it....its not part of the scene anymore...its jarring.
I don't hear "people laughing" I hear "that laugh track", the same one I have heard since I
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There is no laugh track. They film in front of a live studio audience every single week. My sister and I have attended a taping. If you don't believe me, watch the special features from the DVD seasons or go here: http://tvtickets.com/fmi/shows... [tvtickets.com] to get your own tickets.
For scenes that they don't film live because they're filmed outside or on location (like where Howard throws out the first pitch for the Los Angeles Angels' game), they take that clip and show it to the live studio audience to record t
Re:Its laugh track is a crime against humanity (Score:5, Informative)
I think that's the main reason I can't watch that show, and to this date haven't watched a full episode yet. Every time I hear the laugh track I want to gag. What is this, 1965? If they're going to do it that way, at least have a live studio audience like Married with Children had that actually responds appropriately to what's happening when it's genuinely funny.
Um, they do have a live studio audience [imgur.com]
Re:Its laugh track is a crime against humanity (Score:5, Interesting)
I think that's the main reason I can't watch that show, and to this date haven't watched a full episode yet. Every time I hear the laugh track I want to gag. What is this, 1965? If they're going to do it that way, at least have a live studio audience like Married with Children had that actually responds appropriately to what's happening when it's genuinely funny.
Um, they do have a live studio audience [imgur.com]
Wait a moment. There's at least EIGHT people who appear twice in that photo, and it's not a simple stitch together either. Check it out. Definitely the "live studio audience" isn't all that it's made out to be.
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I think that's the main reason I can't watch that show, and to this date haven't watched a full episode yet. Every time I hear the laugh track I want to gag. What is this, 1965? If they're going to do it that way, at least have a live studio audience like Married with Children had that actually responds appropriately to what's happening when it's genuinely funny.
Um, they do have a live studio audience [imgur.com]
Wait a moment. There's at least EIGHT people who appear twice in that photo, and it's not a simple stitch together either. Check it out. Definitely the "live studio audience" isn't all that it's made out to be.
The pictures were taken on "Bring your identical twin and sit away from them" day.
Re:Its laugh track is a crime against humanity (Score:5, Informative)
Um, they do have a live studio audience [imgur.com] [imgur.com]
Yes, they make a big deal about their "live studio audience", but that doesn't mean it isn't annoying as hell. In fact, I'd prefer it if they used a laugh track, because at least then they'd adjust it so it doesn't sound like a bunch of inebriated hyenas. Of course, just because they have an audience doesn't mean it isn't rigged:
A friend of mine has been to a taping of the show. They spend 20-30 minutes getting the audience ready with a stand-up comedian and other fluffers. Their whole purpose is to get the audience excited and in a laughing mood. They really pile on the hype about their laughter making the show successful and how important the reaction is. They talk about the microphones needing big loud laughs. Etc.
When the show finally starts filming, it's a rare scene that's filmed in one take. Therefore when the show is edited, they will independently choose the "best" laugh and use that for final take. In that sense they do use an edited laugh track, it's just one that's created by the current audience.
Then there's the dialog pacing, which is constructed to suit the exaggerated laughing instead of the comedy. This awkwardly false nature can be easily seen if you take away the laugh track [youtube.com] or (less subtley) replace it with a caricature laugh [youtube.com]. This is a problem with a lot of sitcoms, but Big Bang Theory seems to be especially bad.
Now take a look at John Cleese's approach on handling audience laughter [youtube.com] while filming Fawlty Towers. Here's an example from A Room with a View [youtube.com]. Compared to that, Big Bang Theory feels stilted and forced, while Fawlty Towers has a more natural rhythm that's so much easier to laugh at.
Of course, it also helps that Fawlty Towers had good writing and actually is funny. Two things Big Bang Theory can rarely claim.
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So what else is new? Judging by my own personal experience, studios (at least in Hollywood) have been doing that for well over half a century.
Re:Its laugh track is a crime against humanity (Score:5, Informative)
Then there's the dialog pacing, which is constructed to suit the exaggerated laughing instead of the comedy.
Or it's acknowledging the studio audience reaction. You see the same thing in live plays... where the pacing of the action on stage adjusts naturally the audience reactions. And if you took a stage play and edited out that audience reaction you get the same unnatural cadence.
