I don't know if you missed it, but last night's episode was all about them playing D&D. It was actually pretty funny. I have to say that Howard did really good impressions. Even if you don't like the show, I would encourage watching it. There were a lot of parts I found very funny.
Quote from: Sacrosanct;653592I don't know if you missed it, but last night's episode was all about them playing D&D. It was actually pretty funny. I have to say that Howard did really good impressions. Even if you don't like the show, I would encourage watching it. There were a lot of parts I found very funny.
Missed it. Wonder if it's on demand yet
I must say, I liked the show more when I thought they were a bit more appreciative of the source material (ie geek fandom/trek/comics) - and when Sheldon was a bit more of a sympathetic character and not the obnoxious wanker he's now written as.
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;653650I must say, I liked the show more when I thought they were a bit more appreciative of the source material (ie geek fandom/trek/comics) - and when Sheldon was a bit more of a sympathetic character and not the obnoxious wanker he's now written as.
Sheldon has been an obnoxious wanker since episode one of that show.
OK, a little help here for the internet video retarded....
This is all I could find for a video of that episode, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N4820rpuJk&list=UU4e0hMc3DMMdQ47dkoP0zVQ&index=2 , so if someone could link me to the entire episode I would greatly appreciate it.
Quote from: jeff37923;654015OK, a little help here for the internet video retarded....
This is all I could find for a video of that episode, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N4820rpuJk&list=UU4e0hMc3DMMdQ47dkoP0zVQ&index=2 , so if someone could link me to the entire episode I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks for the link.
Like everything else on the show, looks like a big ol' sack of clichés.
Quote from: The Butcher;654023Thanks for the link.
Like everything else on the show, looks like a big ol' sack of clichés.
There's only one cliche in the clip. I'd hardly call it it "big ol' sack" of them.
And I'm disappointed. That clip didn't show the best parts, where Howard did impressions of Nicholas Cage and Christopher Walken for his NPCs, which he nailed.
Found it.
The Love Spell Potential. (http://www.cbs.com/shows/big_bang_theory/video/)
Not nearly as bad as it could have been, but it could have been better. Why is there an undercurrent of geek self-hate throughout this series?
Quote from: Sacrosanct;654026There's only one cliche in the clip. I'd hardly call it it "big ol' sack" of them.
Hence "looks like", not "is".
Quote from: Sacrosanct;654026And I'm disappointed. That clip didn't show the best parts, where Howard did impressions of Nicholas Cage and Christopher Walken for his NPCs, which he nailed.
It did show the Al Pacino impression which was pretty awesome.
Quote from: Sacrosanct;653592I don't know if you missed it, but last night's episode was all about them playing D&D. It was actually pretty funny. I have to say that Howard did really good impressions. Even if you don't like the show, I would encourage watching it. There were a lot of parts I found very funny.
Just caught it. Pretty funny episode.
I thought they had played D&D in at least one other episode?
Quote from: Arkansan;654189I thought they had played D&D in at least one other episode?
They had a christmas themed D&D episode if I recall.
Quote from: The Butcher;654023Thanks for the link.
Like everything else on the show, looks like a big ol' sack of clichés.
Well to me it *is* a big ol' sack of clichés. I wish those clichés would die, to be honest. I don't understand how D&D geeks who do know better actually find this stuff funny. Is there a part of self-loathing involved? I don't know. I really don't understand it. I've never understood what people find great about the Big Bang Theory generally, mind you.
I thought this abortion of a show ended on season 6.
I love being a gamer, and for me this show isn't about self loathing. They are exagerations for comedic effect, and there is a kernal of truth behind many of them. Most of the ones i find funny are things I see in myself (such as sheldon's OCD----I've actually done some of the things they had him do in the show). Some of the stuff i find funny is humorous to me because I've seen it recur at the gaming table or in my social circles. I think what is crucial to the show working is having these qualities don't make the character's unlikeable or less valuable as people (i.e. the struggle many of them have with women is a source of humor but also of pain and development for the characters...you see the funny stuff but you also see the characters coping with the challenge this theme presents). Obviously plenty of geeks and gamers have no trouble with this issue, but it is something I've encountered often enough in the gaming community (and certainly dealt with myself when I was younger).
