the big bang theory..

[dehro]

I don't know you, but I'm still liking it.

Mr. Rostenkowski was hilarious..predictable, but hilarious.
especially his last line in ep 23.

[Morph Bark]

As I haven't yet seen the latest episode, I presume Mr. Rostenkowski is a new character appearing in that episode?

[Weezer]

Eh, I was never a fan. Too much of it seems to be based around the idea that going "look, something nerdy!" *cue laugh track* is actual humor...

[Dienekes]

Surprisingly my dad loves this show. I used to watch it, I enjoy the nerdy references and think the characters actually had funny chemistry. However, once they really started getting into the romantic aspect of the characters I got bored and dropped it.

Then suddenly my dad discovered the show and found it hilarious, so if I ever stop by I tend to watch an episode or two with him. The reruns though, so it's all out of order. And honestly I think that works for me. My enjoyment of it is completely based on the humor and the episodic plot, so I don't have to worry about the overarching plot which seems to mostly be about who's dating who.

[dehro]

As I haven't yet seen the latest episode, I presume Mr. Rostenkowski is a new character appearing in that episode?

bernadette's dad

[mtpromises]

I only started watching BBT within the last year... it's so syndicated it must be on at least 6 times a day where I live... it's hard to miss. It's funny but lacks the heart that a show like Louie or Community has.

[AndToBeLoved]

I never really liked this show. It has a few OK moments and some good references here and there (like C.E.R.N.), but overall I get annoyed with it. It seems like everybody above 40 likes this show, however. Not saying that ONLY people above 40 watch it. I think that what bothers me about it is that I get the feeling that it's regular writers writing what they think nerds would do or say, rather than actual nerds writing the script. Maybe actual nerds do write it and producers mess it up, I dunno...

The most recent comedy I really really liked was Party Down, which has been freaking cancelled. FML....

[Muz]

Does it still have that auxiliary character of some professor who talks like Elmer Fudd? (He annoyed the hell out of me--not because the speech impediment was annoying to listen to, but because it seemed like they just gave it to him to be insulting. "He's a physics professor! He has to be dorky!")

[blackspeeker]

I watch BBT, not in it's time slot because my love goes out to Community. BBT is like something I can't look away from, although I don't like that the way they portray geeks/nerds/dorks as autistics/perverts/spineless/so shy they have to be drunk.



The most recent comedy I really really liked was Party Down, which has been freaking cancelled. FML....

Low ratings and Jane Lynch going to GLEE hurt it pretty bad. I miss the show too

[kpenguin]

This


Eh, I was never a fan. Too much of it seems to be based around the idea that going "look, something nerdy!" *cue laugh track* is actual humor...

and this


I never really liked this show. It has a few OK moments and some good references here and there (like C.E.R.N.), but overall I get annoyed with it. It seems like everybody above 40 likes this show, however. Not saying that ONLY people above 40 watch it. I think that what bothers me about it is that I get the feeling that it's regular writers writing what they think nerds would do or say, rather than actual nerds writing the script. Maybe actual nerds do write it and producers mess it up, I dunno....

Are basically how I feel about it. It satirizes nerdiness without having a real understanding of it.

Also that much of the humor seems to revolve around one of characters having what appears to be a legitimate mental disorder (haha! disability!), which makes me feel uncomfortable.

[AndToBeLoved]

It satirizes nerdiness without having a real understanding of it.

Also that much of the humor seems to revolve around one of characters having what appears to be a legitimate mental disorder (haha! disability!), which makes me feel uncomfortable.

THANK you!

[Dumbledore lives]

My friends and I always joke about its 'intelligent' humor. References are unfortunately not jokes, and stereotypes really aren't funny.

[Reverent-One]

I enjoy it, don't watch it more regularly or anything, but I catch the reruns on TBS. It does use a lot on exaggerated nerd stereotypes, but it's generally amusing.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

Yeah, never liked this show. But I always tune in to see Wil Wheaton. :smallamused:

[Lord Seth]

The show was spectacular in its first two seasons and quickly shot up to being one of my favorite TV shows of all time. Unfortunately, starting midway through the third season (which ironically was when it started getting really popular), I feel it dropped noticeably in quality. I still find it funny and it's still entertaining, but it doesn't have the same punch it used to. There's still some flashes of brilliance, but just not as much as there was in the first two seasons.

