5 ms·

BBT is based on displaying stereotypes and then ridiculing them. As someone who studied CS and now works in IT, I've met quite a few people who actually have to

by kleiba 7y ago

BBT is based on displaying stereotypes and then ridiculing them. As someone who studied CS and now works in IT, I've met quite a few people who actually have to deal with the very issues that this show makes fun of, and let me tell you: being a social outsider is not as much fun in the real world. I have a hard time imagining how in this day and age the same ridiculing of stereotypes would fly without a giant backlash if the show were about: - Women - Homosexuals - Non-white people - ... But apparently, "nerds" are a safe enough as a group that coming up with a skewed portrayal of them that lends itself to making fun of is okay. Yeah, you go ahead and laugh about those tech freaks... why should the school bullies get all the fun...

gamache 7y ago
A friend of mine calls BBT "nerd blackface", and I think it's a pretty snappy description.
- MarkSweep 7y ago
  Along similar lines, I've heard it called a nerd minstrel show.
- neutronicus 7y ago
  You should be careful about repeating this - a lot of people find the comparison very, very offensive.
  - stormbrew 7y ago
    Because it very much is. Blackface isn't bad because it's just stereotype driven mocking. It's bad because people in a position of power (white people) profited from pretending to be people who had none (black people) while simultaneously reinforcing stereotypes that help keep them powerless. Nerds and comedy writers do not in any way form or shape share this dynamic.
    - mcguire 7y ago
      To an extent, yes. And no. I mean, sure, I'm all for lawyer jokes. (What's the difference between a lawyer and a catfish? One is a bottom-dwelling mud-sucker and the other is a fish.) And when they complain, I can point out that the alternative is that we erect the guillotines in the parking lot. On the other hand, there are a lot of people to whom the nerd stereotype more-or-less applies, but who are not tech billionaires, prominent scientists, or otherwise powerful. And they're the ones who get to pay the consequences of the stereotypes. If you are a Silicon Valley millionaire, that you spend time arguing that the Hulk can beat Superman is a quaint eccentricity. But if you aren't BBT is just another source of ammunition against you.
      - stormbrew 7y ago
        Where this is a legitimate complaint, it would be better served to look at it as ablism, in that the show is absolutely screwing with people who are autistic through Sheldon. Generally speaking, though, nerds who can fit in socially with other people are not losing jobs for being nerdy. They're not being killed for being nerdy. They're not even being beaten up for being nerdy on any kind of major scale, and certainly not as adults. There's simply no comparison to be had here. We, as nerds, are not oppressed for being nerdy. Our feelings being hurt is not comparable to slavery or jim crow.
        pussybitch 7y ago
        No one cares about your sensitivities but you. You act like you're some martyr ever time your virgin ears detect an off color remark, and yet, for all your fragility, you're the burden that needs to be thrown overboard for the benefit of society. Your whine is pathetic. Your boundaries make you weak. You pine for billy club and hand cuffs, so you can police the world according to your rules, and yet no one wants them but you. The rest of the world hears a naughty word and moves on. You stew in your juices and find all the wrong reasons to imagine a world of oppression. The knee jerk belief that it's about superficial qualities is a telling reality about your own inability to look past things like race, sex, age and culture.
    - 7y ago
- bluejellybean 7y ago
  I frequently get asked why I don't like the show from non-nerd friends and this is _exactly_ why, your friends description is perfect. The entire thing is just offensive and reinforces both negative nerd and sexual stereotypes for the profit of others. It is very much nerd blackface.
ACow_Adonis 7y ago
I'm not homosexual, but have you seen the portrayls of such on the likes of 'next top model', 'queer eye...', and honestly just about any mainstream media now that I think about it. They're petty much all caricatures of 'offensively eccentric negative-female- characteristics high-pitched limp-wristed men with obsessions for fashion and celebrity culture'. Its exactly the same thing and pretty standard...if i was less cynical, id think it should of created more of an uproar... I'm sure I could come up with examples for the other groups...
- TheHegemon 7y ago
  I mean this are slightly more excusable because they're supposed to the host's actual personality. Whereas in a sitcom it's what the writer's determine the character is supposed to act like.
- fetus8 7y ago
  I don't know if your description of the men on Queer Eye is apt. It's a reality show, which admittedly doesn't mean the hosts aren't acting, but the show is hosted by a cast of all homosexual men. Being in the age we're in, it's easy to go find more content that shows the hosts aren't acting for Queer Eye, and perhaps they're being their genuine selves. Jonathon Van Ness, has a podcast, and has done some Youtube content over the years, and doesn't seem to portray a different "character" than he does on QE. Mainstream media, especially in the last 10 years, has really changed the way homosexuals, and other LGBTQ+ are presented and seen. I would argue that it's a lot less problematic, and more genuine than it's ever been. HBO's 'Looking' did a decent job of portraying the spectrum of gay men that exist today. (Not a particularly great show otherwise). Amazon's 'Transparent' does an incredible job of highlighting the fact that sexuality exists on a spectrum, and those people can be hyper-fem, hyper-masc, and anywhere in between. As a gay nerd, I personally think it's important we see all kinds of LGBTQ+ identifying people, and shows like Queer Eye have done that.
  - mcguire 7y ago
    I haven't seen the reboot of Queer Eye, but most of the cast of the original were hardly stereotypical. Ted Allen?
cc81 7y ago
You have comedies parodying all those things. While the show did make fun of the nerd things they also gave most of them good qualities and successful lives and they were happy about being nerds. It seems it is just a sensitive subject for some nerds but look at for example Modern Family. The gay couple and their friends are mocked for tons of gay stereotypes for example.
knolax 7y ago
Don't worry, BBT does stereotyping of women and minorities too.
- MagicPropmaker 7y ago
  Yes. I really don't like the Jewish stereotypes at all. (Interestingly, the guy who plays the "Jewish Guy" Howared isn't Jewish, but the actress who plays his non-Jewish girlfriend "Bernadette" is.)
stormbrew 7y ago
The funny thing about this post is that BBT is full of misogyny, homophobia, and racism. Like, chock full of it. And yet the most frequent complaint about it is about how mean it is to nerds.
- knolax 7y ago
  Well being mean to nerds was the main gimmick, the other stereotypes were just for support.
  - stormbrew 7y ago
    I mean, the real thing is that nearly every sitcom is full of these things that apparently won't fly according to the post I was replying to. They're literally the background noise of network evening TV. Chuck Lorre's other big contemporary show is no better on these fronts and isn't about making fun of nerds. So they're not actually things that are unacceptable. They're just so normal people don't even notice them until they're aimed at a trait they identify with.

