I don't get 'The Big Bang Theory'.

[trof]

I've tried.
I'm 76.
Is THAT it?

Yes, it's nerdy.
And I guess nerdy is funny.
But I just don't get the whole thing.

I will say that I felt the same way about Seinfeld initially.
Then my daughter said "Just watch TWO episodes."
I did and then I got it.

For me, that just doesn't work with TBBT.
You?

[Phoenix61]

1. I know a lot of engineers

They aren't that bad but TBBT isn't that far off. But I never got Seinfield.

[dchill]

29. Seinfeld is simple...

It's a show about nothing.

[Va Lefty]

50. Seinfeld was hit or miss... a few really funny memorable shows and a lot of mediocre ones

[Docreed2003]

57. I'm in the same boat...

I think I'm one of the few 80's/90's kids that can't stand Seinfeld. It's not that I didn't get the humor, I got it...I just didn't think it was funny. Even now as an adult, my wife and I will watch episodes and she is cracking up while I'm all "meh". Everyone's different I guess

[tazkcmo]

2. Me either and have seen it several times.

My 85 y/o dad loves it. I think it's because all he can hear is the laugh track.

[pangaia]

27. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

[Docreed2003]

3. I love the show....

Mainly because I enjoy the humor and I'm a huge s I-fi/comic book nerd, so there's that...plus I'm in my late 30's so maybe that's a part of it

[trof]

4. Yeah, I think it's an age thing.

I try to keep up, but sometimes...

[Skittles]

14. you want I should kick your geezer ass, trof?

I'LL HELP YOU GET IT; yes INDEED

[UTUSN]

20. I thought we had broken up, restraining order etc. I'm wearing "shower shoes" aka FLIP FLOPS!1

[UTUSN]

21. Whups, I thought you were talking to me!1 I guess we *are* splits!1 Sigh.

[Skittles]

24. I GOT YOU FURTHER DOWN, MY SWEET

YES INDEED

[UTUSN]

25. Well, ex-CUuuuuse ME!1 On the up side (for me), I ain't (totally) cray-cray!1

[rzemanfl]

54. Hi Skittles. Did I ever tell you how old I am?

Maybe I won't.

[Skittles]

60. that is geezer talk right there

YOU ARE SCHEDULED; yes INDEED

[rzemanfl]

61. I'm 19 give or take fifty years. Wait, it could only be give. Never mind. Just guess. n/t

[Skittles]

65. are you a Florida Man?

if so, FYI, that would override all age factors and place you at the top of my list; yes INDEED

[rzemanfl]

66. For the last twenty plus years (whoops). n/t

[Skittles]

68. MOVING YOU UP THE LIST

YEE HAW

[rzemanfl]

69. You're just doing this to roll your odometer over, right? n/t

[Skittles]

70. funny you should say that

my car just hit 50,000 - and it's a 2005

[rzemanfl]

71. My wife has a 2004 that is at about 53,000. I was talking about your post count. n/t

[Skittles]

79. har, I did not even notice

*SWEET!*

[NewDealProgressive]

5. I love it. The only network show I watch.

It still consistently gets laughs on my couch.

It's not necessarily about being nerdy as much as it is about social awkwardness and cultures clashing.

[marybourg]

6. I'm about your age and I love it.

But I binge watch it on discs; I can't stand watching real-time television.

[trof]

8. Sometimes I feel so out of touch.

Whatever.

[UTUSN]

7. You're 76? I'm 70. I take big bang in small doses & for the characters

not for whatever the premise is. My doses are recent & it's ending soon. & not even doses have worked w me for Seinfeld, I don't detest it just nothing for me.

[trof]

9. It's kinda weird what appeals to us.

funny

[Skittles]

19. you want I should kick your geezer ass, UTUSN?

