Has anyone seen "The Big Bang Theory"?

[Sir_Elderberry]

Well, they want to get demographics that don't get those jokes. And while nearly everyone has heard of Helen of Troy or Schrodinger's Cat, I bet that very few people could explain what either of them actually are.

[Gelsamel]

'Who would want to buy a time machine on Ebay?'
'If you made a Venn diagram, it would be the small amount of people who intersect "Wants to buy a time machine" and "Has 500 dollars"

Me and my friends at uni use sets and subsets and intersections of sets to describe what we mean all the time..

[22/7]

(Granted, the naive character is an age old device to explain things to the audience, but doesn't that defeat the purpose of making a nerdy show?)

Except that it's on NBC, which means it's not aimed at "nerds", it's aimed at the same people that Friends, et al is aimed at.

[sugarhyped]

I actually like the show. I'm so glad that it comes on at 7 so I wont have to choose between it and Heroes.

I'm not the nerdiest person, although what really made me like the show was when Sheldon got upset with Penny sleeping on the couch because he was missing Doctor Who. I love Doctor Who.

I think Schrodinger's cat might be somewhat acceptable for people not to have gotten, but I can't imagine people not knowing who Helen of Troy is.

[3fj]

New series.

And it rox.

[GMontag]

Monday's episode was possibly the funniest thing I've seen on TV in a long long time.

"I'm Batman" was pure gold.

[pseudoidiot]

Monday's episode was possibly the funniest thing I've seen on TV in a long long time.

"I'm Batman" was pure gold.

Even better was, "I'm Batman. SSHH!!"

[Lumpy]

It would've been funnier without a laugh track.

[Klapaucius]

It's still insulting that the outsider that doesn't get their jokes, needs things explained and such, is the only female character. I have to admit my opinion may be skewed, but who's never heard of Helen of Troy or Schrodinger's cat?? (Granted, the naive character is an age old device to explain things to the audience, but doesn't that defeat the purpose of making a nerdy show?)

The female thing is unfortunate. On the other hand, the boyfriends of hers that we've seen are actually aggressively dumb.
Besides, the point is that she isn't the outsider; she's the normal one, part of the normal world which the stereotypically nerdy main characters have a tentative and complicated relationship with. There's also the matter of the conflict within the love interest: the show wouldn't have as much drama (or appeal) if their minds clicked instantly.

tl;dr: even the Doctor has a companion.

Oh, and it was Agamemnon, not Helen of Troy, that she hadn't heard of, which is acceptable. He and Schrodinger's Cat are both much more obscure to the general public than you might think.

It would've been funnier without a laugh track.

Yes. Life would be funnier without executive condescension... but, you know, ifs and buts and Christmas, however the saying goes.

[ACU-LP]

Indeed, I'm a nerd and had only heard of schrodinger through xkcd.

[cephalopod9]

The female thing is unfortunate. On the other hand, the boyfriends of hers that we've seen are actually aggressively dumb.
Besides, the point is that she isn't the outsider; she's the normal one, part of the normal world which the stereotypically nerdy main characters have a tentative and complicated relationship with. There's also the matter of the conflict within the love interest: the show wouldn't have as much drama (or appeal) if their minds clicked instantly.

tl;dr: even the Doctor has a companion.

Being (female and) more in the "nerd" demographic than the "normal world", what's most apparent to me is that the female main character is largely defined by being ditzy and left out of most of the in jokes. Reading over the episode summaries, I see that there are some nerdy girl characters, but I haven't gotten a chance to watch those episodes yet (haven't found them online yet). Getting to know the group dynamics better has made me like the show more. (Also I found out it shares a creator with Dharma and Greg, which I like).

And, yeah ok, Schrodinger's cat is a little more obscure than I give it credit for. In theory I can understand how people might preffer VH1 to Discovery Science, but I just can't fully grasp how people get through life not knowing these things.

[Klapaucius]

The female thing is unfortunate. On the other hand, the boyfriends of hers that we've seen are actually aggressively dumb.
Besides, the point is that she isn't the outsider; she's the normal one, part of the normal world which the stereotypically nerdy main characters have a tentative and complicated relationship with. There's also the matter of the conflict within the love interest: the show wouldn't have as much drama (or appeal) if their minds clicked instantly.

tl;dr: even the Doctor has a companion.

Being (female and) more in the "nerd" demographic than the "normal world", what's most apparent to me is that the female main character is largely defined by being ditzy and left out of most of the in jokes. Reading over the episode summaries, I see that there are some nerdy girl characters, but I haven't gotten a chance to watch those episodes yet (haven't found them online yet). Getting to know the group dynamics better has made me like the show more. (Also I found out it shares a creator with Dharma and Greg, which I like).

And, yeah ok, Schrodinger's cat is a little more obscure than I give it credit for. In theory I can understand how people might preffer VH1 to Discovery Science, but I just can't fully grasp how people get through life not knowing these things.