It's why it's turned from a show I always made sure to watch every new episode of to a show I watch more occasionally...though to be fair, a major part of that is the fact it airs at the same time as The Vampire Diaries, which I always watch (though its current season has been kind of uneven as well).

[Cespenar]

I prefer The IT Crowd myself, but I admit that British comedy isn't everyone's cup of tea. Most of the time, not mine either.

[LordVader]

Frankly, the idea that Sheldon now represents mainstream society's perception of nerd/geek culture horrifies me.

[Muz]

Frankly, the idea that Sheldon now represents mainstream society's perception of nerd/geek culture horrifies me.

To be fair, that's really more just a lateral movement from where the perception likely was before.

[polity4life]

Apart from many of the above stated reasons, the show has the most obnoxiously loud laugh track ever. It's many magnitudes louder than any dialogue, as though the audience will not understand many of the nerdy references and have to be cued with obscenely loud laughter to realize that a punchline was just delivered.

[Morph Bark]

I prefer The IT Crowd myself, but I admit that British comedy isn't everyone's cup of tea.

*badum-tss*

[Lord Seth]

Apart from many of the above stated reasons, the show has the most obnoxiously loud laugh track ever.It's a studio audience. Actually, most shows people label as having laugh tracks have actual studio audiences. That said, I will agree it can be annoyingly loud. Though I've heard M*A*S*H's original laugh track was way worse.

[Weezer]

It's a studio audience. Actually, most shows people label as having laugh tracks have actual studio audiences. That said, I will agree it can be annoyingly loud. Though I've heard M*A*S*H's original laugh track was way worse.

The thing is that laugh tracks aren't good/acceptable just because they're studio audiences. They're still heavily edited or else you wouldn't hear everyone laughing in unison and cutting of all at once, at a pretty constant volume throughout the show. So it's still valid to complain about the volume and timing of the laughter, because that is still controlled by the editors.

[Tyndmyr]

Apart from many of the above stated reasons, the show has the most obnoxiously loud laugh track ever. It's many magnitudes louder than any dialogue, as though the audience will not understand many of the nerdy references and have to be cued with obscenely loud laughter to realize that a punchline was just delivered.

I enjoy the show, but yeah, I'd enjoy it a lot more if they entirely dropped the laugh track, or at least dialed it back.

[Lord Seth]

The thing is that laugh tracks aren't good/acceptable just because they're studio audiences.It raises my opinion of a show slightly if they're willing to have a studio audio rather than just throw in a laugh track.

Regardless, I feel it's still erroneous to refer to it as a "laugh track" as that carries the implication of there being no studio audience to begin with.
They're still heavily edited or else you wouldn't hear everyone laughing in unison and cutting of all at once, at a pretty constant volume throughout the show.Still, it's based on an actual audience rather than just a bunch of audio files they added after the fact.
So it's still valid to complain about the volume and timing of the laughter, because that is still controlled by the editors.Considering I did say I thought it was a bit too loud, here you're essentially attacking a position I didn't take.

[Weezer]

It raises my opinion of a show slightly if they're willing to have a studio audio rather than just throw in a laugh track.

Regardless, I feel it's still erroneous to refer to it as a "laugh track" as that carries the implication of there being no studio audience to begin with.Still, it's based on an actual audience rather than just a bunch of audio files they added after the fact.Considering I did say I thought it was a bit too loud, here you're essentially attacking a position I didn't take.

Isn't it incredibly rare for shows to actually have laugh tracks as opposed to studio audience laughter? Especially for multi-cam sitcoms (of which BBT is one). It just seems to be a needless distinction, my point was that it doesn't make a difference in the final product whether the laughter is canned or live.

[Tyndmyr]

I have never watched a show and thought "This show would be epic, if only it had a laugh track".

I couldn't give a toss about how the laugh track is made.

[Kato]

I don't know... it's not that I love laugh tracks but I don' mind them either. I don't even notive them most of the time, somehow...

