Why It’s So Cool To Hate The Big Bang Theory

3. The Show Is Stuck In The Past

The Big Bang Theory started in 2007, and it still largely belongs there. Even back then, the series was largely doing a more modern spin on what the likes of Friends and Cheers had before it, but now, when sitcoms have evolved through shows like 30 Rock (which remarkably debuted a year earlier), Community, and Veep and onto streaming services, getting smarter, riskier, and/or more personal in the process, something like The Big Bang feels like a relic of a bygone age; the last holdout of the pre-streaming era.

Most egregious in this regard is its continued use of a laugh track, use of which has largely died out now. Although once a staple, audiences have tended to turn on this device, especially when used so obnoxiously and dominating the scene over what the actual joke is supposed to be. The show is telling audiences it's funny, rather than letting them decide that for themselves.

Add in that a lot of its humour, certainly in the early days, came from stereotypes, along with its ingrained sense of misogyny and racism that it attempted to pass off as harmless, even cute, character traits, and it's a series that, for the most part, feels out of touch with where TV comedy (and society) is today.