Poll: Do you think shows like 'Big Bang Theory' are "geekspliotation"?

[Fenring]

Indeed BBT is a show that tries to make normal people see geeks as hilarious, socially awkward people that can be exploited for comedy, other shows (like IT Crowd), actually feel truthful in their portrayal of geek culture.

Go watch IT Crowd.
IT Crowd. Go Watch it. Watch IT Crowd. Do IT. Crowd. Watch it. It is the best.

 

[runedeadthA]

It's not meant to be an accurate representation of a culture in the same way as Frasier isn't representative of psychiatrists or Everybody Loves Raymond being representative of suburban families.

And they want to market it to as many people as possible. My parents know little of some of the references, but they find it hilarious.

That's exactly it, Everyone on the internet gets so god damn defensive if someone so much as looks funny at them. ITS A TV SITCOM, THEY'RE ALLLLL LIKE THAT.

In fact, I think Big Bang theory is actually pretty good as far as things go, they're more or less always correct in their references and things and there are a series of increasingly obscure referencing to Geeky and nerdy things if you pay attention. In fact, theres so many that its almost like a subtle Joke on those more ignorant of Nerd Culture.

How many of those "Do Ho Ho its funny cause they're nerds" people are going to recognize a Fruit Fucker T-shirt from Penny Arcade?

 

[zidine100]

It's a comedy show it has to make fun of something, do you go against little britian saying that there politicsploitation, or homosexpliotation? And thats my made up words for today.

 

[Frybird]

Indeed BBT is a show that tries to make normal people see geeks as hilarious, socially awkward people that can be exploited for comedy, other shows (like IT Crowd), actually feel truthful in their portrayal of geek culture.

Go watch IT Crowd.
IT Crowd. Go Watch it. Watch IT Crowd. Do IT. Crowd. Watch it. It is the best.

Weeeeeeeeell, i'd argue that while The IT Crowd is actually a LOT more educated in terms of geek culture, it's still more an exploitation of geek stereotypes than a "truthful portrayal" (although there tends to be often truth in stereotypes etc. pp.)

That said, The IT Crowd is still much funnier for being actually much better written and being less cliched and formularic when it comes to the stories of individual episodes.


In my opinion, "Spaced" remains the closest to be a "geek comedy" that does not exploit geek stereotypes.

But yeah, go watch IT Crowd.

 

[Fenring]

Indeed BBT is a show that tries to make normal people see geeks as hilarious, socially awkward people that can be exploited for comedy, other shows (like IT Crowd), actually feel truthful in their portrayal of geek culture.

Go watch IT Crowd.
IT Crowd. Go Watch it. Watch IT Crowd. Do IT. Crowd. Watch it. It is the best.

Weeeeeeeeell, i'd argue that while The IT Crowd is actually a LOT more educated in terms of geek culture, it's still more an exploitation of geek stereotypes than a "truthful portrayal" (although there tends to be often truth in stereotypes etc. pp.)

That said, The IT Crowd is still much funnier for being actually much better written and being less cliched and formularic when it comes to the stories of individual episodes.


In my opinion, "Spaced" remains the closest to be a "geek comedy" that does not exploit geek stereotypes.

But yeah, go watch IT Crowd.

They still exploit it a bit, but they are at least respectful, and they don't come off as trying to be as truthful in some of their portrayals of geeks as every other character is also to an extreme.

Spaced was good, but I felt that was more of the Scott Pilgrim people who are just random people who are just kind of nerdy rather than straight out geeky/nerdy people. Also hand gun fights ftw.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

I like it...

A sitcom about well-balanced people would be incredibly dull. Whatever the subject matter, the characters are always going to be exaggerated or have glaring flaws...that's where the funny tends to come from.

 

[ComicsAreWeird]

It´s geeksploitation, i agree.
But it´s kinda entertaining too, so i´m cool with that.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Eh, it's just another rubbish American sitcom, only it's got crap depictions of nerds in it.

On the other hand, I'm not sure how the "exploitation" genre works (when is something about group X, and when is something Xploitation?), so I can't really answer the question.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

It's not meant to be an accurate representation of a culture in the same way as Frasier isn't representative of psychiatrists or Everybody Loves Raymond being representative of suburban families.

And they want to market it to as many people as possible. My parents know little of some of the references, but they find it hilarious.

That's exactly it, Everyone on the internet gets so god damn defensive if someone so much as looks funny at them. ITS A TV SITCOM, THEY'RE ALLLLL LIKE THAT.

In fact, I think Big Bang theory is actually pretty good as far as things go, they're more or less always correct in their references and things and there are a series of increasingly obscure referencing to Geeky and nerdy things if you pay attention. In fact, theres so many that its almost like a subtle Joke on those more ignorant of Nerd Culture.

How many of those "Do Ho Ho its funny cause they're nerds" people are going to recognize a Fruit Fucker T-shirt from Penny Arcade?

Exactly, it's a funny show, and a cut above the average modern sitcom. I can't say I've ever really been offended by the show, as it doesn't portray all nerds poorly, just the main characters -- who are automatically losers by virtue of being sitcom characters who are not the Fonz and are not played by either Charlie Sheen or Neil Patrick Harris. If they weren't portrayed to be as flawed as they are in the show, it wouldn't be nearly as funny, and most sitcom characters, regardless of what stereotype they represent, are heavily flawed to allow for that comedy.

As an aside, why is it that nerds on the internet are so defensive about everything? For example, in addition to the people crying foul over The Big Bang Theory, anytime videogames come up in the news -- regardless of context -- there's a legion of gamers screaming about the Columbine era anti-videogame crap that hasn't been relevant now for quite some time. Why is that?

