It's no contest

bbt is blackface

I wouldn't say dumb people. It's a caricature, much like Dennis the Menace is a caricature of small children in a quiet, suburban neighborhood. Only Big Bang Theory wasn't based on an existing comic. So more like Friends being an unrealistic caricature of a late-20's/early-30's group of people living n NYC.

Entertainment doesn't always have to be authentic.

Big bang theory is about nerds.

Also, BBT stayed entertaining for the most part throughout the 8 or so seasons it was on. IT started great and then dropped to "meh".

Saw a critic call it, “Nerd blackface”

I saw some clips on YT where they removed the laugh track.

It's really hard to find the show funny when they take out the bit where it tells you when to laugh.

It got so popular, had occasional Star Trek references, even a cameo by Leonard Nimoy, and I still couldn't get myself to enjoy it. It's such a a shame.

is this not comedy gold?!

I'm a geek and a nerd and i loved it, sorry.

Chris Morris is a legend. I love Matt Berry but Morris is legitimately one of the most influential figures in British comedy.

I believe this is what happened to Dr Who. When it started it was for science and history nerds, science sounding gobble-de-gook, cos play outfits, very low production values (the infamous duct tape boots). All just good fun.
When it was rebooted the focus had shifted. The Doctor as the cool guy, a Jesus figure, became more and more pronounced. They started to make fun of nerds on a regular bases. Amazing writing and production values, but at some point during the Tennant era I stopped watching in disgust.

I might require some explanation.

I love this so much.

In other words, you have insufficient data to make a meaningful comparison.

Because, similar to blackface in its time, people love to point and laugh at exaggerated caricatures of something different from themselves.

And CBS airs lowest common denominator garbage that the masses devour.

And Moss was a nerd not a geek. He wasn’t obsessing about comics, videogames etc. like the characters in BBT.

I watched a scene where someone posted it without the laugh track and it was super cringey. Semi-related note.. Taking the laugh track out of BBT ruins it, but taking Garfield out of Garfield comics takes it to a new level, see here -> https://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

The laugh track alone is enough evidence

... 3

EDIT: since I don't want the top reply not to mention this, fuck IT Crowd creator Graham Linehan for the incalculable damage he's done to innocent trans people. He's a worthless, disgusting bigot.

Honestly, I always found that episode... Weirdly progressive? Even maybe by accident? Consider the following:

• The trans woman April is legitimately physically attractive and with a distinctly feminine voice to match.
• She's a legitimately very sweet, intelligent, and earnest person.
• She tells Douglas upfront in no uncertain terms that she's trans (she phrases this as "I used to be a man", but honestly, considering both 2008 and the fact it was used to setup a joke, I think this isn't too transphobic? A trans person in 2008 might've even said this because there was less of a support network to understand that you always were a woman.)
• Douglas gets upset because he thinks he's been tricked, but 1) he absolutely was not, and the episode makes this crystal clear that it's because April made every effort and he's just an absolute dumbass, and 2) Douglas has been portrayed in the show to this point as nothing but a juvenile, overdramatic, chauvanistic sack of shit, and we're clearly not supposed to be rooting for him.
• She's a fantastic girlfriend and becomes the love of his life. A big part of this is because she has a duality between traditional femininity and an interest in traditionally masculine activities, but I also don't think this is terrible representation? I have a trans woman friend who carries herself in a traditionally feminine way but hasn't dropped more traditionally masculine activities that she grew up enjoying.
• She throws the first hit at the end, but this is after Douglas dumps her on the spot after they've hit it off, had sex, and confessed their love for each other because he was too stupid to listen, he tells her to get lost, he basically calls her gross to her face by talking in a disgusted tone about "that operation you had", and flat-out denies her existence as a woman.
• It's made very evident that if Douglas weren't transphobic, he could've lived the rest of his life with a woman who's established to be literally perfect for him.

Linehan has become much worse since that controversy, he's been on a proper trans hate crusade since like 2019. It wasn't about being insensitive, he's completely deranged and the episode was just an early slip.

That episode aired in 2008 and I think a little self-reflection would have went a long way to getting people to forgive his mistake.

Only problem is, we now know it wasn't a mistake, it was deliberate, because he's extremely transphobic. To the point where he is now better known as an anti-transgender activist than a (former) writer.

The IT Crowd and Father Ted are genuinely brilliant, too bad Graham is a total dickhead.

Which episode?

Edit: oof

The IT Crowd creator has stated he does not believe trans women are women and that transgender rights oppress women.

I wanted to make some quip about it being typical but actually not all men think this way or assume they know what women think. And I’m sure some women think this way. But it also tells me all I need to know about this tool. Good riddance.

do you like saying the word Team, and that picture on your desk, is it of your family?

God I loved that character. Wish he lasted longer, I found his absurdism waaaay funnier than his son's rape jokes.

What a way to go though.

The problem with the r-slur wasn't the word itself but dehumanizing mentally disabled people; I guess being more overt about it is preferable, if we have to choose one or the other, but you're not circumventing anything.

Funny, but now you're talking about the layman being cut out. Ratings won't survive and it dies after one season. But that would be better lol

Most humor is funnier than a laugh track sitcom. But humor being regional is ... an interesting phenomenon if nothing else. Like yea I enjoyed the hell out of Monty Python as a kid and even now. But ill take the office from Scranton ober the og any day of the week. But I also wouldnt expect peeps from across the pond to feel that way.

Is their anything from that late 90s era early 00s British tv had to compare the chapelle show? Honestly curious, I only have so much knowledge of British humor.

The Office would like to have a word with you.