PEOPLE DON'T LIKE A THING THAT I LIKE! WHY?

[Yopaz]

I like the show, it is by no means great, but it offers some easygoing comedy which doesn't quire much thought. I might be simple for thinking this, but a show doesn't need to be deep to be funny. I have watched plenty of comedies that try to be more than they are and fail I have seen comedies that are too dumb for me to enjoy.

Why don't people enjoy The Big Bang Theory? It's repetitive, it's predictable, some feel offended over how the nerd culture is presented. I like it, but I can see why others might not. I like it, why do you care that people don't like it?

 

[Jegsimmons]

inb4 matter of taste.

So I like Big Bang Theory. I know that most people apparently don't. I don't really mind what others think but I did find it surprising that almost everyone who shares my interests (ie. the shit the protagonists of the show tend to talk about) seems to not only dislike but often hate the show.

But no one has ever said why. It's always been one of those things where everyone says it's bad and because no one disagrees (or bothers to) it's not elaborated on.

So what don't you like about it?

The portrayal of nerds? The actual characters themselves? Just not funny (I'd be interested if anyone could explain what about the show isn't funny or why it's not funny)?

I don't intend to change anyone's mind or anything like that I'm just curious why the entire gaming/podcasting/nerd/geek community seems to dislike it.

most people dont like the Big Bang Theory?

Since fucking when? isnt that currently one of the most popular sitcoms on tv right now?!

you need new friends. I volunteer. Bazinga!

 

[TallanKhan]

I love the Big Bang Theory. A few people i know dont like it but they are mainly people for whom the depiction of Howard Walowitz cuts a little close to the bone...

 

[Technocrat]

Everyone says "laugh track", but the laughter in Big Bang Theory is from the audience.

 

[hazabaza1]

The jokes are bad, people can't act, the laugh track is annoying and way too intrusive, and it's just dull.
Awful show.

 

[RustlessPotato]

Yeah, I liked the first and second season, but after a while it got old really fast. It's always the same jokes and the way the "nerd" culture is portrayed isn't really for me. also the "here are some complicated words, please laugh now" got boring real fast.

The only show I saw where I really like the "nerd" culture is Spaced, because it's subtle. All the comic books, videogames, star wars references etc are all there, but it's really subtle and never the point of the joke. Maybe the IT crowd as well, but that's also because the jokes are great.

 

[Denamic]

You don't need to justify your likes or dislikes to other people. Someone doesn't like something you like? Big deal. It just means you have a pleasure they don't. I don't understand why some people are so bothered by other people's preferences. I understand that it feels good when you can talk to people who shares your interests, but why let it feel bad when someone doesn't share them? Different folks, different strokes.

 

[Navvan]

I think people are offended that the show is about "nerd" culture yet doesn't actually represent it very accurately. Instead it makes a sort of caricature of it instead but for very good reasons. They are trying to appeal to a large variety of demographics and thus have to restrain themselves to more popular/well known forms of "nerd" culture, and they have to heavily rely on their "gig" so all parties can relate. Personally I find the show entertaining. It isn't exactly the most riveting or well written thing on television, but it was never intended to be.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

I could explain it... but fortunately i already did it in another Thread:

You know, there's that one scene from Big Bang Theory:

I don't quite remember the circumstance but Leonard told Penny that he met a guy who looked like Adam West.

That's a funny little reference i thought.

"I'm sure you know who Adam West is!"

Added Sheldon. It was still funny but i started to get a bit nervous.

"No, i don't know who that is."

Penny replied and i knew this joke wasn't gonna survive.

"Adam West was the actor who played Batman in the Sixties."

And that did it. They ruined a perfectly good reference by explaining it. Screw you, Chuck Lorre.

And that's just one of many examples that shows that many of their jokes just don't work. Yes, there's a good one once in a while but i'd never bother sitting through all the bad jokes, just to get to the good ones.

 

[Robert632]

I dislike it because I can't stand the majority of the characters. That's it.

 

[Palademon]

People hate the laugh track. I don't find it annoying.
I enjoy the show enough to continue watching it regularly, but I'm not ever laughing.