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How do you feel about The Daily Show or (did feel about) The Colbert Report's laughing? That's exactly what they tell you at those tapings - microphones high on the ceiling, the warm-up guy, pretend you're the audience etc. I'm sure any taping has the same spiel.
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I felt fine about those Colbert and the Daily Show with Jon Stewart (holding out judgment on Noah) Because those shows were funny already. The Big Bang Theory is not.
It's like the pretty much the difference between splitting a bottle of wine with your partner to celebrate closing a giant deal, and splitting a bottle of whiskey because you lost one.
Re:Its laugh track is a crime against humanity (Score:5, Insightful)
They traveled back in time to the day of your birth and trained you to be a misanthrope who detests the sound of live human laughter?
Just a guess. You already seem intent upon disregarding any aspect of reality that conflicts with your preconceived notions, so I may as well go big.
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From the SUMMARY: "and has a laugh track in 2015"
I understand nobody reads the articles, but you could both at least read the summary.
Re:Its laugh track is a crime against humanity (Score:5, Funny)
After posting this condescending comment, I realised that there is a non-zero probability that the submitter may have not properly researched his assertion (rare as that would be). I apologise to you both.
Re:Its laugh track is a crime against humanity (Score:4, Insightful)
As in "I don't think it's funny, so any laughter must be coming from a badly programmed AI audience stand in".
Re:Its laugh track is a crime against humanity (Score:5, Insightful)
I find Seinfeld and That 70s Show, both filmed in front of a live studio audience to be funny and the audience laughter doesn't bother me in the slightest. There's something different about TBB. Maybe it's the writing, maybe the audience is prompted to laugh at every joke no matter how mediocre - either way, it's missing something or this thread wouldn't exist.
I've watched Seinfeld - it wasn't funny. People just really, REALLY wants it to be.
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I find Seinfeld and That 70s Show, both filmed in front of a live studio audience to be funny and the audience laughter doesn't bother me in the slightest. There's something different about TBB. Maybe it's the writing, maybe the audience is prompted to laugh at every joke no matter how mediocre - either way, it's missing something or this thread wouldn't exist.
I've watched Seinfeld - it wasn't funny. People just really, REALLY wants it to be.
That show where George W. Bush pretended to be president wasn't all that funny either, but it went for 8 seasons before they canceled it.
Re:Its laugh track is a crime against humanity (Score:4, Informative)
TV Tropes Warning
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny
Re:Its laugh track is a crime against humanity (Score:5, Informative)
Um, they do have a live studio audience [imgur.com]
Doesn't stop the producers from using "Laugh now" signs. I don't know if they actually do this, but my guess is that they probably do....
I don't know if this is so for Big Bang, but I have been to many television recordings. As a part of the shows I have been to, before the presentation they have the Audience applaud and laugh with various levels of enthusiasm so that when the show is edited back together for broadcast:
Jokes that didn't hit can be made to sound like they did
Jokes actions that may have elicited a certain response may not have after numerous re-takes
Applause that was organic would be choppy after scenes were chopped up and edited
None of the shows I have seen have been sitcoms but rather presented "as live" panel shows
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" I don't know if they actually do this"
Most readers can stop right there, as you have admitted you don't know what you are talking about.
However, they way you can tell during viewing whether production tried to manipulate the laughter is to look for cases where the next line is laughed over or if the next line was delayed for the laughter. If the writers actually had the ability to prevent the audience from stepping on their precious dialog they would have used it.
Re:Its laugh track is a crime against humanity (Score:5, Interesting)
I think that's the main reason I can't watch that show, and to this date haven't watched a full episode yet. Every time I hear the laugh track I want to gag. What is this, 1965? If they're going to do it that way, at least have a live studio audience like Married with Children had that actually responds appropriately to what's happening when it's genuinely funny.
In Big Bang Theory just feels like somebody is methodically trying to tell you "ok, you laugh here, even if it's not funny" throughout the whole show.
So what? It works.
We're social creatures, if a bunch of other people laughing tells us that a bad joke is funny we're probably going to laugh and we're going to enjoy it. Who cares if the audience is over-eager, if you let yourself enjoy it you'll have a better time.