I can make it a TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE special, if you pair up with trof geezer ass; yes INDEED

[pnwest]

10. One of my favorite shows. It was refreshing to have smart comedy

for a change, and I was hooked after the first few shows. It's tired now, and needs to come to an end, but I still watch it. It's still entertaining and lots better than most of the drivel out there. I'm loyal to it.

[StevieM]

15. They have just been renewed for two more years. This may be their final two seasons.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/20/entertainment/big-bang-theory-renewed/

Also, it seems like their will be a spin-off based on a young Sheldon.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/13/entertainment/big-bang-theory-spinoff/

[longship]

11. Lots of sophomoric immature so-called humor.

TBBT is no Seinfeld.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

28. I disagree. Hated Seinfeld, love TBBT.

To each his own, I guess.

[longship]

45. That would be true.

[ClusterFreak]

12. I agree 100 percent!

And this show is really just symptomatic of pretty much all TV sitcoms today.... one problem IMO being that the writers/creators of the show make all the characters too smug. Nerdy smug, but smug. Everyone, at all times, has a snappy comeback or an unbelievably clever retort at the ready to slay the audience with. People in real life just aren't that clever, that brimming with cutting wit on command. Situation comedy is supposed to be about 'comedic situations', that doesn't mean everybody fires perfectly put together witticisms back and forth at each other all the time. People are often if not usually at a loss for words in real life. I know I am. In today's sitcoms people talk to each other in jokes, bad jokes at that. The situations they find themselves in are less important than getting in the zingers, as many as you can, in a half hour. I lose interest in what's happening on screen, the rapid fire one liners just aren't enough to sustain me for more than a minute or two, and so I change the channel. And still I find nothing funny to watch... unless it's late night political satire. No snappy comebacks needed here, this stuff just writes itself lol!

[Docreed2003]

56. I get where you're coming from...

But I have close friends that, when we get together, invariably devolve into one liners and movie quotes. It's just a part of who we are and how we relate to each other. My wife rolls her eyes when we all get together, but she's a ready participant as well because she loves to tell stories that will make the others laugh. I like Big Bang because it speaks to my sense of humor and I see myself in the characters.

[MedusaX]

13. Relative to one's experiences....

Having spent many years as an elementary "Behavior Intervention Specialist" in the public school system, I enjoy the personalities represented by the TBBT characters as they each remind me of "grown up" versions of some of the students I have worked with over the years.

Just like any sit-com, it is always more enjoyable to watch when you feel like you "know" people just like the characters.....

[rurallib]

16. May I say the first 7 years were great, 8 was OK, the last two have been hard to take

I like the nerdy goofiness.

I am 67 and get it. It's just that it has now morphed into yet another married friends sit-com.

I think they should have changed cast @ year 5 and brought on some different nerds with different quirks.

Never could get Seinfeld - or I would say I got it but just didn't care for it.

[TexasBushwhacker]

35. I agree

I love the show but I laugh more at the old reruns than I do at the last couple of seasons.

[NewJeffCT]

86. I'm 50 and I tend to agree

Excellent the first 7 or so seasons, and I've lost interest since then. I think once Penny said "yes" I haven't liked how the show has gone. I tried most of that next season, but couldn't get into it.

I do see a lot of the nerdy stereotypes out there, though. The conceited and anti-social Sheldon reminds me of a few guys I knew back in high school & college... the smart, amiable awkward Leonard as well (heck, him and Penny could have been my ex-wife and me - me the awkward smart nerd and she the attractive, but way more street smart waitress).. Raj, the guy that freezes up when it comes to talking to women... and Howard the overly horny guy that tries too hard.

Love a lot of the geek references to Star Trek, Star Wars, comic books, etc. For a guy growing up in the 70s and 80s, those things were rarely mentioned outside of nerd gatherings and the change is huge to me. Now, it's mainstream.

[Lars39]

17. Try The IT Crowd on Netflix.

[TDale313]

33. Oh, I love The IT Crowd.

I was never able to get into TBBT either, but then I tend to like sci fi and dramas more than sit coms.

