TV History Term Paper

8/3/2019 TV History Term Paper

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Paige Gentry

Nerd Humor

Laughing is a very important part of every day life. Watching a comedy only helps this

trait become more alive. Now, television shows that are meant for laughter have the real laugh

instead of a canned laughter that might not seem as personal; was used in comedies during the

1950¶s. Communication between each character makes it more personable and funny. The

characters of the show, The Big Bang Theory, communicate in the oddest way, for example part

of a conversation from season 4: episode 1:

Sheldon: ³(K nock, knock, knock) Penny. (K nock, knock, knock) Penny. (K nock, knock,

knock) Penny.´

Penny: ³You do realize I stand on the other side of the door waiting for you to finish

knocking three times´ - The Big Bang Theory

Anytime Sheldon knocks three times on anyone¶s door, it is part of his personality. His

friends never understand why he does that but they let him do it. They understand him because

each one the friends have become family. Back on shows like Leave it to Beaver or The Ozzie

and Harriet Show no one would be able to understand the corky actions the characters on The

Big Bang Theory do. Shows from the 1950¶s would never understand the mixed ³family´

concept.

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Family comedy has drastically changed throughout the decades. Throughout the fifties,

television shaped the family lifestyle as the ³ideal´ family that had two parents, two to three

children, a dog and the perfect house with a white picket fence. Currently television has shown

that over time the perfect family is not what is normal anymore. Starting from the sixties,

television shows have a modified look of a sit-com family by making it all right that the

extended family was the ³ideal´ family.

Besides showing the stereotypical views of nerdy people, the television show, The Big

Bang Theory, is a prime example of a blended family, a support group. The show first aired

during the summer of 2007 on the CBS network. It is ³about a pair of nerdy physicists and their

buxom blonde waitress neighbor´ (Overbye, 2010). Each of the characters feed off of each

other and that is a reason why they have a great support group. Audiences from the age of 18 to

49 years old have been the people that have supported the four seasons thus far. This show

consists of laughing for thirty minutes straight. It is very comical show that mainly consists of

nerd humor. Audiences may not understand the entire joke but it is still one of the funniest parts

of The Big Bang Theory.

Sheldon, Leonard, Raj and Howard are the stereotypical geeky characters that are the

ones who would be attracted to Star Trek. They have a tight connection with one another

because the four are able to understand each other¶s ³dorkiness´ and their language. Sheldon

and Leonard live in an apartment together and are both physicists. Overbye mentioned in his

article, ³Exploring the Complexities of Nerdiness, for Laughs,´ that Leonard and Sheldon are

not the coolest people but loveable. Raj is the shy one and feels he cannot speak in front of

beautiful women. Howard is the friend who still lives with his mom and can never seem to shut

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up. Across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard¶s apartment is Penny, who is the ³buxom blonde´

that is not as a smart and works at the Cheesecake Factory. She has become a close neighbor and

automatically apart of the group of geeks. Sheldon from season to season has become known as

the ³leader´ of the group but is socially clueless because he focuses on his smarts more than

having fun. Even being one of the smartest people on the show, Leonard finds a way to break

out of comfort zone and can maintain a romantic relationship. This show exemplifies nerds

being able to be normal but some have a harder time trying to fit in.

As the audiences follow the characters some feel that it ³makes me cringe,´ as quoted by

Bruce Morgan, an astrophysicist at the University of California Santa Cruz. Although it is a

funny show that is about family, it also might be stereotyping nerds and being a dumb blonde.

The show may be poking fun of them but it is there to defend the nerds and dumb blondes, to

give them the benefit of the doubt. Not all comedies have to have the best plot ratings to

succeed, Gilligan¶s Island , was not wowed by critics during the sixties. Even with it¶s stupidity

of the show, the creator and producer of the show, Sherwood Schwartz, wanted to show the

different social types of American society. All of the characters consisted of Skipper and

Gilligan being the captain and crewmember, Thurston and Lovey Howell as the millionaires,

Ginger who was the movie star, a professor, Mary Anne, the girl next door. Any could say the

same thing as this show would be stereotyping social classes but it was there to show that these

castaways became a great support group for each other and everyone can get along.

Rising in popularity through the seasons, The Big Bang Theory is one of the highest rated

comedies on current television. For a while it was The Big Bang Theory versus Two and a half

Men on network television. They were back to back on CBS. Ironically both shows were

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created by Chuck Lorre and taped in adjacent stages at Warner Brothers Studios. It was a great

idea to have The Big Bang Theory air right after Two and a half Men because this show was

already in its prime popularity and it got this nerdy show to become successful. The whole cast

and crew have enjoyed being apart of the Big Bang but this was after their first pilot was rejected

by CBS, then they knew it was time to revamp the show. In the process of revamping, they had

a second near death experience because of the writer¶s strike that shot down everything for three

months. It was their time to come back and made the show thoroughly enjoyable and landed

them an Emmy nomination for Jim Parsons, as best actor in a comedy. This is remarkable to see

that a new show made it¶s way back to the top in no time. After four seasons, they have now

started to make their way to being nominated for more things on all the award shows.

