The Big Bang Theory Continues the Tradition of Bullying Nerds
The Big Bang Theory is a a TV sitcom series that tries to set that being nerdy is something to be proud of but fails to by reducing it’s characters and their hobbies to caricatures of their personalities and jokes, all to be laughed at. The series’s stance on childhood bullying even shows that the show is against nerd culture. In the episode “The Speckerman Recurrance”, the 11th episode of season 5, Leonard faces a former bully who tortured him for years while Penny realizes that she was a bully in high school. This episode sends the message that the bullying was only misunderstood and the trauma is forgivable with a simple actions.
The list of actions done against Leonard we hear in this episode is long, creative, and horrible. We hear about how Leonard suffered from being fed laxatives and have no his scrotum stapled by the guy he later forgives. The show demonstrates that the character’s misgivings throughout high school are just jokes that the audience is supposed to just simply laugh over these mentions and to think of and to think of them as petty. We see that Leonard faced extremely harsh and relentless treatment throughout high school and the writers send the message that the torture he endured is only normal for someone like Leonard. The episode also sets that the bullies shouldn’t be accountable for their wrongful actions. Penny and Jimmy Speckerman (Leonard’s bully) both admit to thinking their actions were playful by saying “Everyone laughed” and “I just thought we were having some fun.” The audience is supposed to sympathize with Penny when she tries to apologize to her former victim but is rejected. Jimmy’s drunken apology is later redacted after sobering and continuing to pick on Leonard. The viewer is shown that bullying of this caliber is okay and purely childish despite the serious consequence these actions should have. The writer’s used the serious issue of bullying to get a few laughs in while mocking the nerdy characters. In a show that is supposed to glorify nerd culture, the nerds are still laughed at as being silly and childish.
“The Big Bang Theory” is only successful as a piece of meaning less entertainment because it covers the acceptance of typically nerdy topics into popular culture. It is however in important piece of media that fails to portray nerds past their stereotypes and contains no depth to it’s impactful material.
