If I've seen it in the UK it must have already aired in the US but the latest Big Bang Theory is pretty much about a D&D game. I thought it was a rather cliched and non-authentic take on the hobby but it is still worth a look for curiosity value.

The IT Crowd is the only show that has done roleplaying games in a way that feels like the writer knows what he is talking about well enough to know how to poke fun at it in an really authentic manner.

Quote from: Soylent Green;668328If I've seen it in the UK it must have already aired in the US but the latest Big Bang Theory is pretty much about a D&D game. I thought it was a rather cliched and non-authentic take on the hobby but it is still worth a look for curiosity value.

The IT Crowd is the only show that has done roleplaying games in a way that feels like the writer knows what he is talking about well enough to know how to poke fun at it in an really authentic manner.

Which episode did you see?  They had a few this season with a D&D session as a big part of the plot.

Sure, the episodes are hackneyed, but they didn't portray RPGers as they had been stereotyped:  people who rarely crawled out of the basement, worshipped Satan, barely could handle saying hello to a member of the opposite sex, and subsisted on Mountain Dew and Cheetos.  (Okay, Raj didn't exactly help out on that opposite sex part.)  Still, if they were able to get my wife interested in playing, then they did a much better job than expected.

Quote from: Soylent Green;668328If I've seen it in the UK it must have already aired in the US but the latest Big Bang Theory is pretty much about a D&D game. I thought it was a rather cliched and non-authentic take on the hobby but it is still worth a look for curiosity value.

The IT Crowd is the only show that has done roleplaying games in a way that feels like the writer knows what he is talking about well enough to know how to poke fun at it in an really authentic manner.

You should watch the Community episode "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons", or the last little bit of the last episode of Freaks and Geeks.  Both were written by people who were serious D&D players.  The "prop" D&D books in the Community episode were all Dan Harmon's.

This is BBT:

The IT Crowd episode was pretty good, as was the Community episode (and I don't like Community.) The Big Bang Theory episode was very mediocre.

Another good one, though, was the Venture Brothers episode about the funeral of the college classmate of Rusty, Brock, Pete White, and Baron Von Underbeit.

The Big Bang is blackface for geeks.

I actually think it's a pretty decent show, and that episode was pretty good just for Howard's impressions.  We talked about that a month or so ago when it aired here.


I guess most geeks like to laugh at everyone else but themselves...

Quote from: talysman;668341The IT Crowd episode was pretty good...

I loved in the making of for that episode that one of the actors says "roleplay games", and the writer/director calls for a cut saying: "Its 'roleplaying games'. We have to get it right. They [as in the audience] will know."

Quote from: Sacrosanct;668347I actually think it's a pretty decent show, and that episode was pretty good just for Howard's impressions.  We talked about that a month or so ago when it aired here.


I guess most geeks like to laugh at everyone else but themselves...

I like to laugh at funny things.

Hackneyed sitcom plots where the characters are the standard tv idiots despite the show saying theyre smart with an obtrusive laugh track, stereotypical plots that have been done to death since the 80s, and no character consistency is just bad tv. Brought to you by the same people who do 2 1/2 Men and Dharma & Greg, with the same level of quality.

The Big Bang isnt about geeks laughing at themselves, because the characters are not geeks, they're 80s John Hughes films Hollywood stereotypes of geeks meant to appeal to a mass audience.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;668347I actually think it's a pretty decent show, and that episode was pretty good just for Howard's impressions.  We talked about that a month or so ago when it aired here.


I guess most geeks like to laugh at everyone else but themselves...

I am with you. Enjoyed it. It was meant for a wide audience, so it wasn't inside jokes only gamers would get but it was funny. And there is a grain of truth to the humor, even if it is really exagerated for effect.

This seems more like a media discussion so moving the thread there.

Quote from: TristramEvans;668349I like to laugh at funny things.

Hackneyed sitcom plots where the characters are the standard tv idiots despite the show saying theyre smart with an obtrusive laugh track, stereotypical plots that have been done to death since the 80s, and no character consistency is just bad tv. Brought to you by the same people who do 2 1/2 Men and Dharma & Greg, with the same level of quality.

The Big Bang isnt about geeks laughing at themselves, because the characters are not geeks, they're 80s John Hughes films Hollywood stereotypes of geeks meant to appeal to a mass audience.

I disagree.  I had a classmate in college who was a Sheldon, the only difference was that he wore the standard Maxwell's Equations t-shirts instead of the comic book ones.  Okay, the other difference was that Sheldon has slowly matured, while that guy never did over the course of four years.

I knew several Wolowitz clones --the pre-marriage version-- who would creep women out.  The fact that one of them is now married and has two kids amazes me to no end.

