We all have that person in our families, it might be your Dad, Uncle, Mum, cousin, or maybe the funny smelling aunt. You dread them coming because you know that at some point theyre going to make their one and only joke and youre expected to laugh. Sure, it was funny the first time, maybe even the second but by the time youve heard the same joke 300 times its just not funny anymore and you cringe with a fake smile. That same concept works with running jokes on a comedy show. The Big Bang Theory is one of the few comedy shows that have remained consistently funny through its entire run, though it is in danger of stretching some of those jokes a little too far. Sheldon's character has gone from snooty, haughty genius to complete moron with no idea how to function in the world. Penny is a lush with no money and a no desire to grow, while Leonard is almost completely schizophrenic vaulting from confident to dweeb in 2 seconds. Lets take a look at some of the most annoying or unrealistic recurring jokes and themes to see if we can identify the dead wood that needs to be cut out and give the show room to breathe.
12. Penny, Penny, Penny
When the show first started, Sheldon was a completely different character. There were none of the ticks or OCD related traits and his voice was significantly lower. The character was socially awkward and had no time for human interactions, even being baffled by non-optional social conventions. But he was not the asexual, borderline autistic we find today. Somewhere around season 3 the writers and producers obviously decided to push the envelope a little. For a while it worked, but the joke is wearing thin. With Amy Farrah-Fowler on the scene and room for the character to grow with more comedy ensuing from that, its time to drop the ticks and bring back the sarcastic, smart alec, haughty, super-genius we met in the beginning. Maybe the writers thought bringing the character down a little would make him more likable, but in doing so they stripped away the humanity that he needs in order to grow. Sheldon is levels of magnitude more intelligent than the rest of the group and his lack of interest in human interactions isn't the same as not being able to understand what they are or how they work. The character is at his best when looking down on others, bringing him down may appeal to the less intelligent viewers, but to the rest it was watching the supposed useless geek winning over the confident 'normal' people that brought the best laughs.
I.T. Consultant, technophile and Doctor Who fan. I like to talk about tech, take films apart and make excuses for Doctor Who's continuity errors. No other show has the power to make me feel like a big kid.
