Why do some nerds hate Big Bang Theory?

[Kodachi]

The character portrayals close the show off to me. It's incredibly stereotypical and portrays nerds as the 4 archetypes that the general population sees them as. Common words associations with nerd are "reclusive", "self-absorbed", and "uncharismatic" when dealing with the opposite sex.

That said, stereotypes are there for a reason. Personally, I wholeheartedly admit that I'm quite reclusive and perhaps even a touch self-absorbed >.> and many of my friends would share these traits to some degree.

The show was not made for nerds but for the general population and takes almost a Cold Reading approach (a la John Edwards), blurting out line after line of nerdy, technological or even just enriched vocabulary until the viewer can go "OMG I totally know someone who talks like that".

Here's what I'm betting makes most nerds the most angry. This often gets us labelled as a "Sheldon" (myself) or a "Howard". Individuality is extreeeeeemely important to us geeks and putting a label on us makes us very, very uncomfortable.

 

[Nihilism_Is_Bliss]

...because it isn't funny?
'Nerds' aren't the target audience anyway. The target audience is people who want to laugh at 'nerds'.
Besides, the shows portrayal of creepy nerds is just poor. These guys, apart from a couple of them could get on fine with many people, the writers just push them into crowds of adult 'fratboys' as the americans call them.
If they made a show about the proper kind of nerd stereotype they're going for, I assure you, it would not be amusing. Well...even less amusing.

 

[smallthemouse]

I think that the ones who don't like it are 'nerds' who are not as smart as they think they are. Honestly the techno babble is really not very difficult, almost all of it I recall learning about in high school physics. Nobody is REALLY like the characters in real life, since they are so overblown. The ones that say they are offended by its anti-social depiction of nerds probably consider themselves very serious smart people or 'hardcore' gamers.

You have to learn to laugh at yourself, which most people can't seem to do.

 

[funguy2121]

I personally love the show Big Bang Theory, but some nerds I have spoken to, when I mention the show, show utter contempt for it. Why is it? I think it's a very funny show that depicts nerds in a fairly positive light, despite all the jokes. Is it because it's a popular show that give sit a sour taste?

The reason you offered will always be a factor for some, but there's more to it than that. Just a few days ago I watched my 3rd episode, and I'm just about hooked, in spite of some pretty glaring (and annoying) flaws. To whit...

1. Laugh track. Really? It's 2011. I had the same reaction when I was late to the How I Met Your Mother party, and at first I couldn't even complete an episode. And what do these 2 otherwise great shows have in common? Not all of the jokes are great, and some of the ones that get the biggest "studio audience" (read: applause button) laughs are some of the lamest, most traditional sitcom jokes out there. You know the ones: the obvious ones, the ones that aren't surprising, as if real comedy can exist without sleight of hand.

2. It's way too stereotype based. Also, one of them looks like a Monkey. Not the simian, the Beatle-knockoff.

Don't mistake what I'm saying, I really really enjoy this show (and Priya is hot). I'd just like to see some of these sitcom tropes disappear forever. After Community, Arrested Development, The Office and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, I'm confident that the audience will know when to laugh without being told.

Ah, old captcha. You do not suck as much as the other one.

 

[Febel]

I don't like the show because it seems to constantly be laughing at nerds, rather than with them. As much as I dislike the show, and I do quite a bit, I have to correct a mistaken belief that seems to be omnipresent in this thread:

The Big Bang Theory does not and has never used laugh tracks, it's filmed in front of a live audience. Whether or not that lowers your opinion of it's audience even further...well, I'll let you decide.

 

[Treefingers]

I don't like the show because it seems to constantly be laughing at nerds, rather than with them. As much as I dislike the show, and I do quite a bit, I have to correct a mistaken belief that seems to be omnipresent in this thread:

The Big Bang Theory does not and has never used laugh tracks, it's filmed in front of a live audience. Whether or not that lowers your opinion of it's audience even further...well, I'll let you decide.

$100 says they still manipulate live laughs in post-production as they see fit.

 

[Drakmeire]

Because it's simplistic and thinks that simply dropping names and having a passing knowledge about things that "nerds" like immediately makes it funny and edgy, in fact they don't even make "nerdy" jokes, they just say something nerdy and expect it to be funny, Hell, I've made jokes about Schrodinger's Cat. It's just painful to watch it fail so hard at comedy when Community pulls off the nerd characters so well.
<youtube=7nVqb0q_MVg>
troy and abed are soooo well-written, THEY remind me of geeky conversations with my friends, we are nothing like the walking stereotypes on BBT.
also had to add this clip.
<youtube=xTjGQsf2oHE>
god, I love community.