The only reason to drop the laugh track is it ties you to doing punch line comedies where everything is punctuated with a lot of small jokes and thoughts tend to end after the punchline. You couldn't do something like Arrested Development with a laugh track because there's a lot of jokes without specific punchlines, or jokes that overlap.
Of course Arrested Development also got cancelled because they had poor ratings, a laugh track comedy that wasn't so challenging for the viewer might have done better.
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You should see his balls.
Never seen daytime soaps (Score:2)
There is a lot of sex in soaps, most of it handled in a fair less discreet way than BBT. Pretending that people haven't watched TV for the sex on it for the last 50 years is a bit naive. (some Soaps have been running that long!).
Hmm (Score:2, Insightful)
I didn't realize the show was supposed to be about geeks. I thought it was ironically portraying the disconnect between the academic pursuit of science and things that happen in the real world. Real scientists are busy doing real work for real money. Meanwhile Big Bang Theorists are trying to figure out why the gay actor's character is so clumsy with women.
Re:Hmm (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't watch it because it's a bit like going to work. I work in an engineering R&D firm, and there are quite a few characters here. Certainly Big Bang Theory is a sitcom and exaggerates things to dramatic effect, but there have been real life situations over here that aren't shown on TV because people wouldn't find them credible.
Imagine a place of employment where nobody is bad as Sheldon, maybe only a half Sheldon. But there are 10 of them, and they each have their own peculiar quirks and tastes in their Sheldon-ness.
Dilbert? (Score:2)
I didn't realize the show was supposed to be about geeks. I thought it was ironically portraying the disconnect between the academic pursuit of science and things that happen in the real world.
I've never seen it.
I take it they intended to do "Dilbert in hard-science academia" but were about as effective as liberal artists usually are when they try to portray anything on the physics or engineering side of the fence?
Or age of the universe. (Score:4, Funny)
I've never seen the show either. When I first read the headline I was thinking it was going to be a story about how non-geeks don't like the big bang theory because it implies the Universe is far older than their religious teachings say it is.
None of the people I know that Like this Show... (Score:2, Interesting)
,,,are Geeks.
They would like to be, but lack the essential 'hacker' mentality required to Be a Geek.
Most of them are unimaginative morons, although highly educated.
A highly educated moron is easy to achieve with modern education; they can calculate something without any understanding whatsoever.
Re:None of the people I know that Like this Show.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually there's no hacker mentality required to be a geek. Stop gatekeeping what a geek is.
Like, the hacker mentality kinda sucks, actually. It's convinced a lot of people that broken software like Windows is worth keeping around because there are work arounds for the warts in the system.
Whatever happened to just having a deep appreciation and enthusiasm for something?
Or biting heads off chickens? If you're not biting heads off chickens, you're not a real geek.
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The show is OK, but isn't really for geeks and none of the characters are much like any geek I've ever known. I always wonder, does the Sheldon character like Windows and Microsoft because they get a kickback? I find it implausible that his character would be not just a user, but a true MSFT fan.
Re:None of the people I know that Like this Show.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Go to a con sometime.... you will encounter every geek stereotype you can imagine. While one might legitimately argue that the characters on BBT are exaggerations of what the the average geek is probably like, if what I encounter whenever I go to a con is any indication at all, I would say they are probably not more than a standard deviation or so away from the norm, and I find that it is not remotely an unbelievable cross-section of nerd-dom. Truth be told, it's unlikely many people would consider a sitcom about more typical nerds to be very funny anyways (and while a lot of people don't think BBT is very funny, one only has to look at the ratings to realize that there exists no small number of people that think otherwise).
But honestly, many of the people I encounter at cons make the characters on BBT seem tame in comparison, I have more than encountered my share of Sheldons, Leonards, Howards, and Raj's.
Re:None of the people I know that Like this Show.. (Score:5, Informative)
Go to a con sometime.... you will encounter every geek stereotype you can imagine. While one might legitimately argue that the characters on BBT are exaggerations of what the the average geek is probably like, if what I encounter whenever I go to a con is any indication at all, I would say they are probably not more than a standard deviation or so away from the norm,
People who attend cons are self-selected groups, and trying to determine a "norm" from such a group would be a mistake. It is also a positive feedback loop, where edge-of-the-curve geeks flock because they create an environment where they're comfortable.
It's like going to a smoking lounge in an airport, counting heads, and saying that "smoking is the norm".
