2. Pride (In The Name Of D&D)
As geeks, watching The Big Bang Theory lets us laugh at ourselves. Sure, were used to the mainstream making fun of us. But, as I said in #1, paradigms are shifting these days. And with this change comes a new confidence and consequently, a need to be humbled every once in a while. BBT helps the geek population see that while we should never be embarrassed about loving the things that we love, its necessary to treat our own enthusiasm with a grain of salt every so often. Recognizing that theres an inherent ridiculousness to arguing the merits of Supermans New 52 costume design doesn't mean that were betraying the things we love it just keeps us from taking ourselves too seriously all the time. By way of example: I remember watching the third episode of the first season, and the moment I knew I was hooked came when the main characters spent a solid 5 minutes challenging one another on the physics of Richard Donners Superman. I laughed not just because it was a funny scene, but also because I could easily identify with it. The conversation sounded like one that I might have with my friends, and that, as much as anything else, made me enjoy it. The bottom line: the job of comedy is to find the basic absurdities of life and show them for what they are and if nothing else, BBT has done that for the newly spotlighted geek culture.