 

[Laurents van Cauwenberghe]

because their audience laughs at every sentence and half the jokes are just technobabble the average person wouldn't understand.

also stereotyyyypes

this and i would like to hit the audience with a bar of sope on a rope every time they laugh

 

[ntw3001]

Some people don't like some things. It's not as though it's an especially smart show; it just features occasional science-words. It's no departure from the standard American sitcom formula: wise-cracking twentysomethings crack wise in a spacious apartment for half an hour (including breaks). Oh, and I recently encountered Penny's glasses-wearing friend. She is not well-acted. The guy who plays Sheldon is actually pretty good at playing socially-awkward; this girl is not.

And why nerds should especially like it because it features nerds is beyond me. Black people all like Fresh Prince, right?

 

[Drakmeire]

I stopped liking it halfway through season 2 when leanords doctor girlfriend disappeared with no explanation. I didnt stop watching until the last episode of season 2 when i realized every character was an unlikable jerk.

That's why everyone said It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was funny, though.

That show is funny because it's funny to watch the incredible jerks suffer for your amusement.
the Blackadder premise, there is no one to "route for" just humor at their expense.

 

[Fanfic_warper]

Maybe it's just me, but I don't care to see nerds in a sitcom. I'd rather watch actual nerd shows, like Stargate, and Battlestar Galctica (new one). Sitcoms are just boring no matter who's depicted.

 

[Hollock]

Because this.

You could potentially do this with any sit com, but it's rather more noticeable with this show.

Honestly I think doing this with a sitcom is a flawed argument because they are written to flow with a laugh track, so of course removing a laugh track will make it less funny. Even Titus wouldn't be as funny without the laugh track. If you like that show, that is :X

But it's not just about the pacing, it's the frequency. In this clip That I post they have one joke. My new computer came with windows 7. Windows 7 is much more user friendly than windows vista. I don't like that. But in it they get three big laughs. My new computer came with windows 7 *big laugh* It's much more user friendly than vista *medium laugh* I don't like that *huge laugh*. It's fucking abuse for a okay joke at best.
[HEADING=1]plus it's a blatant ad![/HEADING]

 

[Versuvius]

Its unfunny stereotypical contrived bullshit. Its Friends aimed at Geeks/Nerds, and remains to be just a Friends clone. It needs setting on fire with a big hell-dick and something worth watching bringing over. Like A Game of Thrones. Gtfo my brit-tv!

 

[Pandabearparade]

Why? I just don't find it funny. It's that simple.

 

[The_Emperor]

It doesn't have a laugh track, seriously I went to where it was filmed and they just rejig the jokes on set if they don't make the audience laugh and even rewrite some of it.

 

[metal mustache]

I'd like the show alot less if it weren't for Sheldon.

 

[Da Orky Man]

I'm okay with it, but it's not brilliant. It's just the actual quality of the show I worry about. Try watching Red Dwarf.

 

[Shadu]

Sheldon (I think he's the "main character") drives me absolutely up the wall, and I don't like any of the other characters any better. Mostly Sheldon though. I can't stand him. It's not that I don't get the jokes, or that I wouldn't find some of it humorous, but I can't really see any humor in it at all if I hate most of the characters that are doing the jokes. It just gets a "...that was funny...I suppose," out of me.

I just find the characters themselves completely devoid of all humor, and thus, don't like the show (seeing as how I am a very character-driven person).

 

[Turigamot]

god, I love community.

Community reigns supreme!

 

[CAMDAWG]

I don't like the show because it's not all that funny, laugh tracks are the bane of comedy, and most of the "jargon" isn't funny if you understand it, it's only value is the fact that it's jargon to the layman.

What pushes me from a state of disinterest, to a state of loathing of the show is that I have a friend who is a complete lay-woman, and who loves the show, and continually tells me that my close friends and I are exactly the same as the characters on the show, which is a little offensive when you consider how awkward the characters are. Admittedly I am a little awkward, but not cripplingly so, and probably no more than your average gamer/scientist-y guy. It's charming in tv-land, but the level of social ineptness displayed in the show is not good in real life.
Plus I think the only real reason the comparison comes up is because I like and am studying physics, so that = popularized image of physicists.

Summary: It's inferior to other sitcoms like scrubs/community/just about anything to come out of britain, and it reinforces a stereotype which I thought was slowly dying.