 

[ShadowsofHope]

It was alright for the first season.

Everything after that, though, I personally lost interest in. And I'm the only one in my family that can actually spot and explain the "geek" references in the show it tries to give a humorous tone.

-_-

 

[Frybird]

Spaced was good, but I felt that was more of the Scott Pilgrim people who are just random people who are just kind of nerdy rather than straight out geeky/nerdy people. Also hand gun fights ftw.

The protagonist is an obsessive gamer, works in a comicshop, writes and draws weird/crass comics and has a almost psychological problem with Star Wars Episode 1. Given that it was made in the 90ies before the huge impact that the internet made on "geekdom", it tends to be very nerdy quite regulary.

Spaced just never happened to make a big thing about it and hardly centered jokes about geek stereotypes, but that does not make much of a difference to me.
(Also i'd like to note that Spaced had some very mean stereotyping about modern/postmodern art and artists. Thankfully, i'm not to fond of that myself so i just did not care ^^)

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

If you mean "...Are shit" then I entirely agree.

Treats geeks in the same way that Father Ted treats Priests. Without any of the funny.

SO, go watch The IT Crowd, which is written by half of the Father Ted crew. Go on. Go on. Go ON!

 

[Vault101]

If you mean "...Are shit" then I entirely agree.

Treats geeks in the same way that Father Ted treats Priests. Without any of the funny.

SO, go watch The IT Crowd, which is written by half of the Father Ted crew. Go on. Go on. Go ON!

so I take it you didnt liek IT crowd? I dont mind it mabye because its not american and Its not typical making fun of geeks

when I first saw big bang theory I thourght "Oh great another comedey where the jokes are DUURRRRR those people like star trek, who likes star trek? bunch of losers DUURRRR"

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

so I take it you didnt liek IT crowd?

Sir, I Lurve the IT crowd. Mainly because it's funny without simple repetition of memes, but also because the characters are likable. Rather than nauseatingly two-dimensional like BBT.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

I don't know, Big Bang Theory has kind of grown on me over time. I originally thought of it as 'geeksploitation' (now there's a pithy word) as others have put it, but when you start thinking of it as fairly mindless entertainment like, say Friends or Scrubs it seems a lot better. That said, the live audience are still wooping idiots.

Spaced was good, but I felt that was more of the Scott Pilgrim people who are just random people who are just kind of nerdy rather than straight out geeky/nerdy people. Also hand gun fights ftw.

The protagonist is an obsessive gamer, works in a comicshop, writes and draws weird/crass comics and has a almost psychological problem with Star Wars Episode 1. Given that it was made in the 90ies before the huge impact that the internet made on "geekdom", it tends to be very nerdy quite regulary.

Spaced just never happened to make a big thing about it and hardly centered jokes about geek stereotypes, but that does not make much of a difference to me.
(Also i'd like to note that Spaced had some very mean stereotyping about modern/postmodern art and artists. Thankfully, i'm not to fond of that myself so i just did not care ^^)

Fun fact: In the scenes where Tim is playing a game in Spaced, Simon Pegg would actually be playing the game while they were filming in order to get the right effect.

 

[Shhmowzoww]

Geeksploitation? You have to be kidding me.

 

[SwimmingRock]

Someone on a different forum referred to BBT as "black face for nerds". I think that's overdoing it, since the 'plight' of the nerd is nowhere near comparable to the long and horrible history of racism, but I agree with the underlying sentiment.

What really annoys me about that show is that all my non-geek friends watch it. I'm talking about people who have never read a comic book, think videogames are for losers and actually know nothing about science beyond what they've picked up from the show. They then talk about how much they love this geeky show that's totally not meant for them and how impressed they are with themselves for 'getting' it.

They've all tried to get me to watch it, insisting I would absolutely love it. I've sat through 3 episodes and I never even chuckled once. I've tried explaining to them that it's not a geeky show; that it's really just a show about laughing at geeks and that they are in fact the target audience. They refuse to listen. I then ask if they've seen The IT Crowd, referenced above by the_root_of_all_evil. They tell me they didn't get that show. I rage.

See, the thing about The IT Crowd is that it's so ridiculously overdone that nobody can take it seriously. You'd have to be a complete moron to think that's how actual IT employees behave. BBT, on the other hand, tries to make the characters seem more realisitic and fails miserably.

Also, I wanted to punch Sheldon so hard.

 

[Frybird]

Fun fact: In the scenes where Tim is playing a game in Spaced, Simon Pegg would actually be playing the game while they were filming in order to get the right effect.

All Edgar Wright movies are actually pretty..."attentive" when it comes to gaming, despite him having touched games for about 10 years by now due to fear of addiction.

In Shaun of the Dead, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost also played Timesplitters 2, and the sound effects were accurate with the exception of an added "narrator" for comedic effect.

And in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Wright actually fooled some overzealous gamers by having one character fumbling around on a DS without a DS game cartridge in it...because the character actually plays a GBA Game with the larger cartridge sticking out on the other side of the DS.

 

[loremazd]

People really need to pick their battles, it's a sitcom, folks. You either think it's funny or you dont, but it really doesn't have to get any more complicated than that.

 

[Quaxar]

Go watch IT Crowd.
IT Crowd. Go Watch it. Watch IT Crowd. Do IT. Crowd. Watch it. It is the best.

I can't. I'm disabled.
I just hope mods get the reference and don't punish me.

But yeah, BBT is really making fun of the "geek stereotype", though I still love it for the science humor and the geek props. But I damn well hate people who have no interest in the culture but think they are uber geeks just because they watch that show.
No, knowing that a Green Lantern is a superhero and not some kind of trendy lighting is not making you admirable.