Hacker News Reader

Comment by nounaut | Hacker News Reader

This again? TBBT is a comedy show. People laugh because it's funny. The culture that has spawned around TBBT has made nerd/geek culture cool. People don't buy and wear "Bazinga!" shirts because they like Penny and finds Sheldon to be a some kind of freak. The general audience love these characters. And through building that love and care of these guys, Chuck Lorre if anything has made Science and geek culture more populare than ever. Look at how HUGE geek and science-related things has become in social media. Look at the following astronauts are getting. Youtube channels and facebook groups about science.

Yes people find them quirky, just as the characters of FRIENDS were quirky. People still love them and even identify with specific things they do or issues they face.

My guess is people who find TBBT insulting are people who project self loathing. Clue #1: Feeling ANGER towards a TV show.

View on HN

Cannot agree more. TBBT is one of my favourite TV shows. In recent series, a lot more jokes are made about Penny:

    Sheldon: Stephen Hawking is...
    Penny: Yeah I know, the wheelchair dude who invented time.

What actually happened is that a superficial image of the nerd/geek culture has been appropriated by "our" former bullies.

The popularity of "I fucking love science" or "BBT" doesn't mean shit in this context. There was a short polemic essay [1] by Maddox about this phenomena.

The same topic is discussed in the video "You're Not such a Nerd: Commodification of Nerd and Gamer Sub-culture" [2]

[1] http://thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=youre_not_a_nerd

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7A5OgfP4NA

I guess part of "geek culture" is having been the uncool guy in school, having been pointed at and laughed at, getting bullied, being an outsider, andsoforth.

A comedy show where outsiders are being pointed and laughed at will often bring those experiences back, and really isn't helping.

I wonder if there's an age breakdown for people who hate/like the show. I'm well past the age where early high school is something I flash back to, so I'm perfectly OK with the show.

But if I were younger I could see myself hating it. I can say that the "Revenge Of The Nerds" movies did me no favors at that stage of my life.

hmm ... strange. I just speak from my personal experience. I work in computer science research and consider myself a nerd/geek. I got already several statements when meeting new people, like "Oh ... you consider yourself nerd, no that cannot be, you are not weird or awkward like these guys at TBBT. I mean you can talk to women and do sports ...".

How TBBT portrays nerds seems to have an impact on how a larger part of society (at least in my vicinity) sees nerds and I believe it's the wrong picture they are advertising.

Even the blog post mentions the raging debate about what really makes one a "true geek". People calling others posers.

That is happening because it is now hip to be geek. Shirts should have geeky stuff on them, glasses should have thick black frames, toys and video games are used as part of the design when decorating, Comic Con is sold out a year in advance... list can be made however long you want to.

Wait, don't generalize. TBBT portraits geeks as asozial, awkward, not into sports, unable to communicate with women etc.

I got confronted several times with exactly this image of nerd or geek, when meeting people, exactly because of TBBT (as the persons I met stated).

Nothing to do with Comic Con, video games, black frames etc.

But this image of nerds existed way before the Big Bang Theory first aired. They just picked that up, stereotyped it and made a comedy show around it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com