The Big Bang Theory: What Went Wrong? – Wisecrack Edition

What's up guys, Jared again. Today we're talking about one of the most nuanced takes on geek culture out there, the Big Bang Theory. Yeah, nope, not even close, it's bad, like really bad. In fact, it's become somewhat of a recurring gag for us to hate on this show. So when you sadistic maniacs asked for a what went wrong, we reached out to one of our unfortunate writers Thomas. But instead of making this poor bastard watch all 5,175 minutes of this show, we just hopped on IMDV and grabbed the top 10 rated episodes. Sorry, we cannot afford to pay this man's therapist. But I digress. Why is a show that deals with science, comics, and all that good-wise crack stuff? So bad. Well, after hours of grueling research, we suspect it might have something to do with references. So it's settled. The fate of Dr. Huss Tardis will be decided by a game of thrones inspired death match on the battlefield of Thundercats vs. Transformers. See, the Big Bang Theory isn't just bad, it's profoundly bad. It's so bad that it requires philosophy to understand just how bad it is. So join me, as I attempt to convince you that the Big Bang Theory is proof that meaning is dead. Wokenless wise, crack edition on the Big Bang Theory, what went wrong and big shout out to the real MVP Thomas for watching this garbage. The Big Bang Theory loves referentiality. They reference cornerstones of nerd culture like Star Trek. Sheldon's log. Start 8-6-3-3-4-5-0.3. Her battle star galactica. That's my original series battle star galactica thanks to. And even scientific facts and mathematical formulas. They're slipped into reminders over and over again that Leonard Sheldon and Company are die-hard nerds. They buy comics, perform science experiments, and sometimes describe very basic things, like slipping in a bathtub like this. Not surprising. You have no safety math or adhesive stickers to allow for purchase on a surface with a local official static friction. Now, in case you missed the laugh track, Sheldon giving Penny the definition of friction was the joke. You see, it's funny because it's a reference. Now, if you're wondering why you feel a bit cheated at the punch line here, it's probably because that definition of friction was simply slotted in there. Any other scientific statement about the nature of reality feels like it could have had the same effect here, like gravity, for instance. And cue the next joke. Oh my god, I got to go to the emergency room. Well, assuming you're correct that you write humorous is no longer seated in the Glinoide socket. They could have replaced the word humorous and Glinoid socket with gibberish, and most wouldn't know the difference. And that's the problem. The actual science isn't the joke, but the fact that they're talking about science is friction isn't funny. The reference to friction is funny. By contrast, consider this brief Futurama reference. For somebody who barely understands math, like me, the reference will probably evade detection. But for those who spot the symbol for olive null, the mathematical symbol for an infinite sense of countable numbers, they'll realize the feeder is implying there's an infinite number of screens. This not only gives an easter egg for the mathematically inclined, but more importantly, the joke is the impossibility of a movie theater having infinite screens. The joke is about the subject of olive null, not the mirror reference to it. The reference impues the joke with additional meaning, whereas the Big Bang Theory accomplishes the opposite. Leonard, do you recall what I said? I was going to revolutionize humanity's understanding of the Higgs boson particle, and you said, sheldon it's 2am, get out of my bedroom? These jokes are at best, lazy writing, and at worst a small step toward the complete annihilation of reality. Yes, my sound extreme, but these kind of references with no subject is exactly what kept French philosopher John Bodryard up at night. To Bodryard, we are living in a state where reality has been obliterated. He gives four levels of representation. The first level is like a picture, a perfectly accurate representation of reality. The second level of representation is the unfaithful copy, a filter that makes you look prettier, thus obscuring your actual face. Below that is the third level of representation. One that deliberately hides the fact that there's no reality being represented, like an artist rendering a view where they've never actually seen you. And finally, the fourth level is reserved for when signs and representations start referencing other signs and representations, and all sense of reality is thrown out the window. This is when people start photoshopping a photoshopped image, or making memes of other memes. In Bodryard's eyes, we're already living in a world controlled by a system of fourth-order simulacra, where any reference to the original reality is lost, which might explain why he technically considers our reality a simulation. Now, if we're being optimistic, the big bang theory is a distorted view of real nerd culture, the second order of representation. It gets a lot of the details wrong, but it's still about real nerd culture. But if we're being pessimistic, and oh, we are. It's a show about nerd culture that has no relation to reality whatsoever. The third order of representation, a copy of something that never existed. It has science without actual science. It's about nerd culture without real nerds. They're more like what someone who has never met a nerd thinks