Star-gazers and enthusiasts of the physical universe as a whole, I am sorry to say this will not be about the event that created everything and anything. I am in no way qualified to speak of such grandiose thinking, which is why I write about television, and why this article has been placed in the Arts & Entertainment section. I will instead be talking about something on a much larger scale in terms of television; “The Big Bang Theory.” While this will no-doubt be met with un-popularity, I find it more important to lend a voice to the minority of people who are just as aware of a show as immensely overrated and despicable as “The Big Bang Theory.”
First things first, I myself was a big fan of the show back in the fall of 2007 when it first premiered. I never missed an episode up until around 2010 or 2011. I was even fully aware of how terrible season two was, but I was rewarded for my efforts of watching as season three would hold some of the best episodes. As seen through the increase of popularity that it generated, it would soon skyrocket to the top of the most popular shows on television. It would then reach the level of catch-phrases (Ba-Zinga, really?) and really catapulted itself when it was signed on to run syndicated episodes on various networks.
This was due to the fact that the writers realized the best part of the show were the guys. In the earlier seasons, it was more about the “will-they or won’t-they” factor between two of the main characters Leonard and Penny. Then the
writing/producing team finally discovered what comedic value the supporting cast had, in Sheldon, Howard and Raj. Yes, Sheldon by all means was not as large a character as he is now. I enjoyed how original and fresh the show was at first. I can’t remember the last time a major network had tried catering to such a specific demographic such as the nerds and geeks of the world. Even being created by Chuck Lorre, there were no visible signs that this was even touched by him. Then as it grew in popularity, the show reared its ugly head and I had a realization of my own.
I remember the exact episode I had an epiphany of how awful the show was. One of the storylines of the episode was about Howard pretending to be able to do seemingly impossible magic card-tricks with Raj. This was driving Sheldon crazy as he could not figure it out. It was then revealed that the trick was a trick in and of itself to deceive Sheldon. The two were in on it and Raj had been pretending that Howard was guessing the correct card. Later in the episode, they were joking in-front of Sheldon about whether or not he could figure out how a pencil is suddenly made into rubber. They were all laughing at Sheldon and I soon realized I was watching a group of friends talk crap and play jokes on a guy who has a social disorder (Asperger’s Syndrome). If you had turned off the laugh track, they would have truly been shown as complete and utter tools. I’m not even over-sensitive about stuff like that, I just find it appalling that when someone puts a laugh track over something it is masking what is going on and people THINK they should be laughing when in reality they should’ve seen something much more devious.
This leads to another key factor in my hatred for this show, the dreaded laugh-track. I don’t think I can put into words just how much I despise the laugh-track. I’ve found it to be insulting to the average viewer at home. It lowers the integrity of the show when the producers think their audience isn’t intelligent enough to know when something is funny. It’s almost egotistical in a way. Like the writers are saying, “we thought that joke was funny, you should too, and now because we think it is, laugh at our work.” I have, on many an occasion, shown friends an edited episode of “The Big Bang Theory” where the laugh track is taken out. You could hear a pin-drop during the video; it was as quiet as could be. To take it to extremes, some call it brainwashing, but I find it to be too harsh of a term.
I find my biggest problem with the show is that they play to the lowest common denominator. There is nothing in the show to be processed. Everything is written to appeal to a wide audience, whereas before it was to appeal to the nerd demographic. Now it’s actually quite degrading to the geeks/nerds of the world. It all stems from Chuck Lorre’s warped perception of reality (as is seen in “Two and a Half Men.”) He sees nerds as nothing but perverted, awkward people and women as objects. I can sum up just about every episode you have seen or will see in the future. Penny acts dumb, Howard acts pervy, Raj acts awkward until drinking, Leonard acts as a voice of reason, Sheldon will describe something simple in an overly complicated manner, Bernadette acts innocent except for one raunchy comment that catches everyone off guard even though she has been known to talk like that anyways, and Amy acts overly sexual because in Chuck Lorre’s mind…nerdy girls are just as horny as nerdy guys, and it’s funny because she is a nerd so she uses complicated terms to explain an orgasm or sex BECAUSE SHE’S A NERD AND IT’S FUNNY! Insert Laugh Track Here.
Of course, you could say that about any show, but most very good shows write episodes for those characters to fill out; whereas this show does the opposite. Finally, has there ever been a strong female character on the show who wasn’t made out to be a sexual object or someone who regularly talks about sex? Oh, that’s right, there was. Her name was Leslie. She wasn’t overly feminine and filled with lust, and hasn’t appeared regularly since the beginning of the series….before it was all about playing down to the lowest common denominator.