Let me describe to you how many times I've been told to watch The Big Bang Theory.
A LOT.
It's frequently one of the first things people I've just met say upon hearing my list of interests and hobbies. "Oh, do you watch The Big Bang Theory?" And then they are, without fail, surprised when I say I don't. "You totally should!" they'll exclaim, "It's definitely a nerd show. It's great." At which point I'll just smile and nod, while making no plans to see the show and filing this person away as someone I don't want to talk about my interests and hobbies with.
I want to be clear. I have seen The Big Bang Theory. Several episodes from several different seasons and hundreds of different clips selected from throughout the show by well-meaning fans trying to convince me I'll like this show. I can see why they think it's funny, but I don't. "But it's about nerds!" they say.
Sure. Kinda like how Blazing Saddles is about cowboys.
So let's talk about parodies for a minute. I'm going to focus in on two specific examples, in order to keep this simple, but the general principles apply everywhere I can think of. When you are parodying something, there are two camps you can shoot for. We're all familiar with them, probably from very early in our childhoods. You can be laughing at something, or you can be laughing with something.
An example of laughing with; Galaxy Quest. Galaxy Quest is an obvious parody of Star Trek and its fandom, colloquially referred to as trekkies (or trekkers, if you're weird). Now I am a trekkie, a pretty huge one in fact, and so it's from a position of some authority that I say Galaxy Quest does not mock Star Trek or its fans. Sure, it pokes generous amounts of fun at some of the more ridiculous tropes of the show and fandom, touching on everything from the production quality of the original show to the social behaviors of trekkies and the unusual nature of the conventions they put on, but it's very clever about how it does it. In the end, in addition to being weird and kinda funny, the show and its fans are treated as ultimately noble and worthwhile, all that weirdness included. This allows trekkies watching the movie to laugh at their own silly behavior without feeling attacked. This is an excellent parody that targets the fans of the thing its parodying as its primary audience.
Now, from that same perspective as a trekkie, an example of laughing at; The Big Bang Theory (shock and surprise considering how I started this article, I know). The Big Bang Theory is a sitcom that makes its claim to fame by parodying a wide swath of nerd culture, not just Star Trek, but I've been exposed mainly to their Star Trek inspired gags and bits over the years because, once again, a lot of people I talk to hear "I like Star Trek" and immediately their brains jump to this show. In one instance, Sheldon is presented a napkin by what's-her-face (I'm not looking it up, feel free to tell me in the comments) that was used by Leonard Nimoy, the actor who famously played Spock in the original Star Trek series and subsequent movies. Sheldon's reaction, which is the substance of the gag, is so far beyond even extreme hero worship that he suggests he might attempt to create his own clone of Leonard Nimoy from that napkin. The gag is that trekkies are all super over-the-top in their fandom, so much so that they could be prone to super creepy stalker-ish behavior. Again, as a trekkie myself, that's... not true. And not flattering. As far as I am aware, that's basically where that gag ends. It's a sitcom. Fans of Star Trek are not its primary audience. It doesn't care, and it moves on quickly.
So it all comes down to audience expectation in the end. Galaxy Quest wanted to parody Star Trek, but it also knew the people most likely to watch the movie were trekkies, and so it made sure it was laughing with them, and not at them. The Big Bang Theory may have started out thinking it wanted to target nerd culture as its audience, but I think they quickly realized that most of their viewership simply wasn't in that culture. This is a generalization, but I don't think most "nerds" really get into sitcoms. Otherwise "nerd culture" as a term would include Friends, and TBBT would be mocking Friends as well as Trek. And so TBBT settled for laughing at nerds instead of with them. Both formats have production merit, and I'd guess both productions knew what they were doing.
But a show that paints my fandom as being in some way more ridiculous (definition: literally worthy of ridicule) than all the rest of y'all's fandom regarding sportsball, or fishing, or horses, or whatever you're into, is not going to be capturing my love anytime soon. So stop suggesting I watch The Big Bang Theory. As far as I can tell it's done nothing but harm the perception of "nerd culture" in the community at large, and the sooner the show is dead and forgotten, the better.
This message brought to you by the Commission For, Uh, Not Watching The Big Bang Theory. Duh.
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