Asklemmy

I refer to it as geek culture black face.

I loved it for the first 3 seasons. Then they turn it into the usual couples sitcom and lost all its appeal.

I liked the dynamic of having all main characters "fail" in life. Penny failed as an actress, Leonard failed in dating Penny, Howard failed as a playboy, Raj failed talking to women and Sheldon failed at social integration. They were all adorable losers that had fun while losing. For me it kinda was giving a lot of hope, like you don't have to succeed in life to have a good time.

Then they made them all winners, they all became rich, and achieve all their goals. And all hope was lost. And the message was "you better succeed in life" which was depressing.

The "laughs" all felt from the outside. There was very little humor aimed at the people who would self identify as nerds and way more "haha look at these nerds and how quirky they are" set ups. Sure there are misogynist asshole nerds but usually they need to grow beyond that to find friends and partners. As far as I could tell none of them did. Sheldon and Howard were still super sexist, Leonard was still passive and whiny, but the story pushed forward foisting "perfect matches" on them.

Throughout the whole thing there was very little actual geek humor, and it felt denigrating to actual nerds.

If a show requires a laugh track to tell its viewers when to laugh, then it lacks substance enough to cause it without.

The autism representation is what happens when a writer has never met another person before.

I watched it for a time because other friends and coworkers did and it gave us something to talk about. But, generally speaking, I found the characters to be kinda awful people and while on the surface seemed like my friends and myself, they were at best poor approximations. The show was very clearly making fun of them most of the time, filled with horrible laugh tracks that prompt the viewer.. I eventually just couldn't stand it anymore and left. Honestly, I had forgotten about this show.

Around that same era there was a show called Community that was full of weird people and great storrytelling and was damn near the opposite of the Big Bang. Community is a show I still rewatch from time to time.

followup question: what's your thoughts on The IT Crowd? because i have a friend who insists they are the same show, and i disagree but can't form a coherent argument as to why.

It made people with either mental or emotional or social dysfunction the butt of pretty much every joke.

Haha, he's awkward.

Haha, he has a weird family dynamic.

Blegh.

It gave the audience the opportunity to laugh at ostensibly intelligent and educated people for enjoying nerd culture.

I honestly think it's an abomination.

I was there for the premiere... Season 1, Episode 1... I laughed because they referenced funny nerd things! It's a sitcom that I'll get inside jokes on! Oh boy this is going to be amazing!

By episode 3 I realised it was not going to be amazing. By episode 6 I was out.

I have no idea how many sessions they are up to now but if I happen to stumble upon it I legitimately can't work out what's meant to be funny. If there was no laugh track you wouldn't even know jokes are happening.

First season or two was alright. Not great, but alright. Early on, it felt more like a show made for nerds. There were lots of niche references to nerd culture that the casual viewer wouldn’t catch. They intentionally kept them niche and vague, because they knew that’s the kind of shit nerds love.

But as the series progressed and they began aiming at a wider audience, the references were aimed more at the casual viewer. It shifted from a show that was for nerds, to a show that was making fun of nerds. The viewership shifted away from former nerds, and suddenly it was the former bullies watching it instead.

It truly lost itself when it became a relationship drama. At that point it was just a bland milquetoast sitcom with one-liners and “will they won’t they” types of writing. Name a sitcom and you can probably think of a few solid jokes from it… But that isn’t really true for BBT. It didn’t really have any solid memorable scenes, because they all eventually blurred together.

It fucking sucks. Also, i'm tired of being compared to Sheldon Cooper. I'm surprised there aren't more fellow autists shit talking this show.

I love it. Watched it when it aired and catch reruns once in a while. I don’t watch a lot of the reruns but do watch them from time to time.

oh boy, i do love me some disgusting amounts of misogony such as that show... shows.

It started out great but ended up just being mostly sex related humour, not science.

Aged like a first-class bottle of milk.

I like it a lot.

But I think they dragged it a bit too long.

I like it. It's dumb fun, but it's funny and I like to laugh.

Shallow and pedantic

I really like it. It has some nice jokes and I enjoy it quite a lot when I see it

In my opinion, it's not as bad as people claim it to be, but It's far from being great as well.

I think it was easier to watch when it came out, but from memory I enjoyed it. I remember thinking the show was kinda accurate regarding nerdy references (compared to other movies and series of the time) and I thought it was cool.

I watched two episodes before bouncing off hard. No idea how it got as popular as it did, because the jokes were just low effort and lazy.

I binged all seasons and it cracked me up to watch the cast go from eating a ton of food on screen to just gesturing with pickles and working out 😂

By extension, Young Sheldon features a not at all realistic genius kid, who's arrogant and having zero clue in socialising, but his attitude is extremely confident. I don't find the protagonist likable at all.

I loved the nerdiness of the show but it was more like they were making fun of them instead of laughing with them.

I totally related to almost all of the culture since I’m a giant nerd

There was something about it I found obnoxious. It was just kind of lazy and, although the cast did a decent job, the writing was meh.

Reddit trash for people with no standards.

As long as it's "safe", they'll eat it up.

It’s for people who don’t know comedy

I thought it was funny when it came out, but it hasn't aged well at all. Very cringey and stereotypical, with a slight tinge of homophobia.

The big bang theory killed my parents.

In one word: Why?

It was OK for time it was out. Then they made the young Sheldon crap and now I can't even watch reruns

i liked young sheldon more but i still watch big bang theory today as a guilty pleasure. it's not perfect by a long shot but it's fun. i preferred sheldon scenes more than leonard or anyone else though.

Laugh track bullshit that basically tracks as “you-know-of-star-trek-then-you-know-nerd”

Call them all nerdy!… then give them miracle careers, a girlfriend with porn doll voice and no real heartache and yea…

Never seen it but parents did , it's horrid !

Nerd humor. I liked it.

It ain't no Mike & Molly, though. That show was HILARIOUS, and unapologetically for adults only. Really great show.