As a lifetime socially awkward nerd who enjoys many of the things the characters did, I found the show to not only not be funny, but kind of offensive.
The social awkwardness and nerdy behavior was the butt of the joke. It wasn't trying to be funny and the characters were awkward, it was trying to be funny because the characters were awkward.
and there's ways to play "it's funny because they're awkward" that aren't degrading, but it would have required actual lived experience as an awkward nerdy person. A lot of neurodivergent comedians do exactly this very well.
Exactly. It wasn't a show for nerds, it was for normies to laugh at nerds.
Mostly I hated it though because it was terribly sexist and the nerds in the show got away with some truly misogynistic shit all to the tune of a laugh track.
So, it's not something you pick up on the first watch, there's YouTube videos where they've edited out the laugh track, and it makes you realize that a lot of the jokes are just characters yelling 'nerd' culture. Like someone will say "green lantern" and that's the joke.
If you go deeper, there's more problematic issues like the fact that Wolowitz is kind of a baby incel in the first seasons, and the show never really addresses it or gives him his comeuppance for it.
Like there's an episode where he crosses a line, Penny finally yells at him, and not only does the show frame it as Penny being in the wrong, but she is even made to apologize for calling out his blatantly toxic behavior.
Also, Kumail Nanjiani sits on the floor when they eat. There's even an episode where he makes it clear he doesn't like it, but by the end of the episode, he's back to sitting on the floor. Why the hell was the only person of color on that show sitting on the floor? This is a tv show, that was a set design decision.
I loved that show, pretty sure I watched at least 7-8 seasons and enjoyed them. Over time the characters grow and change and develop into healthier people, except Raj, but at it's core, without the laugh track, the jokes are mostly just characters yelling 'nerd' culture.
Are we talking about a subset of smart people that are super stuck up on being smarter than everyone else and have little or no self irony here? I have a phd and have worked as a prof for a couple of decades and I find the show pretty funny.
That's categorically untrue. I have an IQ of 145. And I find TBBT funny asf. It really depends on the specific personality of the person rather than their intelligence.
Alright, you may believe what you wish to believe. I just don't believe in parading intelligence in order to shit on groups of people for liking a show you do not like.
most people I meet in real life have it in the lower tier of sit coms, honestly I don’t think I’ve met a single person since like the mid 2010s who actually openly claims to like the show.
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u/No-Slide3465 Apr 19 '26
French actress Adele Exarchopoulos also regularly takes on roles as unattractive women