I wouldn't say she's ditzy. She's uneducated, but she's got a healthy sense of intellectual curiosity.
You do have a point, though. There was at least one nerdgirl who was quite likable; I really hope she returns in other episodes.

Neither can I. It's tragic, but such is life. That's why I teach people about these things as much as possible.

[Angua]

I would say that while she doesn't know much from a science/nerd perspective, she isn't stupid. She is also willing to try sometimes to understand what they're talking about, even when they don't explain it in the clearest way.

I thought that everyone knew about Schrodinger's cat, however I often find that there are lots of things that I think everyone knows and turn out not to be common knowledge, eg I found out that not everyone knows that dolphins chase off sharks.

I think I remember hearing that they are going to start having Leslie (the nerd girl) as a regular character, or at least have her more often.

[Chai Kovsky]

I'm watching whatever episodes I can find online. It's a pretty good show, although I tend to dislike sitcoms because the awkwardness in the farce formula is a serious turnoff to me. Nevertheless, it is good for the lolz.

There are plenty of shows that identify with the Penny character; they basically imply "Hey look at those funny nerd guys." I like that this show identifies most with Leonard. He's a healthy mix of nerd and sociability.

As a girl-geek, I hate the premise of the Penny-Leonard relationship. I've never understood why so many nerd guys go for mainstream girls rather than nerd girls. Leslie seems so superior to me: who wouldn't want a girl who used liquid nitrogen to flash-freeze a banana to cut it up because she didn't have a knife??? It reaffirms the cultural expectation that hotness is more important than brains, and I'd think that nerd guys knew better than that.

*Sigh* Why don't nerd guys like the nerd girls?

Edit: fix'd

[sugarhyped]

Small point, when you say Sheldon ^ I think you mean leonard. Sheldon is the awesome guy who is on the extreme end of not being social.

I love how much leslie picks on him. I don't think she is romantically good for leonard though.

[pseudoidiot]

I fully expect Leslie and Sheldon to hook up some point.

[sugarhyped]

I never expect Sheldon to hook up, especially with Winkle. Although I am often wrong about these types of things.

[Chai Kovsky]

Small point, when you say Sheldon ^ I think you mean leonard. Sheldon is the awesome guy who is on the extreme end of not being social.

I love how much leslie picks on him. I don't think she is romantically good for leonard though.

Ack, you're totally right. I always get them confused because Leonard seems like his name ought to be Sheldon, you know?

[iantendo]

Personally I love BBT.

I can't speak for the specific science, but all the references to sci-fi, gaming and other nerdy pursuits are spot on. Nothing annoys me more in a sitcom that when someone is playing a Nintendo with a Playstation controller

In actual fact I'm suprised it got recommisioned because I think perhaps the jokes are a little too obscure for the average 2 and a Half Men viewer.

Plus to accuse it of being too stereotypical is a little over the top. Sitcoms generally work by doing nothing more than placing stereotypical characters in humurous situations. The succesful sitcoms are the ones where people can see themselves in the characters, as is the case with this show.

[Baron Patsy]

I never expect Sheldon to hook up, especially with Winkle. Although I am often wrong about these types of things.

Spoiler:

At Comic-Con, Jim Parsons said that Leslie's hatred for Sheldon would eventually develop into a romantic relationship.

[Chai Kovsky]

I never expect Sheldon to hook up, especially with Winkle. Although I am often wrong about these types of things.

Spoiler:

At Comic-Con, Jim Parsons said that Leslie's hatred for Sheldon would eventually develop into a romantic relationship.

Spoiler:

No surprise, but disappointing. Leslie deserves better. She does actually have basic social skills, which is more than we can say for Sheldon. I'm pro-nerd, but sometimes he can just be an arrogant douche-nozzle.

[sugarhyped]

I never expect Sheldon to hook up, especially with Winkle. Although I am often wrong about these types of things.

Spoiler:

At Comic-Con, Jim Parsons said that Leslie's hatred for Sheldon would eventually develop into a romantic relationship.

Spoiler:

damn. the doesn't mean its reciprocated.

[Chai Kovsky]

I never expect Sheldon to hook up, especially with Winkle. Although I am often wrong about these types of things.

Spoiler:

At Comic-Con, Jim Parsons said that Leslie's hatred for Sheldon would eventually develop into a romantic relationship.

Spoiler:

damn. the doesn't mean its reciprocated.

Spoiler:

I'd rather it be the other way around. She's a better physicist than Sheldon—given his emphasis on intelligence above all else, I could see him falling for her on that basis.

[LE4dGOLEM]

It would've been funnier without a laugh track.

Can this be in the sticky?

[cephalopod9]

Spoiler:

I'd rather it be the other way around. She's a better physicist than Sheldon—given his emphasis on intelligence above all else, I could see him falling for her on that basis.

I think that would be funnier too.

