For research, Pinky!

[wellplayedpenny]

Okay I'm working on a project involving the role of humour in BBT and was wondering if I could get some input. Specifically, I'd like to know what your favorite funny moments were. Is it a particular line? A story arc where you sit back and enjoy the show as it were? An interaction.

For example, every time I see Sheldon and Penny's 'Where No Sheldon Has Gone Before' I'm grinning like an idiot. Or in Panty Pinata I love Leonard's whiny 'Not the junior rodeo' response to Penny. As a story arc I'm in love watching Howard and Raj looking for the 'America's Next Top Model' house.

I'm looking for humour covering all of the seasons so those who've actually troopered beyond s4 I'd particularly like to hear from you if you can recall some funny moments in later seasons.

I'd also like to hear what *really* didn't work for you (lines, plots, etc).

Thanks! WPP

[Trust No One]

Okay I'm working on a project involving the role of humour in BBT and was wondering if I could get some input. Specifically, I'd like to know what your favorite funny moments were. Is it a particular line? A story arc where you sit back and enjoy the show as it were? An interaction.

For example, every time I see Sheldon and Penny's 'Where No Sheldon Has Gone Before' I'm grinning like an idiot. Or in Panty Pinata I love Leonard's whiny 'Not the junior rodeo' response to Penny. As a story arc I'm in love watching Howard and Raj looking for the 'America's Next Top Model' house.

I'm looking for humour covering all of the seasons so those who've actually troopered beyond s4 I'd particularly like to hear from you if you can recall some funny moments in later seasons.

I'd also like to hear what *really* didn't work for you (lines, plots, etc).

Thanks! WPP

Besides the obvious great Shenny from episodes like Panty Pinata and Work Song and TADD, I liked when Sheldon told Raj that Ladybugs must make you catatonic. That line still makes me laugh.

[FlyingMonkey]

To me the best parts are the little moments between Penny & Sheldon when they're completely bewildered by each other.

A couple of examples:

Sheldon (unlocking his mailbox): Hello Penny.
Penny: Get anything good?
Sheldon: Uh, just the latest copy of Applied Particle Physics Quarterly.
Penny: Oh, you know, that is so weird that yours came and mine didn’t. (Sheldon looks confused). It was a joke. (Sheldon gives a fake laugh.)


Sheldon: Penny, I’d rather not talk about it.
Penny: Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’m not feeling so hot either.
Sheldon: Why would that make ME feel better?
Penny: I don’t know, empathy? Anyway.....,

The moments of silence where they just stare at each other in total bafflement are wonderful. I giggle just thinking about. That type of subtlety is what's missing in the current show.

[Louise]

Re: our conversation in the chat box, IMO the reason the show no longer works can be summed up in just three or four points, which can then be whittled down to just two:

1. There are too many characters, and the addition of A & B disrupts the dynamic of the original five, whether as a whole or in its sub-groupings: Sheldon with Penny, Howard with Raj, the four guys together, etc.

2. The pairings have become the focus. This is really just a side-effect of #1. The pairings have divided, disrupted, and supplanted the original groupings and friendships.

3. The humor is cruel and consists of humiliating the characters rather than rooting for them.

4. Introduction of overly heavy themes and soapy drama.

So, this can really be whittled down to just two points:

1. The addition of A & B disrupts everything. It has been a disaster without any upside or points in its favor, that I can see.

2. Light and witty humor replaced with crude humor and melodrama.

Anything else you could mention is just a sub-heading of those two core points, IMO. Whether #2 would've happened without #1, I have no idea. The structurally disjointed nature of the episodes (short scenes, too many plots in 22 minutes) are a result of #1: too many characters.

The message that nerds need to stop being nerds is tied to both #1 and #2. A & B are supposedly scientists, but they're not geeks, so their introduction can have no purpose except to move the show (and the guys) away from those themes. We already had Penny as a "mainstream" person to contrast with the guys, so that's not A&B's purpose, and we already had other scientists, like Leslie and Kripke, so that's not their purpose, either. Their sole purpose is to create pairings and thus move the focus to typical romcom humor.

Every problem loops back to these two issues. I hope this is helpful; I'm trying to be objective.

