Big Bang Theory: Worst Thing on TV or Just the Unfunniest Thing on TV? Discuss.

[rpgdemon]

Originally Posted by Bells

Played for comedic effect, he finds out that being lightly drunk reduces his anxiety and shyness, allowing him to temporally overcome his condition. The show also develops that his condition was bred in a highly controlled Indian High Social Cast environment where both his parents where constantly trying to control and guide his love life (one of the reasons he came to the USA).

Then, when you point out that this is the show forcing that "Alcohol fixes all problems" only comes back as wrong because again and again the show does the exact opposite of that... Raj, having found a Chemical solution to his social disorder, never really confronts it. And even though, he tries, the alcohol keeps making him fail, preventing him from succeeding in social and emotional affairs alike.

Except for the episode where he gets drunk, and that lets him "score" the hottie at some party, and he has sex with her, then wakes up and freaks out HILARIOUSLY over how he's in bed with a woman who was super attracted to him because of how he acted like a douche when he was drunk.

There are many problems with this.

I don't see anything written about Selective Mutism that suggests that alcohol has ever been used as a cure for it.

Few people suggest alcoholism as a cure for anything. My great grandfather (Whom I never knew, died before I was born, so don't see it as some sob story) suffered from anxiety, and went to alcoholism to self-treat himself. It's actually one of THE first signs of alcoholism, when people use it as a self treatment for anxiety or some problem they have.

So, we're also expected to make fun of Raj for being a high functioning alcoholic.

[McTahr]

Snake, please keep this in mind for future posts in this thread, or perhaps step out for a bit.

Originally Posted by NPF Administration

Backseat Moderating: even if you mean well, please avoid making calls as to what is or isn't a rules offense. That's the moderators' job. We don't particularly want people here to accuse each other of spamming or flaming or trolling, no matter - and this is important - whether we'd agree. If you're absolutely sure something is against the rules, report that post, and we'll take a look at it (remember that this isn't a guarantee we'll actually do anything about it, since we might still disagree with your assessment). This especially applies to the "I started the thread, therefore it is mine" mentality. Threads on this forum belong to the community, not the person who begins the discussion.

[Lumenskir]

That seems like a great length to go for a laugh considering you seem to think that the nerds draw laughs at the slightest geeky thing they do.

I want to watch the same show you do, where the characters are primarily mining the depths of pop culture, nerdy and otherwise, in order to make jokes, rather than primarily relying on surface pop culture references that code as nerdy (regardless of how popular they are in actual culture). Or rather, I want that show to just finally come back on the air, since it's called Community.

Why is it ridiculous that a girl like Penny would do those things? She looks more athleticv than the boys and lots of pretty girls binge drink.

If it's not meant to seem ridiculous, where's the joke? Why did you bring it up as an instance of the audience laughing at Penny?

But just to say alcohol does not allow him to act human. He becomes a jerk. The joke is that he can either not talk or be a jerk.

Well, we've seen Drunk!Raj and Sober!Raj, and there is indeed a difference between them. But there's also Alcohol-Proximity!Raj, who is exactly like Sober!Raj save for the fact that he can talk to girls. That's, at the very least, just lazy-ass writing. You can have a schism between Hulk and Bruce Banner, but you can't say that the default is Bruce Banner getting all of the benefits of Hulk with none of the downsides as long as he's wearing purple pants.

Yes but they usually laugh at what Howard says in response because Raj has said something that Howard can't ask or say in company. You've missed the actual joke there. And it has been used to further a scene, such as when Howard blamed Raj for something knowing he couldn't defend himself and when Raj whispered in his ear he totally lied. I found that funny.

Bells had said the mute thing was an aspect of the character that was integral to Raj and that the show would never pick on this aspect of him. I was pointing out that wasn't the case. Thank you for adding another example (Howard abusing his knowledge of Raj's mutism to lay false blame on Raj, knowing that due to Raj's mutism he couldn't defend himself.)

[Solid Snake]

Originally Posted by McTahr

Snake, please keep this in mind for future posts in this thread, or perhaps step out for a bit.

Your selective enforcement of this principle is, in practice, defending trolls from criticism far more than it's accomplishing anything constructive in these kinds of conversations. As exemplified in the fact that these kinds of awful threads have occurred on a continual basis, and will certainly continue to occur in the future.

If you think me and my 'backseat moderation' (I'd prefer truth-telling, but whatever works) was more a problem in this thread than Bells and his brazen trolling was, just tell me straight up and I'll leave NPF and you won't have to deal with me anymore.

That's not intended as a 'threat,' as Lord knows many of you would prefer I left anyway. More as a mutually beneficial arrangement. You can keep the community the way you'd prefer it, and enforce the rules the way you'd like to enforce them. And I can find better ways to spend my time than in a place where I'm expected to tolerate this kind of behavior without the ability to publicly address exactly why it's so detrimental.

[Osterbaum]

10 pages of debate about The Big Bang Theory. What a bunch of nerds.

[McTahr]

Snake, I've PM'd you about this, and this is severely off-topic at this point. Do not continue this line of discussion in this thread.

The rest of you carry on with your discussion of this terrible, terrible show.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I only read the first chapter of his novel but Snake is right on this and everyone else is not really engaging his points. We already had this exact debate in the last thread though. Didn't we come to the conclusion that the best strategy was to confront bigotry and not just report it.

Also Osterbaum, use a real page per post settings- its 2 pages.

[Bells]

Originally Posted by Lumenskir

Bells had said the mute thing was an aspect of the character that was integral to Raj and that the show would never pick on this aspect of him. I was pointing out that wasn't the case. Thank you for adding another example (Howard abusing his knowledge of Raj's mutism to lay false blame on Raj, knowing that due to Raj's mutism he couldn't defend himself.)

Actually i was just underlining the point that the show doesn't make a "lol people with disorders are funny" joke, since many here don't follow the show, this notion could easily come across, but it would be wrong... surely the show makes tons of situation where his condition would be "quirky" and made for gags... that's the shtick. But i wanted to try to bring forward that the show doesn't have a mean spirited sense of humor since this is a real psychiatric condition that i'm sure more than a couple of the show's fans probably have and/or relate to in some degree.

As for teasing Raj, it comes and goes every character does it and gets it at some point



BTW, if anybody actually care, there is spoilers above...

Except for the episode where he gets drunk, and that lets him "score" the hottie at some party, and he has sex with her, then wakes up and freaks out HILARIOUSLY over how he's in bed with a woman who was super attracted to him because of how he acted like a douche when he was drunk.

There are many problems with this.

There is also another Episode where he gets drunk in a party and wakes up next to a overweight girl, he rolls, sees her, thinks for a second, and turns again with a huge smile and goes back to sleep. Also there is the above video i mentioned. Outside of context anything can look shady, but it's not a really good thought process to analyse anything from this kinds of shows as a unique point in the universe, you need a little context and sense of continuity to see if the show has bad vices or if something is just showing in a bad light...

[shiney]

I think we're overlooking the bigger point of this thread, which is to say, everyone who watches this show is retarded.

Now that's trollin'.

[Bells]

Originally Posted by shiney

I think we're overlooking the bigger point of this thread, which is to say, everyone who watches this show is retarded.

Now that's trollin'.