“The Big Bang Theory” Normalized Nerd Culture
newyorker.com
newyorker.com
1. Twitch / livestreaming / YT - e.g. sub counts = "look at how many people actually do like gaming"
2. Affinity groups to video games - e.g. NBA players love Fortnite (among other professional sports...see HyperX commercials with Embiid, Hayward, etc.)
3. Marvel movies - comic book reading is the ultimate nerd fascination. Marvel movies are consistently the most watched movies in the last decade.
4. Commercial success of tech startups - Zuck/Gates are the ultimate nerds who are now the envy of every banker on wall st.
Along with the cases that you've listed, I think a clear case of normalization would be Stranger Things and DnD.
What normalized nerd culture was the World Wide Web. Everything you mention either started or was catalyzed by the web.
And before the web, even owning a computer at all, much less knowing how to use it, made you a nerd to begin with.
While I get that there's a pecking order even among nerds, I'm frequently put off by how badly the main characters treat Stuart, the comic shop owner.
Not really. Steve Urkel was a nerd, but in the show that just meant “annoying personality”. The characters in Big Bang Theory might have annoying personalities at times, but at least had interests and attitudes that demonstrated they were actually nerds, not just annoying.
It would be like if someone said they liked “movies”, but never mentioned a single movie that they enjoyed, or actor, or director, or anything. Just they’re really into “movies”.
Big Bang Theory has many flaws, but it is so far better than Steve Urkel or Screech. If I had been a kid when Big Bang Theory came out, having some positive nerd representation would have been wonderful. And in Big Bang Theory the characters are represented positively—the show clearly likes the characters, to use Roger Ebert’s terminology.
It genuinely made me uncomfortable; not because I like Windows 8, mind you. It was just so uncanny and out of place.
I have a hard time imagining how in this day and age the same ridiculing of stereotypes would fly without a giant backlash if the show were about:
- Women
- Homosexuals
- Non-white people
- ...
Yeah, you go ahead and laugh about those tech freaks... why should the school bullies get all the fun...
Nerds and comedy writers do not in any way form or shape share this dynamic.
I mean, sure, I'm all for lawyer jokes. (What's the difference between a lawyer and a catfish? One is a bottom-dwelling mud-sucker and the other is a fish.) And when they complain, I can point out that the alternative is that we erect the guillotines in the parking lot.
On the other hand, there are a lot of people to whom the nerd stereotype more-or-less applies, but who are not tech billionaires, prominent scientists, or otherwise powerful. And they're the ones who get to pay the consequences of the stereotypes. If you are a Silicon Valley millionaire, that you spend time arguing that the Hulk can beat Superman is a quaint eccentricity. But if you aren't BBT is just another source of ammunition against you.
Generally speaking, though, nerds who can fit in socially with other people are not losing jobs for being nerdy. They're not being killed for being nerdy. They're not even being beaten up for being nerdy on any kind of major scale, and certainly not as adults.
There's simply no comparison to be had here. We, as nerds, are not oppressed for being nerdy. Our feelings being hurt is not comparable to slavery or jim crow.
Anti-intellectualism is a very real force in American politics, with a sizeable power base of its own. To some extent, I think we can indeed blame shows like BBT for things like, y'know, having Mr. Orange Man (who used to be on frickin' reality TV, as we all know) as POTUS.[0]
[0] (Not that Hillary Clinton was that much better, either. We were quite lucky to have Barack Obama as president for eight years, he was a lot more sympathetic to the sane, "intellectual" outlook on policy than the average politician in the US!)
They're petty much all caricatures of 'offensively eccentric negative-female- characteristics high-pitched limp-wristed men with obsessions for fashion and celebrity culture'.
Its exactly the same thing and pretty standard...if i was less cynical, id think it should of created more of an uproar...
I'm sure I could come up with examples for the other groups...
Whereas in a sitcom it's what the writer's determine the character is supposed to act like.
Jonathon Van Ness, has a podcast, and has done some Youtube content over the years, and doesn't seem to portray a different "character" than he does on QE.
Mainstream media, especially in the last 10 years, has really changed the way homosexuals, and other LGBTQ+ are presented and seen. I would argue that it's a lot less problematic, and more genuine than it's ever been. HBO's 'Looking' did a decent job of portraying the spectrum of gay men that exist today. (Not a particularly great show otherwise). Amazon's 'Transparent' does an incredible job of highlighting the fact that sexuality exists on a spectrum, and those people can be hyper-fem, hyper-masc, and anywhere in between.
As a gay nerd, I personally think it's important we see all kinds of LGBTQ+ identifying people, and shows like Queer Eye have done that.
