Current Events > What does The Big Bang Theory get wrong about nerd culture?

(+) Yeah! (+)

What don't the writers get?
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There's no laugh track when I make an awkward nerd joke
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NeonOctopus posted...

There's no laugh track when I make an awkward nerd joke

There should be!
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It's the fact that it's not celebrating nerd culture, it's that it's making fun of nerd culture. And not even in a clever way.

What they get wrong is... literally everything. Real "nerds" aren't just people interjecting randomly into "normal" conversations to make dumb references to things where they aren't appropriate.
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So you DON'T make Halo references or Star Trek analogies?
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From what I've seen, they don't make Halo references or Star Trek analogies.

They just reference Halo and Star Trek. IE, they say the name of something.

"I bought an NES just like what I had in my childhood" isn't a joke, and yet they are trying to suggest that somehow it is supposed to be nerdy and funny.
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That nerds get girlfriends let alone hot ones

Hexenherz posted...

From what I've seen, they don't make Halo references or Star Trek analogies.

They just reference Halo and Star Trek. IE, they say the name of something.

"I bought an NES just like what I had in my childhood" isn't a joke, and yet they are trying to suggest that somehow it is supposed to be nerdy and funny.

I recall them doing so, Sheldon made some Star Trek analogy and asked for one good reason why they couldn't do something and Leonard shouted "Because this is not Star Trek!"
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I'd have to see it to really believe it. I get the sense they don't do any research on anything and get their information from precursory Google searches.

Like in one 7 minute long scene that I saw, there was nothing funny / nerdy said. Sheldon zoned out. Someone asked what he thought or if he was listening or something, and he said, "Oh I'm sorry I was just thinking about string theory, what did you say?"

Just saying "I was thinking about string theory" isn't a joke, and it's not something someone would just say in the middle of a conversation like that.
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my observation, since my wife watches the (god awful) show:

in terms of the "nerd culture" angle, the feel just isnt right, probably because it's a mass market show about a niche audience.

like for example, that episode where sheldon is agonizing over whether to get a PS4 or Xbox One. people laugh because they know those are the two new video game consoles, sheldon is putting too much effort into a dumb/childish decision, etc.

but we all know here that the real Sheldon would not be caught dead playing on a game console... we all know that he would have a $6000 gaming PC and would brag about its benchmarks daily, but of course this would be lost on middle america audiences.

and thats really the crux of it, the nerd culture angle of the show is just window dressing, with the meat of the show being that 90% of it is about these awkward guys talking about girls, dating girls, wanting to date girls, marrying girls, having sex with girls, etc

not that i have a problem with the nerd culture element of the show, it's just not very clever.
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green butter posted...

like for example, that episode where sheldon is agonizing over whether to get a PS4 or Xbox One. people laugh because they know those are the two new video game consoles, sheldon is putting too much effort into a dumb/childish decision, etc.

but we all know here that the real Sheldon would not be caught dead playing on a game console... we all know that he would have a $6000 gaming PC and would brag about its benchmarks daily, but of course this would be lost on middle america audiences.

A better example is how seriously he takes Wii Sports. Fucking Wii fucking Sports. Not one of the characters would even be playing Wii Sports in real life.
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BLAKUboy posted...

green butter posted...

like for example, that episode where sheldon is agonizing over whether to get a PS4 or Xbox One. people laugh because they know those are the two new video game consoles, sheldon is putting too much effort into a dumb/childish decision, etc.

but we all know here that the real Sheldon would not be caught dead playing on a game console... we all know that he would have a $6000 gaming PC and would brag about its benchmarks daily, but of course this would be lost on middle america audiences.

A better example is how seriously he takes Wii Sports. Fucking Wii fucking Sports. Not one of the characters would even be playing Wii Sports in real life.

yup exactly lol. you can pretty much pick an episode and you get something out of place like this
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Why do the writers take such care of getting the science accurate (even the diagrams and theories), but not the nerd elements?
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YoshitoKikuchi posted...

Why do the writers take such care of getting the science accurate (even the diagrams and theories), but not the nerd elements?

Because those are cold, hard, technical details that they hired an actual PhD to provide/review. To that guy it's probably the same as writing 2 + 2 = 4 on a board.
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Hexenherz posted...

YoshitoKikuchi posted...

Why do the writers take such care of getting the science accurate (even the diagrams and theories), but not the nerd elements?

Because those are cold, hard, technical details that they hired an actual PhD to provide/review. To that guy it's probably the same as writing 2 + 2 = 4 on a board.

But they can't get some games/comics/movies nerd to advise them?
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The show is eh, but nerds getting super angry at tbbt will never stop being hilarious lol. Just reading some of the posts itt makes me cringe laugh.

YoshitoKikuchi posted...

Hexenherz posted...

YoshitoKikuchi posted...

Why do the writers take such care of getting the science accurate (even the diagrams and theories), but not the nerd elements?

Because those are cold, hard, technical details that they hired an actual PhD to provide/review. To that guy it's probably the same as writing 2 + 2 = 4 on a board.

But they can't get some games/comics/movies nerd to advise them?

I think it's easier to explain the mechanical interaction of numbers than it is human emotion.

And ultimately nerds and geeks are not the target audience of the show.
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Bazorka!
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The science jokes are much more common and the focus of the show is often centered around that anyway. This is just a poor place to talk about it because hobbyists will always get pissed when someone gets their hobby wrong.
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I feel like either Star Trek, Star Wars, comics, and/or video games are mentioned in most episodes too.
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Is it still the highest rated comedy on TV?
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I thought the show was great until they gave everyone a girlfriend.

The best scenes are whenever the four guys are together.
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Sheldon criticizes Windows Vista for being too user-friendly, but then calls Ubuntu his favorite Linux distribution when it's easily one of the most user-friendly distros out there.

I wish I didn't know that.
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it's the same kind of lazy writing family guy has where they just namedrop things as if "oh they mentioned that something exists, isn't that hilarious" is a joke in and of itself