No explanation necessary:
I might require some explanation.
Autism.
Masking is a strategy used by some autistic people, consciously or unconsciously, to appear non-autistic. While this strategy can help them get by at school, work and in social situations, it can have a devastating impact on mental health, sense of self and access to an autism diagnosis
Oh shit, I’m a high masker.
Oh good. I first thought this was some racist image editing joke based on skin colour. And everyone was happily going along with it.
big bang theory is about what dumb people think smart people are like.
bbt is blackface
Yes, it’s a horrible caricature, Henry Cavill is basically the template for most geeks these days.
I’ve always saw BBT as just a way to re-normalize making fun of neurodivergant people.
The Big Bang Theory was frustratingly bad.
Saw a critic call it, “Nerd blackface”
Blackface is a bit more complicated and disturbing than “pretending to be like a black person for comic effect.” I don’t think it’s appropriate to compare it to to depictions of nerd culture.
It’s what stupid people think smart people sound like. I’ve never been able to watch it, but I remember hearing Sheldon brag about Ubuntu being his favorite Linux distribution? Like, can you imagine someone saying that in a room of Linux nerds?
It’s stupid and disrespectful to geeky people, but it’s not perpetuating harmful and violent narratives.
brag about Ubuntu being his favorite Linux distribution we? Like, can you imagine someone saying that in a room of Linux nerds?
H-hey!
I think the comment was also made by Sheldon? Sheldon’s character should be the kind of person who chews people out on forums for not reading the Arch Linux wiki, or to launch into the “GNU/Linux” copy pasta reflexively when Linux is brought up.
But that would require them to have more then a surface level understanding of the culture they’re making fun of lol.
IT crowd is about nerds for nerds. Big Bang theory is about nerds for non nerds. “Nerd blackface” is more succinct though.
Because, similar to blackface in its time, people love to point and laugh at exaggerated caricatures of something different from themselves.
And CBS airs lowest common denominator garbage that the masses devour.
The term you’re looking for is minstrel shows https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minstrel_show
BBT is a minstrel show to humiliate smart people, anti intelligence sentiment is high in America
The big bang theory was not for geeks or nerds. It was pure shit.
I’m a geek and a nerd and i loved it, sorry.
Except for that one transphobic episode that Graham Linehan has ruined his whole life over instead of going “Yeah, I’m sorry, that was a bit insensitive.”
I’ve only seen the one episode of BBT, I think the first one, where a goddamn theoretical physicist spends a whole day forgetting the basic properties of light.
My family stared at me the whole time, expecting me to find it funny. Then THEY got mad at me when I said that was the dumbest shit I’ve seen in a while. Later I found out that Sheldon uses Ubuntu and brags about it.
But, okay, dumb jokes aside - the show doesn’t explore any concepts or situations in new and interesting ways And THAT’S why it’s bad.
Shelden uses linux. Hahahaha. That’s it. A good writer could make a whole episode about that, alone, and it would be hilarious. Imagine him on internet forums. Imagine him fumbling during a talk because his laptop wouldn’t work with whatever vidchat/system/software his hosts used, and getting haughty about it. Imagine Sheldon traveling across the country to “fix” an entire auditoriums tech to run on Arch after his failed remote speech. Walking away all “You’re Welcome” as the staff can’t figure out how the fuck to use it.
“I’ve only seen the one episode…”
Sheldon: “You certainly put a lot of effort into expressing an opinion you’re woefully unqualified to form.”
Are they still pretending that Sheldon is not supposed to be autistic?
He was just cosplaying as the Doppler effect
No… the IT crowd is a sitcom FOR geeks. That other shit just makes fun of us
I believe this is what happened to Dr Who. When it started it was for science and history nerds, science sounding gobble-de-gook, cos play outfits, very low production values (the infamous duct tape boots). All just good fun.
When it was rebooted the focus had shifted. The Doctor as the cool guy, a Jesus figure, became more and more pronounced. They started to make fun of nerds on a regular bases. Amazing writing and production values, but at some point during the Tennant era I stopped watching in disgust.I only started with NuWho, watching it as it came out in 2005.
I found it magnificent, exactly because it shied away from glorifying violence, made emotions be the focus of things and there was clearly some large over-arching thing with “Bad Wolf”, but it wasn’t like in the American shows, where if there’s a clue to be seen, the camera zooms in on it, making sure you can’t miss it.
I gather you are right, and NuWho is way more American and hero-centric than Classic Who — but because it was and I was a teenager enjoying shows like Prison Break at the time — I got into Who, and then into better British shows, better shows in general, chasing that sort or good pacifist writing. Star Trek is ofc prolly the best franchise when it comes to actual philosophy. Doctor Who elicits emotions more than thought when compared to the Star Trek Ethos, albeit in a more profoundly British way.
Uuh there’s actually a new episode of Dr Who tonight that reminded me.
Oooh, it’s out already. And I have a few glasses of rum left. And a steak. And a pint of red. Ooooooh. This is turning out to be a nice day.
Anyway tldr completely agree with you, but I think going a bit American with NuWho was a crucial step in luring in more watchers to start appreciating the good things. Kinda how for a kid, it’s easier to learn to eat a new dish when you introduce it bit by bit or with copious amounts of ketchup or something — slowly teaching them that the bitterness is what makes it tasty.
I’ll alway remember the time I was hanging out with my GF at her parents house and she mentioned that she was going to play D&D later and her moms boomer-ass friend just immediatly started cackling about how “it’s just like big bang theory!!”.
There was no joke or anything just “oh, yea I’m going over to xxxx’s house to play D&D later”. That was enough for me to never bother with that show.
That is the joke to them though. That’s literally what the show is like. It’s so bad.
A older person has heard of DnD because of a sitcom and laughed when they meet someone who plays? And thats why youll never watch the show? I finally gave dnd a chance after freaks and geeks. Which for me was after almost two decades of playing magic.
Dont get me wrong, ive seen a few episodes of big bang and yea nothing you need to watch. But seems an odd reason to write it off if you like sitcoms … which the more I think about it a lot of sitcoms were nerd comedy. Best dam line out of friedns was alwazy “Ill prove it like a therom!!” And Frazier… And while never as cool as Homer, Lisa was always miles above Bart…
Sorry most of that was not actually in response to your comment. Hope the campaign is going/went well!
A older person has heard of DnD because of a sitcom and laughed when they meet someone who plays? And thats why youll never watch the show?
I guess you had to be there. This was not a “laughing with you” situation, and it indicated to me that the show was mostly just making fun of nerdy people so I wouldn’t enjoy it. That was enough for me. I’ve seen enough clips of it since then to know I was right.
In my mind, I still picture this as the archetype of an office’s boss inside a boss’s office. If it doesn’t have the 4th breaking wall picture, then it’s a fake boss
Ps: that’s how you know that J. Jonah Jameson wasn’t the boss at the daily Bugle, there was no self referential picture
I mean people are allowed to like different things. There is no gatekeeping to be done on something as subjective humor
For sure it’s no contest. Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
British humour is infinitely funnier than the laugh track pandering American sitcoms.
