02-11-2014, 03:28 AM
I think this anti-intellectualism was always there from the beginning. It just wasn't as bad as it is now, but it has always been there.
As discussed before, the way the show treats Sheldon and Leonard is the first and the biggest evidence for this: the main goal of Leonard, the hero of their piece, was to 'get the girl' from day one instead of achieving some scientific goal, and the guy who had dedicated his life to science and always had winning the Nobel Prize in mind as his goal was the character that we were supposed to find laughable and silly instead of admirable. (Yes, they seem to have noticed that achieving scientific/career success is not that bad after all so they are having Leonard get the girl AND have the career victories, but I think that still doesn't negate the fact that this 'geeks/nerds/the people who dedicate their lives to science are losers' vibe has always been there.)
There are other examples too: other than Bert, the rock guy, there was also the professor with a specialty in studying bugs (the one Sheldon and Howard went to ask about the cricket in one of the early seasons), and notice how he was depicted as a "loser" who had to go back to living with his daughter and how he was reduced to regretting spending his life for science. The same is true about Professor Proton. Notice how he is depicted as another 'loser' (at least that's the way he seems to see himself) when the guys first meet him. He is regretting his life, laments how another guy screwed his wife while he was busy with his science show. Sheldon and Leonard's encouraging words do little to cheer him up, and apparently he stays around only because there is a hot girl (Penny) around too. He also calls Leonard the real genius because he is dating a beautiful girl like Penny. There have also been episodes and lines about physicists (like Professor Rothman) going mad all the time or about the lonely scientist dying in his office and "turning into a pile of goo", as Kripke puts it, apparently without anyone noticing his death or his absence for a few days.
So, yes, I, too, get the feeling that the show is anti-intellectual to a great extent and sees many of the people who dedicate their lives to science as "lonely, weirdo losers" many of the times.
As discussed before, the way the show treats Sheldon and Leonard is the first and the biggest evidence for this: the main goal of Leonard, the hero of their piece, was to 'get the girl' from day one instead of achieving some scientific goal, and the guy who had dedicated his life to science and always had winning the Nobel Prize in mind as his goal was the character that we were supposed to find laughable and silly instead of admirable. (Yes, they seem to have noticed that achieving scientific/career success is not that bad after all so they are having Leonard get the girl AND have the career victories, but I think that still doesn't negate the fact that this 'geeks/nerds/the people who dedicate their lives to science are losers' vibe has always been there.)
There are other examples too: other than Bert, the rock guy, there was also the professor with a specialty in studying bugs (the one Sheldon and Howard went to ask about the cricket in one of the early seasons), and notice how he was depicted as a "loser" who had to go back to living with his daughter and how he was reduced to regretting spending his life for science. The same is true about Professor Proton. Notice how he is depicted as another 'loser' (at least that's the way he seems to see himself) when the guys first meet him. He is regretting his life, laments how another guy screwed his wife while he was busy with his science show. Sheldon and Leonard's encouraging words do little to cheer him up, and apparently he stays around only because there is a hot girl (Penny) around too. He also calls Leonard the real genius because he is dating a beautiful girl like Penny. There have also been episodes and lines about physicists (like Professor Rothman) going mad all the time or about the lonely scientist dying in his office and "turning into a pile of goo", as Kripke puts it, apparently without anyone noticing his death or his absence for a few days.
So, yes, I, too, get the feeling that the show is anti-intellectual to a great extent and sees many of the people who dedicate their lives to science as "lonely, weirdo losers" many of the times.