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Comment by ticmasta | Hacker News Reader

I love Silicon Valley as much as I loathe Big Bang Theory. Talk about a show that plays to what "regular" people think nerds are like. I am absolutely dumbfounded how popular it is. Then again, Chuck Lorre has a track record for that type of garbage...

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> I love Silicon Valley as much as I loathe Big Bang Theory.

Big Bang Theory: Purposelessly inaccurate in ways that upset you.

Silicon Valley: Purposefully accurate in ways that upset you.

If it has a "studio audience" laugh track, I'm out.* If the joke is funny, I don't need a laugh track to tell me about it. If it's not funny, it's not funny, and a laugh track doesn't make it funny. If it's so esoteric of a joke that I missed, then I missed it. Silicon Valley has a lot of these. "Is it Apple Maps bad?" There was one about Theranos that if you had no idea what Theranos is/was, then you'd never have a chance to understand the insult.

*with the occasional rule breaking exception

Seinfeld had a laugh track also, and still managed to be one of the funniest and most original shows on television, breaking major ground for its time. Don't blame Big Bag Theory's gaping inadequacies on the laugh track; the writers, actors, and producers are largely at fault.

Has anyone published seinfeld without the laugh track? Im really curious about that now.

Most of it was shot in front of a live audience so there is no version without the laugh track.

>Seinfeld had a laugh track also, and still managed to be one of the funniest and most original shows on television, breaking major ground for its time.

People keep saying that, but what it really that funny and original? I'll take e.g. MASH any day.

I haven't seen Seinfeld yet but I intend to.

"Whoever is first to do something isn't likely to be the best at it, simply because everyone that comes after is building on their predecessors' work. Named after the sitcom Seinfeld, which many people won't watch any more because everything about it has been copied." https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunn...

Yeah, though I'm not sure about that (Seinfeld not being appreciated because it was a pioneer show).

I still find funny very manny pioneering shows -- heck, even back to Charlie Chaplin, ‎Buster Keaton, and Laurel and Hardy, and all kinds of 80s and even 70s sitcoms.

Laugh tracks are of their time. It's unfair to pick TBBT out as a bad show because it has a laugh track. TBBT is a bad show because it's a bad show. There are plenty of good "laugh track" shows - old ones.

While my reply was to a comment about BBT, I never mentioned it. I don't care what it is, but if a laugh track is used like that, then I'm not a fan of it. It's the final part of the equation of pandering to the lowest common denominator. I understand why they choose to do it. Without it, they'd have a fraction of the fan base. With it, they have/had the highest watched show. So clearly, the numbers don't lie; it's a good show. <ducks>

>Laugh tracks are of their time. It's unfair to pick TBBT out as a bad show because it has a laugh track.

No, it's a bad show because it's badly written, cliche, and lowest common denominator humor, just with nerds as subjects instead of some regular families as per usual.

I used to like BBT, but lately it has devolved into the characters just being mean to each other all the time. You are spot on with your comment, too.

The quip that made me "Hmm" on BBT was "How often are you laughing with the characters? And how often are you laughing at them?"

Oh there's other problems too, real needs (really, real people) would say "it's cold as hoth out there", on BBT they would say "it's cold as hoth, the ice planet from star wars", which tells you who the real audience is

You could laugh at the characters and the show still be good (if the characters deserve to be laughed at). The important thing is the quality of the joke.

You could, but to me it's the difference between "laughing at funny nerds" and "laughing at nerds."

The latter just feels cheap.

I normally pause and read the chuck lore production thing after the show. Its always stupid brainless drivel, very fitting.

I really enjoy watching The Big Bang Theory. I think that you’re being overly cynical.

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