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My point is that the characters *ARE* fairly "normal" when compared with such a group, and since many of the characters are supposed to be geeks and/or nerds anyways, it's my observation that the characters are not that unrepresentative of the subculture that they are supposed to be portraying. In my opinion, people who say they don't know any nerds like the characters on that show probably haven't ever attended events where nerds of *ALL* types tend to gather. The characters may come across as being
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This. So much this. In the first few seasons there where characters with personalities. After around season 3, they stopped writing characters and went for caricatures. Especially with the females on the show, two dimensional is generous. Bernadette used to be an interested and well developed character. Then they decided it would be funnier if she turned into Howard's mom and was the same angry harpy wife that is so common a trope. Amy was a fantastic character when she debuted, but then they turned her int
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The show is OK, but isn't really for geeks and none of the characters are much like any geek I've ever known.
I'm a physicist in Pasadena. I know more than a few people like each of the characters, and may or may not be similar to some of them.
The first three seasons were pretty good, and there are (or at least were) quite a few physics in-jokes, but it's hard to maintain something like that and they've turned most of the characters into caricatures of their earlier season versions.
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This post is a prime candidate for /r/iamverysmart :P.
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Re:None of the people I know that Like this Show.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:None of the people I know that Like this Show.. (Score:4, Interesting)
My sentiments also. Yes, the geekery is dumbed down for general audiences, but would it be the #1 sitcom if the endless comic book references were Neal Stephenson references instead? It does manage to nail a significant number of nerd-culture specialties, such as the pecking order among different types of scientists and engineers, and the angry little academic wrangles that perfectly illustrate Kingsley Amis' comment, "The reason that academic disputes are so bitter is that the stakes are so small." It gets away with a lot of ethnic humor and innuendos hitherto reserved for cable.
The FCC complaints from religious cranks among the general audiences are exactly the same as complaints about other top shows. Civilization means that such people write letters to government bureaus, rather than chopping peoples' heads off.
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,,,are Geeks.
They would like to be, but lack the essential 'hacker' mentality required to Be a Geek.
Most of them are unimaginative morons, although highly educated.
A highly educated moron is easy to achieve with modern education; they can calculate something without any understanding whatsoever.
I've always considered the show to be "blackface" for nerds.
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I've always considered the show to be "blackface" for nerds.
Or "White Chicks" for Monty Python writers.
Re:None of the people I know that Like this Show.. (Score:5, Insightful)
I've always considered the show to be "blackface" for nerds.
The show has evolved over the years. While it used to be a compare and contrast of geeks versus normal people, it's now a show about relationships.
Leonard and Penny's benchmark "normal, but nerdy" relationship compared to Howard and Bernadette's cuckolding relationship, compared to Amy's needs with Sheldon, and finally to Raj's struggle to find a keep a girlfriend.
It used to be geeks v. world. Now it's geeks v. geeks. It's why Raj talks to women now, and why we rarely see them interact with "normies" except to setup a problem that each couple treats differently -- or that the boys treat differently than the vastly-more-normal girls.
[For what it's worth, I never found it be nerd blackface. We both laughed at and with them...]
Re:None of the people I know that Like this Show.. (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see that. Black face is intensely offensive. Big Bang Theory only insults people without a sense of humor who can't laugh at themselves. Geeks should never become a protected class, that's ridiculous. Speaking as a nerd myself, nerds are indeed funny. To try and equate these two things is offensive in itself.
Re:None of the people I know that Like this Show.. (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't see that. Black face is intensely offensive. Big Bang Theory only insults people without a sense of humor who can't laugh at themselves
Blackface is offensive because it insults black people be reinforcing stereotypes that are not really true outside of prejudiced perception. The big bang theory, in contrast, insults geeks by reinforcing stereotypes that are not really true outside of a prejudiced perception. It's therefore completely different and not offensive.
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,,,are Geeks.
None of the geeks I know watch TV.
They are too busy getting stuff done.
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I don't think I have ever watched an episode of BBT, because what little I have seen of the characters makes my skin crawl.
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None of the geeks I know watch TV.
They are too busy getting stuff done.
You don't know any geeks who watch Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead or...
