This is the first time I'm hearing anything about TBBT but even watching the show for around 60 seconds (Brian Greene in the coffee shop) made me think that it was terribly, terribly written and terribly, terribly acted. I'm sorry if this sounds like I'm tooting my own horn, but at this point _Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality_ probably is the most popular HP fanfiction ever written and that probably does make me one of the world's leading authorities on how to depict the inner mental life of nerds. This is not how you do it.
I can't imagine writing a scene where HJPEV is laughing with Hermione over someone's terrible popular explanation of Heisenberg's Uncertainty. They'd never go to a comic-book store just to laugh at it. It would violate their character identities completely. In a story where Harry Potter has to be rescued from certain death at the hands of a yaoi fangirl horde (Ch. 42, and you didn't even notice) a scene like the one in TBBT would be just too unrealistic. And if somehow anything like that _did_ happen in a scene, if some wizard _did_ undergo a comic misunderstanding of quantum physics, it would be after I'd done whatever it took to explain correct-Heisenberg to the reader so that they would be laughing (and commiserating) right along with the protagonists. If you don't explain Heisenberg, what's the point? There's nothing left but empty feelings of superiority.
You are mistaken to think this show is supposed to depict the inner mental life of nerds.
It's absurdly common amongst people of our kind to assume TBBT is written for us, when in reality it's written as a caricature of us, for the general public. Much like Fraiser is not written for radio hosts, and Friends is not written for New York living twenty-somethings, TBBT is not supposed to be for nerds.
It's just not a big enough audience, yet, to cater to.
I wish more people understood this. All mainstream sitcoms are just window dressing for the same tired joke machine of setup + punchline. Even Community follows this formula more often than not and let's face it, Community for all its excellence is very hit or miss. Shows like Friends or TBBT more or less follow this formula at the cost of character development and plot, but the people watching them don't care about those things.
If you want realistic drama then try watching a realistic drama. I like TBBT. Its easy chuckles and its fun to see the exaggerated high school version of me getting roasted. There's a lot of comedy to mine in the overly serious and socially clueless nerd stereotypes. The show really is about the hilarity of manboys trying to make their way in the modern world and less about geekdom or 'smart people.' It would be trivial to retool the script to be about obsessed sports fans instead of obsessed nerds.
>It's absurdly common amongst people of our kind to assume TBBT is written for us, when in reality it's written as a caricature of us, for the general public.
Anecdotally, every recommendation I've encountered for the show has come from self-described nerds who feel the show does speak to / for them.
I think you might be underestimating the number of people who will relate to and even try to emulate a popular caricature of themselves.
How dare they associate with a cultural identity that they don't understand!
Besides, it's only the nerds of yesterday who had to deal with the endless bullying and loneliness! Future generations should get a free pass to associate themselves with the identity just because they watched some stupid sitcom.
>Anecdotally, every recommendation I've encountered for the show has come from self-described nerds
Anecdotally, every self-described nerd I've encountered has described themselves as a nerd because it it currently cool, and they own a phone which makes them "such a nerd".
> If you don't explain Heisenberg, what's the point? There's nothing left but empty feelings of superiority.
That empty feeling of superiority is exactly what is being ridiculled most of the time in this show. Maybe you've choosen wrong 60 seconds to judge the show.
That show laughs as much at the smart-but-socialy-stupid people (mostly Sheldon), as at the ignorant masses. Actually - even more at the geeks. And it's ok - geeks often ARE condescending and pretentious. It's ok to laught about that.
Also it was very funny to me to see some of my early attempts at male-female communication almost perfectly presented in that show :).
Not every fiction about geeks has to be education vehicle. This show is "a portrait of geeks-non geeks interactions".
Except many geniuses do laugh at some of the dumbed down analogies given by Greene and other household names. Granted they respect those physicists for raising awareness of the respective theories and raising the profile of science in general, but the jokes are still made about the analogies. (in fact you only have to look closer to home to see how often people like us quibble over comparisons made where we're simplifying IT principles).
The reason Sheldon's comments were more derogatory is a reflection of Sheldon's character as he sees those people as beneath him. However there's plenty of times he makes extremely complimentary remarks about other physicists - albeit ones not usually known for making the sciences more accessible.
TBBT is not meant to depict the inner life of nerds. A common summary is "The Big Bang Theory is a show about smart people for stupid people, Community is a show about stupid people for smart people." I wouldn't say only stupid people can enjoy TBBT, but the point stands that TBBT's audience is not nerds.
I can't imagine writing a scene where HJPEV is laughing with Hermione over someone's terrible popular explanation of Heisenberg's Uncertainty. They'd never go to a comic-book store just to laugh at it. It would violate their character identities completely. In a story where Harry Potter has to be rescued from certain death at the hands of a yaoi fangirl horde (Ch. 42, and you didn't even notice) a scene like the one in TBBT would be just too unrealistic. And if somehow anything like that _did_ happen in a scene, if some wizard _did_ undergo a comic misunderstanding of quantum physics, it would be after I'd done whatever it took to explain correct-Heisenberg to the reader so that they would be laughing (and commiserating) right along with the protagonists. If you don't explain Heisenberg, what's the point? There's nothing left but empty feelings of superiority.