[Lars39]

36. IT Crowd series has reeled me in for 2 viewings.

Not many series can do that.

[BlueStateLib]

18. I've have never seen an episode

[politicat]

22. Nope, it's not you. I'm half your age, geeky as hell, work with geeks 3/5ths my age...

And it's an irritating shitcom that fails to land most of the time.

It treats all of its characters with disrespect, and it has a goddam lafftrax.

[Baitball Blogger]

23. I understand it.

Social anxiety is a theme that the younger generations relates to. Each one of the main male characters has/had personality flaws that were exacerbated because of the limited social interaction. So, watching them fumble their way through ordinary situations is amusing because you realize that their high IQ's is more of a hindrance than a help. In fact, most of the fun is watching how their applied logic doesn't always build bridges.

[annabanana]

46. bingo. . . . n/t

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. I love it.

The writing is really clever and subtle. One of the funniest sitcoms on TV, IMO (and usually I hate sitcoms). I think it's gone downhill a bit in the last few years since the male characters finally got girlfriends/wives, because one of the central themes was their social ineptitude. But the scripts are still funny.

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. I like it...

It reminds me of Taxi, and Night Court, and Mary Tyler Moore show...it can be funny and at times endearing and the characters are quite well developed.

So, likable characters, silly/funny humor, but as some have said, showing its age now.
I can even forgive the dreaded laff trak.

Actually the only sitcom I have watched over the past few years.., I tend to stick to more serious fare.

[trc]

32. This comment resonates with me.

There always seemed to be two sets of sitcoms, those that were loud, i.e. anything by Norman Lear; and those that were smart, the shows you named for example, in the '70's. I see the same pattern today, loud=two broke girls, smart=TBBT. My two cents.

[OriginalGeek]

31. One of our favorite shows

26yo daughter, I'm 53 and my wife is 60. We're all pretty nerdy. I think it started out a little cliche but quickly got better. I'm now totally invested in these characters - to the extent that I get real life sad if something bad happens to them and real life happy when something good happens to them.

We'll be watching the spin off too.

[HoosierDebbie]

34. I am somehow proud that I have never watched it.

[Warren DeMontague]

37. Tropes and lame stereotypes with just enough pseudo-sophistication

To convince the middlebrow demographics that still watch network sitcoms, that they're watching something clever and "smart".

But hey, my mom likes it.

[True Dough]

40. I second that!

And it looks like there's some sort of Big Bang taking place in your avatar, so you're an authority on the subject!

[Warren DeMontague]

42. Alnilam, Mintaka and Alnitak

One of the easiest to find landmarks in the night sky.

[True Dough]

43. I punched that into Google

Never heard of the individual names, but they're collectively known as Orion's Belt, which I have heard of, at least.

No astronomy major here!

[Warren DeMontague]

44. Ha! Full disclosure, I had to look that up, too.

But i was like... what are their names, anyway?

I generally can remember Betelguese (sp?) for obvious reasons and Rigel...

but, yeah, when I'm not being all pretentious it's "Orion's Belt" for me, too.

[Kimchijeon]

47. You've pretty much summed it up right there.

And of course, the addition of the obnoxious laugh track (but I repeat myself) to alert the viewer that every other line was supposed to be funny.

My mom likes it, too.

[Docreed2003]

59. I love your posts Warren...

But I have to disagree with you slightly. Yes, there are tropes, just like any sitcom. Yes, there is an element of pseudosophistication. But it's really a show about people and their interactions, nothing more or less. I like it because I find the humor enjoyable and I know what it's like to be the smart guy who yearns to be accepted by the pretty girl. I'm sure that many folks fall under your broad brush of disdain for the show, but that's an unfair portrayal. No need to put all lovers of the show within a box, just because you find the show to be less than your tastes.

[Warren DeMontague]

63. I love my mom, I just hate network sitcoms, generally.

I also agree with several reviewers who've criticized the show for trotting out, as you put it, smart people as figures of fun or ridicule or freaks.