Getting strong ratings fast is remarkable. It is a show that is a high-rated-live-action

comedy that goes after the young-adult demographics. As being compared to Two and a half

men, also having high ratings, works perfectly because both shows target the youth in the way

they mention the subjects that they focus on. The Big Bang Theory has now gotten more viewers

than Two and a half Men, which will give more light to shine on this show that up and coming.

For example, for one week an estimated 14.13 millions viewers watch The Big Bang Theory over

13.88 for Two and a half Men (Wyatt, 2009).

One episode in particular summed up the reasons of being a nerd, having a support group

that is a blended family. In season 4 of The Big Bang Theory, episode 8, ³The 21 Second

Excitation,´ takes place outside a movie theater and in Penny¶s apartment. The four guys decide

to wait in line for the ³extended´ version of the Star Trek movie that had an additional 21

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seconds. Who else would wait in line for an additional 21 second ³extended´ version of Star

Trek other than geeks? Mean while, Penny, Bernadette and the new friend Amy have a girl¶s

night. They decide to play truth or dare but it turns into smart questions beyond Penny¶s IQ.

Nothing was relaxed and the conversation was not about nothing. Nerd language is different

from a normal person. Even though the guys were waiting in line for a movie and the girls were

having a typical girl¶s night, it exemplified their corky interests. Secondly, it showed how tight

everyone was with another even if they were not related by blood because they have become a

family but it is not the one with a father, mother, two children and a dog.

Through the 21st century everyone has seen different eras important topics being

portrayed in sit-com television. Currently the nerd era has become more popular and coining a

new comedy as being inventive. Before the 1950¶s, the word ³nerd´ was not even a term to be

used until the Dr. Seuss books came out. When his books came out it helped to become a way to

identify a new subspecies of American society. Stanley quoted in one of her television critiques

that ³television used to relegate the nerd to the role of sidekick or worst best friend but now the

nerd is the hero, and he even gets the girl.´ Things have changed now characters are portrayed

like Leonard and Sheldon who still need some social skills but are to able to get the girl and be a

hero.

Although they are characters that do not have a whole sense of popular culture references

they are dedicated to their work and understand what they want to understand. The nerds in The

Big Bang Theory do ³attempt to relate to the world around them.´ They are breaking free to

show that they are not being stereotyped but to make a name for themselves and defend their

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title. Another show that gives examples like these is C huck that is a new comedy that first aired

in 2007 on NBC. The show is about a computer salesman who secretly becomes a secret agent

and a billionaire. Chuck is the main character who is the leader of ³the nerds¶ in this series who

are all computer technicians. He is an average looking person and has not had a girlfriend since

college. It is a spy spoof and part workplace comedy. Even though they are always in the work

place they are a blended family and showing who the real heroes are in society.

Looking back at shows that have a geeky twist to them it dates back to 1999 when Freaks

and Geeks came out. It only aired for one season but it was enough to show that nerds have their

own world and do not care who else is around them. The movies Superbad and K nocked Up and

the show Beauty and the Geek show other examples of giving nerds another chance. Showing

support for a topic that may not get as much recognition as it should makes it more prevalent for

the future comedy shows.

The Big Bang Theory is funny because of the concepts that they deal with on the sit-com

show. Giving them a chance to figure issues those others would not necessarily deal with on

day-to-day bases. The jokes, the language and the way Leonard, Sheldon, Raj, Howard and

Penny all communicate with each other show that people from different social status can come

together as a ³family´ and understand each other. Relaxing and laughing for thirty minutes is the

best thing.

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References

Overbye, Dennis. "Exploring the Complexities of Nerdiness, for Laughs." N ew York Times

(2010): n. pag. Web. 8 Apr 2011.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/science/27bang.html>.

Stanley, Alessandra. "Nerd After Our Hearts, and Maybe Even Our Respect." N ew York Times

(2007): n. pag. Web. 8 Apr 2011.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/arts/television/24stan.html>.

Wyatt, Edward. "The Big Surprise of 'Big Bang': The Bigger Audience." N ew York Times

(2009): n. pag. Web. 8 Apr 2011.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/arts/television/05bang.html>.

Wyatt, Edward. "'Big Bang Theory' Gets Even Bigger." N ew York Times (2009): n. pag. Web. 8

Apr 2011. <http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/big-bang-theory-gets-even-

bigger/>.

http://bigbangtrans.wordpress.com/series-4-episode-01-the-robotic-manipulation/

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