As times change and people adapt to their new and ever growing world, our perspectives of what is valuable morph. Our needs are modified in order to fit what qualifies as “success” as things get more and more complex and we become more and more dependent on technology.
Starting in the fifties, the country's attentiveness towards all things technological and scientific has turned on more than a few trends. The
nerd, the opposite to others such as a return to nature, a return to a sixth sense, etc, has been present and is rising in popularity. When massive calamities such as Y2K come along, we turn to our intellectuals and for all of their stereotyped clumsiness and uncharismatic quirks, we adore them.
Athletes are somewhat still the leaders in stereotypes of men that get the girl, but with the recent boost in superhero movies and the surge in interest in these physically able men by night/super intellectual by day, the brawny athlete has taken a back seat. The preferred man is a morph between intellectual and smooth talker. He is the nerd without the social frigidness and in superhero cases, he is also the physical wonder.
But, in a world where media has been throwing out images of the unfaithful boyfriend, the liar, the cheater, the con artist and the pick up artists the praise for the nerd has skyrocketed. What is the moral of the show Beauty and the Geek? That these socially challenged guys are actually the greatest people most of the bimbettes will ever meet. But is it really ok to get a cheap laugh from their inexperience and obvious discomfort because we pat them on the head and praise them for not being assholes? Not to mention, does a pretty and sexy girl have to be a total vapid waste of space? Does adoring them give us permission to laugh at them as well? It's the reverse of using Randy in My Name Is Earl for comic relief. Oh, look how cute the idiot is. Today he put his fork in the outlet. It was hilarious. The Big Bang Theory seems to foster the reverse: Oh look at how cute the nerd is. He's upset because he can't be Frodo for Halloween.
A few weeks back I caught an episode of
The Big Bang Theory and was offended. Now, I do claim a little territory in the nerd kingdom because of my love for Shatner, writing blogs, reading sci-fi, having dated a D&D master and befriending mostly geniuses. I know that these things put me into that category. Watching
The Big Bang Theory was like watching someone claim that Dangerous Minds was an accurate portrayal of a teaching experience.
In addition to the show's serious lack of morals when it comes to making characters out of stereotypes, their selection of punchlines and stereotypical plot fodder is repulsive to anyone who even has any claim in the “nerd” universe. Sure, stereotypes are bad, but I also know they exist for a reason. They work and get a rise out of people because when you point them out, most people think “Hell, that IS true about someone I know of that grouping”. However, to write a show based solely on these things makes your characters nothing more than walking characaters. To saturate your script with catch phrases and trite interests is offensive to those of us who actually know what you are talking about. You aren't connecting with an audience, you are repelling them. It is just as offensive as having a show about an African American family who talks about loving fried chicken and watermelon. It is like having a Jewish family sitcom where all the characters do is count their money and talk in an annoying accent. Or it is like making a show about trailer park inhabitants who are so dim witted, it's amazing they haven't choked on their own spit.
Let me show you exactly what I am talking about.
Watch this: "The Middle Earth Paradigm" Episode of The Big Bang Theory
Or if you Torrent it's Episode Six of Big Bang Theory, The
The Dissection Table
***The episode starts off with a few jokes about a lost paint ball tournament where the “nerds” admittedly lose to a bunch of 13 year old Bar Mitvah attendees. One remarks that the other hid behind a tree barking orders instead of going out there to fight.
Implication: Nerds are no good at physical adventures such as paint ball and they are cowards
***The neighbor girl asks them to a party. They ask, “A boy/girl party?” and “Will there be dancing?”
Implication: Nerds never interact with girls or do anything physical like dancing.
**The nerds ask if the Halloween Party has a theme. The girl doesn't understand.
Implication: Normal people don't know what themed parties are.
***The nerds list cosplay themes like anime, manga, science fiction..
Implication: All intellectuals participate in cosplay. Seriously, people who engage in cosplay don't necessarily run in the same circles as people who are proficient in science or are into computers or who are even intellectual (or whatever category you are cramming these ambiguous and sad characters into). People belonging to the cosplay subculture and even gamers in general or anime fans all have separate interests with separate circles of friends. The thing they may have in common would be that they are seen as “unpopular” in a high school setting, but the last time I checked, that didn't make you a nerd.
***The nerds all dress as The Flash and they bicker over it.
Implication: The Flash is some sort of hero to the nerds of the world. All I can say is that this is totally ridiculous. The Flash is just a random comic book character and not even a very good one at that. Even comic book enthusiasts don't worship The Flash. So here we are again, mixing up groups and interests in the name of who would be unpopular in a high school setting.
***The nerds fight over the Frodo Baggins costume.
Implication: Nerds love the LOTR trilogy and they all want to be Frodo. The LOTR trilogy is a pop nerd phenomenon. Most Fantasy fans acknowledge it and have read it and enjoyed it, but there are far better books of this genre as well. In fact, the nerds here are very science oriented, the group of Fantasy enthusiasts isn't necessarily the same. Yet another pigeon hole for these “nerds”.
***The nerds show up five minutes after the agreed upon time and the blond girlie host is caught off gaurd because no one has shown up yet and she hasn't even showered.
Implication: Being rude is cool and being punctual is lame. When did we become the society in Idiocracy?
***The nerds watch and analyze the partygoers like a science project.
Implication: People with intellect don't understand simple interactions.
***Frodo nerd decides to not be intimidated by the love interest's boyfriend who is dressed as Tarzan, touting that he is superior in the information age because he is smart. The Tarzan man picks up Frodo nerd after Frodo throws around a few insults coated with large words.
Implication: This scene is just embarrassing to both sides because now they have stereotyped the physically able man as an idiot and in the end, he still picks up Frodo and embarrasses him enough to make him leave the party.
***The love interest cries on the shoulder of the nerd who is unsure of how to comfort her.
Implication: Intellectuals are cold and have no idea how to comfort.
***Love interest kisses nerd and he asks how drunk she is and doesn't take advantage of her.
Implication: Only drunk girls give it up to social rejects who wouldn't even take it when handed to them.
This show needs to be more responsible and less offensive to those of us who understand more than the mere catch phrases and nerd quirks that general society has tied to being a loser. Just because a nerd gets kissed in the end doesn't make it acceptable to laugh at him for the other 19 minutes of this torturous and shallow show.
____In today's more liberal world all kinds of lines are being crossed, blurred and tangled up into enormous knots of confusion. This kind of thing is expected in your everyday world when you live within driving distance of places like South Beach. In fact, it's a perk of living in South Florida (and believe me, it's probably the only one). However, gender roles and gender identity are rarely questioned in other realms, or so I thought.
Nermal, the ditsy and annoyingly happy counterpart to the ever dry and wry Garfield, was drawn with gray stripes and eyelashes. These are obvious female traitss. Nermal was also voiced by a female, Desirée Goyette. I'm not talking a female voice that is ambiguous like Bart Simpson's speaker, Nancy Cartwright, but Nermal had a decidedly woman's voice. When this was brought to my attention last night, I immediately felt guilty for corrupting the gender identity of the cat. However, the name and the gender confusion sort of fit. I guess it works being that Nermal the actual cat is extra large, super aggressive and has a throaty meow. Speaking of androgynous eighties childhood characters, I purposely named my effeminate male cat Atreyu after the confusingly femme character in The Never Ending Story. I guess they match now. Don't ever be a pet of mine.
Maybe not as confusing gender-wise because Blue Meanie is obviously a male, but the voicing of Blue Meanie, the make up, the fuck me boots, the weird half pointed hand gesture, etc all point to drag queen.