On the whole i feel the show is making people more accepting of stuff like D&D. I've actually recruited three new people to play rpgs who otherwise wouldn't have because of this show.
Yeah.
Taking for example of Penny's jab about how "girls never played D&D." I don't get what's funny about it.
Maybe it's because the gamers I knew who would really have trouble finding a date were really in the edge minority of socially broken kids/people, and were generally shuned by the majority of gamers in my circles as a result. Maybe it's because girls have been playing in my circles ever since we were teenagers - it's never been "weird" or "unusual" to see girls play with us (I actually made out with girls because of gaming more than once) - one of my recent tables was 100% female but for me, as a matter of fact. So that joke just sounds like a tired cliché to me, something that might have been funny the first time I heard it ages ago, but really isn't anymore.
So maybe it's just that I don't connect with references which, for others, would make complete sense.
Like I said... I just don't get it.
Quote from: Benoist;654221Yeah. Maybe it's because the gamers I knew who would really have trouble finding a date were really in the edge minority of socially broken kids/people, and were generally shuned by the majority of gamers in my circles as a result. Likewise girls have been playing in my circles ever since we were teenagers - it's never been "weird" or "unusual" to see girls play with us (I actually made out with girls because of gaming more than once). One of my recent tables was 100% female but for me, as a matter of fact. So that joke just sounds like a tired cliché to me, something that might have been funny the first time I heard it ages ago, but really isn't anymore.
So maybe it's just that I don't connect with references which, for others, would make complete sense. Like I said... I just don't get it.
It may also be a US thing (we are very cliquey here and maybe that isn't the case as much elsewhere). My group in highschool did eventually end up with two girls, who were girlfriends of players, but that was pretty rare in our area. There were some exceptions though. groups that played strictly vampire had women, sometimes predominantly (but those were all in the mext town over, which was like anothr country in highschool) and we had one guy in our group who was a master at recruiting non gamers to casual gaming events. so he was actually running big D&D games with lots of people who gamed once in a while. These exceptions though came much later on in highschool. Between 7-10th grade it was just me and the hardcore gamer geeks.
One group I was in after highschool had three women (two of which were girlfriends of players), and since then probably one fifth of the players I have gamed with are girls. But generally most groups I see here are all guys or all guys and one or two girls. I'd say a good number of the gamers I have known, had some difficulty with women and social awkwardness. Most of them were great to gang around with and to game with, but they wouldnt do well in certain social situations. Others were and are nothing like this. But I definitely see more of it in the gaming community than in other parts of my life.
I do agree jokes about games and women are old, and there wasnt anything new or groundbreaking about penny's quip. Making it the theme and using it to handle sheldon's issues with intimacy at the end of the episode I thought was a bit different though.
Quote from: Benoist;654221Taking for example of Penny's jab about how "girls never played D&D." I don't get what's funny about it.
.
I did have a small issue with how this was addressed in the episode. Penny saying that seemed in character, since she is supposed to the non-geek outsider in the show, but I found it odd the other two female characters (who are obviously more steeped in nerd culture) would find the game so alien.
I also think they missed a huge opportunity to score some geek cred, by having them clearly play 4E and not have a single in-joke about edition wars. I realize most non-gamers wouldnt understand the reference, but they make that kind of humor with with stuff like comic books (where they bring up points people who dont read the comics would understand but it is still funny).
But on the whole, I enjoyed the episode.
Wow. Some people take gaming way too seriously I guess. That show is all about stereotypes. Penny is the hot dumb cheerleader. Sort of the point.
I'll repeat it here again
(http://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/very-inspirational-2.jpg?w=500&h=499)
Quote from: Sacrosanct;654286Wow. Some people take gaming way too seriously I guess. That show is all about stereotypes. Penny is the hot dumb cheerleader. Sort of the point.
