Bazinga!!

I'm half way through the third season of The Big Bang Theory. Nat told me I would like it. She tells me I laugh out loud every five minutes while watching the show. I really do get most of the references. I've looked a couple up as well. I have to say it is the first situation comedy that I've learned as much while watching.

Whom ever came up with the characters really does know geeks. The show is loaded with stereotypes, but they got many of them right in my opinion. The best example that comes to mind is the fact that one of the geekiest folks comes from Texas and has parents who would not be considered highly intelligent by academics. Not all smart people come from New York and California. One of the shows is all about the geeks trying to learn football. The guy from Texas knows football backwards and forwards. He says "Football is ubiquitous in Texas." He is correct.

One of the geeks gets the girl. Things are not 100% perfect on the first try in the bedroom. They talk briefly about being just friends and end up falling right back in to bed together. If at first you don't succeed ... .

Two of the characters are tasked with coming up with an experiment to prove some theory about string theory. I do not believe string theory is real. It is a way to make thing complex in order to obscure the fact that scientists are squandering grant money. They play some Rocky type success music in the background, shoot the scene from multiple angles in a mock attempt to show action. The two characters sit there and stare at the formula for a long time, shortened by the magic of cinematography. One says he needs an aspirin. They go right back to the same joke action and staring.

This sort of thing is completely real. That is a valid thing to do on code sometimes. Sometimes you just flip through the code for a long while working out what it does and what it needs to do. Then you add that one magic procedure and a call or two, or perhaps change a plus sign to a negative. Then bam! you have it. This is not always the case by any measure. It happens though. More often than managers like.

There is another thing a bit different about this show. The characters have consistent flaws. They learn some lessons and don't learn others. This is not unique to the show, but it adds to my enjoyment. There are times one character just gives up on another character and hits the comic book store. For example, the group tries to head out for a movie. The most picky character has all these rules for picking a particular playing of a show. The theater has to be right. The local cuisine has to be right. Blah, blah. The other characters diagram and map out the options and end up just going to the show without him. After they are gone, he scans the work on the whiteboard and agrees that was the only option.

In case you haven't gathered, I like the show.