Quote from: Sacrosanct;668503One 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

,  it.

I had two gaming buddies who combined to make wolowitz. Met plenty of people who resemble him. I have met a bunch of Leonards. And I have run into lots of people with aspects of Sheldon to them (I definitely see a lot of myself in that character--and not the good traits like genius with a perfect memory).

For me, the key thing that works about the show is the characters are ultimately likeable (in a lot of ways, Leonard who is supposed to be the most normal, is the least likeable). And the overall message seems to be that while they may be quirky and socially awkward they are still fun to hang out with and deserving of love. I also find it has made the non-geeks I know much more open to my hobbies like RPGs. I also think the show is funny and smarter than lots of people give it credit for (though it is what it is: an American sitcom that wants to appeal to a broad audience so it isn't written exclusively for geeks).

Quote from: Rincewind1;668695IT 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.  .

The "She's Dead!" line is where the show seemed to really hit it's stride. It took it from just another British Sitcom to something in the realm of Black Adder for me.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;668869I 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).

IT Crowd is one of my top 5 all time sitcoms (along with Firefly, Longmire, and a couple others).  However, I think it's not really fair to compare BBT with IT Crowd because IT Crowd is allowed to get away with a lot more since it's British.

BBT isn't one of my favorites, but it isn't bad either.  If I'm not mistaken, it's the most popular series on right now.  I know that doesn't mean much, but perhaps we could step back from the geek elitism that's showing it's face.  Because ironically, all that does is sort of prove that the characterization of Sheldon is one based on reality

Quote from: Sacrosanct;668883IT Crowd is one of my top 5 all time sitcoms (along with Firefly, Longmire, and a couple others).  However, I think it's not really fair to compare BBT with IT Crowd because IT Crowd is allowed to get away with a lot more since it's British.

BBT isn't one of my favorites, but it isn't bad either.  If I'm not mistaken, it's the most popular series on right now.  I know that doesn't mean much, but perhaps we could step back from the geek elitism that's showing it's face.  Because ironically, all that does is sort of prove that the characterization of Sheldon is one based on reality

That is the point I was trying to make in my other post. BBT is trying to appeal to a much broader audience. It is a show I can watch with my wife, my uncle and my cousins, and all of us will find something in it to laugh at. But IT crowd, which I find more entertaining most of the time, i pretty much watch alone, because it appeals to my sense humor but not my wife's or my uncle's or my cousin's.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;668886That is the point I was trying to make in my other post. BBT is trying to appeal to a much broader audience. It is a show I can watch with my wife, my uncle and my cousins, and all of us will find something in it to laugh at. But IT crowd, which I find more entertaining most of the time, i pretty much watch alone, because it appeals to my sense humor but not my wife's or my uncle's or my cousin's.

Exactly.

The problem with the geek complaints about BBT is that they prove some of the stereotypes used in the show.  And to be honest, BBT pretty much throws softballs at geek culture; they could have been MUCH more eviscerating if they wanted to by emphasizing some of the aspects of geek culture --such as hentai and its child porn subculture-- that would really creep out the masses if they knew about it.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;668457I 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.

The weirdest "geeky" t-shirt I ever saw was from a physics major I knew back in college, who made a tie-dyed shirt that said "alpha/2pi" on the front (with the Greek letters written out).

(It took me a long time to eventually figure out what "alpha/2pi" actually meant in physics).

Quote from: flyerfan1991;668457Okay, the other difference was that Sheldon has slowly matured, while that guy never did over the course of four years.

Did this guy mature over a longer period of time (ie. over a decade) ?

Quote from: ggroy;676413The weirdest "geeky" t-shirt I ever saw was from a physics major I knew back in college, who made a tie-dyed shirt that said "alpha/2pi" on the front (with the Greek letters written out).

(It took me a long time to eventually figure out what "alpha/2pi" actually meant in physics).



Did this guy mature over a longer period of time (ie. over a decade) ?

I talked to a mutual acquaintance about 3-4 years ago, and he told me that when he ran into him back in the late 90s, he was exactly the same.

Now, you can't judge based on a 30-40 minute encounter, but if he did mature he sure took his time about it.

Quote from: flyerfan1991;668928Exactly.

The problem with the geek complaints about BBT is that they prove some of the stereotypes used in the show.  And to be honest, BBT pretty much throws softballs at geek culture; they could have been MUCH more eviscerating if they wanted to by emphasizing some of the aspects of geek culture --such as hentai and its child porn subculture-- that would really creep out the masses if they knew about it.

This post is everything I despise about Tangency applied to this conversation.

Yeah. There's no stuff like that in my geek culture - which is warhammer, dune, lotr, star wars, b5, rpgs, and copper age marvel comics.