[Toad]

Sad to have to write this in the past tense, but I think what always amused me was how the others reacted to Sheldon's quirks, foibles and obliviousness. The bafflement and exasperation, from Howard's aggressive "You're insane!" to Leonard's weary "No, I don't have a sarcasm sign," was what I found relatable. Back then it didn't have that edge of meanspiritedness. He annoyed them, they let off a little steam, we moved on. Or he was the cipher that they struggled to decode, Leonard often acting as translator at large.

The original five played off each other so well. It was ensemble acting at its finest, not splintered by forced pairings and characters being pitted against each other.

Now, despite the contrived saccharine moments, you get the feeling they're always churning with rage and bitterness. And it's not funny. "It's a magic potion that makes me like you." "Sweetie, every night you don't kill him in his sleep he wins." "Sheldon, I swear to God, I'm gonna kill you." Of course I'd probably want to kill Sheldumb too, so...

And there were subtle little sight gags too. Eyepatch!Howard walking into the couch, Leonard strutting away from Penny's door but then colliding into his own, that flatulent thud from the dancing corn starch when Penny rushed in to talk to Sheldon. Little things that sort of gently poked at the nerdiness. These were vulnerable people, metaphorically bumping into their surroundings. And I didn't feel then that I was laughing AT them. I felt for them, I understood them.

There's no subtlety anymore, alas. It's so gaudy, vicious and over the top now, straining so hard to be funny. Sheldon in a French maid's outfit, Amy in a Catholic girl's school uniform, etc. I'm no longer charmed by these characters. They're ugly caricatures being moved around in a bawdy pantomime. It also doesn't help that there are generally 3 or 4 stories being told simultaneously now. There's no flow anymore - just a succession of micro scenes that don't have time or momentum to build up any comic steam.

Um sorry, WPP, that I spent as much time talking about what I DON'T like now. Hope you get something useful out of this.

[Louise]

These were vulnerable people, metaphorically bumping into their surroundings.

That's a great point.

[Gamma]

Some of my favorite early season stuff, the stuff that would have me laughing or at least grinning was the Penny/Sheldon/Leonard dynamics. Especially if Penny got Sheldon wound up and Leonard ended up in the middle. Like this exchange in Dead Hooker:

Penny: Okay, honey, did you even know the people that are moving out?

Sheldon: I never met them. That’s what made them perfect, there were no awkward hellos in the halls, there was no clickety-clacking of high heel shoes on hardwood floors, they may as well have been a family of cats just jumping around from drape to drape without that annoying ammonia urine smell.

Penny: Well, I’m sure the new people will be just as quiet.

Sheldon: You can’t know that. How can you possibly know that?

Penny: You’re right, I can’t. You know what? Anyone could rent that apartment now, an opera singer, the cast of stomp, yeah, a tap-dancing pirate with a wooden leg.

Leonard: Why are you making it worse?

Penny: I tried making it better, he wouldn’t go for it.

Of course it was fun just watching Penny and Sheldon interacting. One of the early interactions I find funny is in Tangerine from season one. When Penny asks Sheldon for advice about going out with Leonard they have a discussion with Sheldon trying to find his "seat" in her apartment. The conversation goes on as he tries to find the optimal place in the room. He is so matter of fact and it cracks me up. They just play off each other so well.

I like the snarky comments dished out by Howard, Penny, and occasionally Raj.
I like this one by Penny from Golowitz

Howard (after Raj whispers): Yes, she’s pushy and yes, he’s whipped, but that’s not the expression. Come on, I want to stop at Walgreens and pick up some more eyeliner.

Leonard: They’re gonna get beaten up at that club.

Penny: They’re gonna get beaten up at Walgreens.

Then there is Sheldon on coffee:

Sheldon: Look at Planck’s Constant. People say it’s arbitrary. It could not be less arbitrary. If it varied even slightly, life as we know it would not exist. Bam! Now, now, let’s reconsider the entire argument, but with entropy reversed and effect preceding cause, so you are thinking of a universe that’s not expanding from the centre, no, it is retreating from a, from a possibility space. Bam! This is a space where we are all essentially Alice through the looking glass, standing in front the Red Queen, and we’re being offered a cracker to quench our thirst. Bam! Of course, in another universe, let’s call it universe prime, there’s another Sheldon, let’s call him Sheldon prime…
********************
In the old seasons, they would help each other, but that didn't mean they wouldn't snark about it. Like when Howard got the Mars Rover stuck.