I like the Big Bang Theory. It's not smart, it doesn't try to be smart but I find it plenty funny. Sure they laugh at the geeks, but they also laugh at the non-geeks. Geeks are getting pissed off because geeks are being made fun of but it's like South Park, there is nobody who is off limits so it's fine. The geeks are dumb and the regular people are neanderthals. Bafoonery is a old reliable source of comedy.
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As a long term geek, I cannot stand this show. None of the geeks I know watch it (although that is like a the liberal from Manhattan wondering how Nixon was elected even though none of their friends voted for him). It's just a generic multi camera sit com that plays to the lowest common denominator like shows such as Friends before it.
Personally, I always thought Community was the show that geeks watched.
Not different than the rest (Score:5, Interesting)
This show reminds me of "Friends" in so many ways it's frightening. It's a cookie-cutter production, seemingly. You just have different personality experts working this show.
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Never watched Friends. Not even a single episode.
Kind of wonder how... but whatever. The first season was actually very good and very sharply written. It went downhill rapidly after that (or maybe after the second season---I don't recall). Like all shows, it only had a limited number of good seasons in it. And like ao many popular shows, it continued to lurch from bad episode to bad episode for a long time after the spark that made it good departed.
Much like the Simpsons, really. This site has excellent thi
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It has similarities to Friends, for sure.
The biggest and most obvious one, and the one that gets people feeling that way, has to be the set layout. The sets for the two apartments are almost identical and shot from the exact same perspective. The only difference is that the kitchens are on opposite sides of the room.
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This show reminds me of "Friends" in so many ways it's frightening. It's a cookie-cutter production, seemingly. You just have different personality experts working this show.
the vast majority of tv comedies these days are Friends ripoffs. that's the way hollywood works. before that, it was Seinfeld ripoffs.
What geeks hate the most is the lack of geekiness! (Score:4, Insightful)
There was some genuine geekiness in the beginning but it is all gone now. Now its a show about stupid obnoxious people trying to seem smart... not at all as fun as it was in the beginning when it was about nice people with personality problems.
I hate it because it's terminally unfunny (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I hate it because it's terminally unfunny (Score:5, Interesting)
Go to youtube and search "big bang theory without laugh track" and see what I mean.
What does that tell you? All it tells you is that we're used to a certain presentation of certain forms of entertainment, and when our expectations are not met it's jarring and disconcerting. Take a non-laugh-tracked "sitcom" (if they still fit that definition) like Peep Show or The Office or [insert non-laugh tracked sitcom you do find funny here] and add a laugh track and it will probably be just as un-funny because it throws the whole thing out of whack.
Take a production of MacBeth and have everyone perform it in flippers. Probably not going to last long.
If something makes someone laugh (for example, BBT with audience laughter), it's funny. If something doesn't make someone laugh (for example, BBT without laugh track) that doesn't mean that the first version wasn't "funny", and that the viewer must be therefore have been suffering some kind of delusion when they laughed the first time round.
You don't find BBT funny either way; fine. That doesn't mean anyone who does is wrong, whether they laugh at the un-laugh-tracked version or not.
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There's a reason that major motion pictures don't use laugh tracks.
Ummm, yeah, there is: the audience supplies its own. The laugh track was invented, for better or for worse, to simulate the experience of being at a live performance.
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I didn't care for BBT, either, but pretty much all laugh-track sitcoms sound like that when you remove the canned laughter. Friends, for example, fares no better [youtube.com]. The whole pacing of the show is designed around the laugh track.
So are the jokes. The laugh track clues you in to laugh, so they don't have to work really hard to make the script work. They basically hook an audience with a few characters they engage with and some stock lines, and then just repeat the formula. Once they've got them, people really
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Yeah, wait, hang on (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok, not to break up a (somewhat) popular hate fest, but you HAVE to realize, for any given sitcom on commercial TV, there's inevitably going to be FCC complaints, many of which are going to be ... strange. Consider, in any group of people 300M large, a significant fraction of which watch TV, a significant fraction of *that* having no other damn thing going in their lives, what the heck do you THINK is going to happen? We used to call these people Fred and Ethyl, after Lucy's hapless elderly neighbors. Fred and Ethyl eat dinner off tin fold-up TV trays and watch TV in real time, including commercials. Fred and Ethyl can't tell the difference between rubber brains and the head meat of small animals. They think objects thrown from offstage must be from monkeys in a cage because that's what the dialog alludes to. They think the sounds of a cat squalling are being made by someone torturing a cat just behind that fake window there. Combine this with the current fashion of being offended at the tiniest opportunity, and what do you THINK is going to happen?
