The
Big Bang Theory and the Revenge of the Geeks
On
a very basic level, the CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory could
be dismissed as just another cookie-cutter sitcom adrift in a sea of
other cookie-cutter sitcoms, replete with an overdone premise and the
requisite laugh track. But if you dig a little deeper, what you see
on the surface is not what you get inside. While not groundbreaking
in style or original in concept, The Big Bang Theory still
manages to rise above the mediocrity of network television sitcoms to
be both genuine and funny, a true rarity in recent years.
The series
revolves around two brilliant scientists, Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons)
and Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki). While Sheldon is the underlying
star of the show—his mannerisms and delivery style are what Emmy
nominations are made of—it is Leonard who is the rock of the series.
Although neither as brilliant nor neurotic as Sheldon, he is still a
geek, but one who wishes to rise above his status in life. Enter Penny
(Kaley Cuoco), the hot-and-hip female who lives across the hall. Leonard
inevitably develops a fixation with her that is more than merely sexual:
he truly yearns for Penny, despite the fact they come from different
worlds.
Despite
there being an obvious attraction between them, the relationship between
Leonard and Penny is prevented from blossoming because of perceived
personal obstacles. Could someone as physically attractive as Penny
ever really care for a geek such as Leonard? And on the flip side, could
anyone as intelligent as Leonard every really love a mere high school
graduate who works as a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory?
READ
MORE
The
Big Bang Theory: Leonard, Penny and Geek Love
Leonard
Hofstadter developed a crush on new next door neighbor Penny in the
very first episode of the CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory. And
who wouldn’t? She was an attractive blonde,
after all, with a perky personality that
was downright infectious. The problem for Leonard, however, is that
Penny was drawn to tall, physical men while Leonard is of the short,
non-muscular variety. Penny was also a Nebraskan native who moved to
Los Angeles in the hopes of making it as an actress but had settled
for waitress at the local Cheesecake Factory instead. Leonard, by contrast,
was an experimental physicist with an IQ in the range of genius. And
while Penny’s idea of a good time was going out dancing with her
girlfriends, Leonard was more inclined to stay at home and play Halo
with his fellow scientist buddies.
Yet after
two lonely years in which he silently pined over his next door neighbor,
Leonard and Penny were a couple at the start of the third season. While
some might suggest that the “geek getting the girl” was
simply a product of a fictional television sitcom, in reality it is
part of a growing trend that is slowly sweeping the continent. An early
tag line for The Big Bang Theory declared that “smart
was the new sexy,” and the statement is becoming increasingly
true as more women spurn the advances of the big, tall and dumb variety
of males for the intelligent, average-to-short sized opposites instead.
Writer
Carrie Tucker, herself a self-described geek, is one of those women.
Realizing that her attraction was not something unique to her own personal
taste, she wrote a book in 2009, entitled i heart geeks: The Official
Handbook (Adams Media), to assist other women with their own non-traditional
infatuations.
READ
MORE
The
Big Bang Theory Season Four: Sheldon Speak
The
CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory contains a stellar cast of four
distinct and highly original characters. Howard Wolowitz, for instance,
is a pint-sized aerospace engineer who fashions himself a womanizer
despite his sheepish and slightly obnoxious behavior. Rajesh “Raj”
Koothrappali, meanwhile, is an astrophysicist whose internal shyness
makes it literally impossible for him to speak with members of the opposite
sex. Experimental physicist Leonard Hofstadter, on the other hand, is
just as much as socially inept as the others but is also the most normal
of the group, and next-door-neighbor Penny is the loveable blonde waitress
caught up in the weekly goings-on of her male counterparts.
Then there’s
Sheldon Cooper. While Raj has an inability to talk with women, the theoretical
physicist has no interest in the opposite sex—or his own sex,
for that matter. While Howard tends towards the obnoxious, Sheldon has
taken up residence there with his egotistical intellect and condescending
nature. And although Leonard and Penny are normal by sitcom standards,
Sheldon Cooper is anything but typical with his vast array of social
ticks and personality quirks. Taken together, however, these qualities
translate into one of the most memorable and comic characters on television.
The traits have also enabled Sheldon to develop his own manner of speaking
through the years, filled with witty one-liners, unusual observations
and both scientific and geek culture analogies, and season four of The
Big Bang Theory continues that trend.
“If
there’s simply no talking to me, why did you call?”
“I
won’t say that all senior citizens who can’t master technology
should be publicly flogged, but we make an example of one or two, it
might give the others incentive to try harder.”
READ
MORE
The
Big Bang Theory