That said I like BBT still though I guess I see why people don't always do.


Anyway, season finale was okay. I... kind of feel it was somehow girly. But the ending got me to go 'awwww' as well.

[lt_murgen]

I enjoy the show, but it might be an age thing. Having just turned 41, I see a different side of the humor, perhaps. I know people who match up to those characters remarkably well.

During and after college, I watched my physics major friends struggle with the concept of dating, and took their good-natured-jibes at fast-food approach to relationships. Now I am in an industry where my master's degree is treated much in the same way the guys treat Howard's degree.

I think the addition of Bernadette and Amy have added another dimension to the show. Not only relationship driven, but the idea that nerds can be women as well.

[Cespenar]

*badum-tss*

Thank you, thank you. *bows*

[Lord Seth]

I don't know if it's necessarily that much of an "age thing." I know a fair amount of people who are well under 40 who like the show.

[McStabbington]

I admit that my fandom of Community has probably killed any possibility of me appreciating the show on its merits. That being said, the few episodes of BBT that I have seen always struck me as operating on the dubious assumption that reference was about 70% of comedy. I may well not be giving the writing of the show a fair shake, but "Ho, ho! They mentioned THAC0! Man, where do they come up with this stuff!" is just not in my emotional repetoire.

[Gnomish Wanderer]

My boyfriend and I watch the show all the time. I would say the episodes aren't quite as good as earlier as a whole, but Amy Farrah Fowler makes up the different from the rest of the characters, to me. Because she's hilarious.

I think the nerd references in the show are generally well-done. It would be easy for them to make the nerd references but they apply them to the situations presented in amusing ways. Most nerds I know either make a passing mention to nerd references or get into lengthy debates, which would just be boring to watch. I think the show handles it well.

But yeah, the show isn't exactly a nerd-only thing, and it's become more nerd-light the longer it runs. It is, however, a really enjoyable sitcom.

[Flickerdart]

The IT Crowd is what TBBT is trying to be, but The IT Crowd got cancelled, so I watch this instead. I actually prefer it to Community by a wide margin.

[Selrahc]

The IT Crowd is what TBBT is trying to be,

How do you figure? There are vast thematic differences between the two shows that aren't bridged just because geeks are figured prominently in both. If you blur your mind, I suppose you can say "Moss is Sheldon, Jen is Penny, Roy is the rest of the geeks", but I don't think that really holds water. If you look at the types of episodes made, the IT Crowd is about the workplace, it's about hierarchy and dysfunction and idiocy and insanity. BBT is about friendship, leisure and fun, love and how it relates to understanding of other perspectives and it's about how geeks do weird things.

IT crowd is better. But that doesn't mean it's some sort of paradigm of a similar format. It's just a better show that involves geeks in a central role.

[Weimann]

I watch Big Bang Theory. I realize it's pretty standard sitcom formula, but I still think it's neat to hear jokes about those kinds of things. I mean, they get a lot of the stuff right, that's worth something.

[Weezer]

How do you figure? There are vast thematic differences between the two shows that aren't bridged just because geeks are figured prominently in both. If you blur your mind, I suppose you can say "Moss is Sheldon, Jen is Penny, Roy is the rest of the geeks", but I don't think that really holds water. If you look at the types of episodes made, the IT Crowd is about the workplace, it's about hierarchy and dysfunction and idiocy and insanity. BBT is about friendship, leisure and fun, love and how it relates to understanding of other perspectives and it's about how geeks do weird things.

IT crowd is better. But that doesn't mean it's some sort of paradigm of a similar format. It's just a better show that involves geeks in a central role.

Agreed. The two shows are incredibly different in focus, tone and themes, with the only real similarity being the main characters being geeks. It's only because of the rarity of geeks featuring in popular media that they seem similar in the slightest.

[Dienekes]

Echoing Selrah and Weezer, the shows really aren't similar at all. But for the record I would easily give up BBT completely for another season or two of IT Crowd (assuming it kept it's quality of course). IT Crowd was awesome, hell Douglas Reynholm and Richmond were funnier than the entire cast of BBT.