Howard: Anything?

Raj: Actually, I was just checking my e-mail. But, uh, no, the Rover is not responding.

Sheldon: I believe the appropriate metaphor here involves a river of excrement and a Native American water vessel without any means of propulsion.

Howard: Hang on, there’s got to be other options.

Raj: You could try calling Triple-A, but based on NASA’s latest timetable, they won’t get there for 35 years.

Sheldon: Plus I understand you have to be standing next to the vehicle with your card when they arrive.
***************
While I have occasionally found some funny spots in the newer seasons, Vortex and the game night episode comes to mind, I find too much of the humor of the last few seasons to be more along these lines- from Parking Spot

Bernadette: Hang on. None of Sheldon’s theories have ever been definitively proven. My husband actually went to outer space.

Amy: That’s an impressive accomplishment. He’s now an inspiration to millions of Americans who know you don’t have to be special or even qualified to go into space.

Penny: You know, I remember the first time I got a bikini wax. My sister did it with melted Crayolas and duct tape. It’s a bad idea.

Bernadette: Gosh, Amy. I’m sensing a little hostility. Is it maybe because, like Sheldon’s work, your sex life is also theoretical?

Penny: Damn.
****************
The tone has gotten decidedly meaner. In the earlier seasons it was more fun to watch because the characters were so much more likable. You got the sense that even when they were being snarky with each other they still liked each other. Now the humor is harsher and the characters have taken such a hit in the likability department that it seems more malicious and hurtful. I really don't get why people find that funny. I can forgive a lot in writing if the author can give me likable characters with a consistent personality that engage me. Not characters with no flaws, but characters that even with their flaws have redeeming qualities that you can identify with. That also doesn't mean that a character cannot change, just that the change should be organic and fit in with the known characteristics of the character. Characters whose personalities change to fit the writers agenda or vision are just a sign of lazy writing or a writer that has backed himself into a corner. It is hard to suspend belief and not become hypercritical when a writer does this because you can't really become invested in a character that has no fixed personality or predictability. They just become a vehicle for the authors plan, even if that plan is an anathema to the original personality of the character.

[Louise]

Okay, now for the good stuff:

If I had to pick an all-time favorite scene, this is it. This is what I would show to someone who had never watched the show before. It's funny, it's clever, and it summarizes each of the four guys and their personalities, perfectly. So, you get humor and you get characterization.





(I think this might also be kind of a test of who your fave character is, because I always thought of this as a Howard-centric scene, yet Sheldon has his famous Drake Equation recitation here, too.)

I like verbal humor and absurdism. That's why Seinfeld is the creme de la creme, to me. I don't want any "big events" happening in a sitcom. I don't need "story arcs." I sure as hell don't want weddings, babies, or deaths. I want to be carried away by the escapism of it all.

I don't watch a comedy to "see what happens next." I'm a "show about nothing" person; I don't need anything much to happen. You can construct a dizzyingly complex episode out of a seemingly simple situation. Seinfeld took the most trivial situations and spun them into these wacky, farcical scenarios that kept snowballing and snowballing. Early TBBT also does that, to some extent.

I like wordplay and puns and verbal acrobatics. That, and sort of a wacky, light-hearted surrealism where things are sort of enjoyably bizarre. That's what I want, from a comedy. I don't give a single flying crap about anything else, provided the characters are fun and vivid and lovable. I like an environment where nothing very bad ever happens to anyone, and if something bad *does* happen, it doesn't have much impact and it's not meant to be taken seriously. I want to feel HAPPY when I watch a comedy.

I don't need to see the characters going through personal crises. I hate this "as the years roll by..." approach. I don't need to watch the characters aging in real-time and going through all the milestones of an average life. I don't want to follow the characters from youth into middle age, along their life's trajectory. I want things to be very "here and now."

Does this make any sense?

But yeah, if someone asked me "What do you want from a sitcom?" I would say light-hearted absurdist humor, especially verbal humor, and to me that implies that the plots are always going to be pretty farcical, with nothing depressing or majorly game-changing occurring.

[Gamma]

[Louise]

Sheldon's stammering and repetition and breathy delivery are almost Goldblum-esque, in this And the sort of weird ultra-earnestness...