SPOTLIGHT


What is it about gay nerds that we find so fascinat- ing? Is it just that they’re a refreshing change from the superficial, queeny, club going, stereotype we see so prevalent in our community? Is it because we’re secretly in the closet about our own nerdiness because while we’re discussing the various real housewives with our friends, we wish we could turn the conversation to the demotion of Pluto to dwarf planet status or the recent discoveries by the CERN Large Hadron Collider? OR... is it just because, at least on television, they’re so damn adorable? In a time when reality television dominates the


primetime lineup with its lowest common denomina- tor programming consisting of “gems” such as bitchy* housewives, bitchy* fashion wannabes, bitchy* chefs, and bitchy* matchmakers, who would have thought in September 2007 that a show about nerdy scientists from Caltech would not only survive a single season, but go on to become one of television’s top rated shows? The Big Bang Theory is about roommates and Caltech


Physicists Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), their friends Howard and Rajesh. They spend their days solving the mysteries of the universe and reading comic books and this is the source of most of the humor on the show. They might get in a heated argument about anything from String Theory vs. Loop Quantum Gravity to whether the X- Men’s Wolverine gets a prostate exam. Leonard is the most “normal” of the group and prior


to the first episode he actually had a girlfriend at one time, although she did turn out to be a North Korean spy. Sheldon is his asexual, unemotional roommate who is a genius among geniuses but is so socially clueless that many fans believe that the character suffers from Obses- sive Compulsive Disorder. Howard, is a socially awkward engineer who fancies himself to be a ladies man, but has no game and still lives with his loud, but never seen, Jewish mother. Raj is an astrophysicist from India who becomes mute anytime there is a pretty woman in the room. Thrown into this mix at the beginning of the first episode is Penny, a pretty and street smart waitress who lives across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon. Among all the amazing characters on the show Sheldon Cooper is the one who stands out. Jim Parsons brings this King of the Nerds to life in a way that no other actor could pull off. Sheldon is an impossible roommate, an annoying neighbor, a self-aggrandizing co-worker, and all around unbearable person to be around. He speaks fluent Klingon; he forced Leonard to sign a room- mate agreement that included a clause that if either of them ever invented a time machine they would go back to that precise moment, then paused to look around for the time machine to materialize, which it didn’t; his wardrobe largely consists of superhero themed t-shirts, and his arch-nemesis is Wil Wheaton. Parsons’ character could have easily gotten stale but the writers and actor are constantly keeping him


fresh. This season he even has a “female friend” who, as Sheldon emphatically explains, is not his girlfriend. This female friend is Amy Farrah Fowler, played by Mayim Bialik of “Blossom” fame. Amy Farrah Fowler, she is almost always referred to by her full name, is essentially a female version of Sheldon. She is almost as intelligent as he is and just as socially awkward. At one point, Sheldon was considering having a baby


with Amy Farrah Fowler because he believed that their child would be a genetically superior overlord who could guide humanity, but these plans were torpedoed when Leonard threatened to tell Sheldon’s conservative


religious fundamentalist mother that he was planning to have an out-of-wedlock test tube baby. This show will bring out your inner nerd. It often makes one laugh out loud, then pause to reflect that we’re laughing because we understood the math be- hind that physics joke, which sometimes makes us sad or maybe proud. The clever writing and top of the line acting talent are why The Big Bang Theory is destination television. It is a reason to watch or DVR this show every Thursday at 8:00 p.m.


The Big Bang Theory’s fourth season resumes January 6 on CBS.


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RAGE monthly | JANUARY 2011


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Starting 2011 With a Big B by john bilow


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