At the end of "The Big Bang Theory": ridicule to endure the pain

"The other day with the nerds ..." is the beginning of "Big Bang Theory" flashbacks. Although the situation is not very precise: We are just not with classic computer nerds, with predominantly male, ingenious nerds who approach their screens instead of other people. But with scientists.

The trick that "Big Bang Theory" creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady pulled out of their hats 279 episodes ago (including the last one aired on ProSieben on Monday night) was to move the nerdtum away from the computer domain and to place it in research. "Less Bill Gates, more Richard Feynman," Lorre explained in an interview in 2012. Because physicists like Feynman or Stephen Hawking have no economic incentives for their work, instead they just wanted to understand the world.

And this is only possible with the typical, sometimes occasionally worthy of a sense of humor that Lorre and Prady put into the series that has been running for twelve years and that Lorre never saw as a "sitcom": a joke based on language, tempo and pop culture or general references - for example, if Dr. Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) and his roommate dr. Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) sitting in the car on the way to a lecture to Berkeley. Sheldon allowed Leonard to celebrate the journey together with music - he was allowed to turn on the radio. "Play that funky music white boy," he asks Leonard, and he returns: "I'm surprised you know the allusion!" - "What allusion?" Leonard asks. The entire episode is teeming with pop culture references unknowingly made by Sheldon.

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But the deeper, grimmer joke of the series lies in the tragic analysis of the communicative disturbances of heroes and heroines, and thus of the entire US society. As early as 2006, the industry magazine "Entertainment Weekly" described the 67-year-old megaproducer and former rock musician Lorre as "angriest man in television". His CV is marked by drug use and depression, changes of direction and setbacks despite the constant TV success. Yet, superficially, he remains on the shallows: The "Big Bang Theory" gags revolve around the characters and protagonists firmly attributed to character traits - Sheldon's arrogance and world strangeness, Leonard's inferiority complexes, pennies (Kaley Cuoco) peasant shrewdness and emotional intelligence.

But behind the stereotypes are sharp, sometimes bitter observations: as Sheldon analyzes, a real, deep conversation between two people really consists only in one telling what he has experienced, and then the other without any reference to his own Experience speaks - there is a lot of knowledge about the modalities of modern communication.

Also Leonards in the episode "The Speckerman Recurrence" again and again brought up in bizarre pictures hochschaukelnden bullying and bullying experiences ("Was that the one who peed you in the fruit punch? - No, that was another .. - Was that the one who pulled the panties up so high that a testicle stayed up and you've been waiting for the whole Christmas break to go down again? - No, that was another ... "), albeit grotesquely camouflaged, classical hierarchies, and the associated (sacking) pain: whoever stands on the social ladder below, will also be kicked.

Classic US mock objects

Leonard, Sheldon, Howard (Simon Helberg), Raj (Kunal Nayyar), Sheldon's future wife and neuroscientist Amy (Mayim Bialik) and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) on the one hand stereotypes of classic US mock objects (socially disturbed nerd, white trash beautiful, jammed high-caste Indian scientist, sex-fixed Jewish mother's son). However, they also explore deep-seated discrimination against women, against nerds, over People of Color through constant discussion (and ridiculing).

Exactly this was repeatedly interpreted by "TBBT" critics as a manifestation of racism or sexism: the figure Raj, as the allegations, as members of an ethnic minority unite negative attributes such as shyness, naivety and a strong accent. But in the undoubtedly prejudiced and ever-breaking show, everyone and everyone (and every religion) gets their fat off - whether it's Sheldon's tight-Christian or Howard's invisibly screaming Jewish mother, Penny's alcoholism, Bernadette's mumblings, or Amy's own, unexercised sex fixation: In everything there is a bitterness beside the most successful gags garnished with enervating studio eaakers. Making fun of oneself is the only viable option for Lorre and Prady to endure the misery.

That one has to do with today's, at least by the IMDb users as the best episode ever chosen final episode with a tear-jerking Harmiesschleueuder (keyword acceptance speech ...) (the last seasons anyway always cheesy), should not be surprised The roots of sarcasm are fear and vulnerability.

"The Big Bang Theory", Monday 25.11. , 8:45 pm, Season 12, Episode 24, on Pro Sieben