But somewhere on their writing staff is someone who actually understands geek culture, because there's some fairly relevant zingers thrown in. I've born with it. Not for a good reason or anything, just...because. But the formula grates and the laugh track is incredibly intrusive. You know the formulate you've seen it a million times. It goes like this - straight line Nutty comment straight line questioning the nutty comment, gag . Nine times out of ten it's searingly unfunny. One in ten of the crap they throw at the wall sticks.
Then I read an article (elsewhere, lost it, or I'd link) about why women don't work as comedy writers very much, and part of it is apparently the incredibly abusive environment in the writing rooms. Comedy is hard, so they say, and the writers are constantly zinging each other in order to be funny. One of the writers talking about what a rough-house, blue, profane environment the writing room is was a writer from "Big Bang". This does not square with this show, which is so tediously not transgressive, I can't imagine what those knuckleheads are doing that they think they need to be brutal with each other for. So they bash on each other, make sexist remarks, humiliate each other...and what they come up with is ....this?
Because when you take the laugh track out, it's really stilted and weird. It's like "Garfield Without Garfield" - it just seems moderately insane, and incredibly awkward. It must be really hard on the actors, taking those awkward pauses without a studio audience to cue them for timing. Oh snap - maybe there IS a studio audience, and they're just not laughing? Man, what a soul-killing farce that would be!
One in a blue moon, "Big Bang" is pretty funny. But this little clip is a real insight into just how artificial and forced sit-coms are.