This article speaks more about the reporters than the reportees. It's non-news, but it bashes a show that some geeks don't like. So let's go with it. (In Kevin Kline's voice) DisapPOINTed.
And finally, it's not a laugh track -- it's a multicamera studio production in front of a live audience. Geeze.
I thought this was news for nerds. Not news for clueless nerds.
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Pretty much this.
Anything popular is going to attract all manner of crazy from the general public.
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I am trying to imagine Kevin Kline as Otto saying "I am endowed like a stallion".
Some people need to get a life (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Taken too seriously (Score:3)
Chill. It's not worth getting worked up about. It's just a TV show.
I personally enjoy it and the characters, it's no worse or better than The Simpsons, Family Guy or South Park.
The acting has as many dimensions.
I do enjoy reading Chuck Lorre's vanity cards and I often wonder where he gets his inspiration from.
An entertaining writer, not a serious one, just a good comedy satirist.
If it makes you laugh, great. If it doesn't, don't watch it.
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If it makes you laugh, great. If it doesn't, don't watch it.
I feel the same about football -- but that, sadly, does not fly with certain geeks. There are people who not only don't like certain entertainments, but are offended by those who do.
Some kind of an insecurity thing, I guess.
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WTF would possess anyone to complain to the FCC about Big Bang Theory, not the network, but the FCC, fucking seriously? Those complaints should go directly to the garbage bin, because anyone who writes one is clearly too stupid to be allowed to have the means of communicating with other humans.
I see that idiots still hate geeks... (Score:3)
I'm not a fan of BBT at all, for the various reasons described on the "geek" side above. But I gotta say, after reading these complaints...wow. Yeah, the show's not getting taken down anytime soon on account of these chuckleheads.
Here's a subset of a particular gem:
Okay, that's about all I can take of that. There's only so much I can stand of prose written by a lifetime aficionado of the flavor of paint chips.
FCC? (Score:2)
FCC complaints are not really the place to go for anything. The only people who ever complain to the FCC about anything other than radio interference are..... crackpots and wingnut commanders. Yes, there are enough crackpots out there with enough free time to generate some complaints, but that doesn't mean its anything other than the ravings of the insane.
You may as well read the writings of Francis E Dec Esquire.
I liked the first season... (Score:2)
Re:I liked the first season... (Score:4, Interesting)
I disagree. Yes, the show has evolved to be more about the relationships than in earlier seasons. But that is due to genuine character development rather than just a who-is-sleeping-with-whom like in other sitcoms.
Sheldon's character development is especially believable and interesting. We have a character who is clearly autistic (the actor and production company deny it, but probably because their lawyers tell them to. It is a spot on portrayal of high functioning autism), who has no comprehension of human interaction, and has developed severe misanthropy as a coping mechanism. He then finally meets the first person ever who truly tries to understand him and wants to help him be a better person, rather than simply trying to tolerate his quirks as his family and friends do. Which leads to the dynamic of him genuinely trying to change far beyond his comfort zone for her, while she has trouble being patient with what she perceives as his glacially slow development.
Feel bad (Score:2)
I actually feel bad for some lowly analyst job at the FCC that has to read each and every one of these complaints and issue some type of a response to the complaint. In between fits of laughter from what was submitted, and uncontrollable crying when you realize you're job is to read them.
Never gave it a chance! (Score:3)
This show stands alone in the history of entertainment as the one piece of media that I decided willfully not to give any chance whatsoever, regardless of input from friends and relatives. I read the premise of the pilot, was insulted, and said to myself "the masses of above average intelligence normies are going to LOVE this crap". Now, in 2015, I feel privileged that I couldn't pick a single Big Bang theory actor out of a lineup. Also, get off my lawn.
It used to be funny (Score:2)
But alas, Big Bang Theory has jumped its shark and become plain stupid and tedious.