But by far, I knew a lot of Leonards.  You couldn't miss the bunch of them who hung out in the VAX lab or down in the Physics student room.  (And I was one of them, so I'm guilty.)  If anything, the most stereotypical of the bunch is Penny, and Leonard's relationship with her is more wish fulfillment than anything else.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;668347I actually think it's a pretty decent show, and that episode was pretty good just for Howard's impressions.  We talked about that a month or so ago when it aired here.


I guess most geeks like to laugh at everyone else but themselves...

I was actually jealous of Howard's impressions in that episode.  I can't do that in-game at all.

The other big D&D one --the Christmas episode with Sheldon's issues with Santa-- was also pretty interesting in that it gave a bit of depth to his character that nobody knew was there.  The childishness and vindictiveness we all knew was present, but the underlying motivation was very deeply hidden.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;668457I knew several Wolowitz clones --the pre-marriage version-- who would creep women out.  The fact that one of them is now married and has two kids amazes me to no end.

One of my friends since Jr. High is a Wolowitz clone.  Only he has also thrown in long hair and refusal to "bow down to the man", AKA: unemployed and we're 40 years old now.  But his approach towards women is exactly like Howard's before he got married on the show

QuoteBut by far, I knew a lot of Leonards.  You couldn't miss the bunch of them who hung out in the VAX lab or down in the Physics student room.  (And I was one of them, so I'm guilty.)  If anything, the most stereotypical of the bunch is Penny, and Leonard's relationship with her is more wish fulfillment than anything else.

That relationship is total wish fulfillment.  

It should also be noted that at least half of the actors in that show are huge nerds in real life.  Malik is a huge science nerd with her PHD, and while Jim Parsons hasn't specifically mentioned RPGs, he has said he loves to roleplay different characters, which is what led him to be a HUGE theater nerd since he was young.  The guy who plays Howard has been a martial arts nerd since he was a kid, and John Galecki (Leonard) is a lot like his character in real life, only with motorcycles thrown in.  He said he's constantly trying to learn new "nerd" things, from learning the cello to painting.

For all the accusations that that show only does lazy stereotypes, it should be noted that they do not have Catpissman, uglies, or Queen Bee as a regular character type.  I imagine because if they really depicted real nerds, no one would want to watch it.

Quote from: TristramEvans;668346The Big Bang is blackface for geeks.

I'm getting more and more of this mindset. There does seem to be a lot of self-depricating geek humor in the show.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;668347I guess most geeks like to laugh at everyone else but themselves...

No, the problem is it's shit.

Alright, to extrapolate a little - it's cliche American sitcom, with geeks as characters. You could basically exchange the entire series with Friends' characters, and you'd only need to remove occasional technobabble.

IT Crowd delivers much, much larger blows - 2 out of 3 main characters are socially inept to the point when one of characters can't leave the underside of the desk for a few hours, and other is so incapable of social interaction that when he has to lie he goes to the "she's dead" line. Not to mention the fact that they're living in the basement. It's hitting nerds just as hard if not harder at times as BBT does, except you rarely see a typical nerd protesting it. Why? Perhaps, at least partially, it's because IT Crowd legitimately attempts to try to laugh with, rather than at, most of the time - no matter who you are, you will find material to connect with there. BBT's uses old cliche plotlines and cardboard cutouts from Revenge of the Nerds. Which is a film I love, but well, it's from the bloody 80s.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;668337You should watch the Community episode "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons", or the last little bit of the last episode of Freaks and Geeks.  Both were written by people who were serious D&D players.  The "prop" D&D books in the Community episode were all Dan Harmon's.

AD&D episode sold me on Community. Chevy Chase was just glorious when he ragequitted and went on to metagame the scenario in order to win .

Quote from: Rincewind1;668695It's hitting nerds just as hard if not harder at times as BBT does, except you rarely see a typical nerd protesting it. Why? Perhaps, at least partially, it's because IT Crowd legitimately attempts to try to laugh with, rather than at, most of the time - no matter who you are, you will find material to connect with there. BBT's uses old cliche plotlines and cardboard cutouts from Revenge of the Nerds. Which is a film I love, but well, it's from the bloody 80s.
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I love IT crowd but I think it may largely get a pass because it is British and slightly more high brow. But I don't find it is any more sensitive to geeks or laughing at them any less. I am fine with both programs. Both shows begin with pretty cardboard characters who grow as the series progresses. Certainly Sheldon, Howard and I suppose Raj would fit in RotN pretty well. But so would Roy and Moss (they cleave pretty close to booger and poindexter).