Almost a decade ago I watched four or five episodes to see why it had such a polarizing effect on people and I was amazingly underwhelmed.
Most of the hate for TBBT is unwarranted and comes more from nerds getting mad that it makes them look bad by association than from any sin the show actually commits (of which there are many). It's so incredibly unremarkable, intrinsically unfunny, pedestrian and lowest-common-denominator-chasing that it creates a void around it. The show exists on the same wavelength as the background radiation of popular culture. It is every reddit comment too dumb to bother downvoting. Every tweet you skipped after the first word. It is a Funko Pop in a landfill buried under moldering copies of Maxim and Game Informer. Energy expended thinking about it is wasted. Huffing your own farts is a better use of time than forming an opinion on The Big Bang Theory more nuanced than "sucks" and "who cares". It carved out a perfect niche for itself as something so mindbogglingly mediocre that it's not even fun to hate on its own merits, and that's incredible.
Don't you think huffing your own farts might have been a better use of time than writing this comment
oh absolutely, a thousand percent, but I'm not here to use time wisely
Copypasta ahead
The Big Bang Theory
"I've never been a fan of Internet Explorer"
Crowd laughs nervously and a few grunts are heard from the back seats as people edge closer to hear the punchline.
"Why not? Don't you like the internet?"
The crowd suddenly stands up, aware that they are about to receive what they came for. People slowly edge closer to the set as Sheldon prepares for his next line. Sweat is clearly visible on his brow and his mouth is quivering in anticipation as he readies himself for what is about to happen.
"I just prefer Firefox because, like the fox, I am cunning and nimble."
The crowd suddenly surges forward as the words escape Sheldon's mouth. They are so powerful, they almost shake the very foundations of the CBS studios. He watches as, in what he perceives as slow motion, the crowd moves toward his fragile body. He has been preparing for this moment his whole life. This is his moment. This is his Emmy. This is his Golden Globe. This is even his Oscar. The crowd converges around him so quickly they ignore the trampled cries of Leonard and Penny, who now lie shaking on the floor, their bones crushed by the sheer mass of the crowd. Sheldon stares back at the eyes around him. What he sees are no longer people. What he sees is the human psyche stripped down to its core. Their lives, what they were before this moment has been forgotten. Ravenous. Hungry. They want one thing from him. Sheldon closes his eyes, clears his mind and relaxes his body. What happens next depends completely on the next few seconds. The time between this and what he mutters next feels like an eternity. Slowly, he opens his eyes. He looks at Leonard, then at Penny, both lying lifeless on the floor. Without a second thought, he says with resounding conviction...
"BAZINGA"
In a split second, the crowd pounces on his ready and waiting body. Man, woman, child all at once. Sheldon cries out in complete ecstasy as they consume his flesh. He stops suddenly, as he drifts into eternal slumber. Peace at last.
I feel like parks and rec has a lot to answer for, making the libertarian Ron Swanson character popular. Sure, maybe it was satire but people were just like “haha bacon man funny”
Did you know show don't tell was capitalist propaganda and the correct take is to actually tell people what the correct take is?
absolutely. reinforcement that "tough" + facial hair + wood = man personality.
The actor is a woodworker I think.
His role in this music video is 1000X better than his Parks and Rec character
wow that was something I didn't know i needed in my life, and definitely added another layer about my feelings toward Nick Offerman (hint, I guess I have a little bit of a piss kink now...)
Don't forget that a key component of the show is the main character having a sexual fixation on Joe fucking Biden :biden-nibble:
I met this libertarian once and one of the first things he said to me was that he's "basically Ron Swanson".
One Day at a Time, specifically for this garbage scene comparing Che Guevara to Adolf fucking Hitler
Tim Allen did enough to ruin Tim Allen for me and I'd never heard of Last Man Standing until your comment
Friends. It's a horrible unfunny show about pointless people being assholes to each other. All sprinkled with casual homophobia and a conspicuous abscense of non-white people despite being set in a city famed for its ethnic diversity. That's bad enough, what makes it the worst though is the hordes of insufferable fans it attracts, people who still use it for cultural reference and sink money into merchandise, which is ugly because even the logo is shit.
What if you made Seinfeld where the audience and characters don't know how horrible, insular and gross they are. Could it beeee anymore overrated?
Great thing about having ADHD is I hate re-watching anything.
Only thing I really rewatch is the Princess Bride when I'm sad.
Only thing I really rewatch is the Princess Bride when I’m sad.
[Andre the Giant voice] Don't forget the popcorn, or you'll be mad
there's a tiny handful of characters who are enjoyable and then everyone else is an unfunny nightmare either intended to make you cringe or worse, be a relateable foil for the audience
no thanks, Jim sucks and I'd probably back over him with a car if he was real
Yes it is. It also helped pioneer the no laugh track trend that we're seeing.
Hard agree. Hate both the American and British version. How can I enjoy a show about a place I don't want to be: work.
I don't get the show, so correct me if I'm totally wrong, but perhaps people just want to fantasize about being part of a community and having fulfilling relationships, but capitalism realism has so broken their brains that they can only find it realistic or relatable if it's set at work.
Sounds reasonable enough. I probably did this with Star Trek as a kid.
Office Space was great, albeit slightly let down by the whole 'stealing from work is wrong' line of thinking
Malcolm in the Middle and like a couple Seinfeld episodes maybe. IASIP is the first time a sitcom was genuinely good in my opinion.
I keep trying to get into that show and I just can't. Love the meme's that come from it though.
It took me a few tries before it finally clicked. Went from something I didn't understand to an absolutely hilarious experiment in satire and meta-humor.
Danny DeVito makes the show tbh. They would have probably been canceled after 3 seasons of not for him coming in and punching everything to the max. I remember him saying something about "this is the last thing I'll do and I'm not saying no" so the writers just continuously added ridiculous traits to his character and he rolls with them.
Also, the evolution of the Rickety Cricket character mirrors the shows decent into abstract absurdity. It's SNL, but actually funny and pointed.
The first time I got high LMS was on and it was truly awful, possibly worse than normal
everybody loves raymond
it is simply fucking miserable
should be called everyone hates everyone
and they're it*lian
MAAAAAA DEB DIDNT MAKE THE LASAGNA GOOD LIKE YOU CAN YOU CLEAN MY HOUSE.
every moment of 2 broke girls was absolutely fucking excruciating
The 90s were plagued with irredeemable sitcoms. Not only were they objectively unfunny, the characters would constantly reinforce harmful caricature sterotypes, plotted around one dimension issues (clearly defined good vs bad), regurgitate puritanical values as absolute fact (ie drugs are bad including marijuana, alcohol but only if underage), while hypersexualizing teenagers (with lots of oohs and whistles from a studio audience).
This would help shape impressionable children into the problematic sets of values you see in many adults today. It was before the peak of even cable TV, so available media was extremely limited by today's standards, and these shows often the default choice of entertainment for many households. Today there's too much content, but back then there wasn't enough.
If you think a modern sitcom is the worst, try even reading some plot synopsises of 90s sitcoms like Full House, Family Matters, Home Improvement, Perfect Strangers, Saved By the Bell, Married With Children, Step by Step. If you are a masochist try watching them. The cringe is real. And these shows were also immensely popular.
Looked this up, turns out Call Me Kat is a reboot of the worst sitcom on British television, Miranda. how tf did they make it even worse? American shitness truly knows no bounds.
