The Big Bang theory always felt like a stupid person's idea of what smart people are like.
Also, from the couple of episodes I watched, apart from being terribly unfunny, it felt like the whole point was just to mock neruodivergent people.
They were all so mean. To me it felt like they were trying to normalize mean-ness, racism and sexism, under the guise of "nerds are misunderstood"
I still remember the comic that had a character calling it "nerd minstrel" lmao
My wife actually love BBT and got me watching it. I still hate laugh track sitcoms, and as a Super Nerd a lot of things irritated me, but overall it's not nearly as bad as I was expecting from all the meme hate.
Still, the meme is not wrong, Data had a fine positronic brain, sure, but He can kill a motherfucker when necessary.
Papa Soong didn't raise no bitch.
You want someone to look tough? Have them knock down Worf. Want someone to look unstoppable? Have them subdue Data.
How well does Data fair against blue barrels?
I found big bang theory a lot more palatable if you consider it as an unreliable narrator story, with penny as the narrator. It's not what actually happened, but what Penny remembers about it. All the geeky/nerdy stuff gets filtered. Only the surface, superficial stuff gets remembered, and even that is distorted. That is why it plays on stereotypes so much.
My wife likes BBT, I've learnt to tolerate it at best.
I did grad school in planetary science while BBT was airing. I hated it. I could go hang out with my friends and have much funnier nerdy convos. "I'll buy you a beer if you can prove to me that the electron exists." -- one of my favourite remembered starts to many hours of drinking one day.
My dad watched BBT and was pretty convinced it was a documentary of my life, or close enough. I told the above story to my dad, and it did nothing to dissuade him.
I cannot take laugh tracks anymore. They just annoy the fuck out of me. If you ever get a chance and you like the show, the European version of M*A*S*H without the laugh track was a revelation. The people responsible for the laugh track didn't understand when the show was actually trying to be funny half the time.
Just the same, this is completely on brand for Sheldon's interpretation of the character. He finds one aspect of the character he identifies most with, and completely ignores the ones that he doesn't.
Our hate comes from within. We all watched it with such naive hope for far too long before realizing that we were the punchline.
The disappointment that gets through in the memes is the disappointment we feel in ourselves.I recently binged the whole thing, mostly because I wanted to know how it ended. I stopped watching it around season 3 when it was on the air.
The show is literally only watchable at 2x speed.
It's a show I loved to hate when it aired, but watching the occasional episode here or there with my gf I'm finding that it gets a few chuckles out of me.
I honestly find even ten seconds of the Big Bang theory to be like nails on a chalkboard.
It feels written by someone who isn’t a nerd trying to write a nerd character and just missing the point utterly and completely.
If you want an example of good non neurotypical nerd characters that are on the spectrum maybe, you don’t need to look any further than Tendi and Rutherford in Lower Decks. They both have heart and feel way more fleshed out than the Big Bang theory.
The Big Bang theory just makes me want to vomit, it either feels like the most insufferable version of nerds or it feels like a high school bullies super reductive perception of nerds. Also the whole “Penny is a normal hot girl hanging out with nerds” is such a stereotypically reductive setup too.
It’s nerd blackface.
Any true fan would have posed Worf getting his ass kicked.
Worf's main function was to show how tough a new character was by getting beaten up by them.
Unless it was a Klingon story, in which case he would somehow be stronger with their weapons even though he wasn't raised with Klingons and his combat training would have been mainly federation combat (though I suppose it would make sense for him to surpass them with his access to one of several holodecks on the Enterprise).
Another exception was if it was a child, in which case he was the scary adult laying down the law. But I believe there's an exception to even this exception, though that child did have powers closer to Q's than to humans'. And I can't remember for sure if she did pwn Worf in that episode.
One thing I did not like about data is he sorta made everyone else second best in thier specialty. stronger than worf, smarter than wesley. I almost surprised they did not give him more sensory capabilities than giordi.
He's stronger than worf, but doesn't have his instinct for dangerous situations. He's smarter than Westley (lol) but doesn't have a great capacity for improvisation and adaptability. He's technically better than Geordi at science, but not necessarily engineering, again pointing at his spock-like proclivity for sticking with "in the box" thinking.
Ironically, Geordi has better tech eyes, but data gets more play, if you know what I'm saying 😉
That's one of the reasons I think neurodivergents identify so strongly with him. I might be smarter, or better at some things than someone else, but it definitely doesn't mean I'll be more successful than they are.
They did it with Spock too, so it is sort of par for Trek
true
But that's kinda the same discussion as in pen and paper RPGs - why do have any other regular members of the party if you have magic user. It's a cool idea to add frankly overpowered character but it will inevitably lead to the numerous plotlines where they gonna have to cripple them or remove from the picture in order to let others to show some problem solving skills.
They do that with villains in those superhero movies too. First you introduce ludicrously powerful character that can alter matter at will or manipulate time or crush armies with thought then how do some much weaker guys defeat them? When they are looking to the left so they don't see someone's first. Or some random crap that was never mentioned before. Or sometimes literally a more powerful guy shows up.
It's the easiest way to put yourself into a corner as a writer.
I mean... I could tell the TBBT writers never watched Star Trek because I have seen TBBT, so I've been subjected to their writing.
Worf said Data is the only member of the crew strong enough to break his wrist.
He's criticizing their technique.
I analyze my fist can go through your fucking face.
Bazinga!
I dunno, I actually really liked TBBT. It's one of those series that I can go back and watch whenever I feel down.
Seems like a fun bunch of friends who know how and when to mock each other, and seldom go too far. If they do go too far, they usually apologise and don't do it again.
I think people nowadays just get offended too easily.
You think the problem people had with that show was that it was too "offensive"? Lmfao.
Like what you like, but the criticism I had/heard was never once, "I can't handle how edgy this is"
