Not so good, I’m afraid.
If you feel like torturing yourself some more, read the comments on that youtube video. They are…typical youtube comments.
I’m not a woman, but I’m a nerd, and we aren’t looking so hot, either.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Regarding TBBT:
The most recent episode takes a cringe-inducing swat a sexual harassment in their faculty. It was just terrible; it’s like unfunny and obvious got thrown into CERN.
The comment “typical YouTube comments” is all it takes to encourage me to seek potential entertainment and/or information elsewhere.
I watched one episode of TBBT. I didn’t understand what was funny about someone playing D&D or collecting comic books. It was a comedy which punched down, making fun of a social underclass.
I impress myself. I made it a whole 45 seconds into that. Would someone tell these assclams that the aspirin ‘joke’ is sexist? And not even a joke?
Perhaps they shouldn’t have used that song for that video. It seems they wanted to avoid the vocal sections of the song, and there weren’t really enough of them, so it got quite repetitive.
This is probably the best place to recommend their film (Miss Representation). I watched it on TV recently, and thought it was pretty good.
The GOP – official party of die hard sexist racist gun loving god fearing homophobes, strings pulled by tax free billionaires, plus not so few less than aware so called liberals. A couple rungs away from returning to the patriarchal world of the Game of Thrones.
*Snark*
Don’t look at that evil feminazi video, sexism is totes ancient history – it doesn’t happen anymore, just ask your local MRA dudebros. They are like rats – you are never more than ten paces away from one.
Their testacles won’t let them lie about stuff, afterall, so you can trust them! And they can dig up a couple of women who sort of agree with them, so there is no way they can be anything other than right about all gender relations issues for the rest of time. Any impression that they are a bunch if inadequate, misogynistic men-children is just your pink-fuzzy-lady/feminism-infested-mangina brain misinterpreting what it sees again, which is what happens when you don’t let Real Manly Men(TM) do your thinking for you!!11!!1
Now get back in the kitchen where you belong and make me a sammich…
*/Snark*
That TBBT critique – it supports my theory that the funniest jokes are the ones that are the most human. We laugh, really laugh, when we recognize that someone else understands us and we understand them.
So when Howard on TBBT is shown living with his overbearing mother, the joke is that he’s an awkward loser who has to live with family while an adult – it’s not very funny. But when Annie on Community lives on babysitting savings in a tiny walkup above a sex toy store called Dildopolis because her parents refused to deal openly with her Adderall addiction, the joke is that sometimes life takes us to weird and unexpected places, but we can still be proud of ourselves, like Annie is.
The talking heads in the video certainly portray a depressing image of humanity. Though, I do wonder if the focus on the extreme Fox/Republican nonsense is how the Overton window thing actually works. By focusing on the really extreme crap, the more mundane stuff like the comments about make-up and hair (which were also present in the video) get ignored and eventually normalized. If so, that makes that “…but there’s worse things happening you should be fighting instead” attitude even worse.
I felt a lot of discomfort when trying to watch TBBT, but never could put my finger on what exactly I found wrong with it. I think that article expressed it quite well.
I am going to have to get around to watching Community – I have heard people say that it is essentially a funnier and less borderline discriminatory The Big Bang Theory, but I have never actually watched an episode.
That post on TBBT nailed it. I still enjoy watching the show (is that bad?) despite all its problems .
This isn’t ‘the media’ it’s Murdoch land aka bullshit mountain. It’s like asking a crazed druggie what he/she thinks about women. It’s still sad and horrible but isn’t a true reflection of reality..
@Tj Bullshit. Those clips were not all from RW media. The sexism is ubiquitous.
I’ve always been clear I don’t like The Big Bang Theory because I viewed it as nerd drag; using the nerd references as punchlines, not stories; equating nerds and flaming queers as clowns. I know both queer and nerds – and that show conflates them, makes fun of them, and doesn’t explore them.
My mother loves TBBT, and tried to get me to watch it. It always made me uncomfortable because of the stereotyping (I know scientists like Sheldon for instance) and the fact that it makes fun of them. The obvious sexism always stood out too. Not only is the only woman (until the Sheldon clone) the “normal” one, she’s also portrayed as being not very smart. In fact the only women you for much of the show are “normal”, non-geek, non-scientist women. So the making fun of nerds/geeks through the very poor humor of stereotyping, the blatant sexism and homophobia just made it a bad show in my opinion. The blog post you link describes it better than I have when trying to tell people why I don’t like it.
Knowing me, my sister says Sheldon is totally unrealistic – he’s so hyperactive. I concur.
Wow, I feel better knowing it’s not just me who feels belittled by Big Bang Theory. I’d read on TVTropes that apparently at least some nerds think it’s on their side so I was like “?????” at the episodes I watched.
While I think I am probably only nerdish, rather than True Nerd, TBBT criticism speaks to me, too. Frelling idiots.
@Gregory:
Definitely watch Community. However, I wouldn’t put it in any category with TBBT, and shame on whoever told you they were similar. One deals with stereotyped uber-intelligent nerds and makes heavy use of canned laughter to support predictable jokes, the other is about flawed humans who have ended up in community college and (slowly at first) becomes more surreal than generic sitcom.