This, pretty much.
While it manages to be entertaining at times, the criminal overuse of the laugh track is something that I can never get out of my mind when I try watching. Overall it tends to be more painful than it should be to try and stomach an episode.
I will echo the thought that Wil Wheaton has a fantastic role in the show any time he appears, though. Everything else I can more or less do without.
It’s a geek minstrel show. Actors in blackface…er, geekface for cheap laughs.
Once again, while I’m sure it’s sweetened in post, Big Bang Theory is shot in front of a live audience, and does not use a laugh track.
This still doesn’t make it any less unfunny/degrading/annoying.
I think people are being a little oversensitive about it. I’ve only seen a few episodes, and it’s nothing I would go out of my way to watch, but it’s harmless enough. It would never have occurred to me that anyone would actually feel strongly enough about it to actively hate it. It’s so innocuous. It’s like hating lettuce or bread.
I’d hate lettuce, too, if there was half a head of it on an otherwise enjoyable sandwich.
I’m with you here. I catch it now and then. It does turn the nerd/geek stereotype to overload but I think that’s why it has mass appeal but is loathe by people who are a bit more on the nerd/geek side. The audience that watches the show probably sees a bit of their friends in the character even if it is so out there. But then the geeks see it as making fun of them instead. I’m somewhere in the middle of liking/hating it. It can be funny but they really overdo the stereotypes too much.
Are people actually offended by the show?
I would bang penny. Any thing else is just homo wanging.
I think it’s funny, but annoying because it’s the show that the “wanna be” nerds can’t stop talking about. I did watch the episode where they’re playing cataan, and the old “I’ve got wood for sheep!” bit ok I snickered.
Okay, in the interest of actually being somewhat informed in the discussion, I watched an entire episode, and I must say I don’t get it. It doesn’t seem terribly amusing or scandalously offensive; it’s just dull, like every other Chuck Lorre production out there.
But isn’t that lack of social consciousness the very thing that separates people who like games/genre fiction/genre film from nerds?
Yeah, that’s the long and short of it. I’ll steal Gertrude Stein’s line, there’s no there there.
I really enjoy it. The academia and science jokes are pretty spot on, I have known people like those guys, been in similar situations too. Laugh tracks don’t bother me, I loathe Modern Family (it is gratingly self aware and twee), and I enjoy oddball comedies (Mighty Boosh, league of Gentlemen, G. M’s Dark Place) and normally hate trafitional sitcoms, but BBT strikes the right chords for me.
It is silly and fun, Like Father Ted. And it has great cameos. The George Takei episode was hysterical.
In regards to the live studio audience vs. laugh track: to my understanding, there are multiple takes of scenes so while there is a live studio audience present potentially laughing, it’s all been finely edited at key points for the viewers subliminal enjoyment…as stated above…
Also, I think the show is a turd.
In a thread that contains some fairly shocking displays of bad taste, this is the worst. How dare you, sir.
That’s what “sweetening” is. As someone who grew up watching older sitcoms, the modern hatred of the laugh track is fairly silly to me. It’s such a non-issue and such an ignorable thing. Then again, I don’t understand why people freak the fuck out about product placement or banner ads, either.
I can certainly understand why someone wouldn’t like the show, as it’s not particularly clever much of the time (maybe it was earlier on in its run?), but I think people who say stuff like “Big Bang Theory is nerd blackface” are grossly overstating the issue. And possibly don’t actually know what blackface is.
I really like this show. I get why people don’t, but my wife and I enjoy it a lot. I think it’s improved over time, too. They do a great job with their guest stars, too. In fact, I think the mothers of the two main characters are among the highlights of the show. Just really well done.
Anyway, this show gets an A from me.
I’m not so sure. I think it may also be a case that they are all nerds, but some are self-hating nerds who try to act non-nerd to fit in. Bascially, nerd Uncle Toms.
(Okay, I couldn’t resist, given the "black face minstrel comment earlier.) :)