Thursday, October 28, 2010

In praise of Sheldon

I only started watching The Big Bang Theory a few months ago in re-runs,but I have to say, I find much of it very funny. There's not much doubt that for most viewers the comedic core of the show is Sheldon, who Slate noted last year is (presumably, even though the writers deny it is deliberate) the first sitcom character with Aspergers Syndrome.

Despite the frequent sexual elements and jokes, I would say that the two funniest episodes I have seen concentrated on Sheldon and hence were pretty asexual. The first one was the story of how Leonard first came to move in with Sheldon, (The Staircase Implementation).

The second was on TV last night, featuring Sheldon deciding to stay safe in his bedroom until the singularity arrives and he can upload himself into a robot. In the meantime, he creates a tele-presence robot version of himself, which he get Leonard to drive to work. This sequence is currently on Youtube, and brought tears to my eyes.

Live long and prosper, Sheldon.

UPDATE: I am happy to see, from this recent LA Times episode review of the current season, that Sheldon's "girlfriend" Amy is still around. She has also been amusing me greatly in the couple of episodes I have seen in which she makes an appearance.

2 comments:

Richard_H said...

My wife and I both think it's fantastic. I bought Season 3 just last night actually.

My wife does however like comparing me and the characters a bit tooooooooooo much! It's not my fault I'm a science nerd.......

Blandwagon said...

I've long been of the opinion that Jim Parsons would make an awesome Dr Who.