It took me a long time (years, until about the time the show was in the final season of its 12 year run) to give The Big Bang Theory a fair shot. I watched an episode early on, and my take was: This is how people who have never met a nerd think nerds act. I lumped it into the same dustbin as "That 70s Show"--a show about the 70s written by people who had apparently not been sentient in that decade. So on the Big Bang Theory, you get broad "oh look I'm a nerd I love Star Trek" jokes. On That '70s Show, you get jokes about leisure suits.
I am a scientist and I work among people of precisely the types supposedly being portrayed by The Big Bang Theory. I even know, casually, one of the real scientists who appeared on the show. My friends would often say things to me like "Your favorite show must be That 70s Show because..." (unsaid but implied: "you're a nerd, they're nerds and, well...") My response would be "No, if you want to see a realistic but comedic portrayal of nerds, watch Silicon Valley. THAT show gets things dead-on correct!" (Of course, saying that more-or-less confirms what everyone thinks of nerds. What is nerdier that arguing about what show best presents nerds?)
But, really, it's not brain surgery (or atomic physics): When I watch Silicon Valley, I think "OMG! I have worked with that guy!" When I watch The Big Bang Theory I think "OMG! Do people really think smart scientists are this dysfunctional in the other parts of their lives?"
Anywho, a few years ago, I started turning on the TV near bedtime. I'd watch one of our local rerun channels, TV 38, where they show repeats of old long-run hits like Seinfeld, How I Met Your Mother,
and Big Bang Theory every night. And through this passive, chill-out watching, I realized that while the nerd portrayals were still as unrealistic as I remembered, the humor and acting was really good. So I put aside my snobbery and learned to love the Bang.
As a nerd, but the good kind, the kind that loves knowledge for the sake of knowledge (they used to call that an intellectual), but who is aware of his place in society and who can turn on some semblance of self-aware charm when pushed to it, and who gets invited to parties because I am fun (or at least I think that's why they invite me), I can tell you that The Big Bang Theory isn't reality stretched to the comedic limit. Put another way, the limit of a real nerd as the portrayal approaches infinity is still not Big Bang Theory. (See? Nerd humor). But it is funny.
There I said it (uses Sheldon petulant voice).
Oh, and Star Trek over Star Wars, no question.
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| The cast of Big Bang Theory |
But, really, it's not brain surgery (or atomic physics): When I watch Silicon Valley, I think "OMG! I have worked with that guy!" When I watch The Big Bang Theory I think "OMG! Do people really think smart scientists are this dysfunctional in the other parts of their lives?"
Anywho, a few years ago, I started turning on the TV near bedtime. I'd watch one of our local rerun channels, TV 38, where they show repeats of old long-run hits like Seinfeld, How I Met Your Mother,
and Big Bang Theory every night. And through this passive, chill-out watching, I realized that while the nerd portrayals were still as unrealistic as I remembered, the humor and acting was really good. So I put aside my snobbery and learned to love the Bang.
As a nerd, but the good kind, the kind that loves knowledge for the sake of knowledge (they used to call that an intellectual), but who is aware of his place in society and who can turn on some semblance of self-aware charm when pushed to it, and who gets invited to parties because I am fun (or at least I think that's why they invite me), I can tell you that The Big Bang Theory isn't reality stretched to the comedic limit. Put another way, the limit of a real nerd as the portrayal approaches infinity is still not Big Bang Theory. (See? Nerd humor). But it is funny.
There I said it (uses Sheldon petulant voice).
Oh, and Star Trek over Star Wars, no question.
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