I'll repeat it here again
(http://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/very-inspirational-2.jpg?w=500&h=499)
Excellent quote. More to the point, every sitcom is about exagerated charcters. I am a writer, but writer characters in sitcoms are usually filled with writer stereotypes that people find amusing (some have a grain of truth and others are based on old cliches that are not so true anymore). I am also from Boston, and cheers relied a lot on good natured stereotypes of Bostonians, which I still find funny (even if the culture here is way more complex than any tv show or movie can really capture----they are usually good at catching one small piece of it). Some caricatures are more positive than others. In the past the best we geeks could hope for were peripheral characters like Steve Urkel, that resembled nothing like real world geeks or nerds. Now we have a show where the geeks and nerds are the main stars. I am surprised on a daily basis how much more accepting Big Bang has made people of my hobbies (like D&D). Because the charcters are likeable and because the audience is largely mainstream, I am seeing people who in the past would have thought D&D was strange ask me about, because they know I play "that game Sheldon plays". And they are not asking to make fun or because they think its weird, they are genuinely curious about it.
I don't watch it not because the show laughs at nerds, but because it is unfunny, at least to me. The biggest cliche in the show is, how much of a cliche American sitcom it is.
@down:
Heh. Here's better CW impression:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8rLlyWWLqs
For those not wanting to watch the full episode, here are the impression parts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhMZhuCNS3U
Quote from: Sacrosanct;654286Wow. Some people take gaming way too seriously I guess. That show is all about stereotypes. Penny is the hot dumb cheerleader. Sort of the point.
I'll repeat it here again
[snip pic]
No really. I agree with George Takei wholeheartedly. I think he's spot on. But that is totally not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about shutting down BBT or whatever for those who like it, or that those who actually like it are someone "wrong" or "bad". You like it? Awesome. I just don't understand what people find funny about these stereotypes that have been proven wrong over and over and over again, just like I don't understand why you'd have a white guy painted black with huge red lips and think it'd be funny on its face, literally.
I liked the episode (and the show in general), but I thought the Community episode of D&D was better.
Quote from: Benoist;654329No really. I agree with George Takei wholeheartedly. I think he's spot on. But that is totally not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about shutting down BBT or whatever for those who like it, or that those who actually like it are someone "wrong" or "bad". You like it? Awesome. I just don't understand what people find funny about these stereotypes that have been proven wrong over and over and over again, just like I don't understand why you'd have a white guy painted black with huge red lips and think it'd be funny on its face, literally.
Whatever sins they may be comitting in perpetuating nerd stereotypes are easily forgiven; we've been perpetuating these stereotypes ourselves for far longer and with more success.
The cardinal sin of BBT for me is the absolute lack of creativity or character development. It's funny the first 50 or so times, but it gets old real quick. All characters feel like cardboard cut-outs. Charlie Fucking [strike]Sheen[/strike] Harper, to use an example from another Chuck Lorre show, had more depth and humanity than Sheldon.
Quote from: Mistwell;654336I liked the episode (and the show in general), but I thought the Community episode of D&D was better.
Yeah, Community is leaps and bounds ahead of BBT in my book, in all counts: portrayal of D&D, character development, sheer entertainment value.
Fun fact: Ken Jeong is a licensed and practicing physician.
Quote from: Benoist;654329No really. I agree with George Takei wholeheartedly. I think he's spot on. But that is totally not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about shutting down BBT or whatever for those who like it, or that those who actually like it are someone "wrong" or "bad". You like it? Awesome. I just don't understand what people find funny about these stereotypes that have been proven wrong over and over and over again, just like I don't understand why you'd have a white guy painted black with huge red lips and think it'd be funny on its face, literally.
You're comparing nerd stereotypes (which are heavily rooted in reality, sorry), to blackface?
Wow dude. That's some serious fucked up false equivalency right there.
Quote from: The Butcher;654340Fun fact: Ken Jeong is a licensed and practicing physician.
That is all I can think of when I watch the hangover movies.