I. Hate. Big. Bang. Theory. There, I said it. I hate Big Bang Theory. I know that it’s a hugely popular show and will be on until I’m 90, but it doesn’t change how I feel. I have not been a fan for a very long time, and with each progressive season, it irks me more and more.

When the show first started, I was into it… all about it. This was at the same time that I was enjoying Community and Parks and Rec. It was a show that featured 4 geeks who lived their lives fairly similar to mine. All of the trappings of geek culture were right there on display. I was convinced, I had drunk the kool aid. But, then I went to Dragon*Con and listened to a panel about geek television shows. A few people talked about how much they hated BBT. I was shocked because the show seemed to be tailor made for every person I was sharing the room with. But a few began to point out how the show doesn’t celebrate geek culture, it makes fun of it. It’s not that the geeks are lenses that we view life through, it’s Penny and how outside of the norm the guys are. As the show progresses and the guys all find relationships, the women pull them all closer to acceptable “normalcy” while still poking fun at their geekiness.

Community and Parks and Rec got it right. In essence, everyone on each of these shows is a geek. They are extreme fans of what they are all into and are all a bit maladjusted, but they are all self-aware enough to not care. These two shows celebrated the weird, the odd, the left of center. And they made sure that we all knew that we’re all left of center. As these shows continued, (btw, they are both presently off of the air) the geek only grew stronger… but not in a cartoony way, it was more natural, more organic.

Yeah… so there you have it. I’m actually considering putting together a panel about “geekfacing”- using the trappings of geek culture to make fun of it while appearing as a geek. There are other shows that do, or have done, the same thing. I’m not ok with this and will continue to call it out when I see it taking place.