1. Portraying Geeks As Dorks
The entire premise of The Big Bang Theory used to be that the guys who were picked on in school for being geeks had grown up and taken over the world from the less intelligent who once picked on them. There was certainly comedy to be had with the juxtaposition of that with the odd example of bullying, like when Sheldon and Leonard were left pant-less after trying to get Pennys money back, but ultimately the geeks are supposed to win. While there is clearly an advisor on board for when jokes require some physics input, the same cannot be said of when technology is being used. This weeks episode in the UK had the boys sitting pressing refresh constantly to try and get tickets to Comic-Con. The James Earl-Jones aspects of the episode were certainly funny but are we seriously trying to say that not one of our four geniuses would have written a program to do that for them? The joke could then have been about the code being discovered and the boys terrified of getting into trouble because of it. The point were making here is that for smart guys they sometimes do things that real geeks never would. The program has grown in popularity but as that has happened the butt of the jokes have more and more been the geeks. Your core audience. Its fine when theyre laughing WITH them, or when the joke is on the stupid people, but if the geeks are constantly shown as losers it is just not funny. Theres not a single intelligent character on the show who isnt in some way shown as being socially awkward. While that may be funny for five minutes were on season seven and since one of the guys is now married we really should be moving on. Even the last episode had a mix of good jokes and bad but most of the jokes that fell flat were in one of the categories above. If the show is to survive for another seven seasons and stay funny its time to shake out the old dead wood and let some new shoots grow. Laughing at geeks is now likely to get your account hacked and your Facebook wiped, they own the world. The smart jokes are the best ones.