There's real bored obsessive housewives, black inner city gangsters, Mormons with large families, and yes, even people who act a bit like Sheldon. But the thing about culture is that negative portrayls accentuate those behaviors and supress their contrasts in general cultural visibility. The portrayls of male homosexuality has everything to do with a particular cultural expression and shoeboxing in western culture.
And like the big bang theory, there's a fine line and tension between exposure and acceptance of a subculture as a good thing, and a mockery/caricature.
obviously I'm all down on the negative side, i feel bbt is unwatchable but I knew other nerds where I used to work who liked it. It's not my place, but given my similar negative feelings towards hyper-gender- portrayls of femininity (and that's generally what's emphasised in mainstream portrayls of gays) celebrity and fashion, and the gay people I do know IRL (we're not in America), i almost feel offended for them.
At a higher level though, I'd point out that using YouTube as an example of where someone 'seems the same as their character' is highly flawed. By now, I would hope everyone assumes all celebrities are playing characters all the time in all media. it's literally their product...
https://www.marketingcharts.com/television/tv-audiences-and-...
> According to the analysis of audiences of 5 networks measured using Nielsen’s Digital Content Ratings in September 2018, 59% of live TV viewers ages 13 and older were in the 55+ group, compared to just 5% who were aged 13-24. The median age of a live TV viewer worked out to 56. MarketingCharts’ own research – US Media Audience Demographics – has found that weekly broadcast TV viewers are skewing older over time, and cable TV viewers also have a growing skew towards older adults.
Also, let's look at the other broadcast medium, radio:
https://www.marketingcharts.com/demographics-and-audiences/m...
> While the age distribution of network radio listeners skews towards the 45+ demographic, a large share of Americans of all ages listen to network radio. The study also points out that listeners are spread across the US and tend to represent an attractive group in terms of their income and education levels.
Also graying, but more slowly. And, yes, it's a trend:
https://www.westwoodone.com/2015/06/24/this-just-in-new-data...
(Graph on the bottom shows median age of radio listeners increasing.)
My point is this: Shows made for broadcast media are not going to change because the people making those shows know their demographic and aren't going to shed viewers by doing things their audience considers controversial. Viewership numbers are low enough already. Broadcast media is in a death spiral and whatever stereotypes, representation, and lack of representation it currently has is what it's going to have from now until it goes dark.
Sadly trans inclusion in casting has been pretty damn abysmal across the board. My impression is that most audiences are actually willing to watch something different, but the people making casting choices chose often not to cast them.
Shows like Next Top Model and Queer Eye play up their queerness for ratings, but that's actually progress: queer folks (actually played by other queer folks, not straight people parodying us) are being queer on camera, and people want to watch them for that. Millions of people. It's actually the point of those shows. That's huge!
Commonly people's first reaction to things they don't understand or things that are unusual is fear. I used to resent Will and Grace for being over the top, contrived, and playing on stereotypes. But I think, like Big Bang Theory, however cringeworthy the humor is, they've both put gay folks and nerdiness in prime television slots. People watch them, and they become less "foreign" to millions of televison watchers. They're made relateable (simply because not as many folks would watch it if it wasn't), and in turn nerdiness and queerness are made relateable and understandable. I don't need to watch either, but... I don't have to. It's not for me.
It seems it is just a sensitive subject for some nerds but look at for example Modern Family. The gay couple and their friends are mocked for tons of gay stereotypes for example.
So they're not actually things that are unacceptable. They're just so normal people don't even notice them until they're aimed at a trait they identify with.
If you press them on this, you then get some flavor of "ok but you know what I mean..."
There is something oddly nice about an older person saying "Oh, just like Sheldon!" (or sometimes Moss from the IT Crowd) if I mention dungeons and dragons or online games.
It might be a very simplified and / or exploitative version of nerd culture but at least there's an instant point of reference for us both.
The problem comes when the parody comes at the expense of the culture - that's exploitation. But by the time BBT was airing and popular, nerds were, and remain, to a certain extent a privileged class, not an oppressed one. They have high-paying jobs, ordinary successful lives, and look back at the old stereotypes of pocket protectors and social awkwardness with a sort of bemusement. Nerds are not a vulnerable class and haven't been in a long time. Nor is "nerd culture" particularly cohesive.
That may not be the case when the group being parodied is genuinely being oppressed or discriminated against and is often not in a position to push back against that. Exploitation in that case can be real and harmful.
No, it isn't quite the same thing. ESR actually points out the specific problem with BBT in this excerpt from the blogpost I linked:
> Bleagh. This is supposed to be a show about geniuses? It’s not. It’s a show about a dimwit’s idea of what bright people are like. The slowest person in my peer group could out-think and out-create any of these sad-sack imitations of “smart” on any day of the week. These actors are not bright, and don’t know how to fake it on screen.