they're like. That's where the bad science references become relevant to Bodryard. More often than not, jokes will lie on characters cramming in whatever scientific explanation is relevant to the action. When our roadways most slippery, now, okay, there are three answers, none of which are correct. The correct answer is, when covered by a film of liquid sufficient to reduce the coefficient to static friction between the tire and the road to the sink and the zero, but not so deep as to introduce a new source of friction. Their references for the sake of references. jokes that don't rely on any understanding of the science, but rather the simple recognition that this is a scientific reference. It's the difference between sheldon explaining how locks work when pennies locked out. It's not surprising that Baldwin lock on your door uses traditional edge-mounted cylinders where it's the key for your Volkswagen uses a center cylinder system. And when Lila and the professor are racing in Futurama. In the former, the joke doesn't rely on an audience understanding how locks actually work. The reality is irrelevant as long as we recognize that Sheldon is being unnecessarily smart. Whereas in Futurama, we're laughing at the actual science reference in the joke. For Bodryard, as things progress, these copies of reality end up becoming their own reality. And this is where we see Bodryard's dismal vision reflected in the Big Bang Theory. These copies divorce from reality, either partly or entirely, signal not only the death of meaning, but make all ideas interchangeable. Because the jokes in the show are apropos of nothing, the characters can essentially spew meaningless nonsense under the guise of a meaningful joke. Like in the show's game, Mystic Warlords of Ka-A, which starts as a kind of joke about magic the gathering. And then quickly descends into utter nonsense. It doesn't matter if they said two-headed tiger, three-headed lions, seven-headed ethical Logan Paul or Frankfurt School Jam and Crested Beagle Monster. The joke will work on the audience no matter what they say, because the show functions at a level of selling you an empty joke under the guise of a meaningful one. So here's the big question. It's not over, is it? If the Big Bang Theory's use of reference for reference to sake, ultimately points at nothing, then what are we laughing at? My hair is growing at three to four point six, yorked meters per femtosecond. Or at least what is the studio audience laughing at? It is scientifically impossible for a person to tip a cow. Seriously, somebody please tell me. Her new sound is important, but what you're forgetting is it was an achievement in the field of biology. That's all about yucky squishy things. Well after conducting a rigorous study, our team of media experts has come up with an answer. The show basically just sh**s on its characters, that's all that's happening. Princeton, a fine institution, the place where Albert Einstein taught and where Leonard got his PhD, so it may have gone downhill. Like when Leonard and Raj think about buying Howard A. Prost Sioux following a recent break-up, she's exactly a stip, a hookah, you know, I bet if we hired her, that would show him up. We're not going to get wild with a hookah. I'm so lonely and horny, I may open this $20 of peanuts and end it all. More like when Sheldon defends his girlfriend. As it turns out, ripping on people is actually how the philosophy of humor started. In the West, the earliest theory of humor is the superiority theory, which began with Plato saying that laughter was a form of scorn. The people we laugh at are generally unaware of how awful they are, which invites our laughter. Later on, Thomas Hobbs modified this a little bit by saying that laughter was a result of our competitive nature. When we laugh, it's either because we're trying to think over another or watching their downfall. Hell, even take heart-weighted into the discussion, calling laughter the result of scorn, which proceeds from our perceiving a small evil in a person whom we consider to be deserving of it. In the end, all three philosophers agree that when we laugh, it's at the expense of others to make ourselves feel good. While this might seem pretty obvious, the Big Bang Theory isn't sign-filled. These aren't horrible people deserving our scorn. Case in point, Joe and our Chuck Lorry literally said, the show is not about geeks or nerds, but about extraordinary people. So if they're so extraordinary, why do they deserve to be sh** on? Which brings us to the big picture problem. Instead of building up nerd culture, the Big Bang Theory kind of tears it down. When the show simply pays lip service to nerddum, mechanically inserting any reference for references sake, the show reveals its contempt for real nerds. The details of nerd culture are irrelevant, as long as they sound like wanky ass holes it's close enough. What'd you do in? I'm attempting to view my work as a fleeting peripheral image so I can engage the superior colliculus of my brain. And while the show can fall back on its laugh track or rip on its characters, how long has you been stuck? Well, literally about 30 hours, emotionally about 29 years. Ultimately this does all of us nerds from the Buffy fans to the Marvel fans, a disservice. Instead of finding ourselves reflected on screen, we see characters that kind of just get dumped on. So what do you think Wisecrack, are we being too harsh on the biggest show in the world or are we being a bunch of jealous haters? I'm the Wingman! Yep, not that one.