I'm a geek, and I like it... (Score:2)
Of course, the exception where my wife goes against type is in her relatively new hobby of collecting Pop Vinyls figurines, which even makes her go into comic book stores and the like
The most irritating thing... (Score:5, Funny)
I don't like the crude humor on the show (Score:2)
Science or Entertainment? (Score:4, Insightful)
This is /., not People magazine. The big bang theory is firstly about the beginning of our universe. This predates the TV sitcom that adopted the name. Submitter should punctuated the title to indicate he/she was referring to the name of the sitcom.
Nowadays, misleading titles translates into rudely wasting people's time. The sloppy title counts as a fault as serious as you can get in terms of punctuation errors.
I've been in the audience (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
I would imagine they don't bother synchronizing the audience reaction with the show, and instead pick out clips of genuine audience laughter and splice it back into the final show in editing. Otherwise the shots where the actor keeps blowing a line and the 5th take is the keeper, there would be no laughter because the audience
honestly... (Score:3)
Wrong headline (Score:3)
It should read "what soccer moms without a real problem hate about the BBT".
This is a prime example of complaints from people who have nothing to complain about but want to feel outraged about some shit. Seriously. What the fuck is this? This is a perfect display of PC bullying. Yes, the jokes are sometimes crude, graphic and silly. But that's what makes jokes funny. You know funny, right? Like "What's the opposite of Christopher Reeves? Christopher Walken." Yes, that's tasteless, yes that's VERY offensive, but most of all, it's insanely funny. Yes, I can laugh about that. And for fuck's sake, I WANT to laugh about that. Deal with it. If you don't like to hear me talking, if you don't want to hear me tell such jokes, it's well within your rights to not listen to me.
You think that show is not suitable for your kids? Then don't let them watch it. Simple as that. The TV is not your cheap babysitter, and I refuse to let you turn it into one. Because that would also mean that I only get to see Teletubbies and similar rubbish. You wanted kids. Now deal with it. It's YOUR kids. Not mine. And don't you dare shifting the burden of raising them onto me.
Raise them or shoot them. Either is fine with me, but don't dump them on society!
What I hate.. (Score:5, Interesting)
What I hate about the Big Bang Theory is the temporal asymmetry of a low entropy point just choosing to pop into existence with no understood process for getting that low entropy situation out of an earlier higher entropy situation. Either it did, or it didn't. Either way, it's asymmetric.
Man, Big Bang Theory (Score:4, Informative)
I have so called "geek" friends who keep insisting this is the best show ever.
Please, check out The IT Crowd [imdb.com] instead. Not only that show is hilarious in ways BBT simply cannot be, but it is also a much more accurate portrayal of the geek life.
Why? (Score:2)
:confused face:
Why not? (Score:2)
Re:From a geek's perspective (Score:5, Interesting)
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I think it's pretty funny. Not perfect, but nothing is.
As for the haters, I dunno, but we seem to have a cadre of regulars here who don't have much in the way of a sense of humour and who seem to get pissed off at anything they can't take literally.
Re: (Score:3)
I enjoy it as well, and part of it is because of how much "geeks" bitch and moan about it.
The show does a great job of mocking shitty geek stereotypes, and losers online do a great job of living up to those stereotypes.
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Re: (Score:2)
An element of comedy is pain. The stereotypes shown are trying to amplify such pain, thus makes people laugh at it. But as with most comedy, the people who feel the pain, from having elements of the stereotype have more sympathy in their plight.
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"The only nerds getting women that attractive are the rich ones."
From personal experience, not so. The universe contains more surprises than you would think.
Re: (Score:2)
I found the humour got very repetative, and the situations were so contrieved (entire episodes centering on people walking in at just the right time and hearing just the right snippet of some conversation) it was painful to watch.
Also something that stuck me early on. For a show about a bunch of hopeless socially inept geeks, they all end up with love interests and gags aside, they seem like reasonably healthy relashionships.
And that's because in real life, even socially inept geeks eventually have love interests and can learn to function in reasonably healthy relationships. Why should we expect otherwise?
Re: (Score:2)
When you closed the mental hospitals and allowed them to breed.
We may have a solution [slashdot.org] for this. Just dart anything that moves in a trailer part from helicopters.
Re: (Score:2)
It's still a live studio audience.
There is no laugh track other than what the live studio audience supplies. Any editing to that track is for overall volume and timing, just as is done with every other show. This has been standard practice since Married with Children, where episodes frequently had botched run lengths due to the actors having to wait (and sometimes even restart a line) due to the audience reaction.