There is always a risk of trying to deconstruct something when you’re not an expert yourself. It is even more dangerous, when the same object is something beloved and cherished around the world. Nonetheless, in this post Maria Berge will analyse the television sitcom The Big Bang Theory (2007-2019) and what it might mean for the idea of geekiness.
Being part of the project Geek as gatekeeper? and doing research on physics jokes have one thing in common: I constantly get asked if I have seen the TV show The Big Bang Theory. Before I even get the chance to answer the questioner always continues “If you haven’t, you have to. It’s about geeks and is really, really funny”. The show The Big Bang Theory (BBT) has indeed been very popular, it got tens of millions of viewers for every episode and grabbed the title of America’s most popular TV sitcom on air today. Today it is possible to stream the twelve seasons and see reruns. Apart from being popular, the sitcom has attracted strong criticism for being sexist and racist. For example, Meghan Collie wrote that the main characters are blatantly misogynistic in every single episode. This kind of critique continued to the end of the show and even the ending got critiqued.
Knowing all this, last year I finally did it. I binge watched the first two and a half seasons and I got to know the five main characters in the show: the two physicists Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter, the aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz, the astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali and Penny the waitress (no surname there). (Yeah, I know that two other geeky women, with surnames, become important in later seasons). Five different characters, four male and one female. Four of these characters are portrayed as unsexy and one as hot. Four of these characters are geeks and one is not. The four unsexy geeks are in a majority and Penny acts (apart from as a love interest for Leonard) mostly as an opposite to everything geeky. But BBT is not the only sitcom with geeks in it, so why do I find BBT particularly interesting?
I think there are three reasons why BBT had a big influence on how we consider geeks and geekiness today.
Reason 1: The geeks finally got some real space
One reason why I believe so many people love BBT is that the geeks were the majority and the main characters of the show. The four leading geeks are not handsome (although the actors who play them are) or athletic, they are comically affective and endearing. This was a nice change, that we got to know characters that do not look like supermodels but are still lovable.
In BBT the geeks have very specific interests, and these are illustrated with seriousness and thoroughness. The production team have worked very hard to check that these details are accurate and up-to-date. For example, all physics equations are checked by physicists. The same goes for the gaming and comic book cultural references. In other words, the show takes geek culture and science as a field seriously, which makes the geek a character to reflect on seriously. Stephen Hawking’s appearance on the show also exemplifies that. For anyone who identifies as a geek this is a nice change, instead of being a minor character that fixes things the geeks and the geeks’ interests are suddenly in the foreground.
Reason 2: Geekiness is relative (and primarily male)
When several geeks appear on the screen at the same time we can suddenly contrast and compare different kinds of geekiness against each other. In season 3 two female geeks enter the scene too: the aspiring microbiologist Bernadette Rostenkowski and the neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler. Both Bernadette and Amy are scientists and are not particularly handsome (although the actresses are) or athletic (which comes as no surprise as they play female characters). Amy does also, like the male geeks, struggle with social interactions and fashion.
With six geeks in the same show the relativeness and diversity of geekiness becomes apparent. Already in the first two seasons Sheldon has been portrayed as the uber-geek who can only relate to geeky culture or not at all. Leonard offers a contrast to Sheldon. He is the least geeky person in the male gang who wears almost normal clothes and acts less awkwardly together with the non-geek Penny. However, although the two female geeks Bernadette and Amy might be considered geeks they never became as geeky as the male geeks in BBT; comics, video games, and science fiction continue to be “guy stuff” throughout the show.With Bernadette and Amy in the show we can line the characters up, with Sheldon as the geekiest geek in one corner and Bernadette as the least geeky character in the other. (Attractive Penny is not in the line). BBT promoted the idea that nerds are the new normal, but with many geeks in the same show also the relativeness of geekiness becomes apparent.
Reason 3: The character Sheldon has started to replace Einstein as the stereotype of a physicist
As I wrote before, the physicist Sheldon is the uber-geek in BBT. He is a form of brainy genius, but he can also act very ridiculously in human interaction. This genius/idiot thing makes Sheldon an easy target to laugh at. Bu because he is somehow smarter than all of us (yes, he gets a Nobel-prize at a very young age), our laughter is not a form of punching down but rather perhaps punching up. And to laugh at a stupid genius makes us feel smart (a nice feeling).
However, the researcher Anders Johansson has noticed how Sheldon has become a character real physicists have to relate to. One of his interviewees “Jan” reported that his friends in school were joking about him, referring to him as being a “future Sheldon”. Anders Johansson writes further that several of the interviewees spoke about the general association of physics with figures like Albert Einstein and Sheldon Cooper. Here one can wonder if Sheldon is a better stereotype than Einstein. I say no. Sheldon is the know-it-all who I wouldn’t like to hang around with.
To sum up…
With its huge popularity I believe that BBT has influenced our view of what a geek is today. Today the geek is more visible and more popular than ever. BBT, with the uber-geek Sheldon, made the relativeness of geekiness apparent and that opened for the idea that we can all be geeks (more or less). However, even with Bernadette and Amy, BBT has not transformed the old idea of the geek as male, white and middle class, it has rather reinforced the stereotype since the geekiest of them all is Sheldon Cooper.
If you’re still wondering if BBT is sexist I recommend you watch these two films on Youtube, made by Pop Culture Detective: