“Big Bang” Backlash?

I first noticed the bitter comments on the AV Club reviews of “Community.” In every episode talkback, there are always a handful of complaints about how “The Big Bang Theory” has so much repetitive humor, that its multi-camera format is pandering, and that it feels too derivative of earlier sitcoms. And this makes sense coming from fans of “Community,” a riskier series that “Big Bang” regularly trounces in the ratings every Thursday at 8PM. And after the shenanigans over at NBC, we can expect further trouncings to come in a few months.

Then there’s the vitriol over on Reddit, where the young and the nerdy regularly go on spectacular rants about how the “Big Bang” characters are not real nerds at all, but a collection of stereotypical tropes that only approximate nerdhood, and invite the non-nerdy to mock and belittle them. Attempts to explain that all sitcom creatures are exaggerations don’t do much to convince them that the show’s creators meant no offense. Of course this is Reddit, which tends to prefer the niche to the mainstream, and often looks with some suspicion on the shows that do a little too well in the ratings. “Two and a Half Men” is another frequent target of their scorn.

And then I stumbled across this recent UGO article on the reasons why real geeks hate “The Big Bang Theory.” Some of them are clearly wrong, like the assertions that all the female members of the cast were treated like sex objects. With the recent prominence of female nerds Bernadette and Amy, that clearly isn’t true. There are also more generic complaints like the overuse of Sheldon, the laugh track, and the sense that the writers are running out of ideas – all common problems with most long-running sitcoms. However, a few of the listed reasons do seem to get at the heart of the matter: endless pop culture references, getting pop culture references wrong, the existence of better shows, and that “Big Bang” isn’t a good reflection of actual geek culture.

Now, as I’ve noted before, “The Big Bang Theory” was one of the first mainstream shows to have featured nerds as the lead characters with much success. Penny may be the audience surrogate, but she’s become more of a token normal in most episodes. Compared to how nerds were portrayed in the past on similar comedies, Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, and Raj are a major step forward. They dress like normal people! They have healthy relationships with the opposite sex! They don’t all follow the same template of nerdiness! But after six seasons, the novelty’s worn off, and there are other, more realistic nerds on television, like Troy and Abed from “Community.” “The Big Bang Theory” does a great job of making the characters accessible and interesting to non-nerd viewers, helping the ratings immeasurably, but maybe they’re a little too accessible.

I should mention that I’ve started watching the show again, since “Community” is stuck on hiatus until the midseason, and CBS is being reasonable about making recent episodes available online. It’s been nice catching up with the characters, and I still find I enjoy “The Big Bang Theory” very much. However, this is clearly a sitcom designed for casual viewing by a broad audience, and has more in common with “Friends” that it does with a show that’s really aimed at geeks, like “Futurama.” “Big Bang” is about nerds, but it’s not really made for nerds, who tend to prefer more cerebral, more challenging fare. And with that in mind, it must be frustrating as hell that “The Big Bang Theory” is so much more popular and has won so many more accolades than the nerd-favored niche shows.

This, I think, explains the prevalence of Sheldon bashing. Personally, I like Sheldon. He strikes me as a less erudite, more immature version of Niles Crane from “Frasier.” However, I agree that the overexposure has been doing him no favors. If Sheldon weren’t popular, but some secondary character on a critically-acclaimed FX sitcom, who only had a few lines per episode, he would probably be much more fondly regarded by the Reddit set. However, when everybody and your grandma likes Sheldon, repeats “Bazinga!” like it’s the funniest thing they ever heard, and gets the wrongheaded idea that all nerds are like the nerds on “The Big Bang Theory,” Sheldon becomes a perfect target for the resulting ire.

I don’t think there’s much the show’s creators can do to fix this, and I’m not sure they’d want to, considering the runaway success of “The Big Bang Theory.” The geeks and nerds who disdain the show, however, deserve our understanding and sympathy. It’s hard finding yourself represented in the media by someone who you don’t like. My mother still rolls her eyes every time someone mentions Connie Chung. However, “Big Bang” isn’t the only show about nerds out there, and “Big Bang” is already inspiring imitators. If we’re lucky Sheldon may pave the way for better TV nerds to come.
---