Here's an example:

Why the Geek Community Hates ‘The Big Bang Theory’

Also, "Nerds can't get laid" stopped being true (and, was it ever funny?) around the time the 80s ended. Now, for better or worse, Nerds run the world. Current US Government excluded.


But... I hear you. Sorry for my excess of snark, there. People like what they like, and there's nothing wrong with that. If I had ten bucks for every time someone 'too cool' for the Grateful Dead talked smack about my musical taste, I'd have a lot of cash.

[Docreed2003]

72. Aaaaaaaaaand there's the Warren DeMontague I know and love....

No apologies needed for your snark, I love some snark. And if anyone is too cool for the Grateful Dead...then they're either dead or not listening....lol

Yeah it's the Dead playing Dylan....it's one of my favorite songs....I've been criticized for my love of Dylan and the Dead, so it seemed appropriate!

[Warren DeMontague]

81. Ah, cosmic synchronicity. The version of Visions of Johanna from "Fallout from the phil zone"

came up on random shuffle on my ipod just yesterday, and I was thinking about how I hadn't sat and listened to it in a good while.

I was in Salt Lake City in '95 when they busted it out, too. I saw precious few really good shows after about, say, '92, but that was one of 'em.



Chris Smither does a nice job on the tune, too:

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

38. What little I've seen of The Big Bang Theory

I've liked. But I gave up after a while because the laugh track is so intrusive. A friend of mine who is a total fan of the show keeps me apprised of what happens in various episodes.

Too bad about the laugh track. What I have liked best about the show is Sheldon's character. With him they really get Asperger's right.

I have a son with Asperger's, and the writers could almost be following my son around for character ideas. They get basic Aspie things correct like how it is IMPOSSIBLE to derail an Aspie from blurting out some truth, no matter how hard everyone around him tries to derail him from saying it.

If they were to repackage the show without the laugh track I'd probably watch every episode.

[Aristus]

39. I'm still a huge fan after all these years.

Mainly because I'm just like the characters. I'm a nerd who managed to marry a super-hot woman...

[Docreed2003]

73. Me too!

Lol....a hot wife who appreciates my nerdom!

[Laffy Kat]

41. I've finally decided that I no longer enjoy sit. coms.

TBBT is almost tolerable, although I'd never seek it out. With a few BBC exceptions, they all seem silly to me.

[jrandom421]

48. I got it in the first 4 minutes

I've worked with a lot of NASA engineers and scientists, and the show is dead on about them. On top of that, the studio audience is often filled with students and professors from Caltech and they are the ones being parodied by the show

[LanternWaste]

49. I gotta agree. It seems like the best of third-tier programming

I gotta agree. It seems little more than the best of third-tier programming. Many in my circle of friends love it, but it just doesn't appear anything more than standard, milquetoast programming.

I thought Mad About You and Community have been the only humorous sitcoms in the past twenty years or so, but then again, I'm not too clever.

[unblock]

51. it may indeed be a generational thing.

nerdiness has been with us for ages but i think much of the social side of nerdiness shifted as technology spread to every aspect of our lives. once upon a time, nerds had to hide and privately struggle to fit in, but now that nerdiness is more commonly recognized as valuable and maybe even admirable, there's a community of nerds and a recognition that some of the traits that cause social awkwardness are the same traits that cause the upside of nerdiness, so there's more acceptance of it all.

i think the show appeals more to those who grew up with that community and a bit of the social acceptance of it all. nerdiness being something to joke and laugh about, as opposed to something to beat up someone over.


personally, i thought the show was pretty great early on, but as is typical for tv show, ones the characters are established they tend to get away from what made the show great and instead get lost in character dynamics and story lines that could easily be used in just about any other sitcom.

you saw this shows like e.r. becoming less and less about medical cases and more and more about love and personal lives of the hospital personnel. same thing is happening to big bang theory imho.