by kleiba 7y ago

gamache 7y ago

A friend of mine calls BBT "nerd blackface", and I think it's a pretty snappy description.

MarkSweep 7y ago
Along similar lines, I've heard it called a nerd minstrel show.
neutronicus 7y ago
You should be careful about repeating this - a lot of people find the comparison very, very offensive.
- stormbrew 7y ago
  Because it very much is. Blackface isn't bad because it's just stereotype driven mocking. It's bad because people in a position of power (white people) profited from pretending to be people who had none (black people) while simultaneously reinforcing stereotypes that help keep them powerless. Nerds and comedy writers do not in any way form or shape share this dynamic.
  - mcguire 7y ago
    To an extent, yes. And no. I mean, sure, I'm all for lawyer jokes. (What's the difference between a lawyer and a catfish? One is a bottom-dwelling mud-sucker and the other is a fish.) And when they complain, I can point out that the alternative is that we erect the guillotines in the parking lot. On the other hand, there are a lot of people to whom the nerd stereotype more-or-less applies, but who are not tech billionaires, prominent scientists, or otherwise powerful. And they're the ones who get to pay the consequences of the stereotypes. If you are a Silicon Valley millionaire, that you spend time arguing that the Hulk can beat Superman is a quaint eccentricity. But if you aren't BBT is just another source of ammunition against you.
    - stormbrew 7y ago
      Where this is a legitimate complaint, it would be better served to look at it as ablism, in that the show is absolutely screwing with people who are autistic through Sheldon. Generally speaking, though, nerds who can fit in socially with other people are not losing jobs for being nerdy. They're not being killed for being nerdy. They're not even being beaten up for being nerdy on any kind of major scale, and certainly not as adults. There's simply no comparison to be had here. We, as nerds, are not oppressed for being nerdy. Our feelings being hurt is not comparable to slavery or jim crow.
      - pussybitch 7y ago
        No one cares about your sensitivities but you. You act like you're some martyr ever time your virgin ears detect an off color remark, and yet, for all your fragility, you're the burden that needs to be thrown overboard for the benefit of society. Your whine is pathetic. Your boundaries make you weak. You pine for billy club and hand cuffs, so you can police the world according to your rules, and yet no one wants them but you. The rest of the world hears a naughty word and moves on. You stew in your juices and find all the wrong reasons to imagine a world of oppression. The knee jerk belief that it's about superficial qualities is a telling reality about your own inability to look past things like race, sex, age and culture.
  - 7y ago
bluejellybean 7y ago
I frequently get asked why I don't like the show from non-nerd friends and this is _exactly_ why, your friends description is perfect. The entire thing is just offensive and reinforces both negative nerd and sexual stereotypes for the profit of others. It is very much nerd blackface.

