A Note on The Big Bang Theory (TV sitcom)


It is amazing how boring life can get in the field of science. Yet for common people, being a scientist may be the epitome of doing everything that is interesting.

To deal with such a paradox is not an easy task.

The Big Bang Theory or TBBT as is called to make life easier is a comic series on celluloid. It deals with the bizarre life of four friends who in their own capacities are making scientific discoveries. The details, in this age of internet are available on Wikipedia. The amazing part of it is the seamless union of science and art.

I grew up believing in the happiness that movies provided us in our life. I wanted to be associated with something like that. I wanted to be part of a group which could provide humor to listless and eventless lives. I wanted to be part of a team which could transport people into an unreal world of fantasy and drama, where dreams couldn’t be disturbed and hearts couldn’t be broken. And, I never thought through science one could achieve something as funny and wholesome as the TV series TBBT.

I don’t want to be a publicist, but I cannot deny the fact that for people like us who live on the hope that someday our vast knowledge may bail us out of our misery, TBBT has been a source of inspiration and a reason to feel justified in our actions, even if it were for the sake of nerdy laughs. It has given us the belief that common man is accepting the misfits into the society and giving them an identity, that of of court jesters.

It does not matter how people laugh so long as they laugh. Can this be less true at a time of depression like this? I doubt that given an occasion to make merry, people will refrain from it. Laughter after all is the best medicine.

I am not a supporter of television shows. But I appreciate the difficult nature of scripting gags for shows over and over again, every week. The task would be more difficult than the task of directors like Woody Allen who is used to producing great comic masterpieces once every year.

Professor David Saltzberg of the University of California has been instrumental in providing major inputs for the show. Even the Science magazine has given TBBT a full page review. Scientists who have seen the show aren’t complaining about it, and the information provided is pretty up to date and correct, much to the chagrin of some critics of ‘Hollywood science’.

What appeals to me is the characters’ belief in everything that is not real, like the heroes of Star Trek speaking Kling-on, or the powers of Flash Gordon and Green Lantern. Intersperse that with the euphoria of discovering that you can control the lighting of your room by sending a signal halfway around the globe and back, and you spell a breakthrough waiting not to happen. TBBT signifies everything in our life that is futuristic, literally, from touch-screen phones to mammoth gaming laptops, to animated discussion boards. From facebook, video chat and virtual war, to playing with the Mars rover and reflecting laser off the moon, TBBT is all about the things that have no practical significance, are not serious and are worth a lot of amusement.

According to Saltzberg, “... At times it is a story of young love, at times a buddy comedy like Laurel and Hardy, and at times an ensemble. Personally I love the sharp writing, and the cast. Now that I see what goes into it, I really appreciate the production values such as the bright colors of the sets and the things in them, the editing and just watching what they do with the cameras. It has completely changed the way I watch television and even live theater.”

The following is the article in ‘Science magazine’:

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/320/5877/740.full

Dwaipayan Adhya

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 1, 2015 at 9:37 AM

    Smart piece of writing...Cant praise you enough for it..

    ReplyDelete

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