[renate]

52. it's like pudding

We watch it because we can agree that it is acceptable. It started out much funnier and then it became popular and got watered down to please more people.

The scripts had gotten so absurdly predictable. One character would say a line and we would know exactly who would reply and what they would say, and it would be sarcastic or self-deprecating or clueless, depending on the two-dimensional character. But we've noticed that this season has had a few good shows with some unexpected jokes.

[OnDoutside]

53. Ha ! I'm just watching it as I read this !

I love it to be honest. It is nerdy but also very clever in its humor.

[JDC]

55. It's predictable and softball unfunny.

Vanilla Network TV humor and relationships.

[louis-t]

58. I never thought it was funny.

Ever.

[Coventina]

62. It was one of my favorite shows, but it got stale AND jumped the shark.

Bernie's pregnancy and Sheldon & Amy having sex killed it for me.

[Binkie The Clown]

64. I'm 71. retired engineer. I LOVE that show! n/t

[blogslut]

67. I don't hate it.

For me, it's not as bad as some say but it's not great either. It fills a half hour without pissing me off.

Than again, I faithfully watch a supremely terrible show simply because I adore the female lead - Two Broke Girls.

[hunter]

74. I've never seen it. I suspect my wife and I are Big Bang kind of people, or so our kids will claim.

One of our earliest dates was to the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena to check up on the construction of the Galileo space probe.



Yep, we saw it, just like that, but without the fancy lighting. Turns out we both had friends and acquaintances working at JPL. Small world.

Star Trek was another common interest we shared. Our slash collections intersected.

And we'd both had close encounters of the disturbing kind with Harlan Ellison.

My grandpa was an Apollo engineer, he created bits of metal that are on the moon and in the Smithsonian.

My brother's godfather built some of the first ion engines tested in space. I saw the prototypes running in big-ass vacuum chambers here on earth.

Don't know where I went wrong, but my kids have plenty of material if they ever create sitcoms.

I'll pretend I get it...

[Hayabusa]

75. As a geek and a nerd

I've always gotten the feeling from that show that I'm being laughed AT instead of laughed with. That's why I agree with a friend when he called it "blackface for nerds."

[nancy1942]

76. I tried to watch it once.

I couldn't watch it for over a few minutes. Not funny. Yes, I'm old, but I do have a sense of humor and this show just struck me as really lame.

[Charles Bukowski]

77. It's no "Cheers" that's for sure.

I does have its moments though, particularly in the episodes where Sheldon doesn't hog all the punchlines.

[regnaD kciN]

78. I find TBT little more than "Ha, ha, ha! Nerds are stoooopid!"

I know many people that love it, but it seems to me just a way for "normal" couch-potatoes to feel superior.

[Iggo]

84. I thought "Friends" was the greatest thing back in the '90s.

With a little bit of distance, it's easy to see it was just another TV show.

I can see parallels.

EDIT: And for the record, I can't get out of the room fast enough when Big Bang Theory is on our TV.

[NewJeffCT]

87. They aren't stupid, though

they're brilliant in their fields, but awkward socially. So, I think it's sort of an Odd Couple, only with 4 nerds and 1 street smart woman.

[LyndaG]

80. I like it

But, I'm getting a little tired of it. The reruns are on numerous times a day around here. And the current season shows have sooo many commercials. But, it's still funnier than most of the current sitcoms.

[jalan48]

82. I loved Frasier and my sister said The Big Bang Theory was similar. It didn't work for me though.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

83. TBBT is quantum physics and you might be stuck in a Newtonian world.

Don't worry, though, NOBODY understands quantum physics, either.

[WinkyDink]

85. Humor ain't funny anymore if it has to be explained. Just call it a "Nerd Sitcom" and be done!

[cemaphonic]

88. Seems like this happens with every popular sitcom

Humor is very subjective, so some people find it funny, others don't. Same as 'Friends', 'Seinfeld,' 'Fraiser' and so on back to the dawn of television. It's really that simple.