Laugh tracks do actually help sometimes. Red Dwarf Back to Earth felt off without it. I know for quite a few series they had an audience, but for some of them they didn't, and without the laugh track they added I don't think it would have been the same.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

It seems a lot of people like The Big Bang Theory... but no one liked the Geico Cavemen sitcom that was on ABC for four or five episodes. I really enjoyed that show a lot and I'm pretty sure that literally no one else did. It's not even on DVD. There also aren't a whole lot of fans of The Drew Carey Show and that really defined my sense of humor from about 6th to 8th grade. I remember overhearing one girl in the bleachers talking about her fandom, but I have no idea who it was way back then. Other than that, it's just been "I vaguely remember that show... I didn't like it." There's also Brotherhood from Showtime of which I've never met another fan. A movie called The Passion of Darkly Noon used to air on Showtime regularly, but I haven't met another person who saw it. People usually seem to put down Assassin's Creed 1, but I liked that more than any other game in the series.

 

[Gone Rampant]

Continuing TBBT topic, I still watch the show on E4 (Mostly to pass time until How I Met Your Mother comes on), but... I prefer the earlier seasons, but 5 still had some great episodes (Howard evolving and going to space, for example).

However, I do have problems with the show. Just to use an example:

Remember in Season 1 when Penny yells at the gang for liking comics, video games, etc? Later, Sheldon calls her out, and she's forgiven in about 10 seconds (Rule of Sitcom: If you're main cast, you're forgiven in 10 seconds/do an episode trying to say sorry).

A few seasons later, Penny develops an Age Of Conan addiction that messes with Sheldon's career. If this was ANYONE else in BBT, they'd be laughed out. Penny? No, Leonard only gets to make a few lame attempts. HE could have tried, you know, TURNING OFF HIS BROADBAND, since Penny uses his as mentioned a few times. And no-one calls Penny out on this. Couldn't Sheldon just invite her into PVP and kick her ass all around the place until she realised she's an addict?

My point is, Penny ruins the show because she's a demanding *****- I preferred Stephanie from Season 2, and Pryia was more likeable, since at least with her, Raj could talk freely. I don't even get the Pryia hate. Sheldon's behaviour makes me wanna break through the 4th wall and beat the crap out of him, but Sheldon makes up for it (WHEATON!) with great lines.

As for the topic of, "Things I like my friends don't," Everything Joss Whedon's done, Mass Effect 3 and Glee, and on the reverse, I can't stand Minecraft, while they love it.

 

[DugMachine]

I just can't stand that since that show it's now 'cool' to be nerdy or geeky. It's like, shit man i've been doing this since the 90's where were y'all then? I don't know. As a geeky person people expect me to enjoy it but meh is all I can come up with at the end of an episode, maybe a chuckle or two but not enough to keep me watching.

But like whatever you like OP, I freaking love HIMYM and I know plenty of people who dislike that show.

 

[ungothicdove]

Because after Spaced the bar has been set high for shows involving nerd culture. I wonder where the hate is coming from though? I've always heard people say they like it more than hate it. Also, a laugh track makes me not want to watch a show 96.3487% of the time. If it's funny I'll laugh thanks. You don't need to tell me when.

 

[Total LOLige]

It's one of my favourite shows, I barely notice the laugh track because I can't here it over my own laughter. From what I can see the main reason some of the 'nerd' community dislikes it is because it's attracted poser nerds.

 

[Zealous]

"Generic and generally overused pop culture reference."
"Canned laughter."

That's what I hate about it. The majority of the jokes they use have already been circulating in popular culture for a while now (or they make reference to things that have been in pop culture for a while). There's no new material. It's just "Now those ARE the droids we're looking for!"

That and the fact that according to the show I'm supposed to think that using mildly complicated synonyms and terms from various scientific fields is funny.

Plus I hate the characters. All of them.

 

[Winthrop]

I think a silent majority likes the show. You just don't see people making threads about liking things too often. I know my brother doesn't like it because everyone tells him he is like Sheldon, and that bugs him.