(emphasis added). The comparison to blackface that someone else made, however inherently contentious (for eminently understandable reasons) is indeed on point.
The ones who get a CS degree and get a good high paying job, sure.
The ones still in middle school? Not so much. The ones who aren't programmers? Not so much. The nerds growing up in communities where free thinking and geeky passions are looked down upon, sometimes violently? Not so much.
And those kids will reach adulthood dealing with some rather nasty issues. Everything from not having learned great socialization skills, to a poor self image, to a lot of stuff in-between.
Stereotypes are bad, having a show that treats people as 1 dimensional disposable arch-types that exist only to be laughed at, is bad, no matter who the subject matter is.
Maybe if you are lucky enough to be living in silicon valley. Not in most places though, especially if you live outside of America.
> ordinary successful lives
If you try to stretch the meaning of successful enough and exclude things such as romantic/sexual life.
> Nerds are not a vulnerable class and haven't been in a long time
Kids being bullied and remaining friendless in school due to being nerdy is not a rare occurrence.
Is this still the case in 2019?
I was friendless (not bullied) for much of middle and highschool (2006-2010ish) not because I was nerdy, but because I was socially awkward and didn't make any attempt to fix it until later in highschool. It feels like a lot of people are mad at the show making fun of socially awkward people, which is completely separate from being nerdy.
Isn’t this true of almost all subcultures that get co-opted? This sort of thing reminds me of IFLScience. No one ever loved science. Certain parts of it just became popular.
I have tried more than once to watch it and every time I felt actual physical discomfort at how bad the whole thing was; Even though the show is not strictly about nerds but rather a parody of SV culture, I find HBO's Silicon Valley to be so much better at describing nerds than TBBT - at the very least I can actually laugh at the jokes and there are slight hints that the writers actually know what they are talking about.
I couldn't watch it due to the laugh track.
It seems to be common for people who dislike BBT to complain that it ridicules nerds as a class. I don't think that's right at all. Does anyone think that "Scrubs"[2] ridiculed doctors and other healthcare professionals as a general class?
Aside from being incredibly unfunny it completely misrepresented nerd culture and that's why it was so popular amongst the largely nerd-free network tv audience.
For a more accurate picture still taken to absurd extremes watch Mike Judge's silicon valley on HBO.
Big Bang Theory is a dumb show about smart people. Arrested Development is a smart show about dumb people.
I've never been able to watch BBT. I could never get past the feeling that I was being laughed at.
The first group usually tends to compare the second group to the show's characters ("he's such a Sheldon") and doesn't see anything wrong with that, either.
What bugs me as a Caltech alum is that Sheldon had an office at one point that had a geology lab directly above on the next floor, which is ridiculous.
As we enter 2019, celebrities are rushing to play Dungeons and Dragons, The Big Bang Theory has better ratings than NFL football, Game of Thrones is the top HBO show, and the most popular movie in America is from a comic book. It's a weird world.
Nowadays I'm a bit saddened that my attitudes have shifted to become more close-minded, like my fathers. Adults playing Dungeons and Dragons are somewhat pathetic, comic books are boring kids stuff, and "fantasy" is for people who have dull lives. I don't subscribe to all of that, but remembering how angry I was at my father for belittling the fantasy escapism that I was so wrapped up in, it's odd to find myself agreeing with some of his sentiments.
Nerds, scientists, engineers or developers can be make fun of like everybody else.
Sure BBT is not really a good show, especially after the first few seasons, sure it jokes about adults reading comics, but they also got hot wifes, go to the ISS and get Nobel prize.
The most damning thing is that people in this very thread praise Silicon Valley. You do realize that, besides being more realistic and better written, the people on this show are also way more ridiculous and despicable than in BBT? But somehow you're less offended, interesting.
I wonder if support people are offended by IT Crowd ahah.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3-hOigoxHs (The Adorkable Misogyny of The Big Bang Theory by Pop Culture Detective)
I'm happy for people who can enjoy The Big Bang Theory but I find it difficult personally.
It's much easier to be a social outsider when you're socially awkward. I don't think I've ever seen a nerd who is socially strong be outed from a group just for being nerdy...
This is coming from someone who was nerdy and socially awkward for much of middle and highschool and didn't really have friends. Once I started working on my social abilities (which is not easy, to be fair), making friends was easy.
My other half thinks it's odd but I hate punch lines being ruined / unfunny jokes having a laugh track over them. Which unfortunately makes big bang theory pretty unwatchable for me among others :(