[Klapaucius]

Spoiler:

I'd rather it be the other way around. She's a better physicist than Sheldon—given his emphasis on intelligence above all else, I could see him falling for her on that basis.

I think that would be funnier too.

It's just incongruous enough to work.

[Lumpy]

It would've been funnier without a laugh track.

Can this be in the sticky?

Yes. I just hope that was a straight question and I hadn't actually missed anything already in any sticky.

[fransisco4]

It's a great show. I'm watching it online right now:http://www.megavideo.com/?v=5UDL49U1

Edit:Chicken joke on this episode.

[quantumz]

I am often amazed at the accuracies and attention to detail in this show. I've been waiting for slip-ups since the very first episode, but nothing epic ever came through. Most of the 'in' jokes are spot on, and the characters are like Eigen vectors -- every person in my Physics department was some combination of Sheldon, Wolowitz, Raj, and Penny (Leonard is already a superposition).

The only thing that ever seemed a little off to me is that they all gather to play MMORPGs on laptops sitting on their laps (serious gamers would play on desktop machines(?) and the jostling from leg motion would lead to hard-drive disruptions, causing potentially catastrophic game-lags?)
Seriously, that's the only sorta-problem I have come up with.

The dialogue is snappy and witty, albeit fairly predictable; the characters are three dimensional (even Sheldon, who is 1-Dimensional (He's basically 'nerd' cranked to 11) is 3-dimensional in how he has to deal with real people. It's like his higher dimensions are curled up ... into strings... my god, his whole character is a Meta-Joke)

and the Equations: Favorite Part! Not only are the board scribblings actual scientific formula, but they are somewhat consistent with what we expect Sheldon to be studying (we don't have too much detail on Leonard's specialization, do we? He's possible a condensed matter theorist specializing in BE Condensates? Nvmnd...tangent). They don't just throw Bernoulli's equation up one week, then show an acid-base reaction, then jump to him working out the Maxwell-Bloch Field equations. He's fairly consistently working in particle physics. That makes my inner-nerd's inner-child happy.

...anyway, enough gushing. Show is good. A solid Monday night zone out, release.

[Not Bernard]

You know what I like the most? The fact that it doesn't simply mock nerds endlessly like a lot of shows.

The whole thing would be better without the canned laughter, however.

[Avelion]

The only thing that ever seemed a little off to me is that they all gather to play MMORPGs on laptops sitting on their laps (serious gamers would play on desktop machines(?) and the jostling from leg motion would lead to hard-drive disruptions, causing potentially catastrophic game-lags?)
Seriously, that's the only sorta-problem I have come up with.

I'm a hardcore gamer and all my PC gaming is done exclusively on my laptop. Gaming laptops are fairly easy to find, if a bit pricey. Mine is a performance workstation optimized for rendering, so not exactly a gaming laptop, but it still plays Crysis on low settings. All modern MMOs will play well at max graphic settings with no issues, except Age of Conan which had some crashing issue but otherwise played great. I also have restless leg syndrome and the jostling thing doesn't have any noticeable effect.

As for my opinion of the show the nerdiness is great, but I simply can't stand the formulaic humor of sitcoms. It's not funny to me if I can predict it. That and Penny is the most boring character ever and Leonard is an idiot for liking her.

[Angua]

About the canned laughter, I read someone talking about going to be in the audience for the filming. They said that they even changed the floor numbers on the doors when they were walking up the steps, which I thought was amazing as I can never see the door numbers (though I have tried to look)

[CVSoul]

I never expect Sheldon to hook up, especially with Winkle. Although I am often wrong about these types of things.

Aside from producer's notes confirming the possibility, Sheldon/Winkle is an easy comedic archetype, dating back to such classics as Much Ado About Nothing. Which a physicist would never mention.

I'll tell you, I've never enjoyed having my social circle exploited for sitcom gain as much as this.

[3fj]

Spoiler:

Am i the only one that thought penny becoming a muhmorporg nerd for a while was a little stupid?

[Klapaucius]

Spoiler:

Am i the only one that thought penny becoming a muhmorporg nerd for a while was a little stupid?

But isn't "character X becomes obsessed with something at the expense of everything else before learning a lesson about moderation/giving it up entirely" one of the staple sitcom plots?
It's more prevalent than "X's old buddy visits for contrived reason" or even "X gets annoying pet"!

[fransisco4]

Spoiler:

Am i the only one that thought penny becoming a muhmorporg nerd for a while was a little stupid?

No. And the ending was really stupid.

[3fj]

Is there a reason that this and How i met your mother wasn't aired this week? Im missing a fix in the one week i need it!

[sugarhyped]

I don't know why it happened, but I was annoyed too. (especially for HIMYM tho.)

[ACU-LP]

W00T!
We have it here in Australia. FINALLY!
We have had two episodes so far, the most recent being the halloween party episode. Loved it.

[Angua]

The Halloween one is episode 6, either you've missed some or they're not in order.