ACow_Adonis 7y ago

I'm not homosexual, but have you seen the portrayls of such on the likes of 'next top model', 'queer eye...', and honestly just about any mainstream media now that I think about it. They're petty much all caricatures of 'offensively eccentric negative-female- characteristics high-pitched limp-wristed men with obsessions for fashion and celebrity culture'. Its exactly the same thing and pretty standard...if i was less cynical, id think it should of created more of an uproar... I'm sure I could come up with examples for the other groups...

TheHegemon 7y ago
I mean this are slightly more excusable because they're supposed to the host's actual personality. Whereas in a sitcom it's what the writer's determine the character is supposed to act like.
fetus8 7y ago
I don't know if your description of the men on Queer Eye is apt. It's a reality show, which admittedly doesn't mean the hosts aren't acting, but the show is hosted by a cast of all homosexual men. Being in the age we're in, it's easy to go find more content that shows the hosts aren't acting for Queer Eye, and perhaps they're being their genuine selves. Jonathon Van Ness, has a podcast, and has done some Youtube content over the years, and doesn't seem to portray a different "character" than he does on QE. Mainstream media, especially in the last 10 years, has really changed the way homosexuals, and other LGBTQ+ are presented and seen. I would argue that it's a lot less problematic, and more genuine than it's ever been. HBO's 'Looking' did a decent job of portraying the spectrum of gay men that exist today. (Not a particularly great show otherwise). Amazon's 'Transparent' does an incredible job of highlighting the fact that sexuality exists on a spectrum, and those people can be hyper-fem, hyper-masc, and anywhere in between. As a gay nerd, I personally think it's important we see all kinds of LGBTQ+ identifying people, and shows like Queer Eye have done that.
- mcguire 7y ago
  I haven't seen the reboot of Queer Eye, but most of the cast of the original were hardly stereotypical. Ted Allen?

cc81 7y ago

You have comedies parodying all those things. While the show did make fun of the nerd things they also gave most of them good qualities and successful lives and they were happy about being nerds. It seems it is just a sensitive subject for some nerds but look at for example Modern Family. The gay couple and their friends are mocked for tons of gay stereotypes for example.

knolax 7y ago

Don't worry, BBT does stereotyping of women and minorities too.

MagicPropmaker 7y ago
Yes. I really don't like the Jewish stereotypes at all. (Interestingly, the guy who plays the "Jewish Guy" Howared isn't Jewish, but the actress who plays his non-Jewish girlfriend "Bernadette" is.)

stormbrew 7y ago

The funny thing about this post is that BBT is full of misogyny, homophobia, and racism. Like, chock full of it. And yet the most frequent complaint about it is about how mean it is to nerds.

knolax 7y ago
Well being mean to nerds was the main gimmick, the other stereotypes were just for support.
- stormbrew 7y ago
  I mean, the real thing is that nearly every sitcom is full of these things that apparently won't fly according to the post I was replying to. They're literally the background noise of network evening TV. Chuck Lorre's other big contemporary show is no better on these fronts and isn't about making fun of nerds. So they're not actually things that are unacceptable. They're just so normal people don't even notice them until they're aimed at a trait they identify with.